Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Can we just admit we want to replace jobs with AI?

news.ycombinator.com

91–100 of 151 posts

Re: Ask HN: Can we just admit we want to replace jobs with AI?

#91
When I look at the progress and advancements in industrial automation as a blueprint, and I have worked in this field for my entire professional career, and from my time building a few toy 'agentic AI' systems as a hobby and for education, the jobs aren't going anywhere.

They're going to change, where humans sit in the loop and how they program will change, probably a good blend of procedural control and object-oriented processes, where the agents are considered objects and process flow is defined in the procedural methods, but don't freak out there's still a ton to do.

There are many design principles we can leverage to enhance human participation and fulfillment instead of just replacing them. Lights out manufacturing hasn't taken off, why would we think a lights out society would work any better?

Edited for formatting.

Re: Ask HN: Can we just admit we want to replace jobs with AI?

#95
post #80

I would absolutely embrace AI if the means of production was owned collectively, not by the few privileged. It seems to me, that the path we are on will lead us closer to a Terminator-like future, and less likely to lead to a positive future. Our leadership are greedy fools.

> Our leadership are greedy fools.

Why? Because our government hasn't seized the assets of the AI companies, like intellectual eminent domain? This is brand new technology from which nobody knows the eventual impact on society (hence the discussion in this thread). And if the government did take it over, who would continue to build it, earning a govt salary?

Re: Ask HN: Can we just admit we want to replace jobs with AI?

#97
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For now - we're not there at all. Both OpenAI and Anthropic think it’s a question of a couple of years at most. Gwern, who has a good track record of predictions, think so too. We’re pretty much here. I arrived at the same conclusion independently. Not because I’m a genius like Gwern and Could Work at a Big Lab if I Wanted, but because it is in fact pretty obvious. People focus way too much on the current limitatio…

You could be right. I don't have enough knowledge in the field and I'm not sure 'trend predictions' work that well. Why aren't there autonomous vehicles already? Why does Waymo have to deploy them city by city? When I learned to drive I learned to drive - you didn't have to teach me how to drive in L.A , then San Francsisco, Then Pheonix etc. Is it only about Waymo being careful or are these things not yet good enoug…

Your conclusions seem overly optimistic. Best healthcare? You'll get economically-optimized healthcare - in other words, at some point when you have no economic value left, or your healthcare costs exceed what you're willing and able to pay, care will be shut off. Best education? It will be full of bias inserted by the programmers, with no way to debate or consider alternate viewpoints. And who's going to spend time learning anything when the AI is deployed to do all the possible work anyway?

Re: Ask HN: Can we just admit we want to replace jobs with AI?

#99

from Company perspective, I think the answer is yes but from individual perspective I don't think that is the case. Since AlphaGo first time was released and beat world-class players, have all these players gone? not really, but it even promotes more people study Go with AI instead. As a software engineer myself, am I enjoy using AI for coding? yes, for many trivial and repetitive works, but do I want it to take my c…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Can we just admit we want to replace jobs with AI?

#100
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If an AI can do "most economically valuable jobs" retraining won't help. Unless you want to retrain for something that is not economically valuable enough to spend compute on it, and has having a human body as a non-negotiable prerequisite.

I chose those examples specifically because they’re difficult to replace a physical person there

I also aspire(d) to be a physics teacher, but I'm pessimistic about it. Things like khan academy already make "teaching" obsolete, imagine pairing that with an GPT93 agent. 24/7 interactive learning.
Post reply on HN