4 ms·

> My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they hate AI being pus

by patates 4mo ago

> My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they hate AI being pushed so hard. My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they have fear of missing out on AI :(

thewebguyd 4mo ago
> because they have fear of missing out on AI That's been my experience too, both with friends and coworkers. It would seem that the negative sentiment around AI is largely an internet phenomenon. I've yet to run into a hardcore "AI skeptic" irl. People seem either neutral, or enthusiastic about it.
- pesus 4mo ago
  Meanwhile I've never run into anyone who actually likes AI in any form (except for my boss). Most people who dislike it aren't bringing it up at random. I'm sure it has to do with the circles you interact with and their demographics.
- andersonpico 4mo ago
  I've yet to meet anyone outside that likes AI except for manager or when people are pretending for their bosses at work. It became a survival tactic.
  - nonethewiser 4mo ago
    Every single software engineer I know uses it pretty heavily.
    - tayo42 4mo ago
      Becasue they like it? Or becasue it happens to better then alternative tools we had?
      - 2muchcoffeeman 4mo ago
        The truth is always in between the extremes. I use AI a lot. But I’m specifically looking for ways it actually ads value.
  - marcosdumay 4mo ago
    I know developers that like it. Not in a hyped way like bosses do, but they do like it. (I don't know anybody that is actually more productive because of it, but I know people that consistently use it successfully in small tasks.) I also know people afraid it will make all code worse and their jobs a nightmare. It's harder to find those people because they don't say it out loud, but there are plenty who think this way.
    - marcus_holmes 4mo ago
      I am way more productive at developing stuff with AI. I know it's only anecdata, but it's one data point. I'm a tech startup co-founder able to avoid all the bullshit around it and just build stuff. My favourite part is that I can go through the planning part, get a decent plan for the build together, and then go do something else while the LLM builds it. It also really helps with maker/manager time because the LLM is keeping the context, not me, so if I'm interrupted I don't lose track of everything and have to reload context.
  - DiogenesKynikos 4mo ago
    Most people I meet in everyday life think AI is incredibly useful and use it all the time. I have run into a few people in real life who vehemently oppose it, and many more online, but out in the world, they appear to be a minority.
  - jve 4mo ago
    My brother with no programming experience took some AI courses and automated adding products to his ecommerce site from his suppliers. Fetches images, converts them, categorizes, adds descriptions/specs in multiple languages translated via DeepL API, calculates prices. He also tries to troubleshoot/debug stuff without calling me... and just asking me to choose right path offered by AI. I love it :) Because I usually make people wait and don't have much time outside my business hours to do additional tech stuff.
    - simmerup 4mo ago
      And the customer of his site gets a bunch of AI generated rubbish Could be correct, could be not, who cares?
      - jve 4mo ago
        Nop - that is a niche site, every product is stocked locally and it is to immensely reduce time required to insert new products. And it is not to generate new information, but to add existing info (apart from translation but most languages are known to check).
- nikole9696 4mo ago
  I'm in my 50s and all my friends and family hate AI. My parents in their 70s can't really comprehend it. They got used to search and want nothing to do with AI. Some company is trying to build an AI data center where they live, and they're livid about it. Personally, I like it sometimes, but I'm a techie and understand the limitations, and I dislike not being given options to use or not use it.
- nonethewiser 4mo ago
  Seems the main claims against it center around: 1. Labor replacement 2. AI is actually bad in-and-of-itself. Doesn't work, not useulf etc. 3. Energy concerns
  - pastor_williams 4mo ago
    I've also seen water usage concerns.
  - thewebguyd 4mo ago
    The thing is, I hear those concerns a lot too, from people that are daily heavy users of AI. I wonder how many still say they have a negative sentiment on AI yet are still paying customers.
  - Thanemate 4mo ago
    Odd not to see my main concern, which is gathering large amounts of human knowledge in a machine that is ultimately tweaked by the "selected" few not just for profiting off of it, but to also (ultimately) have a big influence on what is appropriate and what isn't. I have no issues with the technology itself.
- scottmcmac 4mo ago
  A recent NBC News poll gave "AI" a -20% net approval rating. If you're in the U.S., the people you run into IRL are kinda weird. (I didn't quickly find polls for the rest of the world)
  - thewebguyd 4mo ago
    Perhaps they are, but I think what I think is odd is how many are simultaneously opposed to the effects of AI (data centers, environmental impact, job loss) yet also are daily, paying users of it even outside of work. I know several who are like that. I wonder how many in that poll have a negative sentiment about AI, yet are also heavy users. There seems to be some kind of disconnect going on?
    - neltnerb 4mo ago
      > I wonder how many in that poll have a negative sentiment about AI, yet are also heavy users. There seems to be some kind of disconnect going on? Being a heavy user seems like it'd create a lot of resentment if you don't actually enjoy doing it. If you have used a tool for years and years and suddenly it shoves in a bunch of AI, like Duolingo or Google, are you a heavy user who may well dislike the results? I have to put in some work to not be a heavy user by any reasonable definition.
      - DiogenesKynikos 4mo ago
        ChatGPT has been downloaded >1 billion times on the Android PlayStore. AI is incredibly popular. People have all sorts of concerns about how AI will change society, but that's precisely because it's so useful for so many things. If it were useless or just a fad, there would be no reason to worry.
        LtWorf 4mo ago
        The startup where I worked had 1 million downloads (which is much less), but how many of those were using it daily vs trying it for 30 minutes and forgetting about it? Less than 10% in our case :)
- jrgoff 4mo ago
  I've had conversations in recent months with several friends who are non-tech, "granola" type folks. They pretty universally expressed dislike for and concern about AI, but then when the conversation turned to whether they used it for anything, the all admitted that they do appreciate being able to use it for some tasks. I think it's complicated for a lot of people (myself included).
- Aurornis 4mo ago
  This goes for most tech topics. Not long ago tech sites had users who were aware that their preferences as a tech person were different than the average person. Then it became so common to be a techy person and surround yourself with other techy people that it was easy to fall into a bubble and not realize it. When all of your news websites, coworkers, social media feeds, and friends in the group chat all think the same thing it feels like everyone in the world agrees with you. You see it whenever social media topics come up. On Hacker News there’s never ending confusion about how Facebook continues to exist because the common refrain is “nobody uses Facebook any more”. Leave the tech bubble, though, and Facebook has a massive number of active users and activity. Whenever I mention this it gets doubted, denied, or even dismissed as lies from Meta trying to inflate their stock price. The dismissals always come from people who proudly deleted their Facebook account ten years ago and therefore have no idea what happens on Facebook, of course. One of my favorite comment sections this year was when a lot of people were recounting how their aunt or cousin or grandma used Facebook and actually enjoyed it, which attracted comments saying they must be a rare outlier. It just goes too much against the bubble consensus that everyone hates Facebook and has a bad time when they use it.
  - Karrot_Kream 4mo ago
    > Then it became so common to be a techy person and surround yourself with other techy people that it was easy to fall into a bubble and not realize it. When all of your news websites, coworkers, social media feeds, and friends in the group chat all think the same thing it feels like everyone in the world agrees with you. FWIW I think it's a combo of people who spend all their time in online circles and and the effect on upvote sites where people try to appeal to the group sentiment to farm for votes. There's a lot of tech communities that consist of people who pretty much don't socialize in person and it was greatly exacerbated by the pandemic.
- LtWorf 4mo ago
  I know plenty in real life. Way way way more than online.
- eudamoniac 4mo ago
  As a hardcore AI skeptic, no one has run into me IRL either, because I pretend at work to be neutral, except to the one other skeptic who also pretends to be neutral.
- kradeelav 4mo ago
  Talk to career artists in real life (like animators); a majority of them have already lost their jobs due to AI layoffs.
8cvor6j844qw_d6 4mo ago
> My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they have fear of missing out on AI :( One of my friend ended up spending too much time on Candy AI or some sort of AI companion thingy :/

by patates 4mo ago

thewebguyd 4mo ago

> because they have fear of missing out on AI That's been my experience too, both with friends and coworkers. It would seem that the negative sentiment around AI is largely an internet phenomenon. I've yet to run into a hardcore "AI skeptic" irl. People seem either neutral, or enthusiastic about it.

pesus 4mo ago
Meanwhile I've never run into anyone who actually likes AI in any form (except for my boss). Most people who dislike it aren't bringing it up at random. I'm sure it has to do with the circles you interact with and their demographics.
andersonpico 4mo ago
I've yet to meet anyone outside that likes AI except for manager or when people are pretending for their bosses at work. It became a survival tactic.
- nonethewiser 4mo ago
  Every single software engineer I know uses it pretty heavily.
  - tayo42 4mo ago
    Becasue they like it? Or becasue it happens to better then alternative tools we had?
    - 2muchcoffeeman 4mo ago
      The truth is always in between the extremes. I use AI a lot. But I’m specifically looking for ways it actually ads value.
- marcosdumay 4mo ago
  I know developers that like it. Not in a hyped way like bosses do, but they do like it. (I don't know anybody that is actually more productive because of it, but I know people that consistently use it successfully in small tasks.) I also know people afraid it will make all code worse and their jobs a nightmare. It's harder to find those people because they don't say it out loud, but there are plenty who think this way.
  - marcus_holmes 4mo ago
    I am way more productive at developing stuff with AI. I know it's only anecdata, but it's one data point. I'm a tech startup co-founder able to avoid all the bullshit around it and just build stuff. My favourite part is that I can go through the planning part, get a decent plan for the build together, and then go do something else while the LLM builds it. It also really helps with maker/manager time because the LLM is keeping the context, not me, so if I'm interrupted I don't lose track of everything and have to reload context.
- DiogenesKynikos 4mo ago
  Most people I meet in everyday life think AI is incredibly useful and use it all the time. I have run into a few people in real life who vehemently oppose it, and many more online, but out in the world, they appear to be a minority.
- jve 4mo ago
  My brother with no programming experience took some AI courses and automated adding products to his ecommerce site from his suppliers. Fetches images, converts them, categorizes, adds descriptions/specs in multiple languages translated via DeepL API, calculates prices. He also tries to troubleshoot/debug stuff without calling me... and just asking me to choose right path offered by AI. I love it :) Because I usually make people wait and don't have much time outside my business hours to do additional tech stuff.
  - simmerup 4mo ago
    And the customer of his site gets a bunch of AI generated rubbish Could be correct, could be not, who cares?
    - jve 4mo ago
      Nop - that is a niche site, every product is stocked locally and it is to immensely reduce time required to insert new products. And it is not to generate new information, but to add existing info (apart from translation but most languages are known to check).
nikole9696 4mo ago
I'm in my 50s and all my friends and family hate AI. My parents in their 70s can't really comprehend it. They got used to search and want nothing to do with AI. Some company is trying to build an AI data center where they live, and they're livid about it. Personally, I like it sometimes, but I'm a techie and understand the limitations, and I dislike not being given options to use or not use it.
nonethewiser 4mo ago
Seems the main claims against it center around: 1. Labor replacement 2. AI is actually bad in-and-of-itself. Doesn't work, not useulf etc. 3. Energy concerns
- pastor_williams 4mo ago
  I've also seen water usage concerns.
- thewebguyd 4mo ago
  The thing is, I hear those concerns a lot too, from people that are daily heavy users of AI. I wonder how many still say they have a negative sentiment on AI yet are still paying customers.
- Thanemate 4mo ago
  Odd not to see my main concern, which is gathering large amounts of human knowledge in a machine that is ultimately tweaked by the "selected" few not just for profiting off of it, but to also (ultimately) have a big influence on what is appropriate and what isn't. I have no issues with the technology itself.
scottmcmac 4mo ago
A recent NBC News poll gave "AI" a -20% net approval rating. If you're in the U.S., the people you run into IRL are kinda weird. (I didn't quickly find polls for the rest of the world)
- thewebguyd 4mo ago
  Perhaps they are, but I think what I think is odd is how many are simultaneously opposed to the effects of AI (data centers, environmental impact, job loss) yet also are daily, paying users of it even outside of work. I know several who are like that. I wonder how many in that poll have a negative sentiment about AI, yet are also heavy users. There seems to be some kind of disconnect going on?
  - neltnerb 4mo ago
    > I wonder how many in that poll have a negative sentiment about AI, yet are also heavy users. There seems to be some kind of disconnect going on? Being a heavy user seems like it'd create a lot of resentment if you don't actually enjoy doing it. If you have used a tool for years and years and suddenly it shoves in a bunch of AI, like Duolingo or Google, are you a heavy user who may well dislike the results? I have to put in some work to not be a heavy user by any reasonable definition.
    - DiogenesKynikos 4mo ago
      ChatGPT has been downloaded >1 billion times on the Android PlayStore. AI is incredibly popular. People have all sorts of concerns about how AI will change society, but that's precisely because it's so useful for so many things. If it were useless or just a fad, there would be no reason to worry.
      - LtWorf 4mo ago
        The startup where I worked had 1 million downloads (which is much less), but how many of those were using it daily vs trying it for 30 minutes and forgetting about it? Less than 10% in our case :)
jrgoff 4mo ago
I've had conversations in recent months with several friends who are non-tech, "granola" type folks. They pretty universally expressed dislike for and concern about AI, but then when the conversation turned to whether they used it for anything, the all admitted that they do appreciate being able to use it for some tasks. I think it's complicated for a lot of people (myself included).
Aurornis 4mo ago
This goes for most tech topics. Not long ago tech sites had users who were aware that their preferences as a tech person were different than the average person. Then it became so common to be a techy person and surround yourself with other techy people that it was easy to fall into a bubble and not realize it. When all of your news websites, coworkers, social media feeds, and friends in the group chat all think the same thing it feels like everyone in the world agrees with you. You see it whenever social media topics come up. On Hacker News there’s never ending confusion about how Facebook continues to exist because the common refrain is “nobody uses Facebook any more”. Leave the tech bubble, though, and Facebook has a massive number of active users and activity. Whenever I mention this it gets doubted, denied, or even dismissed as lies from Meta trying to inflate their stock price. The dismissals always come from people who proudly deleted their Facebook account ten years ago and therefore have no idea what happens on Facebook, of course. One of my favorite comment sections this year was when a lot of people were recounting how their aunt or cousin or grandma used Facebook and actually enjoyed it, which attracted comments saying they must be a rare outlier. It just goes too much against the bubble consensus that everyone hates Facebook and has a bad time when they use it.
- Karrot_Kream 4mo ago
  > Then it became so common to be a techy person and surround yourself with other techy people that it was easy to fall into a bubble and not realize it. When all of your news websites, coworkers, social media feeds, and friends in the group chat all think the same thing it feels like everyone in the world agrees with you. FWIW I think it's a combo of people who spend all their time in online circles and and the effect on upvote sites where people try to appeal to the group sentiment to farm for votes. There's a lot of tech communities that consist of people who pretty much don't socialize in person and it was greatly exacerbated by the pandemic.
LtWorf 4mo ago
I know plenty in real life. Way way way more than online.
eudamoniac 4mo ago
As a hardcore AI skeptic, no one has run into me IRL either, because I pretend at work to be neutral, except to the one other skeptic who also pretends to be neutral.
kradeelav 4mo ago
Talk to career artists in real life (like animators); a majority of them have already lost their jobs due to AI layoffs.

8cvor6j844qw_d6 4mo ago

> My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they have fear of missing out on AI :( One of my friend ended up spending too much time on Candy AI or some sort of AI companion thingy :/