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Google tests A.I. tool that is able to write news articles

nytimes.com

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Re: Google tests A.I. tool that is able to write news articles

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>why not let it and free up the human for other things? Cause this has never been the majority outcome in the history of technology The outcome in 90%? of mechanization/automation is not upskilling - it’s displacement. Work gets outsourced to cheaper labor areas or you’re now a baby sitter instead of a tradesperson that is more easily replaced because you have few skills. All the “meritocracy” goes out the window whe…

In years of using self checkout, I've required human assistance only a handful of times, maybe 3 or 4 minutes total over all the years. That's still a huge improvement over waiting for cashiers. Perhaps your experiences were different, but for me they are a godsend. That's not really the point though. About the jobs, yes, we are in agreement about the displacement. I'm saying we need better systems to deal with that…

>I'm saying we need better systems to deal with that displacement at the social/national level, not at the micro level of an individual job going away one at a time

Why not both? You can decide whether you will support or boycott organizations and systems that actively pursue these things, while also lobbying and voting and building organizations that pursue mutual voluntary organization. Might mean you have to change your lifestyle though and most people don't want to do that.

>Bandaiding them through forced employment laws won't really work as our companies just become less efficient and companies outsource. You can't really have a protected economy like that unless you're also willing to limit outsourcing (which I'd be for, but capitalists who control the government aren't).

Literally nobody suggested this in this thread, me or otherwise.

>There's just no way capitalist companies are going to keep unnecessary labor employed.

I would challenge you to imagine some solutions that are neither capitalist nor governmental. If you can't think of anything beyond these two options then I suggest reading more about mutual-voluntary organization.

Re: Google tests A.I. tool that is able to write news articles

#42
post #8

I’d love to hear somebody try to explain how this won’t negatively impact the labor market for journalists. My guess is that the argument will be that the “tools will simply help augment rather than replace the writer.” We know, however, that some small segment of implementations will actually in fact, cause someone to be fired or replaced, and things will get slightly worse for the consumer. An alternative explanati…

How many humans do you want employed as butter churners? I imagine that the new AI-enabled jobs are going to have so much more autonomy and that we'll see a switch from capital intensive businesses employing lots of people (eg. Hollywood studios) to lots of tiny indie houses with fewer than a dozen folks, building exactly what they want with freedom.

> How many humans do you want employed as butter churners?

I think that's the wrong question. The better question is how can be ensure that people aren't just out of work and can still be able to afford to live?

Re: Google tests A.I. tool that is able to write news articles

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How many humans do you want employed as butter churners? More than exist today probably. We should not be regularly eliminating slightly less efficient processes that use human workers, for completely alienated processes that are worse, that use fewer workers. Self checkout is a perfect example of this. It’s worse for everyone except for grocery store owners.

As a shopper, self checkout is wonderful . It's so much faster and easier than waiting for a single cashier or two. Especially the ones with a scan gun, so you don't have to fight the stupid countertop scanner. As for lost jobs, should we really be propping up unnecessary jobs that really don't do much except poorly substituting a machine? Whether it's checkout or journalism or coding or politics... if a computer can…

> As a shopper, self checkout is wonderful.

Not everyone thinks so. I know quite a lot of people (including myself) who hate self-checkout.

> As for lost jobs, should we really be propping up unnecessary jobs that really don't do much except poorly substituting a machine?

No, but equally, should we be kicking people out on the street with no means to support themselves?

Re: Google tests A.I. tool that is able to write news articles

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't matter in the end. 1/ Technology has always disrupted labor market so I mean that's not even a question this will happen. 2/ It's not that sad: I've worked in journaism and the reality is that 80% of news article are already most of the time a sad copypasta of a single main source of info such as reuters / AFP in france. Most of journalism is already noise. Maybe that will help recenter journalism on rea…

>That doesn't matter in the end. Doesn't matter to who? I'm pretty sure it matters a lot to people working in a newsroom

Sure but once again so what ? Change is part of life

Re: Google tests A.I. tool that is able to write news articles

#45

I’d love to hear somebody try to explain how this won’t negatively impact the labor market for journalists. My guess is that the argument will be that the “tools will simply help augment rather than replace the writer.” We know, however, that some small segment of implementations will actually in fact, cause someone to be fired or replaced, and things will get slightly worse for the consumer. An alternative explanati…

Writers will be offered a one-time payment for their writing sample, which will be used by publishers, in perpetuity, to generate content in that style.

No royalties.

Also, no further employment.

The shame of it is, this is actually slightly better than the current state of things, where no one who contributed writing to the training sets in any form is receiving compensation. But it is the same issue as one of the sticking points in the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Re: Google tests A.I. tool that is able to write news articles

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That doesn't matter in the end. Doesn't matter to who? I'm pretty sure it matters a lot to people working in a newsroom

Sure but once again so what ? Change is part of life

We know that change, specifically in employment status in America, can and often does mean the difference between life or death.

So yes it’s extremely important that employment changes not be thrust on people if we can at all avoid it as a society.

You should care more about the plight of others.

Re: Google tests A.I. tool that is able to write news articles

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't matter in the end. 1/ Technology has always disrupted labor market so I mean that's not even a question this will happen. 2/ It's not that sad: I've worked in journaism and the reality is that 80% of news article are already most of the time a sad copypasta of a single main source of info such as reuters / AFP in france. Most of journalism is already noise. Maybe that will help recenter journalism on rea…

>That doesn't matter in the end. Doesn't matter to who? I'm pretty sure it matters a lot to people working in a newsroom

Well you said newsroom, which is about news.

How is the LLM getting the latest news? It doesn't (yet) really have eyes and ears etc.

And news travels fast, or at least people would like it to.

Also opinion pieces. I have 0 interest in the "opinion" of an LLM, but I am interested in the opinion of at least some human beings.

Re: Google tests A.I. tool that is able to write news articles

#48

I’d love to hear somebody try to explain how this won’t negatively impact the labor market for journalists. My guess is that the argument will be that the “tools will simply help augment rather than replace the writer.” We know, however, that some small segment of implementations will actually in fact, cause someone to be fired or replaced, and things will get slightly worse for the consumer. An alternative explanati…

[dead]

Re: Google tests A.I. tool that is able to write news articles

#50

I’d love to hear somebody try to explain how this won’t negatively impact the labor market for journalists. My guess is that the argument will be that the “tools will simply help augment rather than replace the writer.” We know, however, that some small segment of implementations will actually in fact, cause someone to be fired or replaced, and things will get slightly worse for the consumer. An alternative explanati…

Writers will be offered a one-time payment for their writing sample, which will be used by publishers, in perpetuity, to generate content in that style. No royalties. Also, no further employment. The shame of it is, this is actually slightly better than the current state of things, where no one who contributed writing to the training sets in any form is receiving compensation. But it is the same issue as one of the s…

The endgame of this is having to pay enormous sums up-front for training data of dubious value. Like if you dictated that all creativity had to be paid for purely through Kickstarter.
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