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AI's impact on jobs compared to 1990s copier repair technicians

By PulseAugur Editorial · [1 sources] ·

An AI commentator reflects on the potential for AI to replace human workers by drawing parallels to an ethnography of copier repair technicians from the 1990s. The commentator notes that the work of these technicians was complex, improvisational, and often poorly documented, highlighting the challenges in fully automating such roles. Despite these complexities, the job of copier repair eventually became largely obsolete due to technological advancements. AI

IMPACT Suggests that AI's impact on jobs may be complex and gradual, mirroring historical technological disruptions.

RANK_REASON The item is an opinion piece by a known commentator reflecting on a past technological shift's parallels to current AI discussions.

Read on Bluesky Jetstream — AI desk →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

AI's impact on jobs compared to 1990s copier repair technicians

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The item is an opinion piece by a known commentator reflecting on a past technological shift's parallels to current AI discussions.
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COVERAGE [1]

  1. Bluesky Jetstream — AI desk TIER_1 English(EN) · emollick.bsky.social ·

    When people talk about AI easily replacing workers, I think about this ethnography of copier repair technicians in the 1990s.

    When people talk about AI easily replacing workers, I think about this ethnography of copier repair technicians in the 1990s. Reading it, you see how work is complicated and improvised by workers and informal and badly documented. (But eventually technology did largely eliminat…

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