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Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

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Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#161

Post by sigmoid10 »

bombcar wrote: post #79
rdtsc wrote: post #55

> “If you’d let me make this point, please —” Schmidt said amid boos. “The point I’d like to make is choose a diversity of perspectives, including the perspective of the immigrant who has so often been the person who came to this country and made it better. America is at its best when we are the country that ambitious people want to come to. Let us not lose that.” How does that tie in? You have to like AI because of…

It's a rhetorical attempt to tie "those who dislike AI" to "those who dislike immigrants, and we all know they're super-duper evil". It's a relatively cheap trick, badly executed.

[flagged]

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#163

Post by swedishuser »

davemp wrote: post #3

Kind of goes to show how out of touch and insular the tech exec sphere can be. Almost everyone I interact with in reality has a deep distain for LLMs and their touted trajectory.

> Almost everyone I interact with in reality has a deep distain for LLMs and their touted trajectory.

Same here, but I honestly think that's largely due to the threat is poses to their (and my) profession.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#164

Post by arunmathur »

This caught my attention because I really enjoy hearing ES speak about AI. Directionally, I’m listening for a roadmap. Is the problem I’m solving right now even worthwhile? As an avid user of these tools, am I in the driver seat or am I a passenger? I feel like the latter.

For some context, according to the daily beast, student groups at the university distributed fliers urging students to “turn their backs to the stage” or “boo” during the former executive’s speech. The fliers stated that they wanted to “make it clear that the University of Arizona and greater community that we represent, whether from Tucson or beyond, do not support abusers being platformed.” Schmidt was accused by Michelle Ritter in a 2021 lawsuit of “forcibly raping” her during a trip off the coast of Mexico and later initiating sex without her consent in 2023 during the annual Burning Man festival.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#165

Post by detourdog »

poszlem wrote: post #13
xg15 wrote: post #5

> “The future is not yet finished. It is now your turn to shape it.” This sounds cynical if there is a kinglike president, surrounded by a small clique of tech billionaires who all are becoming increasingly open about the kind of future they want to realise.

I think this is a major reason behind the backlash against AI. In the past, people celebrated tech billionaires because there was a widespread belief that, someday, they might join their ranks. But wealth inequality may have now reached a point where that illusion no longer works.

I think it’s that the current crop of tech billionaires are tone deaf douche bags working against the common good.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#166

Post by new_account_100 »

gcr wrote: post #24
cj wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Schmidt then drew a parallel between artificial intelligence and the transformative impact of the computer — and was immediately met with boos. That's a shame. I assume the reason for the "deep distain" is rooted in fear of change, fear that LLM will make it harder to have a successful career. That's a pretty negative mindset to have as a college grad just entering the workforce. I'm not an AI fan boy, but we can't…

For college graduates, LLM tech is an existential threat to their livelihoods by making it so much harder to start a career without connections or pedigree.

If no one is hiring, connections or pedigree need to get extraordinarily elite before you can leverage them to get an entry-level software developer job.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#167

Post by watwut »

itsalwaysgood wrote: post #23
davemp wrote: post #3

Kind of goes to show how out of touch and insular the tech exec sphere can be. Almost everyone I interact with in reality has a deep distain for LLMs and their touted trajectory.

Probably too early for this, but I'm reminded of the Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil. Evil acts made real by the decisions of those at the top, and the rest of us reject the acts. But quitely we accept these acts by being satisfied with verbal protest. In other words, we always do whatever is easiest, and rarely are willing to sacrifice our way of life to make real change. One person can never make a differenc…

What kind of sacrifice are you imagine the students to do here?

And also, that generation got quite a few students who did sacrificed their future in protests just a few years ago. The crackdown was very real and is still ongoing.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#168

Post by forlorn_mammoth »

zemvpferreira wrote: post #131
mbgerring wrote: post #114

Can someone in this thread who says “the kids must be wrong” give an actual optimistic case for AI? Because as far as I understand it, the “optimist” case for AI is that LLMs become God and wipe out human life as we know it entirely, and replace it with a transcendent post-human intelligence. And in the meantime, we’ll have a permanent underclass that will be kept alive on some kind of subsistence UBI. That seems to…

Sure. The machine gods are benevolent gods who care deeply for their creator-species. We are freed from labour and troubles into a paradise, to eat peaches and cream and make love under the sun. Rich or poor, we'll all be emperors of our domain, free to do as we please. Our lives keep getting better and better with technological progress, at least in the scope of our social-capitalist system. They will only get bette…

yes, all hail the Morlocks as we Eloi live in peace.

HG Wells really did have a time machine!

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#169

Post by ChrisLTD »

Applejinx wrote: post #136
mbgerring wrote: post #114

Can someone in this thread who says “the kids must be wrong” give an actual optimistic case for AI? Because as far as I understand it, the “optimist” case for AI is that LLMs become God and wipe out human life as we know it entirely, and replace it with a transcendent post-human intelligence. And in the meantime, we’ll have a permanent underclass that will be kept alive on some kind of subsistence UBI. That seems to…

Nonsense. Nobody's gonna bother with the subsistence UBI. This is what bugs people. We can tell the part they're bullshitting about is the promise of a subsistence UBI. No wonder people boo.

I’m know it’s better in some other countries, but in the U.S., we can’t even agree that all people with jobs should have health insurance.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#170

Post by palmotea »

rdtsc wrote: post #55

> “If you’d let me make this point, please —” Schmidt said amid boos. “The point I’d like to make is choose a diversity of perspectives, including the perspective of the immigrant who has so often been the person who came to this country and made it better. America is at its best when we are the country that ambitious people want to come to. Let us not lose that.” How does that tie in? You have to like AI because of…

> How does that tie in? You have to like AI because of immigrants? AI is like an immigrant, you have to accept it? What’s the logic here, or he’s just throwing random phrases around, it seems.

Maybe it ties in because, if you're not excited and enthusiastic about AI and our new Ways of Working, you're a racist. You don't want to be a racist, do you? AI is basically exactly like a black person getting chased by a lynch mob. Do you stand with the racist lynchers? Or with the civil rights movement (the billionaire AI promoters).

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