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When AI was 20 years away, people seemed more optimistic about it than now when its inevitable transformative societal impact is seemingly right around the corn

When AI was 20 years away, people seemed more optimistic about it than now when its inevitable transformative societal impact is seemingly right around the corner, are you sure this is the kind of example they were going for?

someplaceguy 3y ago
I think your point only demonstrates that useful AI was not something we could arrive at quickly like we thought we could, but rather over decades in a much more gradual process which slowly got people accustomed to its capabilities. Even then, when ChatGPT came out it was a pretty big deal, due to the surprisingly sudden jump in capabilities, at least from the point of view of someone who didn't work in AI and didn't closely watch its progress. According to Wikipedia, it was "the fastest-growing consumer software application in history, gaining over 100 million users" (in ~2 months).
glompers 3y ago
Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be so upset when AIs unionize...
bhaak 3y ago
This is mostly due to "they're taking our jobs!". Which actually highlights a problem in our society that we have to work to be able to afford living instead of living to be able to work on something more meaningful than earning money.
- ben0x539 3y ago
  I wish people on this website were as enthusiastic about addressing this problem as they are about tech things.
AtlasBarfed 3y ago
Because AI is a tool of corporations. Corporations that already show a massive indifference/hostility to "customer service". Corporations that reduce you to data points, that treat regulation with open disdain (see: Uber), corporations that built perpetual private surveillance empires (and therefore the actual state has a turnkey infrastructure for total information awareness). THESE are the companies wielding AI, but this time without nary a "do no evil" in their ethos, long expunged. They are wielding AI with dystopian surveillance and the inputs. In the era where the Supreme Court has declared them immortal citizens with allegedly the same rights as a real human, except they can't be killed, they can't be imprisoned, they can hop jurisdictions with the filing of a document. They operate under citizens United so there are no limits to their influence on elections and politicians. They can "bribe" with speaking/speech fees. They gain tax breaks that a "real" human can't possibly imagine. Do you trust Google, especially these days? Do you trust Microsoft, unrepentant sociopathic MBA monopolizers galore? Do you trust Amazon who reduce humans to robots, with the outright stated goal of replacing them someday and churn through human resources at rates that make the Soviet Army in WWII blush? If a firearm is just a tool and its danger depends on the owner, who is brandishing AI-the-tool? Uhoh.

someplaceguy 3y ago

I think your point only demonstrates that useful AI was not something we could arrive at quickly like we thought we could, but rather over decades in a much more gradual process which slowly got people accustomed to its capabilities. Even then, when ChatGPT came out it was a pretty big deal, due to the surprisingly sudden jump in capabilities, at least from the point of view of someone who didn't work in AI and didn't closely watch its progress. According to Wikipedia, it was "the fastest-growing consumer software application in history, gaining over 100 million users" (in ~2 months).

glompers 3y ago

Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be so upset when AIs unionize...

bhaak 3y ago

This is mostly due to "they're taking our jobs!". Which actually highlights a problem in our society that we have to work to be able to afford living instead of living to be able to work on something more meaningful than earning money.

ben0x539 3y ago
I wish people on this website were as enthusiastic about addressing this problem as they are about tech things.

AtlasBarfed 3y ago

Because AI is a tool of corporations. Corporations that already show a massive indifference/hostility to "customer service". Corporations that reduce you to data points, that treat regulation with open disdain (see: Uber), corporations that built perpetual private surveillance empires (and therefore the actual state has a turnkey infrastructure for total information awareness). THESE are the companies wielding AI, but this time without nary a "do no evil" in their ethos, long expunged. They are wielding AI with dystopian surveillance and the inputs. In the era where the Supreme Court has declared them immortal citizens with allegedly the same rights as a real human, except they can't be killed, they can't be imprisoned, they can hop jurisdictions with the filing of a document. They operate under citizens United so there are no limits to their influence on elections and politicians. They can "bribe" with speaking/speech fees. They gain tax breaks that a "real" human can't possibly imagine. Do you trust Google, especially these days? Do you trust Microsoft, unrepentant sociopathic MBA monopolizers galore? Do you trust Amazon who reduce humans to robots, with the outright stated goal of replacing them someday and churn through human resources at rates that make the Soviet Army in WWII blush? If a firearm is just a tool and its danger depends on the owner, who is brandishing AI-the-tool? Uhoh.