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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

#361

Post by dbspin »

rayiner wrote: post #281
wyre wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 60s were 60 years ago. There were regulations back then that protected the common folk and capitalism wasn't as ruthless and aligned with the will of the 0.1% as it is now. I want to be optimistic and agree with you, but I don't think the parallels are as strong as you say they are. We already have Anthropic withhold Mythos from the public, the governement now allowing the use of Fable, I don't think its farfetch…

> The 60s were 60 years ago. There were regulations back then that protected the common folk and capitalism wasn't as ruthless and aligned with the will of the 0.1% as it is now. No company in the 1990s ever achieved as much market power as IBM did in the 1960s-1980s. IBM controlled 70% of the computer market at the time. Can you give me a concrete example that’s relevant to the deployment of computers?

> IBM controlled 70% of the computer market at the time.

The computer market was microscopic at the time.

> Can you give me a concrete example that’s relevant to the deployment of computers?

Nvidia. 92% of domestic GPU market, 85% of AI datacenter market.

The AI investment bubble is exploding the cost of everything that contains RAM or SSD storage. This is having and will have detrimental effects on the global economy, as supply shortages enormously increase the cost of consumer electronics, cars, anything which requires memory.

Not because AI is making so much money, far from it - it's a money sink. Rather, it's because the global supply of money got so large and so unequal that it ran out of vehicles which would provide sufficient returns for the indolent investment class. So they jumped into speculation - first crypto, now AI and the tech that enables it.

To the benefit of whom? Mass layoffs, tech industry consolidation, new products being cancelled left and right.

Ironically there's no equivalent in the modern era. This is peak social inequality breaking the economy for everyone outside the .001%. And it didn't happen because of a shortage of a raw material, or physics breaking Moore's law. It happened because big tech centralised power into a handful of gigacorporations - creating a handful of ultra-billionaires - who are enormously incentivised to centralise technology itself.

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

#362

Post by paytonjjones »

fireflash38 wrote: post #350
paytonjjones wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're confusing "things have gotten better" with "things are good enough and shouldn't improve further"

These are close to opposites in their implications

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

#363

Post by shimman »

sleples wrote: post #285
vanuatu wrote: post #91

It's interesting that many developing and Asian countries have a more positive view of AI: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/15/people-around-the-w... How much of this is due to AI vs. the government and corporate structures in society? (Saw elsewhere that Chinese people were also much more optimistic)

Part of it is the ridiculous fear-based marketing campaign spearheaded by Anthropic et al. about how AI will automate all jobs and you'll be left behind. Works for enterprise/CEOs, predictably makes regular people hate the mere mention of AI, Asian countries don't have this nearly to the same extent.

Well most of it not really fear mongering, more like Americans are slowly waking up to the realization that consolidating the nations wealth to a few dozen people is not healthy for the country nor democracy.

Especially when you see what big tech spends on LLMs per year while Americans lack medicare for all, universal childcare, or free community college.

People have long hated the leadership of big tech well before ChatGPT, let's not act like this is all new and shocking. More like the naked power grabs are filling people with righteous digust.

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

#364

Post by lbrito »

hparadiz wrote: post #106
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…

People just forget the before times. No one wants to go back to printing out driving directions or emailing photos. We take all these things for granted now but I am 100 certain the technology we have now has saved hundreds of millions of lives through downstream butterfly effects.

That's because you're measuring yesterday's worlds with today's demented expectations.

Because there was no faster way to do it, it was okay to wait for someone to send you those photos via email. If you were late for a meetup somewhere new, that was okay because people knew you might have missed the street a few times stopped for directions etc.

We have more convenient things, sure. But they come with increased and rather frenzied expectations.

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

#365

Post by Silamoth »

olalonde wrote: post #347

Stated preferences vs revealed preferences. People say they don't like it but they still use it.

Do they? And if so, by choice?

I don’t like “AI”, and I don’t use it. I read lots of stories where people are forced to use it at work but don’t use it otherwise. Do you know of people who don’t think “AI” will have a positive impact on society but still choose to use it?

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

#366

Post by ceejayoz »

olalonde wrote: post #347

Stated preferences vs revealed preferences. People say they don't like it but they still use it.

That's a false dichotomy; I prefer kayaking over work, but I still have to work.

We've all seen stories about performance evaluations that include "how much AI are you using?" We've all seen Microsoft shove it into the OS and even the physical keyboard. We've all had the little suggestions pop up in Gmail.

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

#367

Post by paytonjjones »

ben_w wrote: post #338
paytonjjones wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> How exactly are the superrich today living like gods? A lot of us are, not just the super-rich. "We are close to gods, and on the far side", as Banks put it. Or, as I wrote a while ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40874779 I really ought to turn this into a youtube video.

Love this

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

#368

Post by ryandrake »

slg wrote: post #150
ctoth wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are jobs for? Should we have them? Should they be mandatory? What does it mean to have to work to eat, is this a good setup? Does everyone have to work? Should they?

Who do you think will be answering these questions in a future in which these AI companies visions become a reality? Because they already have a huge influence on society and that will only increase as the tech improves. The most optimistic answer I can think of is that they will eventually agree to share their wealth under credible threats of violent revolution. That's the most optimistic outcome I see, they concede…

> The most optimistic answer I can think of is that they will eventually agree to share their wealth under credible threats of violent revolution. That's the most optimistic outcome I see, they concede to threats of violence rather than needing actual violence.

Or they all figure out how to just bugger off to some Elysium-like stronghold, isolating themselves from and leaving the rest of society economically irrelevant.

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

#369

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

pesus wrote: post #298
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw over a dozen self driving cars on my way to work today. Weave Robotics launched a laundry helper months ago, although my sense is that "laundry folding" is a bit of a meme and people don't actually care very much about automating it.

I strongly disagree. Tedious yet necessary and ultimately unending tasks are exactly what the average person wants from automation.

Yes, but we just don’t fold that much laundry and you can easily do it while watching streaming videos. Most people don’t even own a laundry folding board.

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

#370

Post by webdood90 »

mgfist wrote: post #311
gortok wrote: post #29

When I use a computer to do work I want the computer to be right. I want to be able to trust the computer. With the inherit non-determinism and probabilistic nature of generative-AI, that fundamental reason why I engage a computer is lost. If the spreadsheet is wrong, it’s because the math is wrong, it’s because I made a mistake. It’s not because all of a sudden the computer decided the nature of algebra should be di…

> there are plenty of places where machine learning algorithms make sense, but customer service is not one of them. I don't care about human vs AI, I just want my issue resolved. Whatever does that the best and fastest. Or even better, for there to not be an issue in the first place.

The root of all our evils, right here. We only want the fastest cheapest thing possible, without thinking about how it impacts literally everything else about our world.
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