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AI adoption linked to 13% decline in jobs for young U.S. workers: study

(www.cnbc.com)
440 points pseudolus | 4 comments | 28 Aug 25 14:13 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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ArtTimeInvestor ◴[28 Aug 25 15:06 UTC] No.45053123[source]▶
Every day when I am out in the city, I am amazed by how many jobs we have NOT managed to replace with AI yet.

For example, cashiers. There are still many people spending their lives dragging items over a scanner, reading a number from a screen, holding out their hand for the customer to put money in, and then sorting the coins into boxes.

How hard can it be to automate that?

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lotsofpulp ◴[28 Aug 25 15:07 UTC] No.45053139[source]▶
The hard part is preventing theft, not adding numbers.
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tux3 ◴[28 Aug 25 15:11 UTC] No.45053200[source]▶
Cashiers should not, and will not prevent theft. They're not paid nearly enough to get in danger, and it is not their job.

I'm sure you can find videos of thefts in San Francisco if you need a visual demonstration. No cashier is going to jump in front of someone to stop a theft.

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HankStallone ◴[28 Aug 25 15:38 UTC] No.45053560[source]▶
True, but having a cashier standing there waiting to scan your items will prevent most normal people from stealing. Sure, some will brazenly walk right past with a TV on their shoulder, but most people won't.

If there's no cashier and you're doing it yourself, a whole lot more people will "forget" to scan a couple items, and that adds up.

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1. tux3 ◴[28 Aug 25 15:51 UTC] No.45053724[source]▶
There's usually a security person or two in the store, looking over the self checkouts. I agree that job prevents a lot of people from becoming opportunistic thiefs, but I'm making a distinction between cashiers and security. Today the store needs both.
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2. delfinom ◴[28 Aug 25 20:24 UTC] No.45056648[source]▶
Pretty sure if a "security person" worked so well, Walmart wouldn't be severely reducing self checkouts at their stores to Walmart Plus members only.
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3. tux3 ◴[28 Aug 25 20:29 UTC] No.45056690[source]▶
That might be regional, then. I wouldn't say $COUTNRY is exactly a high-trust society, but it's not quite that bad for us over here.
4. zahlman ◴[29 Aug 25 02:58 UTC] No.45059641[source]▶
I haven't observed this happening here (Toronto, Canada).