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Raising Children on the Eve of AI

juliawise.net

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Re: Raising Children on the Eve of AI

#41

Post by inference-lord »

keiferski wrote: post #37
alumic wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drove around today listening to the most recent Lex Fridman podcast, in which the founder of Boston Dynamics was describing replacing human labor with machines that were capable of learning by seeing. I have family in the trades. I pursued tech and fell in love with the field. Listening to the interviewee, I began to feel sick to my stomach at the glib description of what amounts to ripping away peoples' livelihood…

For autonomous robots to replace the millions of tradesmen and workers, it would require vastly more resources than are being put toward this now. I wouldn’t expect human labor to be replaced in this way for a century or two.

It's kicking the can down the road, will still be a problem in 200 years at the rate which our society is progressing, potentially even going backwards if the orange man wins in 2024.

Re: Raising Children on the Eve of AI

#42

Post by j4yav »

bbor wrote: post #31
alumic wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drove around today listening to the most recent Lex Fridman podcast, in which the founder of Boston Dynamics was describing replacing human labor with machines that were capable of learning by seeing. I have family in the trades. I pursued tech and fell in love with the field. Listening to the interviewee, I began to feel sick to my stomach at the glib description of what amounts to ripping away peoples' livelihood…

Work is equivalent to worth. We are not biologically or sociologically prepared to differentiate the two. I’m gonna say there’s a very very selective “we” in use here. I’m sure you’re accurately reporting your surroundings, but many people outside America (and a few within it!) are very much already there. Plus, like, isn’t that kinda depressing? What are disabled people “worth”? If I choose to be an unpopular niche…

Artists seem like they are first up for replacement, no?

Re: Raising Children on the Eve of AI

#43

Post by Biologist123 »

The writer says: “[My children] are more viscerally worried about climate change”.

I’m not surprised.

I recently heard from a friend that her 7 year-old child had, as a class assignment, to create a timeline setting out the impact of climate change over their lifetime.

I was gobsmacked, and feel this amounts to a form of psychological child abuse. It’s a serious problem, don’t get me wrong, but having a small child labour to visualize modeled outputs is traumatizing. It’s really made me wonder about how reality morphs into millenarian thinking.

Re: Raising Children on the Eve of AI

#44

Post by keiferski »

bo1024 wrote: post #34
keiferski wrote: post #13

I think kids are a lot more prepared for this future than professional technologists probably realize. If you ask them today what profession they want to be, you often get “YouTuber” as an answer. Which might seem like a joke, but I think it’s actually quite accurate in terms of future professions. The jobs at most risk from AI are “anonymous” ones in which the creator of the work is unknown to its consumer. Writing,…

YouTuber is a lottery-ticket profession. It's a winner-take-all, heavy-tailed distribution. It doesn't make sense to tell a whole population to buy lottery tickets. For kids, it's a modern equivalent of "I want to be in the NBA", "I want to be an astronaut".

You are missing the point I’m making. Everyone won’t be a YouTuber. But the successful people will cultivate skills that are similar to those needed by successful YouTubers. Being an anonymous worker with anonymous output means you can be easily replaced.

Re: Raising Children on the Eve of AI

#45

Post by j4yav »

keiferski wrote: post #37
alumic wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drove around today listening to the most recent Lex Fridman podcast, in which the founder of Boston Dynamics was describing replacing human labor with machines that were capable of learning by seeing. I have family in the trades. I pursued tech and fell in love with the field. Listening to the interviewee, I began to feel sick to my stomach at the glib description of what amounts to ripping away peoples' livelihood…

For autonomous robots to replace the millions of tradesmen and workers, it would require vastly more resources than are being put toward this now. I wouldn’t expect human labor to be replaced in this way for a century or two.

Potentially they can use early versions of the automation to accelerate this.

Re: Raising Children on the Eve of AI

#46

Post by sinuhe69 »

aquarkortwo wrote: post #9
MichaelMug wrote: post #4

> Partly because even in a world where it became clear that school isn’t useful I don’t follow… In what world is school not useful? I suspect the social value of school will become much more apparent soon.

In a world where we have personalized tutors and assistants that can pass on knowledge much more efficiently and effectively than human teachers can.

Really? Did you try to learn something seriously with AI and compare the same process with a human teacher? And you seriously believe the parrot is better?

Try asking ChatGPT or Gemini about minimax plus alpha-beta pruning then change the cut-off conditions and ask it which one is correct and why and see it for yourself. Lookup the literature to see which one is correct.

And that’s only a very simple example of concrete facts/things. Now imagine the AI not only need to understand abstract concepts, it also need to understand your weakness/strength to adapt the examples/explanations, give you scaffolding and speak to your heart to become a good teacher. Good luck!

Re: Raising Children on the Eve of AI

#47

Post by j4yav »

bbor wrote: post #27
inference-lord wrote: post #12

I became a parent about a year ago, completely unprepared for this future. My Son was born around the time ChatGPT-4 was released and I remember all the Geoffrey Hinton interviews which were really apocalyptic sounding, he is has a kind of kookie mad scientist vibe about him too. I remember thinking, like what the fuck just happened? Like I just woke up in a movie. I've learned to accept the situation, and realize th…

It seems like our careers could just be snuffed out instantly with little recourse available. You’ve likely heard this sentiment before but it’s the right one so I’ll be the one to post it today: your job is not your purpose, and the economy is not the society. Obviously your whole comment is well founded and relatable, but I think this is the only cure for your anxieties. The world is a beautiful, beautiful place, w…

I’m not sure, there is something meaningful and rewarding in doing even hard work to make life better for the people around you, or creating beautiful things from the sweat of your brow. A future of forced endless leisure sort of sounds like a dystopia honestly.

Re: Raising Children on the Eve of AI

#48

Post by Vecr »

throwanem wrote: post #16
Vecr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about VNM utility, I'm not a utilitarian or a EA.

VNM applied in the realm of ethics is definitionally utilitarian.

> That your utility function may be off model from the most doctrinaire possible interpretation of the theory does not seem to me the same as saying this is not an example of a theory.

Sure, I don't want to get into a definitional argument. However, any VNM utility function can be the exact opposite of anything you propose as good, just by inverting the comparison order. If you have numerical outcome scores that could be as easy as my score =: 0 - your score

> (Did you mean to reply to your comment rather than mine?)

It's a HN thing.

Re: Raising Children on the Eve of AI

#49

Post by keiferski »

Biologist123 wrote: post #43

The writer says: “[My children] are more viscerally worried about climate change”. I’m not surprised. I recently heard from a friend that her 7 year-old child had, as a class assignment, to create a timeline setting out the impact of climate change over their lifetime. I was gobsmacked, and feel this amounts to a form of psychological child abuse. It’s a serious problem, don’t get me wrong, but having a small child l…

People like to think that all those crazy end-of-days cults just disappeared and were replaced by rational scientists. But that’s not how culture works. The apocalyptic impulse is still with us, but has found new outlets.

Re: Raising Children on the Eve of AI

#50

Post by j4yav »

keiferski wrote: post #13

I think kids are a lot more prepared for this future than professional technologists probably realize. If you ask them today what profession they want to be, you often get “YouTuber” as an answer. Which might seem like a joke, but I think it’s actually quite accurate in terms of future professions. The jobs at most risk from AI are “anonymous” ones in which the creator of the work is unknown to its consumer. Writing,…

Why would the vast majority of people watch a human YouTuber or other kind of charisma-based influencer when they can choose from infinite custom generated ones that always provide exactly the content they want at any time, look and act just like they want them to, and listen to feedback perfectly, and interact with them on a one on one basis?
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