There are two key elements in the current AI fearmongering:
1) People think they can predict the future
2) People think humans can't adapt
The number of disruptive "game changing" technologies throughout history is immense. There's no question some people get negatively affected, but humanity as a whole has prospered because of these disruptions.
Literally every time, including during the industrial revolution, people thought it was game over for society, good manners, the youth, the planet etc.
Keep cool and try to adapt to the inevitable change. The next generation will certainly do it and leave you behind if you stay in a corner denying the new reality.
Why is it whenever people try to downplay the efficacy of LLM’s evangelists go “there’s literally never been anything like this,” but the moment people critique them or try to weigh their impact on society the response is “well it’s nothing we haven’t seen before”?
The amount of money flowing and the sheer scale of all of this stuff is without precedent. We are seeing governments from the local to federal level literally shift their economies because of all the speculation. We are clearly experiencing a moment of sorts, and anybody who is worried about what the fallout will be is just handwaved away as ignorant fear mongers. Unless you are the head of these companies doing it in a disingenuous way to pump up your valuation, then suddenly it’s legitimate - but not so legitimate that we should do anything besides let the US government build a moat for them!
> The amount of money flowing and the sheer scale of all of this stuff is without precedent. We are seeing governments from the local to federal level literally shift their economies because of all the speculation.
Yes, the absolute numbers might now read TRILLION instead of BILLION or MILLION, but the concept of "Technology so impactful governments shift their economies" is in no way new, and has already happened a bunch of times before in humanity's timeline.
I guess that's why you're seeing some of us less stressed out about it, as again, scale is different, because scale today is different in everything, but relatively, we're just repeating another of those "Technology changes everything" milestones that we've done before.
We have never seen governments essentially leverage their economies so heavily, so quickly, for a speculative technology. It is literally propping up a significant portion of the US economy right now.
> definitely had exactly the same thing happening, just compared to our scale today where everything is "more" and "bigger",
And faster. More, bigger, faster. Which substantively changes the situation the same way a musket stops venn diagraming as a “firearm” at some point when compared to a 50-round automatic rifle.
You're mixing a bunch of different "people" in the same bag. I'm not the one saying "there's never been anything like this before".
The investment is massive, but not bigger than other projects by an order of magnitude. Major wars were bigger than AI. The dot com bubble was 2-3T dollars.
There may not be so much in the way of soldiers in the field guns blazing, but we are very much seeing a 'cold war' emerging with AI at the centre of it. The incentives for nations to spend are essentially the same in cold and hot wars.
Adapt, sure, but is my life better or worse after adapting? It's a fair question and a fair worry. The goal of most AI companies seems to be to replace some amount of labor with AI. Look how that worked out for our factory workers. They adapted by getting jobs at Walmart and Dollar General, or scraping by in the gig economy.
> They adapted by getting jobs at Walmart and Dollar General, or scraping by in the gig economy.
The tech crowd used to say that only the "dumb" ones did that. They said those who were "smart like us" were much more adaptable, learning to code and whatnot to find new, often even better careers. It will be interesting to see if the emperor has clothes.
No, and obviously neither can you, else you would have explained yourself. Best to not post while under the influence of silly emotions. That is what those tech people who called those manufacturing people "dumb" did and, like this, wasn't useful.
Silly emotions? I'm not the one gleefully celebrating the ruin of others (including families). You've chosen to 'other' a broad group of people with diverse experiences and backgrounds. "Those tech people" certainly include some people who called manufacturers 'dumb', but it also includes many (most?) who didn't, and even some who used to be "manufacturing people".
You say "who cares if they suffer? They're obviously all just bad people". The people who attacked blue collar workers said "who cares if they suffer? They're obviously all just dumb people (and thus bad)." So the bulk of people who you decry are not guilty of what you claim. But you are!
> You say "who cares if they suffer? They're obviously all just bad people".
This comment aside, I do not see that text anywhere, lest my own comments. Get back to us when you return to reality.
> The people who attacked blue collar workers said "who cares if they suffer? They're obviously all just dumb people (and thus bad)."
Whether or not calling them "dumb" was justified, there no implication of "who cares if they suffer". In fact, in the context I remember, those comments were made around trying to figure out how to help those who were deemed "dumb".
glimshe · · focus · HN ↗
1) People think they can predict the future
2) People think humans can't adapt
The number of disruptive "game changing" technologies throughout history is immense. There's no question some people get negatively affected, but humanity as a whole has prospered because of these disruptions.
Literally every time, including during the industrial revolution, people thought it was game over for society, good manners, the youth, the planet etc.
Keep cool and try to adapt to the inevitable change. The next generation will certainly do it and leave you behind if you stay in a corner denying the new reality.
Forgeties79 · · focus · HN ↗
The amount of money flowing and the sheer scale of all of this stuff is without precedent. We are seeing governments from the local to federal level literally shift their economies because of all the speculation. We are clearly experiencing a moment of sorts, and anybody who is worried about what the fallout will be is just handwaved away as ignorant fear mongers. Unless you are the head of these companies doing it in a disingenuous way to pump up your valuation, then suddenly it’s legitimate - but not so legitimate that we should do anything besides let the US government build a moat for them!
embedding-shape · · focus · HN ↗
Yes, the absolute numbers might now read TRILLION instead of BILLION or MILLION, but the concept of "Technology so impactful governments shift their economies" is in no way new, and has already happened a bunch of times before in humanity's timeline.
I guess that's why you're seeing some of us less stressed out about it, as again, scale is different, because scale today is different in everything, but relatively, we're just repeating another of those "Technology changes everything" milestones that we've done before.
Forgeties79 · · focus · HN ↗
When have we seen anything like this?
embedding-shape · · focus · HN ↗
Forgeties79 · · focus · HN ↗
And faster. More, bigger, faster. Which substantively changes the situation the same way a musket stops venn diagraming as a “firearm” at some point when compared to a 50-round automatic rifle.
maomao5 · · focus · HN ↗
glimshe · · focus · HN ↗
The investment is massive, but not bigger than other projects by an order of magnitude. Major wars were bigger than AI. The dot com bubble was 2-3T dollars.
Forgeties79 · · focus · HN ↗
win311fwg · · focus · HN ↗
yCombLinks · · focus · HN ↗
win311fwg · · focus · HN ↗
The tech crowd used to say that only the "dumb" ones did that. They said those who were "smart like us" were much more adaptable, learning to code and whatnot to find new, often even better careers. It will be interesting to see if the emperor has clothes.
achierius · · focus · HN ↗
[deleted] · · focus · HN ↗
[deleted]
win311fwg · · focus · HN ↗
achierius · · focus · HN ↗
You say "who cares if they suffer? They're obviously all just bad people". The people who attacked blue collar workers said "who cares if they suffer? They're obviously all just dumb people (and thus bad)." So the bulk of people who you decry are not guilty of what you claim. But you are!
win311fwg · · focus · HN ↗
This comment aside, I do not see that text anywhere, lest my own comments. Get back to us when you return to reality.
> The people who attacked blue collar workers said "who cares if they suffer? They're obviously all just dumb people (and thus bad)."
Whether or not calling them "dumb" was justified, there no implication of "who cares if they suffer". In fact, in the context I remember, those comments were made around trying to figure out how to help those who were deemed "dumb".