Economy

Machine Yearning

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Stories like these are becoming more frequent, and beginning to poke holes in the infallibility of AI.

Forrester’s survey of leaders found 55 percent of employers regret making tech-driven staff cuts — leading its analysts to predict that half of AI-attributed layoffs will be “quietly reversed.”
 — Inc.

While AI may be inevitable in displacing large swaths of the labor market, whether it can reach that scale before this current AI market-bubble pops is another question entirely.

“Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that would produce a high-quality product,” said Charles Poon, Ford’s VP of vehicle hardware engineering.
 — Quartz 

The good news is this means more human jobs, the bad news is they probably won’t go to Americans anyways.

Our Long National Nightmare is Over

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Another glassy-eyed deconstructionist has bitten the dust.

“Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino is stepping down nearly a year after the company’s failed rebrand, logo redesign, and restaurant modernization efforts sparked widespread customer backlash.” —AP

This concludes what I consider a successful boycott of the Americana eatery.

It was not enough for me that they walked back the logo redesign. I wanted the restaurants returned to their classic look instead of the modernist cleansings they’d undergone. Masino’s renovations had left them as generic, soulless diners, and I wanted her gone from the company. Time will tell if her replacement suffers from the same ideological incompetence she exhibited.

For today, I’m declaring victory, and the next time I’m in the vicinity of a Cracker Barrel, I will be stopping by to enjoy a Country Fried Breakfast with double hash brown casserole as the sides, eggs over medium, and cream gravy on the chicken fried steak. 

I encourage everyone to pay them a visit. Their next quarterly earnings report showing an increase in sales after her departure will be sweeter than a Double Chocolate Fudge Coca-Cola Cake. 

A nation is its people and their culture. And damn it, this is ours.