AI-obsessed manager tells IT staff to automate “everything possible,” instantly regrets it after employee uses Claude to complete mandatory HIPAA training: ‘There are some things he doesn’t want AI doing’

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  via Unsplash+ (via Edgar Cavazos)

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• Manager said "Get creative with automating with AI"

  Not my story, a friend of mine's. He works in IT and has a manager that has fully drank the AI Kool-Aid. He's been a pain forcing the staff to use AI wherever possible, even when it doesn't make sense. The mandate is "Even if it's faster to do it manually than with Claude, get Claude to do it". The staff is demoralized and quiet quitting, and the manager is oblivious to why.

   

  The malicious compliance comes in when the manager told the IT staff "Get creative with using AI for other tasks! It doesn't just have to be with coding!". The company writes HIPAA compliant software, so the staff has to take those dumb online courses that force you to watch videos and do quizzes that are super boring, so my friend had an idea.

• He pointed Claude at the site, logged in for it, and got the AI to do the course for him. It used Puppeteer (a framework for pressing buttons and navigating web pages in code like a human would) to go through the test, watch all the videos, and take the test at the end, all while my friend sat back and watched.

   

  During the biweekly scrum, the manager asked the staff how they were able to creatively use AI outside of their coding tasks, and my friend proudly announced it got it to do his HIPAA compliance test for him. The rest of the team laughed and the manager ate his own words having to admit that there are some things he doesn't want AI doing for the team.

   

  Best part: the online course provider charges by the number of students who take the course, so the manager would have to lose face by buying another seat, so my friend is free and clear and doesn't have to take the certification again till next year (which he's hoping, by then, to find a better place to work).

  -BranigansLaw

• Honestly, this is probably the most predictable ending possible for a manager who treated AI like a magical solution to literally every workplace inconvenience. The second employees realize leadership cares more about “innovation” buzzwords than common sense, somebody is absolutely going to automate something deeply questionable just to prove a point and technically follow instructions at the same time.

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  via Unsplash+ (via Jakub Żerdzicki)

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• Perfect-Scene9541

  Quote from “The Mythical Manmonth”. No matter how many women you put on the job, it takes 9 months to make a baby.

  Some things need to be done by humans.

• ragequitteroffureh

  I don't knowingly use AI.

  Just out of interest, when that AI thing is "watching" video, is it actually ingesting the video/audio stream, and adding it to whatever it's training is, or is it basically clicking the play button, and twiddling it's robotic thumbs until the video's finished, without actually doing anything?

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  via Unsplash+ (via Jakub Żerdzicki)

  _{^{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}}
   

• Alternative_Swan_497

  Provided it was some internal or industry certification and not a professional certification with legal ramifications, excellent use of AI.

• Smart_Cantaloupe891

  I doubt it is the manager’s fault.

  I’m working with a number of leaders following the C-Suite’s directive to embed AI in their workflows. If they can’t illustrate that they’re doing it, their job is at risk.

  This type of response occurs when the anxiety becomes overwhelming. So give him some rope before you hang him.

• zyyntin

  I forbid you from interfering with underdeveloped worlds! That includes AI.

• tsian

  Amazing, but also if it is a legally required course, couldn't that potentially have the employer/employee in a lot of trouble. Still perfect.

  On a side-note I was really hoping that another AI bot had written this just so we could have had the absurdity of AI writing about AI /s

• The employee probably learned two very important lessons: first, never underestimate how far malicious compliance can go in an IT department, and second, managers who worship automation a little too aggressively usually discover the limits of AI at the funniest possible moment imaginable.

   

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