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Sora could ruin peoples lives

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51–60 of 185 posts

Re: Sora could ruin peoples lives

#51

Every time Sam Altman announces some new offering at OpenAI, I get a little more thankful I don't have any children.

Every generation had a real or perceived existential crisis that might have prompted this type of mindset. The Great Depression, World Wars, Communism, rock music, nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, global warming…

This latest one isn’t going anywhere, and humanity will almost certainly find a way to make it ‘work out’.

Re: Sora could ruin peoples lives

#52
post #2

Well I thought it was gonna be about the hostile deep-fakes but it's about career threat for creatives. I do wish the robots were doing more mundane or labour intensive tasks and leave the art to humans.

I know what you mean, but there are plenty of mundane and labor-intensive tasks in art too. Ever try to make background characters or landscapes for a video? It's stuff that nobody pays attention to, but it still has to look plausible. Real artists will use Sora as a tool to automate those tedious tasks, so they can focus on storytelling.

Re: Sora could ruin peoples lives

#53

Very good discussion there. “I am 68 years old, on the opposite spectrum of life’s journey. At your age, I had the same passion to be a writer. But when personal computers became available just a few years later, that passion changed to becoming a computer programmer. I’ve been doing that ever since. My point is: Don’t lose your passion. Learn everything you can about this new technology and figure out how to use it…

The guys who’s been a computer engineer “ever since”, ie for several decades, is using that as a reason to be passionate about what you do, completely ignoring the fact that the whole worry with AI is that it will obsolete industries within years.

It is difficult to forsee what will happen. I am worried that AI will destroy industries, while on the other hand my son just used ChatGPT to teach himself how to program an Arduino, which is just awesome. Translators will lose jobs. Illustrators will lose jobs. But if you know how many jobs were lost in the printing industry (typesetting was an incredibly laborious work) which was completely offset by new jobs in other industries, things may turn out great. To be honest, despite having spent more than 50 years on this planet and having seen some things, I am completely undecided.

Re: Sora could ruin peoples lives

#54
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were at the opposite spectrum of life's journey, I would be open to life's changes too, knowing that I didn't have much of it left. But I'm in my 30s, which means on average I have another 40-50 years of existence to get through.

I understand - but isn‘t it a mistake to think of it as getting through? Soon it will be over and then merely having gotten through seems like such a waste.

If people didn't constantly use the monetary value of a company as the sole determinant of whether it brought about societal progress, I'd think of it as something to enjoy.

But that's what we use and it's not getting better. It's getting worse. It's not just OpenAI either, but that's a fairly prominent example that's germane here.

Re: Sora could ruin peoples lives

#55
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were at the opposite spectrum of life's journey, I would be open to life's changes too, knowing that I didn't have much of it left. But I'm in my 30s, which means on average I have another 40-50 years of existence to get through.

I understand - but isn‘t it a mistake to think of it as getting through? Soon it will be over and then merely having gotten through seems like such a waste.

Reality forces us into 0% free time. Not much choice.

Re: Sora could ruin peoples lives

#56

Very good discussion there. “I am 68 years old, on the opposite spectrum of life’s journey. At your age, I had the same passion to be a writer. But when personal computers became available just a few years later, that passion changed to becoming a computer programmer. I’ve been doing that ever since. My point is: Don’t lose your passion. Learn everything you can about this new technology and figure out how to use it…

If I were at the opposite spectrum of life's journey, I would be open to life's changes too, knowing that I didn't have much of it left. But I'm in my 30s, which means on average I have another 40-50 years of existence to get through.

There's an old saying - prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child. Young people usually adapt to life's changes better than old people.

The future contains AIs like SORA and Gemini 1.5. Gripe about it if you want - but that won't change anything. So why be grim about it? There are so many opportunities to use these new tools to make new things that have never existed before. Obviously there's a danger society itself crumbles, but if not - well, what an exciting transition to live through.

I look forward to being an old man and getting to tell the stories of what life was like when movies and software were made entirely by hand. What fun.

Re: Sora could ruin peoples lives

#57

Every time Sam Altman announces some new offering at OpenAI, I get a little more thankful I don't have any children.

I don't get it. Why?

The entire point of life is to reproduce. Every moment in history has technological changes. Your fear is driving you to make poor decisions. Having children is a biologically good decision.

Re: Sora could ruin peoples lives

#58

Very good discussion there. “I am 68 years old, on the opposite spectrum of life’s journey. At your age, I had the same passion to be a writer. But when personal computers became available just a few years later, that passion changed to becoming a computer programmer. I’ve been doing that ever since. My point is: Don’t lose your passion. Learn everything you can about this new technology and figure out how to use it…

If I were at the opposite spectrum of life's journey, I would be open to life's changes too, knowing that I didn't have much of it left. But I'm in my 30s, which means on average I have another 40-50 years of existence to get through.

This. I wish I was either at the start or end of my life. In the middle is the worst imho. We've gained knowledge for years and built lifes around it and the value of that knowledge is now being threatened. It's depressing.

It feels like it's too late to switch plans and careers (and even if I do, what would that be?). At the same time I have another 30-40 years to live, a family, 20 more years of mortgage etc. so the technology has real consequences for a long time of my life, I can't get excited about it.

Re: Sora could ruin peoples lives

#59

Very good discussion there. “I am 68 years old, on the opposite spectrum of life’s journey. At your age, I had the same passion to be a writer. But when personal computers became available just a few years later, that passion changed to becoming a computer programmer. I’ve been doing that ever since. My point is: Don’t lose your passion. Learn everything you can about this new technology and figure out how to use it…

Sorry, these sorts of comments seem kind and well-intended, but we have to be real here and allow for the possibility that an impressive advancement has many (or mostly) negative effects. If you got into art because you enjoy drawing and modeling and wanted to make THAT your job (not just abstractly "producing pictures") then these advancements are just obviously a negative development, no matter how you try to refra…

I'm old enough that I remember musicians panicking about synthesizers and samplers in the 1980s. And there are probably fewer working drummers today than in 1970. But without that tech we wouldn't have hip hop or house, which would be a huge cultural loss.

AI graphic/video art hasn't found its Marley Marl yet, but I believe she's out there and is going to do stuff that will blow our minds.

Re: Sora could ruin peoples lives

#60
Nearly everyone I've encountered with overall positive/optimistic views on the probable impacts of "this technology" seems to be wildly out of touch with the state of human sociocultural systems, the actual ("situation on the ground") nature of their fellow primates, the kind of decisions that the people/companies who get to make those decisions are actually making, what these technologies are capable of automating, and the second/third/etc order effects of automating same.

It's complex, it's "unpredictable", but it is 100% clear that this is absolutely not something this species is actually ready to utilize.

Believing otherwise is sort of naive to the point of being delusional, now.

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