Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do I thrive in an AI dominated future?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 60 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do I thrive in an AI dominated future?

#41

Post by deafpolygon »

djmips wrote: post #32
deafpolygon wrote: post #22

AI will make trivial stuff easier to work with, so we can focus on the harder stuff. This isn't going to hit critical mass for at least another decade, so you have time. > built some pretty fun and cool things like chess engines, video games, 3d renderers from scratch and competed in my national computing contest with a solid placement You're already ahead of 99% of the folks out there. Learn AI, learn ML, get into t…

I agree with you but I also fear that we are making the classic mistake of thinking linearly when the changes will happen on a exponential which is something I think the OP hinted at with regard to Alpha Go.

Yes, they all said that programmers would be obsolete by 2000's, and sysadmins would be out of a job by the time cloud was mainstream.

Re: Ask HN: How do I thrive in an AI dominated future?

#42

Post by gigatree »

LastNevadan wrote: post #40
082349872349872 wrote: post #31

Just thinking about ChatGPT: it * doesn't "care" if its output is true or false * is weak at humour which (for the moment) suggests that there remains a niche for people who have integrity and can laugh at themselves. (Should that niche disappear in the future, at least one won't have lived in a shameful manner before then: Losing one glove is certainly painful, but nothing compared to the pain, of losing one, throwi…

It really is terrible at humor. I tried asking ChatGPT some dumb joke questions like "if I melt dry ice, can I swim without getting wet?" Any human being would know that this isn't a serious question and is intended as a joke. But ChatGPT gave me a short lecture on the actual chemistry of dry ice and then clarified how dangerous it would be to swim in or with dry ice. The joke went way over its head. I asked some oth…

Shoot I might be an AI cuz I don’t get it

Re: Ask HN: How do I thrive in an AI dominated future?

#43

Post by dieselgate »

There are some great comments on this thread all with pretty decent if not great advice. But i'll come from a slightly different angle - not because it's better/worse but just to provide a more rounded group of responses.

My background is not in hardcore cs, ML, or AI but i majored in engineering and have worked as a software engineer for about 6 years.

Both breadth and depth are important with knowledge/skills and having diversified experiences at early ages (and throughout life) is valuable for "honing in on" what you want to do.

This is just to say maybe seeking out various computing "applications" wherever possible may help expose you to the different things out there. It could be neuroscience, medical imaging, nuclear fusion energy or whatever interesting thing presents itself. Since you mentioned starting a business understanding a variety of markets could also be valuable.

best of luck and keep hacking

edit formatting

Re: Ask HN: How do I thrive in an AI dominated future?

#44

Post by jameshush »

zactato wrote: post #23
TranquilMarmot wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder, can you ask ChatGPT to write a compelling argument convincing a room full of senior software engineers that they need to switch to a new technology? Or to write a series of Jira tickets to complete a feature?

If ChatGPT can write JIRA tickets then I will accept the robot overlords. That is a burden worth more than my humanity.

Honestly I think I'll try this next week. I bet if you write "Turn this list of bullet points into a Jira ticket a React engineer would understand:" it'd get you closer than you'd think!

Re: Ask HN: How do I thrive in an AI dominated future?

#45

Post by CM30 »

Start a brand or company based around your work, and sell based on name recognition rather than price/quality/ease of use/timing/whatever.

AI can create art or program. It can write text. And in future, it'll be able to make videos and music too.

But it can't BE someone else, not legally at least. A random AI cannot replace a popular celebrity because its their name that matters the most, not the objective quality of their work. It can't outcompete Disney or Marvel or DC or Nintendo at their own game, because their works are protected by IP laws and sell based on their characters and brands as much as the objective quality of the works.

So don't just draw or write or program in a way that you can be replaced. Do so under your own name/brand, so people pick you over the AI copycats based on your personality and image alone. If you become the next Stephen King or George RR Martin or Markiplier, people will check out your work because it's your work, and no amount of tech can ever compete on that front.

Re: Ask HN: How do I thrive in an AI dominated future?

#46

Post by yura »

LastNevadan wrote: post #40
082349872349872 wrote: post #31

Just thinking about ChatGPT: it * doesn't "care" if its output is true or false * is weak at humour which (for the moment) suggests that there remains a niche for people who have integrity and can laugh at themselves. (Should that niche disappear in the future, at least one won't have lived in a shameful manner before then: Losing one glove is certainly painful, but nothing compared to the pain, of losing one, throwi…

It really is terrible at humor. I tried asking ChatGPT some dumb joke questions like "if I melt dry ice, can I swim without getting wet?" Any human being would know that this isn't a serious question and is intended as a joke. But ChatGPT gave me a short lecture on the actual chemistry of dry ice and then clarified how dangerous it would be to swim in or with dry ice. The joke went way over its head. I asked some oth…

I always thought those examples demonstrated ChatGPT has a deadpan(1) humor, not that it's bad at humor.

1: I had forgotten the term for this and Google didn't help, so, of course, I asked ChatGPT:

Q: "What is the used for the type of humor where someone makes a joke question, and the other replies in a serious and factual manner on purpose?"

A: 'The type of humor you are describing is often referred to as "deadpan" or "straight man" humor. It involves one person making a joke or humorous statement, and the other person responding in a serious, matter-of-fact manner, as if the statement were completely genuine. This creates a contrast between the humorous intent of the joke and the serious response, and can be very funny when done well. Deadpan humor is often used in comedy sketches and stand-up comedy routines, as well as in everyday conversations and interactions.'

Re: Ask HN: How do I thrive in an AI dominated future?

#47

Post by ninethirty »

prad9104 wrote: post #17
ninethirty wrote: post #7

ChatGPT expects to have $1B in revenue in 2024. This revenue is going to come from people building businesses around it (<-- possibly you? this would require programming knowledge obv.). Honestly, I think a person could make a living as a prompt-engineer right now. You can't fight it, you have to lean into it.

What's a prompt engineer? Can you share some reading material?

Play around with Midjourney and you'll see what I mean.

Re: Ask HN: How do I thrive in an AI dominated future?

#48

Post by gorjusborg »

Don't (completely) buy the hype.

I understand that you are being told that AI will make everything obsolete, but remember that you are getting this message through news outlets. These are businesses that make money by getting attention, and nothing gets attention more than making extreme, especially threatening, claims.

The maturity of machine learning will change things, but exactly how will be hard to predict.

Rather than try to optimize for 'success' based on guessing the future, I'd suggest that you focus on continuing to learn and ask yourself what you like.

People are still playing chess and go, and there will still be software.

Re: Ask HN: How do I thrive in an AI dominated future?

#50

Post by he11ow »

It seems like the trap you're falling into goes back to what "a job" is. Not your fault, you're still young, and a lot of older folk fall into the same trap, believing a job is defined as "someone paying me to do some work."

A job is when someone pays you to add value.

(It's true all the way down to bullshit jobs, where the value you're adding is to meet an uneconomic need.)

It doesn't matter which work models will eliminate. All that matters is building value in a reality where they exist. Just as a casual observation, climate change continues to rage on, energy supply is still a bottleneck, almost half the deaths in high-income countries are from cancer etc. etc. etc.

There will always be value to add. The baseline may change, but no one yearns back to the days before the copying machine or Excel.

In my mind, the most sensible thing an ambitious teenager can do is get a proper academic education (AI is not magic, it's jus the product of research, and all those people doing the research did exactly that - get good education.)

Also, and I realize that doesn't gel with the whole HN ethos but whatever, don't waste your early working years starting a company. The only way to discover real problems in the world are to live in that world. Getting to understand a domain well, any domain, will serve you better than any 'Uber for X' ever will.

Post reply on HN