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Unlike other methods of automation, AI is replacing human beings too fast. And before you say, "new jobs will be created" -- look at history. After the computer

Unlike other methods of automation, AI is replacing human beings too fast. And before you say, "new jobs will be created" -- look at history. After the computer, new jobs have been created, but what kind of jobs? Every year, we are becoming more entwined in wage slavery as the wealth accumulates at the top and jobs become more meaningless. So, no, new jobs will not be created, except the kind of jobs that crush the human spirit into oblivion so that the rich tech oligarchs can play God.

nickthegreek 2y ago
>AI is replacing human beings too fast. citation needed.
- RIMR 2y ago
  This is a subjective statement. If you disagree with it, counter it. Asking for a citation doesn't make sense here.
  - chompychop 2y ago
    How is it subjective? Can't terms like "replacing" and "fast" be quantified by metrics related to rates of unemployment and adoption of AI systems for tasks previously manned by humans? I'm not saying the data is readily available, but I do see a route to objectively measuring this.
    - bsaul 2y ago
      « It’s too sweet » falls into the same measurable phenomenon, and yet remains highly subjective
    - SoftTalker 2y ago
      It's the word "too" that makes it subjective.
homarp 2y ago
can't I with that creates video that have the world as potential users? and the video can be the products, or tutoriala for another products. This allows me to do more, not less.
- homarp 2y ago
  see also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41330587 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41330587
Kiro 2y ago
Strange submission to post this comment on. It's not like translating and dubbing videos is the highest form of labor.
- wongarsu 2y ago
  It's not like it's mindless drudgery either. Losing as little as possible in translation while fitting within the constraints of subtitles (people can only read so fast) can be very challenging. And decent dubbing tries to approximately match the mouth movements, which puts further constraints on the translation and often requires creative text changes. There is a point about industry size (not that many countries dub all their movies), but it is one of the intellectually more challenging professions.
  - Kiro 2y ago
    Translation work is often associated with horrible working conditions and poor pay. It definitely fits OP's description of "jobs that crush the human spirit into oblivion." This might not be the case if you're a renowned translator of famous literature, but that is not representative of the majority of translators.
    - numpad0 2y ago
      It takes a fluent, language specific bilingual with domain knowledge just to verify work. That's a high skilled job. It's just massively underappreciated because (same).
- insane_dreamer 2y ago
  It actually requires a fair bit of skill to do it correctly and accurately
- surfingdino 2y ago
  There is finesse to it. You are translating from one culture to another.
- notkaiho 2y ago
insane_dreamer 2y ago
The problem is that we are hurtling towards the unknown without a plan, driven by the “need” to make higher returns for shareholders and to capture the new market. It may be that some new types of employment magically appear that soak up the jobs lost, but you can be sure there is no one working on solving that problem since the goal is to eliminate labor not create it.
numpad0 2y ago
I don't think generative AI is replacing humans at all. It's like how SQL replaced software engineers, with added bonus of copyright doubts gatekeeping common folks from exploiting it. It's obviously killing open Internet fast and encouraging power concentration too. It's worst of couples of worlds.
IndySun 2y ago
>...new jobs will not be created, except the kind of jobs that crush the human spirit into oblivion... AI certainly means everyone will be able to create 'art' and as a result we'll have more art than we know what to do with, music and images are already confetti, soon so will full length 'films/movies'. That leaves anyone who can actually sing, paint, play, dance, in prime position to take up those mantles.
- amonith 2y ago
  What do you mean by the last sentence? Isn't it the opposite? People who could do art stuff won't be able to sustain themselves using those skills anymore because those will be devalued a lot.
  - IndySun 2y ago
    I mean, meant to imply, live performance will become gold.
pizza234 2y ago
This is a fallacy called "Lump of labour fallacy" (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy).
- ZoomerCretin 2y ago
  Calling something a fallacy does not mean it truly is one. I have not seen strong evidence that there is not a "lump of labor" in extremely high-rent countries like the US. For a sufficiently small period of time, there absolutely is a "lump of labor". If I were to go into a county with robots and rent them out to employers for 1/4 of the wage of their current employees, and they all fired their employees and accepted my robots, do you really believe that all of ex-employees would be able to find work again within 6 months? Or even 70% of them? What about their new wages? Do you think these new jobs would pay as well? I have a hard time believing that to be the case.
  - pizza234 2y ago
    There are a number of misconceptions when it comes to the lump of labor fallacy. The prevalent one is confusing the small and the big picture. If a factory introduces automation, no doubt that the resulting job losses are a problem that must be addressed. However, the lump of labor refers to the big picture - in the same time span, other jobs are created elsewhere. If they weren't, considering that automation started at least 200 years ago (in the most limited sense of the term), the whole planet would be out of jobs by now.
- vouaobrasil 2y ago
  If it is such a fallacy, then why are there fewer and fewer options for those who don't want to be entrenched in technology?
  - IG_Semmelweiss 2y ago
    Who's upset here about the hordes of horse manure cleaners that lost their jobs due to the advent of cars? Does anyone miss the stench of a 1800s street in the summer heat? No. Lets ask the influencers, the twitch celebs, the podcasters id they would prefer to shovel horse crap, or play with their e-device all day. And to be completely fair, the manufacturing jobs may be gone because elected leaders were told it was OK export the vast majority of those jobs (millions) abroad, where labor doesn't have govt benefits or red tape. This makes new jobs go to foreigners instead of staying stateside. So, we all save a few pennies on each item made in china and sold on Amazon, at the price of nuking all US craftsmanship and artisans.
lmm 2y ago
> After the computer, new jobs have been created, but what kind of jobs? Every year, we are becoming more entwined in wage slavery as the wealth accumulates at the top and jobs become more meaningless. What are you talking about? Many of us have tech jobs with much more comfort, creativity and autonomy than the jobs they displaced, and computerisation has made it much more practical for those who dare to strike out their own rather than needing wealthy family or friends before you can even begin to think of starting a business.
- CaptainFever 2y ago
  I know, right. Jobs created by computers have by far been the best paying, and most comfortable jobs that exist in human history. We're privileged.
SoftTalker 2y ago
> After the computer, new jobs have been created, but what kind of jobs? Um, jobs where someone under age 30 can be earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year programming them?
- vouaobrasil 2y ago
  > Um, jobs where someone under age 30 can be earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year programming them? Not a very fulfilling job in my opinion, except for the money.
hatenberg 2y ago
Transformer based AI is basically printing machines for the knowledge economy from existing labor patterns. Nobody currently can say which patterns it cannot extract, hence "we always figured out new jobs" is ... challenged
nsonha 2y ago
so maybe don't cling on to "the job" so much and hoping it somehow can fulfil your life. If the job can be automated by a machine then isn't it already meaningless and mundance and bore you to death anyway? I agree with the point about "wealth accumulates at the top" though. Maybe Karl Marx was right about a thing or 2. Maybe the distribution of wealth should not fall into the hand of non-elected corporations. Whatever it is, it should be determined by a democratic process and not some "market mechanism" that is actually just arbitrary algorithms optimized for metrics no actual human cares about.
fleischhauf 2y ago
the reaction is wrong. it shouldnt be "oh no, jobs are being removed" but "nice, less work more automatization, let's make sure we all benefit through less work and not only the rich with more profits"
- pjc50 2y ago
  > let's make sure we all benefit through less work and not only the rich with more profits It's fairly clear by now that that is not what happens and that the real AI risk is not the "grey goo" one of everything being converted to nanomush, but the age-old one of landlordism soaking up all the returns to economic activity.

nickthegreek 2y ago

>AI is replacing human beings too fast. citation needed.

RIMR 2y ago
This is a subjective statement. If you disagree with it, counter it. Asking for a citation doesn't make sense here.
- chompychop 2y ago
  How is it subjective? Can't terms like "replacing" and "fast" be quantified by metrics related to rates of unemployment and adoption of AI systems for tasks previously manned by humans? I'm not saying the data is readily available, but I do see a route to objectively measuring this.
  - bsaul 2y ago
    « It’s too sweet » falls into the same measurable phenomenon, and yet remains highly subjective
  - SoftTalker 2y ago
    It's the word "too" that makes it subjective.

homarp 2y ago

can't I with that creates video that have the world as potential users? and the video can be the products, or tutoriala for another products. This allows me to do more, not less.

homarp 2y ago
see also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41330587 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41330587

Kiro 2y ago

Strange submission to post this comment on. It's not like translating and dubbing videos is the highest form of labor.

wongarsu 2y ago
It's not like it's mindless drudgery either. Losing as little as possible in translation while fitting within the constraints of subtitles (people can only read so fast) can be very challenging. And decent dubbing tries to approximately match the mouth movements, which puts further constraints on the translation and often requires creative text changes. There is a point about industry size (not that many countries dub all their movies), but it is one of the intellectually more challenging professions.
- Kiro 2y ago
  Translation work is often associated with horrible working conditions and poor pay. It definitely fits OP's description of "jobs that crush the human spirit into oblivion." This might not be the case if you're a renowned translator of famous literature, but that is not representative of the majority of translators.
  - numpad0 2y ago
    It takes a fluent, language specific bilingual with domain knowledge just to verify work. That's a high skilled job. It's just massively underappreciated because (same).
insane_dreamer 2y ago
It actually requires a fair bit of skill to do it correctly and accurately
surfingdino 2y ago
There is finesse to it. You are translating from one culture to another.
notkaiho 2y ago

insane_dreamer 2y ago

The problem is that we are hurtling towards the unknown without a plan, driven by the “need” to make higher returns for shareholders and to capture the new market. It may be that some new types of employment magically appear that soak up the jobs lost, but you can be sure there is no one working on solving that problem since the goal is to eliminate labor not create it.

numpad0 2y ago

I don't think generative AI is replacing humans at all. It's like how SQL replaced software engineers, with added bonus of copyright doubts gatekeeping common folks from exploiting it. It's obviously killing open Internet fast and encouraging power concentration too. It's worst of couples of worlds.

IndySun 2y ago

>...new jobs will not be created, except the kind of jobs that crush the human spirit into oblivion... AI certainly means everyone will be able to create 'art' and as a result we'll have more art than we know what to do with, music and images are already confetti, soon so will full length 'films/movies'. That leaves anyone who can actually sing, paint, play, dance, in prime position to take up those mantles.

amonith 2y ago
What do you mean by the last sentence? Isn't it the opposite? People who could do art stuff won't be able to sustain themselves using those skills anymore because those will be devalued a lot.
- IndySun 2y ago
  I mean, meant to imply, live performance will become gold.

pizza234 2y ago

This is a fallacy called "Lump of labour fallacy" (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy).

ZoomerCretin 2y ago
Calling something a fallacy does not mean it truly is one. I have not seen strong evidence that there is not a "lump of labor" in extremely high-rent countries like the US. For a sufficiently small period of time, there absolutely is a "lump of labor". If I were to go into a county with robots and rent them out to employers for 1/4 of the wage of their current employees, and they all fired their employees and accepted my robots, do you really believe that all of ex-employees would be able to find work again within 6 months? Or even 70% of them? What about their new wages? Do you think these new jobs would pay as well? I have a hard time believing that to be the case.
- pizza234 2y ago
  There are a number of misconceptions when it comes to the lump of labor fallacy. The prevalent one is confusing the small and the big picture. If a factory introduces automation, no doubt that the resulting job losses are a problem that must be addressed. However, the lump of labor refers to the big picture - in the same time span, other jobs are created elsewhere. If they weren't, considering that automation started at least 200 years ago (in the most limited sense of the term), the whole planet would be out of jobs by now.
vouaobrasil 2y ago
If it is such a fallacy, then why are there fewer and fewer options for those who don't want to be entrenched in technology?
- IG_Semmelweiss 2y ago
  Who's upset here about the hordes of horse manure cleaners that lost their jobs due to the advent of cars? Does anyone miss the stench of a 1800s street in the summer heat? No. Lets ask the influencers, the twitch celebs, the podcasters id they would prefer to shovel horse crap, or play with their e-device all day. And to be completely fair, the manufacturing jobs may be gone because elected leaders were told it was OK export the vast majority of those jobs (millions) abroad, where labor doesn't have govt benefits or red tape. This makes new jobs go to foreigners instead of staying stateside. So, we all save a few pennies on each item made in china and sold on Amazon, at the price of nuking all US craftsmanship and artisans.

lmm 2y ago

> After the computer, new jobs have been created, but what kind of jobs? Every year, we are becoming more entwined in wage slavery as the wealth accumulates at the top and jobs become more meaningless. What are you talking about? Many of us have tech jobs with much more comfort, creativity and autonomy than the jobs they displaced, and computerisation has made it much more practical for those who dare to strike out their own rather than needing wealthy family or friends before you can even begin to think of starting a business.

CaptainFever 2y ago
I know, right. Jobs created by computers have by far been the best paying, and most comfortable jobs that exist in human history. We're privileged.

SoftTalker 2y ago

> After the computer, new jobs have been created, but what kind of jobs? Um, jobs where someone under age 30 can be earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year programming them?

vouaobrasil 2y ago
> Um, jobs where someone under age 30 can be earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year programming them? Not a very fulfilling job in my opinion, except for the money.

hatenberg 2y ago

Transformer based AI is basically printing machines for the knowledge economy from existing labor patterns. Nobody currently can say which patterns it cannot extract, hence "we always figured out new jobs" is ... challenged

nsonha 2y ago

so maybe don't cling on to "the job" so much and hoping it somehow can fulfil your life. If the job can be automated by a machine then isn't it already meaningless and mundance and bore you to death anyway? I agree with the point about "wealth accumulates at the top" though. Maybe Karl Marx was right about a thing or 2. Maybe the distribution of wealth should not fall into the hand of non-elected corporations. Whatever it is, it should be determined by a democratic process and not some "market mechanism" that is actually just arbitrary algorithms optimized for metrics no actual human cares about.

fleischhauf 2y ago

the reaction is wrong. it shouldnt be "oh no, jobs are being removed" but "nice, less work more automatization, let's make sure we all benefit through less work and not only the rich with more profits"

pjc50 2y ago
> let's make sure we all benefit through less work and not only the rich with more profits It's fairly clear by now that that is not what happens and that the real AI risk is not the "grey goo" one of everything being converted to nanomush, but the age-old one of landlordism soaking up all the returns to economic activity.