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I don't doubt that many love it. I'm just going based on SF non-tech people I know, who largely see it as the thing vaguely mentioned on every billboard and bus
by somekyle2 10mo ago
I don't doubt that many love it. I'm just going based on SF non-tech people I know, who largely see it as the thing vaguely mentioned on every billboard and bus stop, the chatbot every tech company seems to be trying to wedge into every app, and the thing that makes misleading content on social media and enables cheating on school projects. But, sometimes it is good at summarizing videos and such. I probably have a biased sample of people who don't really try to make productive use of AI.
- tptacek 10mo agoI can imagine reasons why non-tech people in SF would hate all tech. I work in tech and living in the middle of that was a big part of why I was in such a hurry to get out of there.
- pesus 10mo agoFrankly, tech deserves its bad reputation in SF (and worldwide, really). One look at the dystopian billboards bragging about trying to replace humans with AI should make any sane human angry at what tech has done. Or the rising rents due to an influx of people working on mostly useless AI startups, 90% of which won't be around in 5 years. Or even how poorly many in tech behave in public and how poorly they treat service workers. That's just the tip of the iceberg, and just in SF alone. I say all this as someone living in SF and working in tech. As a whole, we've brought the hate upon ourselves, and we deserve it.
- tptacek 10mo agoI don't agree with any of this. I just think it's aggravating to live in a company town.
- treis 10mo agoThere's a long list of things that have "replaced" humans all the way back to the ox drawn plow. It's not sane to be angry at any of those steps along the way. GenAI will likely not be any different.
- pesus 10mo agoIt is absolutely sane to be angry at people's livelihoods being destroyed and most aspects of life being worsened just so a handful of multi-billionaires that already control society can become even richer.
- Hammershaft 10mo agoThe plough also made the rich richer, but in the long run the productivity gains it enabled drove improvements to common living standards.
- GuinansEyebrows 10mo agoit's plenty sane to be angry when the benefits of those technical innovations are not distributed equally.