One possible steamroller kind of problem: a lack of apprenticeship in the age of AI.
[mw]To be effective, knowhow is most important, which only comes from experience.
Even entry-level jobs getting coffee for the more senior people allows you to absorb and learn indirectly.
This is sometimes called "legitimate peripheral participation."
Other paths allow absorption of knowhow, e.g. "communities of practice."
Apparently there was a study at Xerox PARC on the abilities of copy machine repair technicians.
They assumed that a technician's ability to fix machines was individual, since the job was done individually.
But it turns out that knowhow diffused through indirect methods, with the technicians gossiping over a shared breakfast.
Another study apparently found that in a call center when they put in sound-proof cubicles, the improvement in call quality stopped.
With less sound isolation, employees were able to absorb more effective techniques from their peers, and the more effective techniques were more likely to be absorbed.
This is sometimes called an "informal upgrade network."
Senior employees with experience can use LLMs to do the jobs of multiple junior people.
These indirect processes are things that might evaporate with LLM and a need for fewer junior employees.
The job is only directly about the menial tasks indirectly is about apprenticeship.
We're losing a generation of apprentices.
[mx]What happens when all of the people with knowhow retire?
By then it might be too late.