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I just got back from Thanksgiving holiday with my family. Grade schools kids all the way up to great grandparents up to 81 years old. Engineers, active military
by LastTrain 11mo ago
I just got back from Thanksgiving holiday with my family. Grade schools kids all the way up to great grandparents up to 81 years old. Engineers, active military, a nurse, high schoolers, two in college. Both coasts represented and Texas. Republicans, Democrats, and in-between. The one and only thing every single person had in common was an utter hatred of AI. And it wasn’t for a lack of understanding of how it will be used.
- fn-mote 11mo agoHatred of AI won’t stop others from steamrolling them and their jobs using AI. At this point, I have stopped hoping that LLMs will become vaporware.
- lII1lIlI11ll 11mo agoI wouldn't bet on LLMs steamrolling jobs of a nurse or military personnel any time soon.
- LastTrain 11mo agoThere are so many more reasons to hate AI than just “it is taking my job”. But even if we’re just sticking to that, some people don’t like that it will replace their co workers, neighbors or family members job.
- LastTrain 11mo agoI found myself thinking AI would make the perfect scapegoat for an enterprising political party. There is a lot of animus to tap into there.
- senordevnyc 11mo agoHow do you reconcile this with: 1. The absolute explosion of AI usage (revealed preferences) 2. The polling on AI, which is mixed and reveals lots of pessimism and fear among a slight majority of Americans, but hardly universal “utter hatred”. My guess is some combo of: your family is not representative, the hatred was not as universal as it appeared (bandwagon effect), or your own hatred of AI caused you to focus on the like-minded opinions shared and ignore any contrary evidence.
- LastTrain 11mo agoI don’t reconcile it, I was giving an anecdote, one that would seem to easily fit in with your personal summary of some poll you read about.
- senordevnyc 11mo agoNo, the polls I’ve seen are more like 50/50, not the kind of universal utter hatred you’re portraying here. Color me skeptical.
- LastTrain 11mo agoWhat polls are you referring to? We did a non-anonymous poll at work which went something like “has using AI tool X made you more productive”, and the results were something like 50/50. If you asked my thanksgiving holiday crowd something like that you might get mixed results. If you asked them is AI an agent of good, do you trust what is happening with AI it would all be negative. People don’t like it.
- senordevnyc 11mo agoJust one example: https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/09/17/how-americans-view-ai-and-its-impact-on-people-and-society/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/09/17/how-americans... Again, more pessimistic than not, but hardly universal hatred
- LastTrain 11mo agoThat is not anywhere near 50/50 and is your leading example. A charitable summary of the survey is, when pressed, in some areas, people can think of some potential benefits. Why are you skeptical a group of 15 people would all dislike AI? People’s perceptions are based on how it is being employed in the current moment, and they don’t like it, and don’t trust it, which is the attitude included in the /first/ bullet item of the survey you linked: “ Americans are much more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life, with a majority saying they want more control over how AI is used in their lives.”