Replacing the CEO by AI

Submitted by e-scape t3_11wo1cw in singularity

The idea of replacing CEOs with AI is not far-fetched, considering the advancements in AI technology and its growing ability to make data-driven decisions.

The average CEO is earning nearly 400 times what the average employee makes, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI)

Last August, NetDragon Websoft — a Hong Kong-based online gaming firm with $2.1B in annual revenue — appointed a CEO to helm its flagship subsidiary.

The new chief, Tang Yu, was responsible for all of the typical duties of a company figurehead: reviewing high-level analytics, making leadership decisions, assessing risks, and fostering an efficient workplace.

She worked 24/7, didn’t sleep, and was compensated $0 per year.

But there was a catch: Yu wasn’t a human. She was a virtual robot powered by artificial intelligence.

https://preview.redd.it/kfeuta5s9xoa1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=55c1be06e577e66b1384d939709c857bebe9732a

more here:

https://futurism.com/the-byte/replacing-ceos-with-ai-makes-sense

https://thehustle.co/should-we-automate-the-ceo/

https://wonderfulengineering.com/would-replacing-all-ceos-with-ai-improve-performance-this-report-says-yes/

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Education-Sea t1_jczujco wrote

In this case, with a non-human CEO that does not absorb profits, the workers in general would earn much more money...

Interesting...

EDIT: Well, my comment caused quite a controversy. That's all right. It is poorly formulated anyway, and half-serious. I do however, belive the automation of bosses will help the workers. But, we will need to abandon the modern company-form entirely.

We need Cybersyn.

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leywesk t1_jd0j07n wrote

Serious? do you really think that a company that hires an AI as CEO to save costs, will increase the salary of an employee??

That was the best joke I've seen today.

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TheDividendReport t1_jd0z93m wrote

The cynic in me immediately agrees but thinking about this more begs the question: What is really being said here? That there are millions of dollars worth of money to be had in eliminating overpaid CEOs with AI.

The more AI is trusted to return profit, the more studies that have been shown to improve productivity by using 4 day work weeks or similar will be used by a hyper efficient AI to grow.

What if such an AI determines that having more healthy consumers is better to increase quarterly profits and begins lobbying for social safety nets, identifying a long term benefit for short term investment?

Far fetched, maybe. But an interesting line of thinking.

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duboispourlhiver t1_jd2dk07 wrote

Coming next : AIs actually explaining humans how to be happy through being gentle, sharing and loving, because their superior intelligence reached that conclusion.

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Education-Sea t1_jd6kpmg wrote

See my edit friend. I do understand your POV.

We need Cybersyn.

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Hotchillipeppa t1_jd0s5ff wrote

Yes im sure the shareholders will put all the profits that would go to the ceo back into the workers, surely.

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AllCommiesRFascists t1_jd18x27 wrote

Shareholders like to pay the bare minimum to CEOs since their pay eats into the shareholder’s profits

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ecnecn t1_jd0stxf wrote

I have seen working contracts of CEOs changing their workplace / firm... their demands are out of touch of reality. You could pay for the development of new anti-cancer therapies and their clinical trials for what they demand behind closed doors. Best thing: Someone demanded three different luxury cars because he had to do business with people from different countries (that came to his country) and he wanted to leave a "culture specific impression" on them - in the end the supervisiory boards gave their "ok" because of his explaination. Its not like you could rent them before the meeting you had to buy them all. Literally one car for meetings with asian clients, one for meetings with european clients and one for meetings with key-account people. The chance that they actually see the car parked before a Restaurant etc. or another meeting place is not so high or important...

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Smart-Tomato-4984 t1_jd2uhoe wrote

Someone(s) human must be making the decisions, because sometimes the chat-bot is going to say dumb shit that need creative interpreting and it's not going to take the initiative, if it is a LLM type AI. Someone has to prompt it with questions. LLM have not long term episodic memory either.

If they don't pay anyone ridiculous amounts of money, that's awesome.

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ThrowRA_overcoming t1_jd1toiq wrote

Unlikely. People will earn based on their market value, along with some other factors like negotiation skills, etc. Profits would veyr likely get passed to shareholders.

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BlessedBobo t1_jd246uq wrote

this is not how it works, the workers in general would not see a penny.

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scarlettforever t1_jd2pmcw wrote

>In this case, with a non-human CEO that does not absorb profits, the workers in general would earn much more money...

COUGH communism COUGH

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just-a-dreamer- t1_jcz57vp wrote

You can put in Bob as CEO and pay him 40k for signing the legal papers and play videogames all day.

The actual work of course, can be done by AI.

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D_Ethan_Bones t1_jczv5kj wrote

When shareholders decide a computer will make the best decisions, a computer will start making important decisions. Titles are bullshit.

I'd trust a superhuman computer to steer the ship I'm on more than I'd trust the the typical human leader of today. Today's human captains sink ships and get promoted to admiral by blaming it all on the deckswabber.

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ecnecn t1_jd0tfxm wrote

*When the shareholders AI investment tools decide for them

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Midgreezy t1_jczvvy8 wrote

Even if this is feasible, the CEO pay would not be past down to the workers. It would go to the shareholders in the form of stock buybacks or some other creative scheme to rob the worker of the value they created. Essentially nothing changes for the average person.

We're just heading toward machine assisted feudalism.

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F1nanceGuy217 t1_jd2apz4 wrote

Probably going to get downvoted for this take …

The CEO job description you’ve laid out isn’t correct and imo would not be as easy for an AI to take over. Every CEO I’ve worked for in the insurance and finance industry in my 18y career works as hard or harder than everyday people - pushing goals, targets, asking the tough questions of the team and setting expectations around the clock. No one is twiddling thumbs and making $20m+ per year. they also typically remain accountable internally and externally.

CEOs are many times the face of a company (ie Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian is pretty well known by travelers) both internally and externally. In small and medium orgs, they typically participate in high level negotiations with key customers and suppliers. They are the liaison between the company executives and the board members on all important company matters. They are high profile members of the community and engage with other organizations.

You might be able to break their duties all down for an AI into small tasks, but at the it might seem very disjointed and not cohesive.

I do agree CEOs and executives tend to be overpaid for their duties though. They might be able to point to a “deal” they did that “brought in $500m extra revenue”, but who’s to say someone else in that role couldn’t also do that same thing for less money? I don’t know how the value of a CEO really differs if they’re paid $5m vs $20m+. It’s like hitting the lottery Year after year after year.

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YoAmoElTacos t1_jczzlr1 wrote

The crux here is how costly the CEO AI is.

If we have OpenAI running every corporation's CEO AI, we have a mega monopoly.

If the CEO AI is just a little cheaper than a human CEO and gives results that are just a little more efficient, we maintain the current system.

If the CEO AI cannot measurably beat human CEOs except over the long term (which can be highly likely due to the many intangibles), we won't see this except by forced acquisitions by AI firms of human ones.

If the CEO AI is runnable on a laptop...

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AllCommiesRFascists t1_jd18ldq wrote

> The average CEO is earning nearly 400 times what the average employee makes, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI)

The average CEO of the top 350 companies in America. There are 40 million companies in America with the actual average CEO being less than $200k

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ThrowRA_overcoming t1_jd1tlbm wrote

LOL. AI isn't very good at context. Being at the helm of a business is all about understanding context. AI may help with knowledge synthesis, providing options, estimating outcomes, but it won't help with broader understanding for some time still. Someone is watching that AI, guaranteed. The rest is marketing.
That chart also contains clear errors, doesn't give off a very trustworthy vibe.

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Borrowedshorts t1_jd1iyx0 wrote

It wouldn't be a high bar to meet and most CEOs are just glorified figureheads anyway. Would enable a ton of cost savings and likely better decision making if they were replaced.

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MelodiGreig t1_jd2ouhz wrote

This is the part of AI I can get behind, it's replacing an on average overpaid role and providing a guiding hand. It's not eliminating shitloads of jobs, it's just directing the company on what they need to do.

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SmoothPlastic9 t1_jd2qcsr wrote

So the money goes the to the shareholder lmao

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