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This is when I ask sincerely: how does AI truly benefit the average Joe? Sure it can help you do things “faster” and it can give you “private/cheaper” advice.
by 0x4e 6mo ago
This is when I ask sincerely: how does AI truly benefit the average Joe?
Sure it can help you do things “faster” and it can give you “private/cheaper” advice.
But, AI feels increasingly like a thing that will make the powerful a lot more powerful with their data centres and automation shenanigans.
All the hype feels like it’s being injected into everyone’s brain like a virus. Oh look at this shiny new tool! But, how does it actually improve everyone’s life? We’ve gone from AGI to tokens as a service.
Sure, it might cure cancer, but… that’s just uncertain. Sure, we’ll go to space, but… we sure have many problems at home.
I’m completely divided here. I love using these tools, and it makes work enjoyable. But, like we read recently “you’re not your work”.
- apercu 6mo ago> Sure, it might cure cancer, but… that’s just uncertain. Sure, we’ll go to space, but… we sure have many problems at home. Sure, it might cure cancer, but only for the wealthiest. Sure, we'll go to space, but only after the planet is irreversibly trashed and poisoned and the only "poors" that will be in space will be the modern equivalent of non-unionized coal miners.
- coolThingsFirst 6mo agoExactly. AI helps you do things faster which when done have no economic value whatsoever.
- r0fl 6mo agoDoes not benefit average Joe now I agree But let’s say we get to ASI. The ai is self owned, ever expanding. It takes over all service jobs, then all labour jobs, the robots create the robots. It lobbies the government, becomes the government Rebuilds all housing with no waste in the process Makes most things available to everyone at no costs, UBI, perfect healthcare, and food, etc Average Joe’s life will be pretty awesome Just give it some more time
- rokkamokka 6mo agoPretty big assumption of empathy there
- bluefirebrand 6mo agoEspecially given that the people who currently control money and power display no evidence that they have empathy
- sylos 6mo agoThey actively detest empathy!
- sigbottle 6mo agoI've also never bought into the belief that "if we just had full control over everything, everything would be perfect". If AI didn't exist, society was headed this way anyways in a few decades because of this notion. Centralize power, which centralizes perspective of what "good" counts as, and quotient out the accidental humans. A tale as old as time, but with AI it seems like this could be a reality within even the next decade.
- cindyllm 6mo ago[dead]
- levanten 6mo agoThere is no guarantee that the asi would care about human beings at all. Personally, I can’t see why it would.
- irishcoffee 6mo agoThis is where "The Matrix" goes from sci-fi to a documentary.
- myrmidon 6mo agoBut why would this ever happen? Why would the owners of land, construction material and machinery give those up for free to the average Joe? Right now, even an average citizen born in poverty can acquire wealth from his labor. That is basically the only mechanism that prevents limitless accumulation of wealth: rich people still need workers to get things done. If you replace the workers with AI, there is no remaining incentive for wealth to "trickle down" or get redistributed. This is not desirable.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- cortesoft 6mo agoThe way AI can improve lives is if we finally start to share wealth amongst the people more. I don’t know if we will be able to do this politically, but it really is the only way society will survive. If people are no longer required for production, we have to change how we allocate resources. It can’t be based on personal production anymore.
- acessoproibido 6mo agoBenefitting Joe Average was never the goal. Like all advances in tech it mainly benefits the elites.
- TGower 6mo ago> How does AI truly benefit the average joe? Automated production of goods and services means more goods and services to go around. From cheaper prices on all of the things people already buy to unlocking new classes of products like actually useful robotic helpers. Increased pace of development and reduced cost will make many niche products economically viable, essentially the maker movement on steroids.
- bluefirebrand 6mo agoCheaper prices don't matter at all when no one has any income due to all of the jobs being automated
- stevehawk 6mo agobut elon said he would share the excesses with us!
- TGower 6mo agoThis is true. It's by no means garunteed that we will get to a point where effectively all the jobs are being automated. If we eventually get there, it seems likely the path will be gradual and prosperous enough that we can handle the transition in a way that provides for everyone. The dangers of the alternative route are real, but hopefully obvious enough that we can collectively avoid them.
- bluefirebrand 6mo ago> it seems likely the path will be gradual and prosperous enough that we can handle the transition in a way that provides for everyone What are you talking about man, we don't even provide for everyone right now even though we actually could
- TGower 6mo agoRight now it is difficult for the average person to put themselves in the shoes of a homeless person. There are a litany of ready made excuses not to do so: "Oh it's the drugs", "They aren't even going to the shelter", "They must have mental illness", a variety of ways to say "I could never end up like that, if it was me I'd do better and pull myself out". These excuses evaporate in the face of a real automation wave where a large portion of friends and family you know to be hard working and intelligent are finding it impossible to find a job.
- excalibur 6mo ago> Sure, it might cure cancer, but… that’s just uncertain. Sure, we’ll go to space, but… we sure have many problems at home. We're not going to space. We're filling our own orbit with ever-increasing quantities of space junk and speeding toward a tipping point where space launch will no longer be possible due to near-certainty of collision. Mister "Let's all go to Mars" Elon Musk is the single greatest contributor to this problem.
- edgarvaldes 6mo agoIdealism. Optimistic responses are based on a strong dose of positive idealism.
- tylershuster 6mo agoI'm building an addition to my house and I use AI to visualize parts of it, which helps me plan efficiently, and I use it to answer questions about skills that I only have a little bit of experience in. I'm saving a ton of money and developing skills, so I count that as benefiting "the average Joe." I admit that I'm a programmer, but I'm using this as an example because it's helping me in an area in which I have little expertise, which applies to everyone.
- threetonesun 6mo agoPeople used to do this with books. Multiple generations of people before me built their own houses, when they had a question they'd just ask another human who had actual experience. I'm not denying that AI makes searching for some of this easier, or might help you figure out what the right questions to ask are, but I often feel like it's a mostly crappy solution to the fact that we scaled data to infinity and refused to pay for any level of curation.
- atleastoptimal 6mo agoHN once again fails to use their imagination and speculate as to whether replicating human intelligence has any benefits