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This is one of the aspects of AI ethics that I don't think gets nearly enough attention: the general psychological effect that information about AI has on peopl
by simonw 1y ago
This is one of the aspects of AI ethics that I don't think gets nearly enough attention: the general psychological effect that information about AI has on people, regardless of their interactions with the tools themselves.
Students getting lazy, or dropping out of subjects entirely because they don't think they have a future in them.
Depression and a general feeling of despair. I see this in programming communities quite a bit - people who see LLMs as an existential threat to their careers and that they have wasted their lives getting good at something which is now being devalued.
"ChatGPT psychosis" - where people talk to LLMs and have unhealthy thought patterns reinforced by them to disastrous ends - gets a ton of coverage. But what about these milder but still meaningful effects where the very existence of AI disrupts people's future plans and self-worth even if they're not using it at all?
- boulos 1y agoBtw, the recent Conversations with Tyler had a few minutes on this topic with Sam: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversations-with-tyler/id983795625?i=1000735389228 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversations-with-tyl... It was a bit towards the end, I think.
- azemetre 1y agoWhy should I listen to the snake oil peddler? Finding real neutral critiques isn't hard.
- captainkrtek 1y agoIt makes more sense through the lens of advancing the short / medium term interests of corporations under the guise of “helping people”. When we’re all brain rotted and unemployed, how will we spend money on corporations? Its a spiral.
- joquarky 1y agoI keep remembering this clip in these discussions: > I went through this Ford engine plant about three years ago, when they first opened it. > There are acres and acres of machines, and here and there you will find a worker standing at a master switchboard, just watching, green and yellow lights blinking off and on, which tell the worker what is happening in the machine. > One of the management people, with a slightly gleeful tone in his voice said to me, “How are you going to collect union dues from all these machines?” > And I replied, “You know, that is not what’s bothering me. I’m troubled by the problem of how to sell automobiles to these machines - Walter Reuther, Nov. 1956 https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/11/16/robots-buy-cars https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/11/16/robots-buy-cars
- askvictor 1y agoThe short story "The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine" by Greg Egan deals with this nicely. I won't give away the ending though.