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Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

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Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#341

Post by pesus »

arjie wrote: post #155

It is to America’s great fortune that her technological innovations are not passed by committee. In particular, polls always capture the status quo. Other things that were widely unpopular: interracial marriage, gay marriage. And especially for technology, public opinion led to the stalling of fission power in the US. So hurray for ignoring the majority of people. I’m glad people can offer other people services in a…

This comment is a fantastic example of AI-proponents' hubris, delusion, and fundamental lack of understanding of humanity these days. Great work.

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#342

Post by rayiner »

boothby wrote: post #282
rayiner wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like do people think that these AI companies will create some superintelligence, suck up all the financial benefits of that, and then just decide to share it with the rest of us out of kindness? I don’t get this. It’s like worrying in 1960 that the companies that invented computers will hoard the benefits of computing. It doesn’t make any sense. There is no secret formula to any of this. The math underlying the mod…

> The math underlying the models is widely known, and there are tons of competitors, including foreign competitors. Foreign militaries investing in autonomous warfare does not assuage my concerns about my country investing in autonomous warfare. Also, have you been paying attention to median wages vs median CEO wages since the 1960s? The benefits of computing really have gone to the captains of industry.

> Also, have you been paying attention to median wages vs median CEO wages since the 1960s

CEO pay isn’t a good proxy for “captains of industry.” What you want to look at is the labor versus capital share of income. That’s been very stable since the 1960s: https://taxfoundation.org/blog/labor-share-net-income-within....

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#343

Post by peab »

silisili wrote: post #10

Because the writing is on the wall already. Who hasn't been annoyed with "AI customer service", we already read about AI in the military, then you have the envisioned huge loss of jobs. People generally seem to like using it as a chatbot, or answer questions, on their own terms. But anywhere it's been forced against the user asking for it has been a disaster.

> Who hasn't been annoyed with "AI customer service", who hasn't been annoyed with "customer service", period

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#344

Post by csnover »

everdrive wrote: post #35

It's no surprise. The wild tech optimism of the 1990s and 2000s has completely fallen apart as time and time again tech companies have proved to be some of the most hostile actors in most American's lives. Perhaps edged out only by things such as actual violent crime and partisan hatred. (which itself, of course, is stoked to the absolute maximum in part due to technology trends in the past 15 years or so) The loneli…

> There is no successful social media company that actually cares about the negative impacts it has had on society. They speak about things such as "providing value" where value = time spent on the platform. They do not care if they ruin lives.

I will never forget Ruchi Sanghvi’s remarks at the Female Founders Conference talk in 2015[0]:

> It [the News Feed] became this virtuous cycle that we all dream of: consumption and production that just kept on giving. […] Even though everyone said they hated it, engagement had doubled.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01FjJyBAOUE#t=6m29s

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#345

Post by vixen99 »

newtonianrules wrote: post #6

Half of Americans voters elected Trump. Most people are idiots, I wouldn’t use that as a gauge yet.

It's interesting that you (and, I'm guessing, a majority of HN folk who comment) feel that conservative intellectuals like Thomas Sowell, Victor Davis Hanson, John Mearsheimer, Niall Ferguson, Harvey Mansfield, Heather Mac Donald to quote only a few, voted for Trump. Are these people idiots or partook of some low scheming advantage as a result?

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#346

Post by hobofan »

slg wrote: post #93
everdrive wrote: post #35

It's no surprise. The wild tech optimism of the 1990s and 2000s has completely fallen apart as time and time again tech companies have proved to be some of the most hostile actors in most American's lives. Perhaps edged out only by things such as actual violent crime and partisan hatred. (which itself, of course, is stoked to the absolute maximum in part due to technology trends in the past 15 years or so) The loneli…

>The only hope we have is that they're wrong, and their power to change things will be minimal. What even is the optimistic outcome if they are right? What are we all working towards? Like do people think that these AI companies will create some superintelligence, suck up all the financial benefits of that, and then just decide to share it with the rest of us out of kindness? Because I legitimately can't see a realis…

Most optimistic outcome: Hardware & software advances keep pace; Open weights & locally runnable models keep pace with frontier (at least the open weights part seems to hold), making AI advances widely available to anyone; Individual productivity skyrockets, having knock-on effects in most industries, slowly allowing less and less people to do the work required to maintain the basic needs of our civilization(s); UBI utopia achieved.

Do I think that's likely? No, but mostly because it would require parallel uprising of the global working class, which doesn't seem to materialize.

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#348

Post by chasil »

coffeecat wrote: post #231
chasil wrote: post #96

I am mixed on the question. Claude has been quite helpful in reviewing my investments, and I have made a fair amount of money on his advice. His availability is unparalleled compared to any sort of financial planner. Professionally, I have run my programs and scripts through Copilot/OpenAI and sometimes received caustic and fiery criticism, but others praise with helpful suggestions. Oftentimes it does make fundament…

> Claude has been quite helpful in reviewing my investments, and I have made a fair amount of money on his advice. His availability is unparalleled compared to any sort of financial planner. Just out of curiosity, what are some investment moves that you made as a result of Claude's advice? "In a bull market, everyone's a genius."

After hearing recently that oil is very likely going to $160 per barrel or more, I knew that I had to get out of the S&P500 in my 401k (FXAIX) and similar growth funds in my Roth.

He really laid out the case for alternate funds in real estate and mortgage securities, with a bit more precious metals.

I really didn't want to lose the gains I have made over the last year, and I think this will do it.

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#349

Post by hparadiz »

watwut wrote: post #326
hparadiz wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you imagine sitting around waiting for a phone call these days? At home? With a landline? Lol. Or going to the video store to drop $20 (with inflation today: $48) on three movies that you had to actually return by driving. The romantic waxing about hanging out with people is hilarious. More often than not it meant coming home at 10 pm and watching shitty network tv by yourself. Now I can play games with all my fr…

I never done any of those things. And I was there, I was old enough. I was not desperately waiting for phone calls or paid a lot of money to borrow movies. Somehow, I occupied myself just fine, was meeting friends regularly and did activities regularly. There was no societally wide lack of entertainment.

I think you are probably an outlier if you've never rented a movie in the 90s and shouldn't generally be used as a good example of how life was. It's frankly absurd that you would even bring it up as a virtue.

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#350

Post by fireflash38 »

paytonjjones wrote: post #303
sylos wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The system won't change until there is massive chaos and destruction. Why would it otherwise? The people with the means to gently and voluntarily change things are living like gods. They have no incentive to help. In fact, a sick and unhealthy society keeps competitors weak. No, I'm afraid to say there will be no fixing things.

How exactly are the superrich today living like gods? They use the same phones, have access to the same entertainment, same internet, same information. Most spend a lot more time stressed out and working. The poor today live better (or, at the very least more "preferenced") lives than ever in human history. Big houses, yachts, nice cars I guess?

Hey guys, we don't have ebola or malaria ok, shut up and go back to work.
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