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I think this is a flawed analogy. In the past when we had a new way of doing something that obsoleted the old way, it replaced it because it was an obvious impr

I think this is a flawed analogy. In the past when we had a new way of doing something that obsoleted the old way, it replaced it because it was an obvious improvement. I mean, stop motion is cool, but obviously there are limitations. The deal GenAI offers is: the result will be mediocre at best, on average it will be slop, but it will do it much faster. Ok, that's a fair value proposition in certain contexts. We've always had a need to prototype things fast, and the tradeoff with a prototype is always quality. However, we're living in an age where we have WAY TOO MUCH in the way of information byproducts, even before AI. How many people do you meet that are like "God, I just wish I had more software in my life!" Most people don't want more software, they want less software that works better. They want more quality and less quantity. It's like this in almost everything digital now. I sign onto Netflix and I can't find anything to watch, even though there's more to watch than I could consume in a lifetime. I live in abundance but I don't want any of it. GenAI offers us an abundance of stuff we don't want or need (lots of bad code, lots of bad writing, lots of bad illustrations, lots of bad videos) at a cost of stuff we do not have in abundance (energy, attention, natural resources, jobs). It strikes me as a bad trade: lets transform the stuff we need into stuff nobody wants, while decimating our culture in the process. Anyway, FWIW I do agree with his point that the job has always been problem solving. I use LLMs to solve problems, I'm not extinct. But I'm not going to pretend that I think this is a net win.

alex_suzuki 3mo ago
My biggest gripe with AI is that I struggle to come up with even one real problem that it has solved in my daily life, and that of my family and friends. Yes it might have made me a bit faster at some things I do for work. But it seems to me that we face so many challenges as a civilization, and AI doesn’t actively help with any of them? Unless you buy into the narrative that it will somehow usher in a golden age of abundance where everyone is taken care of and nobody needs to work anymore (utter BS in my opinion). The amount of capital flowing into it, that is then not available for other causes, is completely mind-boggling to me.
- overgard 3mo ago
  > My biggest gripe with AI is that I struggle to come up with even one real problem that it has solved in my daily life, and that of my family and friends. I wish I could upvote this a thousand times, because this is exactly my experience as well. It's made a few things slightly more convenient, but convenience is not exactly a problem in my life! And yet, it's actively damaging a lot of things I care about in a way that I think is going to be extremely bad for society.
  - fragmede 3mo ago
    Outside of coding, LLMs have helped me formulate thoughts and have conversations with people that I could never have had without AI. Thorny prickly people problems that previously would have required a therapist and a counselor and group sessions and many meetings can be worked through because I didn't have the volcabulary or expressiveness to say things before. That's not a convenience thing, oh Doordash for milk instead of having to go to the store, that's life changing.

alex_suzuki 3mo ago

My biggest gripe with AI is that I struggle to come up with even one real problem that it has solved in my daily life, and that of my family and friends. Yes it might have made me a bit faster at some things I do for work. But it seems to me that we face so many challenges as a civilization, and AI doesn’t actively help with any of them? Unless you buy into the narrative that it will somehow usher in a golden age of abundance where everyone is taken care of and nobody needs to work anymore (utter BS in my opinion). The amount of capital flowing into it, that is then not available for other causes, is completely mind-boggling to me.

overgard 3mo ago
> My biggest gripe with AI is that I struggle to come up with even one real problem that it has solved in my daily life, and that of my family and friends. I wish I could upvote this a thousand times, because this is exactly my experience as well. It's made a few things slightly more convenient, but convenience is not exactly a problem in my life! And yet, it's actively damaging a lot of things I care about in a way that I think is going to be extremely bad for society.
- fragmede 3mo ago
  Outside of coding, LLMs have helped me formulate thoughts and have conversations with people that I could never have had without AI. Thorny prickly people problems that previously would have required a therapist and a counselor and group sessions and many meetings can be worked through because I didn't have the volcabulary or expressiveness to say things before. That's not a convenience thing, oh Doordash for milk instead of having to go to the store, that's life changing.