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College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

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141–150 of 405 posts

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As others point out, a song by the band, "The Who". But it's since come to be a phrase to suggest that the upcoming generation (the kids) are going to be okay. As opposed to the more common refrain of "the kids these days…" (and then append some generational gripe like, "are just weed-smoking, lazy, game-playing, phone-staring, TikTok-headed, etc…"

Other than the TikTok-headed part, the phrase could easily be applied to at least as far back as the 80s (NES) depending on definition of game-playing. Before then, there was foosball and pinball. Nevermind the kids that play card/board games. Also, while not staring at a phone implying smart phone use, it was often said about teens having a phone growing out of the shoulder from them constantly being on the phone wi…

Which is a good thing.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#142

GenAI is the first technology that I've ever seen that is actively rejected by young adults and fervently pushed by people over 55. It seems Eric Schmids of the world think they (in their 70s) have more say about the future of these students than the students themselves. That is very unlikely.

My own conspiracy theory is that AI, and the increasingly authoritarian government swings, are the Boomer generation's last shot at freezing the world in time and ensuring our world is shaped to their vision long after they're all gone. The thing that generation fears the most is that we're all going to just move on from them when they're dead, and finally progress past this "1970-2020" economic/cultural stasis that…

kind of wild that you think there has been no shift in culture between 1970 and 2020

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#144

"After my speech for the troops about how we are losing in Iran, my speech to children with cancer about how we've gutted research, sure I can then give a speech to people entering the job market about how AI is ruining the job market" Perfect, that's exactly the message of despair we want to send! (How I imagine picking these speakers goes at every college campus)

i think we should not think they are gullible but they want to make they think they are. they want a message through and the message is that they are creating a threat and they will use it.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#145
post #60
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what is he supposed to say? "Ok let's stop developing AI so you can all have the exact job you trained for?" That hasn't been the case for decades. When I left my eduction I could sequence 200 basepairs using gels. Now I process terabytes of NGS data on supercomputers. I dealt with it, I enjoyed it. Edit: Not saying these kids have nothing to rage against, they can't afford houses, are uninsured, they face a huge…

> But why so anti AI specfically? Because society is structured so that every time some labor-saving innovation comes along, it's used as a tool to drive down wages and reduce workers' bargaining power. And they leaders of these industries aren't exactly hiding it. You might be able to game it in the short term, but It's not like anyone is seriously thinking this will reduce the totality of our efforts in the long te…

Innovation can make specific skills obsolete; but only if the output of the process actually gets cheaper or better...

It results in the output becoming available to people at a lower price point.

It's not some artificial social system like unions guilds or cartels, it's a tangible thing that actually produces more output with less (or different) workers.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#146
post #60
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what is he supposed to say? "Ok let's stop developing AI so you can all have the exact job you trained for?" That hasn't been the case for decades. When I left my eduction I could sequence 200 basepairs using gels. Now I process terabytes of NGS data on supercomputers. I dealt with it, I enjoyed it. Edit: Not saying these kids have nothing to rage against, they can't afford houses, are uninsured, they face a huge…

> But why so anti AI specfically? Because society is structured so that every time some labor-saving innovation comes along, it's used as a tool to drive down wages and reduce workers' bargaining power. And they leaders of these industries aren't exactly hiding it. You might be able to game it in the short term, but It's not like anyone is seriously thinking this will reduce the totality of our efforts in the long te…

Somehow, wages tend to go up, though:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#147
post #12

Correctly or not (probably to some degree correctly) new grads are hearing AI is a major reason why they're having trouble finding jobs which is simultaneously 1.) Probably mostly has always been the case--I no longer have the vast sheaf of rejection letters when I ever got one at all and 2.) Is anecdotally actually the case for a variety of reasons that also include pandemic overhiring and probably an out-sized AI e…

I think it's more than that. They've heard for most of their lives that college is the way to a good job. Now they're graduating, many of them with debt, and as they do, they're hearing that AI means that the jobs won't be there. And now, at their commencement, someone is talking about AI. One of the people responsible is talking about AI! Who thought that this was going to go well?

this isn't the first instance of society failing to deliver on its promises - I'm almost 40 and still no house. What makes this time different, I think is the question?

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#148
post #124

GenAI is the first technology that I've ever seen that is actively rejected by young adults and fervently pushed by people over 55. It seems Eric Schmids of the world think they (in their 70s) have more say about the future of these students than the students themselves. That is very unlikely.

>and fervently pushed by people over 55. Source? I think you're conflating "pushed by CEOs" (which might lean on the older side) with "pushed by people over 55".

CEOs are hired by boards. Boards are hired by shareholders. Most publicly-traded American companies have their shares held by pension and retirement funds. Pension and retirement funds exist to send money to people over 55.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#149
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not like your gradual transition from sequencing with gels to using supercomputers over the long course of a career. this. I don't understand why people here are pretending like its not a big deal.

But aren't we all going through this? I'm going through it, sadly I'm lacking the plasticity of a young mind! I know I'm being privileged, but not by much, I'm self employed and the world is changing like crazy and it scares me as well, how will I gather my income in a year (luckily I do live in a "socialist" country, but not so socialist for entrepreneurs)? No idea, but I set up Open Claw and Claude Code and it's op…

I think it's simply the fact that there hasn't even been an opportunity for the youth to start, it's just misery right from the start. there's no "it'll get better" in that frame of mind

and I'm in a similar situation, although I'm younger

and I do think in a way this time is different, because AI by nature is very "generic", its not just one domain, rather everything is affected

plus there is a kind of mindset that the youth is entitled and that thank God we don't have to hire them anymore etc etc. it doesn't help.

and even though I believe things will get better, the question is "when" and if there will be a new "lost generation" or whatever.

maybe that makes sense? on one hand I'm able to do way more, but I also know what that means at least in the short term. I don't know where the demand will be to meet this new exponential supply.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#150
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For folks that didn't read the article, it seems he was talking about music production.

Yeah, people in art production are far far more negative about AI than most sceptical developers. I wouldn't be surprised if a huge percentage of concept artists are out of jobs or changing specialization these days (Creating a throwaway image for a pitch or imaging document can probably be as easily conveyed through a prompt and the people looking at them are probably often not savvy enough to appreciate the differe…

As one who isn't a musician but loves listening to music, the emergence of passable genAI-generated music means that I can't trust new music anymore.

The only new music I'm willing to buy is music that I've seen the artists perform live, or is from established artists that I know and trust are keeping it human.

I have no idea how rare or common my perspective on this is, but it's not impossible that the music industry may see a decline as a result.

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