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College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

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

#371

Post by mplanchard »

overrun11 wrote: post #190
pickleglitch wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But why so anti AI specifically I think maybe AI is just the last straw for many people. If capitalism is the private ownership of the means of production, AI represents the ultimate dream of the capitalist: the elimination of the need of human labor entirely. Whether or not it can achieve that is secondary to the goal itself. Grads are facing a brutal job market where much of what they just spent several years of t…

> AI represents the ultimate dream of the capitalist: the elimination of the need of human labor entirely Decreasing human toil for the same level of production should be the dream of _everyone_. If it's only capitalists in favor then that's a massive indictment of the non-capitalists. This reminds me of the famous Bastiat quote: "If, then, the utility of any branch of industry is to be estimated not by the amount of…

So, if a slave owner who owns a plantation and has a bunch of enslaved workers gets a new fertilizer that increases production per acre by 200%, that is good for the slaves?

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

#372

Post by mplanchard »

teekert wrote: post #362
48terry wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's add to this comparison a bit. Said farm workers have also been noticing headlines over the last years like: "Crop harvester CEO predicts crop harvesting machine will wipe out millions of jobs within months" "Crop harvester CEO: 'the crop harvester could destroy the world economy'." "Farm lays off half its employees, pivots to crop harvester" (repeat this one about 10 times a week for months) Then some idiot wal…

The harvester is super expensive, using an LLM is not. Who’s to say AI is not a democratizing force? Like the Internet? And book printing before that? Suddenly we all have a Personal Assistant, suddenly we can all build tools to make the computer do what we want. Hey where is Stephen Fry with his podcasts when you need him!

With what jobs do you expect them to pay for the Codex Max subscription to use to build their toy software?

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

#373

Post by tom2026hn »

OutOfHere wrote: post #341
tom2026hn wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China? A New York Times article reports that a Chinese court has ruled that layoffs justified by AI are illegal. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/business/china-ai-unemplo...

The firms will obviously then just use any excuse that doesn't contain the word AI. Money to pay salaries is not free. Regardless, at best it protects existing employees. A hiring freeze will still block new workers.

At the very least, the Chinese government has made its official stance clear—though you could interpret this as a way of saying, “Don’t make me clean up your mess.” Companies will weigh which side entails higher costs and actively explore other avenues, and large corporations won’t dare to act brazenly.

If AI becomes very powerful and poses a high risk of replacing ordinary workers’ jobs, this approach will be more effective. For now, however, the market itself may still be able to handle the situation.

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

#374

Post by HDThoreaun »

JohnFen wrote: post #150
whizzter wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 industr…

I dont get this. Youre so morally opposed to AI music that youre afraid of listening to new stuff in fear of accidentally liking something made with/by AI?

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

#375

Post by soundworlds »

softwaredoug wrote: post #274

Tech execs made choices that made the public hostile to AI. They told everyone they were going to lose their jobs a not participate in the upside (implication: they get all the wealth). They cozied up to a corrupt administration that stripped public benefits while enriching themselves (now from tax dollars). They forced towns to accept environmentally toxic data centers that take their water/power We’re all going to…

Totally. As I've commented elsewhere, they thought it would be a great time screwing over artists and other culture works to make quick bucks and outrun the law.

Turns out that culture workers are a big chunk of who sets the narrative for the mainstream, and especially younger generations.

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

#376

Post by mxuribe »

ElevenLathe wrote: post #334
mxuribe wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it might be because some folks from the older generation have a sense of entitlement...mostly because they often lived through a glorious period that en masse has been beneficial to them...They expected flying cars, etc...So, now, this time they'll get their AI servants...So, its sort of an expectation (for some from this older generation) that the world will keep giving them lots of good (well, good for them…

I think it's much less about generation than about material conditions. It's easier to convince someone that AI is going to be good for their bottom line if they are already retired, or at least have a significant chunk of savings (and therefore investments) and a job higher up the food chain/org chart than a new college grad does. For most working class people, age is a necessary but not sufficient condition to have…

Yeah, i agree that there might be older folks also fearing AI - i'm one of them! :-)

As to your point about likely being more due to material conditions rather than age, perhaps you're right....but, then again, on average I'd say the older generation tends to have better material conditions/positions, tends to have at least some savings (maybe retirement, or at least will have more solvent social security, etc.?)...than say young folks who started graduating college from around the great recession to about now? So, maybe we're both right???

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

#377

Post by servo_sausage »

sumeno wrote: post #170
servo_sausage wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If the tech CEO dream that they are selling that LLMs replace all white collar work within a few years who is going to have money to buy anything at the lower price point?

Anyone who can still find any way to exchange their time for currency...

Unless you believe that we are actually close to making humans generally obsolete.

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

#378

Post by smallmancontrov »

skybrian wrote: post #356
smallmancontrov wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the "averages smear out details" problem is completely separate to the core accusation I made and much less interesting. My accusation -- which you completely failed to address -- is that CPI systematically fails to account for forced substitution, introducing a systematic downwards bias that forces "real" incomes to rise over the long term as a direct result of the solvency constraint on individuals rather than…

I'm not sure what you mean by forced substitution.

Rent goes up more than pay. Solvency = the belt must tighten. You decide to eat chicken instead of beef because it isn't inflating as fast and it's good enough. The basket adjusts to model your "preference change." Inflation went down! Your real income went up! Wow amazing!

In the short term, basket adjustments are lagged and modest in impact, but in the long term they are everything. CPI is a good model of consumer price inflation vs last year but a terrible model when compounded. This is before going down the chained CPI and hedonic adjustment tangents, which both reliably adjust CPI in the wrong direction. Funny how all the dubious methodology points in one direction, that of understating inflation.

Worse, the very focus on consumer prices itself is highly misleading. Assets and liabilities matter in an economy that has a middle class and isn't just hand-to-mouth serfs. When assets inflate and paychecks don't and the response is dissaving and debt, that's a problem too. The American Dream isn't to Owner's Imputed Rent a house.

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

#379

Post by OutOfHere »

mekdoonggi wrote: post #184
OutOfHere wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I didn't say I wanted to ban it, just that we could. Human beings have collectively regulated all kinds of maths, ideas, and ideologies. I am not a Luddite. I am saying that humans collectively have the power to control things for our benefit. Thankfully I've already passed on my genome :)

We actually do not regulate mathematics. In the United States, any such regulations would also expressly be unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

AI is as much an idealogy as is using a computer, which is to say that it isn't.

AI is for our benefit. You know what isn't for our benefit -- stupid jobs that even an automaton can do. We just have to pressure the government in the way I noted earlier, then use any free time to explore our passions. This freedom actually is the precondition of creativity and self-realization.

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

#380

Post by arational »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #351
lkey wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Staying with your rapist husband/boyfriend is the norm. He might beg for forgiveness and say he won't do it again. He might say he didn't understand you when you said no. He might threaten to kill you if you open your mouth one more time. He might do all of those in the same five minute span. Almost every women I am close to has been raped or assaulted. What part of this do you specifically not understand?

People have different abilities. It’s often hard for people to not understand why something that’s natural to them isn’t natural to others. In some lights, humans are very similar; in other lights they can be wildly different. I have cut multiple toxic people out of my life, even very close relationships and family, and it was easy as farting for me. It’s alien to me to not be able to do that. However it’s easy to re…

Sometimes you can't cut people out of your life because your life depends on them.
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