4 ms·

I constantly wonder what is the societal benefits of AI It’s really hard to build a coherent pro-AI argument

by spaceman_2020 3mo ago

Frieren 3mo ago
AI is great at producing low value content. That low value content replaces the high value but high cost one. That is horrifying and destroys jobs, removes expertise from the world, and makes our lives worse. I do not see how AI could be a net positive either.
- throw-the-towel 3mo ago
  Wait, there's a law that says exactly that about money! Bad money always drives out good money (because the good money gets hoarded). AI as fake money, a funny coincidence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham%27s_law
bwfan123 3mo ago
> It’s really hard to build a coherent pro-AI argument agree, given that we have a natural tendency to believe what we read - or only comprehend what we believe [1]. [1] https://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/brenner/mar7588/Papers/gilbert-ampsy1991.pdf https://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/brenner/mar7588/Papers/gilbe...
vlian2088 3mo ago
>what is the societal benefits of AI it will hopefully eviscerate the petite bourgeoisie and the bohemians.
NortySpock 3mo ago
I find it to be a useful tool for summarizing things, creating examples, and as a tutor for explaining a topic using analogies. Plus it can generate and iterate on code snippets. Like, I personally find python pandas documentation unusable because they don't come with examples next to the function definition. (historically at least, maybe they have changed) So I was left flailing, trying to cobble something together that was even capable of running without error, much less emitting the output I wanted. Now that an LLM has badly-memorized 80% of the documentation and can generate 3 different attempts in 5 seconds, I'm free to focus on the actual problem I am working on rather than guessing at syntax for something I use less than once a week. So I see at least the ability to have a on-demand tutor or sounding board, at any time of day, for pennies, to be a boon for anyone who wants to learn a bit or try reaching for something just outside of their current understanding.
- intended 3mo ago
  Societal use. Cigarettes were cool too.
- spaceman_2020 3mo ago
  Sure, its very useful. I’m not denying its utility. I just wonder if the utility merits the resources allocated to it
irishcoffee 3mo ago
AI is like when some fella named Nobel synthesized dynamite. He sure did have good intentions as it relates to safety for workers doing dangerous jobs. There is your “pro” argument. The “con” argument would be all the other ways dynamite has been twisted and used since. This AI stuff is neither good or bad, it is a tool. The people using it are either good or bad.
- nearlyepic 3mo ago
  “drunk driving kills a lot of people, but it also helps a lot of people get to work on time, so it’s impossible to say whether it’s bad or not”
  - irishcoffee 3mo ago
    > “drunk driving kills a lot of people, but it also helps a lot of people get to work on time, so it’s impossible to say whether it’s bad or not” No, no that doesn't work. Nobody thinks that. "Drunk people who do it think that!" You framed your comment as a 3rd party, not the idiot driving drunk, the above 'argument' doesn't hold water.
    - nearlyepic 3mo ago
      > No, no that doesn't work. Nobody thinks that. Yeah, obviously. It was a sarcastic reply to a nonsense argument of “there are no bad things only bad people”
      - irishcoffee 3mo ago
        I didn't say that either. Strawmanning isn't very nice. Have a good day!
        nearlyepic 3mo ago
        > This AI stuff is neither good or bad, it is a tool. The people using it are either good or bad. You quite literally did??
vasco 3mo ago
Products need to be sold Ads needed to sell products Social media sells lots of ads around content Content is expensive because you need to revenue share with the people that make it AI makes content for free Ad sales margin goes up Tech companies make most of their money selling ads around content and they needed a way to increase margin so they created a content making machine.
- spaceman_2020 3mo ago
  You just end up creating a doom loop where everyone is using the same tools to create similar content and eventually, no one really cares about the content because all of it is the same I’ve already seen this in my own behavior where anything even remotely AI-generated makes me tune out completely
randusername 3mo ago
You can at the local level. I thought this piece was realistic and hopeful: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/ai-open-ai-anthropic/687689/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/ai-open-ai-anthrop... I can't control how the world uses AI, but my family and friends have been using it to start new businesses, finally resolve some long-term medical mysteries, and plan trips they wouldn't have otherwise.
- b40d-48b2-979e 3mo ago
  finally resolve some long-term medical mysteries It's called "go to a doctor".
  - randusername 3mo ago
    Easier said than done. Not easy to access or pay for specialists in the US and they don't always communicate with each other well to coordinate care, especially for non life-threatening issues. I live in an area with three world-class hospitals, still had to wait 16 months to follow-up with a hematologist about bloodwork. If we aren't going to fix overregulation, undersupply, and insurance, AI is the best the bottom 80% can do for a lot of medical queries too complex for the time and attention they are allotted with the doctor. I see that as a positive.
    - staticman2 3mo ago
      How can the AI solve a medical mystery? I suppose if it says something like "Eat more broccoli" and the suggestion works you can assume the answer is accurate. But for me it's more likely to say "maybe you have xxxx" and I would still need to see a specialist to do tests like colonoscopies to know? I suffer from one condition with no cure and little literature and every once in a while I've seen on a related subreddit I no longer read "I'm using AI you guys and this AI SLOP will surely help!!!"
CM30 3mo ago
I think if I had to find any defence for AI, it's that it provides an efficient way to create things that don't matter, but which society desperately tries to pretend are important somehow. Meaningless corporate presentations, most documents used for hiring and job searching, content on business sites that probably doesn't need to be there, etc. AI at least speeds that up given society's reluctance to get rid of it altogether. I guess it can also be used to speed up rote work that doesn't really feel engaging but needs to be anyway, or as a Google equivalent for people that don't know the terminology needed to find information about a topic. But at the end of the day, AI is basically the very definition of the lowest common denominator. Or maybe the most average one. So, if you're not particularly interested in something, know nothing about how it works or have no talent for it whatsoever, AI is almost like magic. If you do know how it works, then it's often laughably bad.
- spaceman_2020 3mo ago
  It’s creating this weird flatness everywhere where people are using it to create things that don’t matter (LinkedIn posts, dull corporate presentations). But because everyone is also using it for the exact same purposes, the same things now matter even less LinkedIn posts never really mattered. But because everyone is now using broadly the same tools and prompts to create LinkedIn posts, the posts matter even less now
pu_pe 3mo ago
We have a demographic collapse looming in the horizon in most developed countries. If we find a way to use 1 human instead of 2 to produce the same amount of intellectual work in 10-20 years as we do today, that's a huge societal benefit.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
nh23423fefe 3mo ago
Why would your lack of innovation and imagination be an argument against? Aren't you just proving that your intellectual output is low value and replaceable by AI? Even worse, you are probably lying, you can think of pro-AI arguments but you refuse to give them assent because of bad motivated reasoning? You are double bad.

I constantly wonder what is the societal benefits of AI It’s really hard to build a coherent pro-AI argument

AI is great at producing low value content. That low value content replaces the high value but high cost one. That is horrifying and destroys jobs, removes expertise from the world, and makes our lives worse. I do not see how AI could be a net positive either.

throw-the-towel 3mo ago
Wait, there's a law that says exactly that about money! Bad money always drives out good money (because the good money gets hoarded). AI as fake money, a funny coincidence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham%27s_law

bwfan123 3mo ago

> It’s really hard to build a coherent pro-AI argument agree, given that we have a natural tendency to believe what we read - or only comprehend what we believe [1]. [1] https://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/brenner/mar7588/Papers/gilbert-ampsy1991.pdf https://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/brenner/mar7588/Papers/gilbe...

vlian2088 3mo ago

>what is the societal benefits of AI it will hopefully eviscerate the petite bourgeoisie and the bohemians.

NortySpock 3mo ago

I find it to be a useful tool for summarizing things, creating examples, and as a tutor for explaining a topic using analogies. Plus it can generate and iterate on code snippets. Like, I personally find python pandas documentation unusable because they don't come with examples next to the function definition. (historically at least, maybe they have changed) So I was left flailing, trying to cobble something together that was even capable of running without error, much less emitting the output I wanted. Now that an LLM has badly-memorized 80% of the documentation and can generate 3 different attempts in 5 seconds, I'm free to focus on the actual problem I am working on rather than guessing at syntax for something I use less than once a week. So I see at least the ability to have a on-demand tutor or sounding board, at any time of day, for pennies, to be a boon for anyone who wants to learn a bit or try reaching for something just outside of their current understanding.

intended 3mo ago
Societal use. Cigarettes were cool too.
spaceman_2020 3mo ago
Sure, its very useful. I’m not denying its utility. I just wonder if the utility merits the resources allocated to it

irishcoffee 3mo ago

AI is like when some fella named Nobel synthesized dynamite. He sure did have good intentions as it relates to safety for workers doing dangerous jobs. There is your “pro” argument. The “con” argument would be all the other ways dynamite has been twisted and used since. This AI stuff is neither good or bad, it is a tool. The people using it are either good or bad.

nearlyepic 3mo ago
“drunk driving kills a lot of people, but it also helps a lot of people get to work on time, so it’s impossible to say whether it’s bad or not”
- irishcoffee 3mo ago
  > “drunk driving kills a lot of people, but it also helps a lot of people get to work on time, so it’s impossible to say whether it’s bad or not” No, no that doesn't work. Nobody thinks that. "Drunk people who do it think that!" You framed your comment as a 3rd party, not the idiot driving drunk, the above 'argument' doesn't hold water.
  - nearlyepic 3mo ago
    > No, no that doesn't work. Nobody thinks that. Yeah, obviously. It was a sarcastic reply to a nonsense argument of “there are no bad things only bad people”
    - irishcoffee 3mo ago
      I didn't say that either. Strawmanning isn't very nice. Have a good day!
      - nearlyepic 3mo ago
        > This AI stuff is neither good or bad, it is a tool. The people using it are either good or bad. You quite literally did??

vasco 3mo ago

Products need to be sold Ads needed to sell products Social media sells lots of ads around content Content is expensive because you need to revenue share with the people that make it AI makes content for free Ad sales margin goes up Tech companies make most of their money selling ads around content and they needed a way to increase margin so they created a content making machine.

spaceman_2020 3mo ago
You just end up creating a doom loop where everyone is using the same tools to create similar content and eventually, no one really cares about the content because all of it is the same I’ve already seen this in my own behavior where anything even remotely AI-generated makes me tune out completely

randusername 3mo ago

You can at the local level. I thought this piece was realistic and hopeful: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/ai-open-ai-anthropic/687689/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/ai-open-ai-anthrop... I can't control how the world uses AI, but my family and friends have been using it to start new businesses, finally resolve some long-term medical mysteries, and plan trips they wouldn't have otherwise.

b40d-48b2-979e 3mo ago
finally resolve some long-term medical mysteries It's called "go to a doctor".
- randusername 3mo ago
  Easier said than done. Not easy to access or pay for specialists in the US and they don't always communicate with each other well to coordinate care, especially for non life-threatening issues. I live in an area with three world-class hospitals, still had to wait 16 months to follow-up with a hematologist about bloodwork. If we aren't going to fix overregulation, undersupply, and insurance, AI is the best the bottom 80% can do for a lot of medical queries too complex for the time and attention they are allotted with the doctor. I see that as a positive.
  - staticman2 3mo ago
    How can the AI solve a medical mystery? I suppose if it says something like "Eat more broccoli" and the suggestion works you can assume the answer is accurate. But for me it's more likely to say "maybe you have xxxx" and I would still need to see a specialist to do tests like colonoscopies to know? I suffer from one condition with no cure and little literature and every once in a while I've seen on a related subreddit I no longer read "I'm using AI you guys and this AI SLOP will surely help!!!"

CM30 3mo ago

I think if I had to find any defence for AI, it's that it provides an efficient way to create things that don't matter, but which society desperately tries to pretend are important somehow. Meaningless corporate presentations, most documents used for hiring and job searching, content on business sites that probably doesn't need to be there, etc. AI at least speeds that up given society's reluctance to get rid of it altogether. I guess it can also be used to speed up rote work that doesn't really feel engaging but needs to be anyway, or as a Google equivalent for people that don't know the terminology needed to find information about a topic. But at the end of the day, AI is basically the very definition of the lowest common denominator. Or maybe the most average one. So, if you're not particularly interested in something, know nothing about how it works or have no talent for it whatsoever, AI is almost like magic. If you do know how it works, then it's often laughably bad.

spaceman_2020 3mo ago
It’s creating this weird flatness everywhere where people are using it to create things that don’t matter (LinkedIn posts, dull corporate presentations). But because everyone is also using it for the exact same purposes, the same things now matter even less LinkedIn posts never really mattered. But because everyone is now using broadly the same tools and prompts to create LinkedIn posts, the posts matter even less now

pu_pe 3mo ago

We have a demographic collapse looming in the horizon in most developed countries. If we find a way to use 1 human instead of 2 to produce the same amount of intellectual work in 10-20 years as we do today, that's a huge societal benefit.

deleted 3mo ago

[deleted]

nh23423fefe 3mo ago

Why would your lack of innovation and imagination be an argument against? Aren't you just proving that your intellectual output is low value and replaceable by AI? Even worse, you are probably lying, you can think of pro-AI arguments but you refuse to give them assent because of bad motivated reasoning? You are double bad.