AI Fails to Deliver a 4-Day Work Week - Especially at AI Companies (bbc.com) 67
"An engineering director at Google said four years ago that AI would deliver a four-day work week by 2025," remembers the BBC. And earlier this year OpenAI "formally urged companies to start testing out a four-day work week (with no change in pay), claiming that AI will soon be able to speed up so much human labour that the corporate world should prepare itself."
However, a former OpenAI technical employee who left the company last year told the BBC the firm never actually trialled the four-day work week it suggested others should try while they were there. Instead, the person described what was often a gruelling work culture marked by frequent "crisis meetings", working on weekends, and "super cut-throat" performance reviews that would see colleagues suddenly let go... [T]he former OpenAI employee said they would put in at least 70 hours a week, much more than they did in previous tech jobs...
Other companies have also pushed the idea that AI will effectively reduce the number of hours people need to work, for better or worse. [At OpenAI and Anthropic] sprints can stretch on for many weeks and top 90 hours of work in a seven-day period, tech workers that the BBC spoke to for this story said... At Meta, workers said they have been abruptly pushed onto teams this year doing AI work being treated as urgent... The hours on such teams at Meta are often long, with staff working into the night, on weekends, and feeling they are "on call" during the hours they are not working, according to descriptions of the work from the current and former employees...
Some new research suggests that AI tools are making people's workloads even more burdensome. A study out of UC Berkeley followed hundreds of workers at a US tech company for eight months as they used AI. It found the employees "worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day"... The UC Berkeley research found that the workload of tech employees was expanded in part because of the need to constantly check the output of AI tools.
In the article Neil Thompson, an innovation scholar at MIT, pointed out a problem with estimates that AI will ease the workload on humans. "People assume that 20% less work means four-day weeks. But new work emerges."
The BBC also points out helpfully that "there are no limits in the U.S. on how many hours a person over the age of 16 can work." (While in the UK and Europe, "laws limit a working week to 48 hours, including overtime.")
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader hadleyburg for sharing the article.
Other companies have also pushed the idea that AI will effectively reduce the number of hours people need to work, for better or worse. [At OpenAI and Anthropic] sprints can stretch on for many weeks and top 90 hours of work in a seven-day period, tech workers that the BBC spoke to for this story said... At Meta, workers said they have been abruptly pushed onto teams this year doing AI work being treated as urgent... The hours on such teams at Meta are often long, with staff working into the night, on weekends, and feeling they are "on call" during the hours they are not working, according to descriptions of the work from the current and former employees...
Some new research suggests that AI tools are making people's workloads even more burdensome. A study out of UC Berkeley followed hundreds of workers at a US tech company for eight months as they used AI. It found the employees "worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day"... The UC Berkeley research found that the workload of tech employees was expanded in part because of the need to constantly check the output of AI tools.
In the article Neil Thompson, an innovation scholar at MIT, pointed out a problem with estimates that AI will ease the workload on humans. "People assume that 20% less work means four-day weeks. But new work emerges."
The BBC also points out helpfully that "there are no limits in the U.S. on how many hours a person over the age of 16 can work." (While in the UK and Europe, "laws limit a working week to 48 hours, including overtime.")
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader hadleyburg for sharing the article.
Who could have seen that coming? (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone who actually believes AI will cause people to work less hours is a complete fuckin moron.
The literal developers of AI should know better.
Greed is blind. (Score:2)
Anyone who actually believes AI will cause people to work less hours is a complete fuckin moron.
The literal developers of AI should know better.
If we started calling it ToddlerAI (for accuracy), perhaps the literal Chief Executive Officers firing humans to replace them with AI would get a clue.
You know, before they're arguing with a Board looking to replace expensive executives with Toddler-AI because it's clearly good enough.
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They gotta sell the lie for as long as possible. Once the bubble bursts they can run off with all that loot.
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At this point, I'm thinking that AI is really just work outsourcing in another form.
Really, that's what the last 25 years of IT has been about... outsourcing the boring repetitive coding and tech support overseas, outsourcing in-house data centers to cloud computing data centers, replacing locally installed software with SAAS solutions that run in a browser, and getting AI agents to (once again) outsource the boring repetitive coding and tech support to someone else.
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Actual quote was "by 2025, AI will allow developers to complete a week’s worth of work in four days".
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Actual quote was "by 2025, AI will allow developers to complete a week’s worth of work in four days".
That quote was in the article, but the article title was about a four-day work week. Kamelia Aryafar, the author, clearly thought (correctly) that AI would allow engineers to get a week's worth of work done in less than a week and then thought (incorrectly) that this would mean developers would respond by ending their week as soon as they had done that.
What actually happens, of course, is that if you can get done in one day what used to take five, you now do five weeks' worth of work every week.
Fundame
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Actual quote was "by 2025, AI will allow developers to complete a week’s worth of work in four days".
That quote was in the article, but the article title was about a four-day work week. Kamelia Aryafar, the author, clearly thought (correctly) that AI would allow engineers to get a week's worth of work done in less than a week and then thought (incorrectly) that this would mean developers would respond by ending their week as soon as they had done that.
What actually happens, of course, is that if you can get done in one day what used to take five, you now do five weeks' worth of work every week.
And we ca
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And we can produce babies in a month if we get 9 women pregnant. ;^)
Well, that does tend to produce about one baby per month on average.
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Actual quote was "by 2025, AI will allow developers to complete a week’s worth of work in four days".
A lot of people in her have believed that if we went to a four day workweek that productivity would rise, to better than a 5 day workweek, without AI involved. So all of the bullshit was just another wet dream.
Re:Who could have seen that coming? (Score:4, Funny)
I don't know about that. My office has been pushing AI like crazy and that's been demotivating enough that I've definitely worked less.
"AI fails to deliver" (Score:2)
A director's prediction failed - I'm shocked (Score:4, Insightful)
Google's higher-ups can't even figure out how to "manage" people unless they're physically in the office... why would anyone think one of them would have enough insight to predict something like AI's impacts?
As expected (Score:3, Insightful)
Immature tech is exaggerated by overoptimistic pundits and hypemongers in order to attract investment.
Genuine progress is being made, and the tech continues to improve.
But it's not just the tech. People need to figure out how to use it effectively.
This takes time.
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You forgot clueless investors that are gullible and ready to believe any shit they get fed from the tech companies.
Now that we're several trillion dollars into this hype, guess what happens if it doesn't pan out. The clueless investors will go clamoring to the government for a bail out threatening fire and brimstone, dogs and cats living together, the real wrath of god (pick one, any will do) kind of stuff. And taxpayers will get shafted again, except this time it will be much, much worse than anything in t
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If he had told everyone his plan was "interest rates are going up, AND we're expanding the Fed balance sheet", like what is happening now, people would have immediately started dumping bonds and tech stocks and we'd be way worse off now.
So he said the opposite, which just confused people and had zero effect. That's the goal...remain market neutral as much as possible. Which means the
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Wait, what? People have to figure out how to use AI? I mean, just ask Claude how to do it, it should figure it out all on its own! /s
Yeah that was the attitude of the executives at the company I recently had to leave, they incessantly insisted that the only reason we weren't getting more productivity out of AI, is that we weren't using enough AI.
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About the most succinct, blather free summary I've seen.
Unfortunately, and definitely not to credit the legions of ai snake-oil sales going on, Jevons paradox probably means that rather than ai ushering in some sort of low-work utopia, we'll more likely indeed just figure out how to use it properly and end up back at 40 hour work weeks with (likely) an explosion of increased productivity.
I don't know how we get there personally but that's the sort of blindness we have before paradigms genuinely change, like
It did even better (Score:2)
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Or at least legally bind it to get a 4-day workweek temporarily.
illogical (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:illogical (Score:5, Informative)
I work a 4 day work week. My pay is slightly lower than at my last job, but my hourly rate is higher. My company started offering it years ago because they couldn't compete on salary, but they realized that some of us would really just like a better life, and that was something they could manage.
The 4DWW isn't as transformative to me as remote work, but it's been so good for me. I'm excited to get back to work on Monday, and I don't ever feel like any part of the week is a slog. I'm happy to occasionally sit down and fix something on the weekend quickly because my brain happened on the answer while I was relaxing.
If we all must work in this capitalist hellscape, 4 days a week is much more than 20% better than 5.
Re: illogical (Score:3)
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Microsoft in Japan, a country with notoriously long working hours, just tried a 4 day working week: https://mashable.com/article/m... [mashable.com]
They found that productivity increased by 40%. So it's not the same pay for less work, it's the same pay for more work.
Re: illogical (Score:2)
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A lot of them seem obsessive about work. Musk is a good example. Claims to work long hours, although how much of that is spent shitposting on X is hard to say. But he claims he does, and seems to expect everyone else to as well. In reality he seems to contribute very little beyond being a good liar and hype man, and having some financial sense. He also uses drugs to enhance his performance and to relax, an option not available to most plebs.
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Honestly, I think it comes down to the ruling class having power over, and making a lot more than, the plebs at the bottom. They truly hate us.
We all know that worthiness is inversely proportional to social and economic level. The guy living under a bridge is smarter and more worthy than the highest paid executive. That's simple truth.
EU's working time directive (Score:5, Interesting)
The Working Time Directive was instituted in the 1980's. Margret Thatcher was very upset that the UK had to follow this directive to remain in the EU.
The Working Time Directive limits weekly working time to an average of 48 hours per week over and 17 week reference period. Companies sometimes get exemptions from key employees, but there can't be no coercion to sign such an agreement. The exemptions are usually for key employees.
Since the UK left the EU, there has been no substantial changes to the regulation. Instead, the original domestic legislation implementing it—the UK's Working Time Regulations—was converted into UK law to maintain legal continuity, and core worker protections regarding maximum working hours and paid holiday remain active
In contrast to the United States, there is no limit on working time, and the only option the employee has is to quit (Employment-at-will). There are also 2 distinct classes of workers. Those which are non-exempt get overtime pay after 40 hours of work in a week, while those which are "exempt" only get their base salary regardless of how many hours they have to work. There is a dividing line which lists certain job requirements as those falling under exempt, and those which are non-exempt. Managers,Engineers, Accountants, and a lot of indirect labor positions are usually exempt.
With so many people in the USA living paycheck to paycheck, quitting due to excessive overtime is very unlikely
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You work as much as your culture and lifestyle dictate. I'm not sure any EU countries standardised on a contractual 48 hour workweek (though frequently by the hour employees tend to work longer), it was a maximum not a target. The actual average across the block is 36 hours. The highest is Greece with an average of 39 hours and the lowest is the Netherlands with 31.9 hours. Virtually no one I know from the Netherlands works 5 days a week. 4 days are pretty normal here.
This has nothing to do with AI, it's la
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You work as much as your culture and lifestyle dictate.
I work plenty of hours. I work the number of hours I want to work. Now that does indicate to many people that I am a perfectionist, a once esteemed quality, now widely regarded as mental illness, a negative character trait that needs to be eliminated.And that's okay, it makes me a total beast to compete with.
There are plenty of people in the US who work as little as they can, if they do just enough to not get fired, they consider that a win. And that's okay - maybe that makes them happy.
This has nothing to do with AI, it's largely got to do with a culture of not attempting to fuck yourself over to make an extra dollar, something that would be seen as "slack" in the USA. Many people in Europe work to live and do the minimum, not live to work.
Obviously people on low wages unable to make a living don't have that option, but that doesn't describe many people. I see engineers in our USA offices proudly working 60+ hour weeks. Congrats you earn over $200k, do you have any spare time to spend it?
The idea that if yo
CEOs can make ANY lie about AI (Score:2)
...on 5th Ave. and not lose any investors.
lower work week is a red herring (Score:5, Insightful)
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"within a century (by 2030), rapid technological progress would create so much wealth and productivity that people would only need to work a 15-hour workweek"
You have to wait 4 more years before you can claim that he was wrong. And note that he didn't say that people would work 15 hour weeks, he said that would need to. I actually could do that, I could work for 15 hours only and live with that, but I have decided to work more and retire early.
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How was he so naïve?
While 15 hours per week may be naïve, the premise itself is not. A rise in industrial efficiency along with a rise of labour market power able to dictate conditions has caused the working week to crater over the past couple of hundred years. People used to regularly work 100+ hour weeks. It wasn't until 1938 until America coded the 40 hour work week as a standard in law (60 hours was pretty damn standard before then), and there are already many places around the world where people don't live to work an
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The annual average work time is trending downwards in almost all developed countries. You live longer and spend a smaller portion of your total life at work.
More Burdensome (Score:4, Insightful)
The UC Berkeley research found that the workload of tech employees was expanded in part because of the need to constantly check the output of AI tools.
Hours also increase in a vane attempt to achieve/maintain the increased production levels expected of AI enhancement. Regardless of whether or not said increased production actually occurs or not.
People are running faster and longer, going nowhere on their hamster wheels, and actual production remains only slightly increased at best.
Once again. (Score:4, Insightful)
The only people who make predictions that a 4 day workweek is coming soon are the exact same people who have the authority to make it happen today, but don't.
Shame about inflation (Score:3)
Solving a problem that doesn't need to be solved. (Score:2)
It sounds like they are pitching the idea of a 4-day week so that people working less creates the work for AI, instead of trying to solve the problems that already exist.
So where are the actual savings? (Score:3)
And who's going to foot the bill? You're asking us to pay our employees the same for less and then pay for your tokens on top of it.
It's like you're asking companies to shoot themselves in the foot, reduce resource-hours, create a backlog of work just so that you can come and fix it. How about you stop asking for scraps and actually try do some quality work, something actually useful?
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And who's going to foot the bill?
This question is predicated on the assumption that people are less productive in 4 days than they are in 5. You first need to prove (not simply assume) this to be true for this question to have any merit.
AI cleanup on asile 4 (Score:2)
The UC Berkeley research found that the workload of tech employees was expanded in part because of the need to constantly check the output of AI tools.
It takes effort to clean up someone else's slop, even, or especially, AI slop, sometimes more effort than simply doing it yourself.
4 Day work week... (Score:1)
Re: 4 Day work week... (Score:2)
makework government jobs increase over time to maintain the balance of production to consumption when govt workers make up 50% of jobs, it's because most are digging Keynesian holes in the ground to redistribute income and maintain spending.
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Our work week is artificial in the first place. Nothing stops us from going to a 4, or even a 3 day work week now. 40 hour work week is not a requirement other then some construct of what we deemed reasonable at the time. When we were "simple" hunters and gatherers, we really didn't have a '7 day' week. Everyone did was was needed, and as technology developed, we were able to relax more.
People had way more time on their hands in the past prior to industrialization. Technology achieved the opposite of relax more.
Adding more computers only adds more labor. (Score:4)
One person's job may be easier and require less skill - but you have to add jobs to fix the blunders it causes.
Duh (Score:2)
Duh today, duh tomorrow, duh until our cultural conception of work changes.
still no grasp of equilibrium (Score:2)
https://www.scry.llc/2025/01/2... [scry.llc]
the issue isn't the amount of work.
it's the balance of production vs consumption.
https://www.scry.llc/2024/12/2... [scry.llc]
This just shows the disconnect ... (Score:2)
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NOPE. The 2nd Law of thermodynamics demands neg-entropy be supplied
Working more hours gets more done. (Score:1)
Film at 11.
Okay lefties, here's a good analogy for you:
Eli Whitney believed the cotton gin would make slavery obsolete since it would automate away the then-most labor intensive part of the cotton harvest. It had the opposite effect. Removing the bottleneck lowered the cost of cotton products and increased demand for cotton.
The dream of idle riches was always dreamt by people who didn't understand where whatever measure of material prosperity they had came from. In their imaginations it may as well have bee
As someone with a 4 day work week (Score:2)
My company instituted it because it was too hard to compete on salary alone. I make a bit less per year, but my hourly rate is now higher.
It's been an amazing experience. 4 days a week is more than 20% better than 5 days a week. I'm excited to work on monday, I don't feel like I've been through the wringer on thursday. I would guess that averaged over a whole year, I get at least as much work done on the 4DWW, though for shorter periods of time, 5 days WILL generate more work (much like crunch will also gen
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THREE day work weeks! (Score:2)
I'm holding out for the promise of the three day work week.
When Things Start Going Badly (Score:2)
That level of coerced overtime is a big sign that things are about to collapse in a big way.
Very few companies make it through that kind of death march, much less newer companies. Most can't pay off the technical debt and the cost of employee turnover and things go south. In this case, it's doubly damming. You can't sell big gains in productivity and labor costs when you have to run your own workforce into the ground. If you are choking on your own dogfood, you can't expect to put a shiny label on the can a
Increasing productivity makes the wheels go faster (Score:2)
Sure, a company could use an increase in productivity to allow their workers to work fewer hours while getting the same amount accomplished... but capitalism doesn't work that way. Instead, the company will use the increase in productivity to get more work done in the same amount of hours as before... or if they don't, their competitor will, and thereby obtain a competitive advantage over them.
This is especially true for salaried employees, where the cost of the employee to the company is the same regardle
A 48-hours week in practice simply means (Score:2)
automation saves costs (Score:2)
Without a union, those savings do not go to the workers.
If fewer employee-hours are required then fewer people will be hired and they will be paid less.
It's been this way for over a hundred years.
There is no cost savings by using AI but there will be eventually.
And when that happens the owners will not shower the workers with easy jobs and fat paychecks.
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Without a union,
You won't see a 4 day work week.
But have they tried (Score:2)