4 ms·

I didnt take Stewart's monologue as anti-progress. Rather the core takeaway is the vague and grandiose talk of greatness and utopia for all of humanity and the

I didnt take Stewart's monologue as anti-progress. Rather the core takeaway is the vague and grandiose talk of greatness and utopia for all of humanity and the planet that is to come from the AI. And brushing aside the upheaval and consequences mass automation on a decade scale, not multiple decades, will cause for the N% of society affected negatively. Big Tech personal AI assistants aren't going to put food on people's table after their profession is automated away. And political nonsense already make it hard for many to get aid when they're unable to work as it is, imagine some politician saying go get a job, don't leach off the government and tax payers. Is there a way to minimize the negatives that will inevitably playout? Those AI leaders aren't talking a lot about that, only vague suggestions or passing mentions, and then back to "we're going to use AI to make the world a better place"

reacharavindh 3y ago
Sorry, but that is not fair or even normal. Are you saying that anybody can do something new only if they _can_ handle all the externalities that they cannot possibly have control over? Lets say you develop a new, better calendar tool that makes secretaries/personal assistants redundant. Are you supposed to release it and make money off it only if you could find a way to employ all those personal secreataries and assistants in the world? I do agree with you and hate the trope that is "we make the world a better place" or using the word - sustainable and green color to things that cannot possibly be either. If a politician says "go get a job, don't leach off the government and tax payers" and is so out of context, may be the political system and electing such a politician is a problem, and you ought to improve the society than asking Microsoft to think about the jobless...
- emestifs 3y ago
  > Are you saying that anybody can do something new only if they _can_ handle all the externalities that they cannot possibly have control over? No, not at all. But to focus majority of the time focusing on greatness and downplaying the consequences will skew the public perception. If you're skewing perception then you, as a society, aren't fully understanding the implications of what's happening (eg social media in 2010 vs social media in 2020s, mental health, people quiting, etc). > If a politician says "go get a job, don't leach off the government and tax payers" and is so out of context, may be the political system and electing such a politician is a problem, and you ought to improve the society than asking Microsoft to think about the jobless... Yup, there's definitely a issue with current political systems. The system is likely going to resist change and I'm not foolish enough to think it will change much any time soon given the current trajectory. Obvious this varies country to country. > I do agree with you and hate the trope that is "we make the world a better place" or using the word - sustainable and green color to things that cannot possibly be either. That's all I was highlighting. It's all grandiose promises of sunshine and rainbows as one may naively assume if you take any AI "thought leader" at their literal word. I'm not going to quote any of them, but the clip this post links to has a number of direct quotes from them about what great planet scale problems AI will solve. I wasn't proposing any solution, but trying to highlight the naivety of assuming AI will usher in an era of greatness for _all_. It would be great if you could get all the benefits and humanity could live on this planet, and maybe others, for millions of years in prosperity and greatness, but the systemic underlying issues will continue to persist even into this next era.
- ianoren 3y ago
  Yes, if you create something incredibly dangerous to current society, you should not be misleading the public about the negative externalities. Oil companies who knew that pollution caused global warming and buried it should have every single C-suite and boardmember put against the wall and shot dead.
tivert 3y ago
> Big Tech personal AI assistants aren't going to put food on people's table after their profession is automated away. The future will be great! Everyone will have a supercomputer in their pocket, loaded with an AI therapist program to help treat their depression resulting from being forced into poverty and having to live in a cardboard box under a bridge.

reacharavindh 3y ago

Sorry, but that is not fair or even normal. Are you saying that anybody can do something new only if they _can_ handle all the externalities that they cannot possibly have control over? Lets say you develop a new, better calendar tool that makes secretaries/personal assistants redundant. Are you supposed to release it and make money off it only if you could find a way to employ all those personal secreataries and assistants in the world? I do agree with you and hate the trope that is "we make the world a better place" or using the word - sustainable and green color to things that cannot possibly be either. If a politician says "go get a job, don't leach off the government and tax payers" and is so out of context, may be the political system and electing such a politician is a problem, and you ought to improve the society than asking Microsoft to think about the jobless...

emestifs 3y ago
> Are you saying that anybody can do something new only if they _can_ handle all the externalities that they cannot possibly have control over? No, not at all. But to focus majority of the time focusing on greatness and downplaying the consequences will skew the public perception. If you're skewing perception then you, as a society, aren't fully understanding the implications of what's happening (eg social media in 2010 vs social media in 2020s, mental health, people quiting, etc). > If a politician says "go get a job, don't leach off the government and tax payers" and is so out of context, may be the political system and electing such a politician is a problem, and you ought to improve the society than asking Microsoft to think about the jobless... Yup, there's definitely a issue with current political systems. The system is likely going to resist change and I'm not foolish enough to think it will change much any time soon given the current trajectory. Obvious this varies country to country. > I do agree with you and hate the trope that is "we make the world a better place" or using the word - sustainable and green color to things that cannot possibly be either. That's all I was highlighting. It's all grandiose promises of sunshine and rainbows as one may naively assume if you take any AI "thought leader" at their literal word. I'm not going to quote any of them, but the clip this post links to has a number of direct quotes from them about what great planet scale problems AI will solve. I wasn't proposing any solution, but trying to highlight the naivety of assuming AI will usher in an era of greatness for _all_. It would be great if you could get all the benefits and humanity could live on this planet, and maybe others, for millions of years in prosperity and greatness, but the systemic underlying issues will continue to persist even into this next era.
ianoren 3y ago
Yes, if you create something incredibly dangerous to current society, you should not be misleading the public about the negative externalities. Oil companies who knew that pollution caused global warming and buried it should have every single C-suite and boardmember put against the wall and shot dead.

tivert 3y ago

> Big Tech personal AI assistants aren't going to put food on people's table after their profession is automated away. The future will be great! Everyone will have a supercomputer in their pocket, loaded with an AI therapist program to help treat their depression resulting from being forced into poverty and having to live in a cardboard box under a bridge.