MAROKO133 Eksklusif ai: Researchers Studied What Happens When Workplaces Seriously Embrace

📌 MAROKO133 Update ai: Researchers Studied What Happens When Workplaces Seriously

Even if AI is — or eventually becomes — an incredible automation tool, will it make workers’ lives easier? That’s the big question explored in an ongoing study by researchers from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. And so far, it’s not looking good for the rank and file.

In a piece for Harvard Business Review, the research team’s Aruna Ranganathan and Xinqi Maggie Ye reported that after closely monitoring a tech company with two hundred employees for eight months, they found that AI actually intensified the work they had to do, instead of reducing it.

This “workload creep,” in which the employees took on more tasks than what was sustainable for them to keep doing, can create vicious cycle that leads to fatigue, burnout, and lower quality work.

“You had thought that maybe, oh, because you could be more productive with AI, then you save some time, you can work less,” one of the employees told the researchers. “But then really, you don’t work less. You just work the same amount or even more.”

The tech company in the study provided AI tools to its workers, but didn’t mandate that they use them. Adoption was voluntary. The researchers described how many employees, on their own initiative, eagerly experimented with AI tools at first, “because AI made ‘doing more’ feel possible, accessible, and in many cases intrinsically rewarding.” This resulted in some workers increasingly absorbing tasks they’d normally outsource, the researchers said, or would’ve justified hiring additional help to cover.

One consequence is that once the novelty of adopting AI wears off, the employees realize they’ve added more to their plate than they can handle. But other effects reverberated to the broader workplace. Engineers, for example, found themselves spending more time correcting the AI-generated code passed off by their coworkers. AI also led to more multitasking, with some choosing to manually write code while an AI agent, or even multiple AI agents, cranked out their own version in the background. Rather than being focused on one task, they were continually switching their attention, creating the sense that they were “always juggling,” the researchers said.

Others realized that AI had managed to slowly infiltrate their free time, with employees prompting their AI tools during lunch breaks, meetings, or right before stepping away from their PC. This blurred the line between work and non-work, the researchers wrote, with some employees describing that their downtime no longer felt as rejuvenating.

In sum, the AI tools created a vicious cycle: it “accelerated certain tasks, which raised expectations for speed; higher speed made workers more reliant on AI. Increased reliance widened the scope of what workers attempted, and a wider scope further expanded the quantity and density of work.”

The Berkeley Haas team’s findings add to a growing body of evidence that cuts against the AI industry’s promise that its tools will bring productivity miracles.

The vast majority of companies that adopted AI saw no meaningful growth in revenue, a MIT study found. Other research has shown that AI agents frequently fail at common remote work and office tasks. And at least one study documented how employees used AI to produce shoddy “workslop” that their coworkers had to fix — not unlike the engineers forced to correct their vibe-coding colleagues in the Berkeley Haas study — breeding resentment and bogging down productivity. Employees remain ambivalent on the tech, with a recent survey finding that 40 percent of white collar workers not in management roles thought that AI saved them no time at work.

The Berkeley Haas researchers optimistically suggest that companies should institute stronger guidelines and provide structure on how the tech is used. But it’s clear that AI can easily produce negative knock-on effects that are difficult to manage, and which we’re still unpacking.

More on AI: “Novelist” Boasts That Using AI She Can Churn Out a New Book in 45 Minutes, Says Regular Writers Will Never Be Able to Keep Up

The post Researchers Studied What Happens When Workplaces Seriously Embrace AI, and the Results May Make You Nervous appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com

📌 MAROKO133 Breaking ai: AK-47 of seas? How Russian ‘Black Hole’ submarines are lo

For decades, Russia’s Kilo-class submarines were among the most recognizable diesel-electric attack submarines in the world.

Known for their quiet operation and relatively low cost, the boats became the Soviet Union’s most successful naval export, spreading across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. 

But today, the once-feared “Black Hole” submarines are entering a different phase of their life cycle. One marked by gradual retirement, modernization pressures, and even vulnerability to new forms of warfare.

The submarine that armed middle-power navies

Introduced in the early 1980s, the Project 877 Kilo-class was designed for anti-ship warfare, coastal defense, and intelligence-gathering missions in shallow waters. Its diesel-electric propulsion, noise-reduction measures, and rubberized anechoic hull tiles gave it a reputation as one of the quietest conventional submarines of its era, earning the nickname “Black Hole” among Western observers.

The design quickly became a major export success, with Kilo-class submarines sold to at least eight countries, including China, India, Iran, Vietnam, Algeria, Myanmar, Poland, and Romania, making it one of the most widely exported conventional submarine designs of the late Cold War era.

India became one of the earliest and largest customers, acquiring 10 submarines between the 1980s and early 2000s, known locally as the Sindhughosh class. China also purchased Russian-built Kilos before transitioning to domestic designs, while Iran operates three boats, which remain among the most capable submarines in its fleet. Other operators have included Vietnam, Algeria, Myanmar, and several European navies.

For many countries without advanced submarine-building industries, the Kilo-class vessels offered a reliable entry point into underwater warfare. Its relatively simple systems, strong export support, and capability to launch anti-ship and cruise missiles made it a practical deterrent platform for coastal defense missions.

Improved variants and continued relevance

The class evolved over time through several variants. The Project 636 and 636.3 “Improved Kilo” introduced quieter propulsion systems, higher automation, upgraded sonar, and the ability to launch modern cruise missiles such as the Kalibr family. These upgrades kept the submarines relevant well into the 21st century, and Russia continued to build improved variants for its own fleet and export customers.

Operationally, the Kilo proved versatile. In 2015, Russian boats fired cruise missiles from the Mediterranean during operations in Syria, demonstrating that conventional diesel-electric submarines could still play a strategic strike role despite the rise of nuclear-powered fleets. For many regional navies, such capabilities helped balance maritime power dynamics at a relatively modest cost.

Yet the same design strengths that once made the Kilo attractive are now also becoming limitations. Most Kilo submarines rely on traditional diesel-electric propulsion rather than air-independent propulsion (AIP), a technology that allows newer non-nuclear submarines to remain submerged for longer periods without surfacing. As AIP-equipped submarines spread across Western, Chinese, and Asian fleets, the endurance advantage has gradually shifted away from the older Kilo design.

Aging fleets and the modernization push

Many original operators are now transitioning to newer submarine classes. India, which once relied heavily on the Sindhughosh fleet, has begun phasing out older boats as they approach the end of their service lives, while newer domestic and imported submarines enter service. China, after initially importing Russian Kilos, now fields increasingly capable domestically built diesel-electric submarines with AIP technology, reducing dependence on the legacy platform.

Despite this gradual decline, the Kilo has not disappeared. Several countries continue to operate modernized versions, and Russia itself has produced upgraded 636.3 variants for regional fleets such as the Black Sea and Pacific fleets. These subs remain quiet, capable missile carriers, especially suited for littoral warfare and coastal defense operations.

New threats in a changing naval battlefield

Recent events in the Russia-Ukraine war have highlighted another emerging challenge. The vulnerability of submarines to unmanned maritime systems while in port. In December 2025, Ukraine claimed that its underwater “Sub Sea Baby” drones struck a Russian Improved Kilo-class submarine at the Novorossiysk naval base, an incident described by Ukrainian officials as the first successful underwater drone attack on a submarine. 

Although Russia disputed the extent of the damage, the strike shows just how rapidly evolving drone technologies are changing naval warfare, even affecting extremely stealth-focused platforms.

Security analysts say recent underwater drone operations have highlighted the vulnerability of naval ports and moored submarines, emphasizing the growing need for stronger base defenses and layered protection systems. At the same time, older submarine classes, including the Kilo, must increasingly operate within modern integrated naval defenses to remain effective.

From stealth legend to legacy platform

Once regarded as one of the quietest conventional submarines in the world and widely exported across continents, the Kilo-class helped many navies establish credible underwater deterrents at a time when building indigenous submarine fleets was beyond their reach. Today, while still capable and operational in several fleets, the design is gradually being replaced by more advanced submarines. 

Still, the fading of the Kilo’s technological edge does not mean the…

Konten dipersingkat otomatis.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com