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A frustrating aspect of the AI debates has been the number of people who believe people like Sam Altman who say that the immense wealth created by AGI would be
by rurp 8mo ago
A frustrating aspect of the AI debates has been the number of people who believe people like Sam Altman who say that the immense wealth created by AGI would be distributed to the masses to improve their lives. The notion that the mega wealthy Elon/Sams/Bezos elites are going to willingly give up unprecedented wealth because millions of people have become unemployed and impoverished is so wildly out of step with how those people have behaved their entire lives. Someone who says they have enough billions and want to improve millions of lives don't make it to those positions.
The only way that wealth gets shared will be unprecedented government coercion or worse.
- cootsnuck 8mo agoYea, it's puzzling to me that this isn't asked of folks like Altman and Amodei in every interview. Maybe it's because Altman would just start shilling his eye scanning orb and start repeating "WORLD COIN" ad nauseum. Either way, they should be getting pressed on this by all media.
- mrguyorama 8mo agoIt's not puzzling. Journalism was murdered because it asked Nixon too many questions. So now unless you softball interviews, you just don't get to interview anyone, so the only news orgs with content to monetize are the ones just printing Press Releases and being a backboard for "interviews". It sure is fun how the party who screams about "personal responsibility" seems to get very upset if you ask a responsible person to explain themselves and their actions.
- jacquesm 8mo agoIt's beyond naive. But there are also still people believing Elon Musk is going to put humanity on Mars for keeps and out of altruism.
- rurp 8mo agoFor sure, I've been rolling my eyes at the Mars colony stuff for probably a decade or more now. I get that it's a fun futuristic thought experiment for nerds but the idea that Elon's going to send up some modern day Mayflower in the near future that builds a thriving settlement is obvious nonsense.
- mrguyorama 8mo agoWell, the average person is so utterly illiterate in physics, science, and math that no, it's not obvious nonsense to them. They don't really think through anything at all, because the human brain is hyperoptimized to not think, as thinking is energetically expensive, and even with that optimization to drastically reduce energy usage by just not using it, the brain still consumes a significant fraction of a human's energy budget. We all have this problem. Even if you train for years to think "like a scientist" and critically analyze your beliefs and poke holes in the things you take for granted, you will always be vulnerable to ignoring something you shouldn't and missing something important. I do get upset that people are so adverse to just doing some rough calculations about things. However, I've recently come to the conclusion that I just enjoy recreational math more than the average person. But I'm frustrated about all the people who sat next to me in math class saying "When will I ever use this?" and now going through their lives with zero literacy in math. You had a chance to learn! To improve yourself! How could you squander that?! What else were you doing with that time? You were required to go to school for about 16 years, why didn't you just suck it up and make the most of that time?! It hurts me how willfully ignorant people can be.
- jcgrillo 8mo agoHope somebody smuggles a decent screw jack onboard otherwise they're fucked.
- simianwords 8mo agoThis comment naively believes in zero sum creation of wealth. Wealth is not taken from our consumers and given to Sam Altman. Sam and his company are creating wealth - increasing the pie. Of course it benefits everyone while also benefiting them. Wealth need not be redistributed to improve lives. Just the mere invention of ChatGPT and letting people purchase it and use it is enough to improve people’s lives. Redistribution does not solve any poverty problem other than transfer power. Sam redistributing money will not sustainably change anything about prosperity or poverty.
- unethical_ban 8mo agoClaiming that wealth isn't zero sum, and demanding people have faith in the US system of capitalism, is not reassuring.
- axus 8mo agoSo far prices have generally gone up, which indicates the pie available is scarcer. I am looking forward to the day where more electricity, electronics, food, and housing are produced thanks to AI; but in the mid-term it feels like an AI bubble pop would do more to bring the price back down.
- simianwords 8mo agoQualitatively, I now have access to ChatGPT. How much do you think you would have paid for such a tool in 2010? and we are getting it almost for free.
- hn_acc1 8mo agoFor how much longer?
- simianwords 8mo agoits only going to get cheaper.