AI engineers are whining about burnout as they develop the transformative technology.  There may be a dark underbelly of AI design, but it is not pressure on, or burnout of, the developers. 

The dark underbelly is actually leftist-tainted pseudocode that begets woke algorithms that leads to revisionist renditions like a black Pope and Vikings with deep tans, for example.

But burnout?! What a bunch of pathetic weenies.

Imagine if those who worked on the Manhattan Project complained about “accelerated timelines” (with delays, how many more soldiers would have died in the Pacific while waiting on Hirohito to surrender?)

Imagine if those who worked on the Apollo missions complained about pressure in meeting JFK’s clarion call to land a man on the moon before decade’s end.

The inventers that make our lives more livable didn’t contemplate burnout. For example, Edison and his lightbulb suffered setback after setback, but he made it work. No burnout allowed.   

All the entrepreneurs who bring more value to life overcame burnout, if they even acknowledged it (and are probably underpaid relative to the overall wealth they create). Just to name a few: Steve Jobs at Apple; Elon Musk at SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, Twitter/X.; Morgan Roe at Engineered Arts Ltd, architect of Ameca, the worlds most advanced robot. 

No burnout allowed there. It didn’t even enter their consciousness.

Then there are all the amazing discoveries and Nobel Prizes achieved without regard to burnout. 

Clearly, the current crop of wussies at the leading tech companies are not of their caliber.  Oh, sorry, project collaborators might actually have to go into the office or lab for productive brainstorming sessions.

Nevertheless, rather than wallow in woe, they should thank their luck stars to be immersed in such significant projects. AI is breathtakingly transformative, right up there with the development of PCs, the internet and smart phones.  It should be a privilege to participate in such a generation-defining and future delineating phenomenon.  

One of the brilliant elements of American Exceptionalism is a can-do spirit, conquering challenges with good ol’ Yankee aplomb. By contrast, imagining and fixating on burnout is a copout. Now stop whining and make sure you’re AI algorithms are calibrated to reflect reality:  the Pope is White.  Vikings, medieval knights, and country music fans also tend to be pallid. 

I’ve heard of “Lazy Girl jobs.”  Given the potential repercussions of bad AI run amok (especially when integrated with weapon systems), and competition with AI-obsessed China, I just hope that AI engineering doesn’t become a “Lazy Boy Job.”

Image: Pixabay