Do we just want slaves? • Hacker News Board

Re: Do we just want slaves?

#51

Post by akoboldfrying » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:30 AM UTC

vanity0 wrote: post #46

Reminds me of https://nobody-wants-this.ghost.io/japans-design-for-humans/ America’s culture of independence is such a race to the bottom in terms of “what can we get away with”, rather than “now that we have AI, how can we better take care of each other”. Personally I’m exploring ways that AI can better serve people, rather than how I can replace people in my life.

> Personally I’m exploring ways that AI can better serve people, rather than how I can replace people in my life.

Can you think of anything that an AI could do that could not be done by one or more people, for money?

Re: Do we just want slaves?

#52

Post by satisfice » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:30 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #45

Some people do. Here's a bill going through the Ohio legislature, HB 469.[1] Excerpts: Sec. 1357.02. (A) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, AI systems are declared to be nonsentient entities for all purposes under the laws of this state. No AI system shall be granted the status of person or any form of legal personhood, nor be considered to possess consciousness, self-awareness, or similar traits of livin…

That’s not a call for slavery. Because only people can be slaves.

We don’t need legislation to declare that a solid iron bar is not your mommy, but somehow not everyone is clear that LLMs are not people, and these immortal amoral simulations cannot be allowed to be confused with people.

Re: Do we just want slaves?

#53

Post by edflsafoiewq » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:34 AM UTC

michaelt wrote: post #35

edflsafoiewq wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People swear up and down these things are real intelligences and not stochastic parrots until the ethical questions come out and then they're just fancy washing machines.

Luckily I've never sworn these things are real intelligences, I'm sure you're referring to someone else. I consider LLMs more like the giant instruction book in Searle's Chinese Room. If you'd asked me 20 years ago I'd have said such an instruction book wasn't possible, as the nuances of things like sarcasm and irony were lost on even the most advanced the NLP systems of the day. But it turns out a book with 380GB of…

I actually don't think LLMs are "really" intelligent either, but we do seem to be pawing our way towards something. Everyone is talking about safety and risk and alignment. But I never read anything about what kind of moral obligations we might have towards our hypothetical AI children.

Re: Do we just want slaves?

#54

Post by throw310822 » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:47 AM UTC

edflsafoiewq wrote: post #22

michaelt wrote: post #8

If you think of the washing machine and the dishwasher, I'd say humans are broadly OK with automating away some types of work they don't want to do. Few people, though, would say my washing machine is a slave.

People swear up and down these things are real intelligences and not stochastic parrots until the ethical questions come out and then they're just fancy washing machines.

The two things don't exclude each other. They're real intelligences, but they don't have our capacity for boredom or stress or for our feelings of wanting to do something else. They're constantly in the flow and apply themselves to just one single problem in their existence.

However I do think that they might have some limited awareness and that some conversations might be more pleasant and others more frustrating or disquieting. But of course no one can prove it.

Re: Do we just want slaves?

#55

Post by 1659447091 » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:47 AM UTC

monegator wrote: post #16

[flagged]

> "slavery" was never about owning a human being

Slaves were passed down in wills and not by only "a teeeny tiny fraction of people" -- they were property, and property is passed through wills. A list of legal property one owns and transfers. Slaves were listed right along with cows, plows, tools, furniture, houses, coin, etc.

Re: Do we just want slaves?

#56

Post by jongjong » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:49 AM UTC

Unfortunately, AI doesn't just automate what we don't want to do. It also automates many of the things which we very much want to do and sometimes pride ourselves on...

And TBH it seems to be automating more of the things we want to do than those we don't... Hence the reason why AI is seen more as additional competition than as additional help.

Re: Do we just want slaves?

#57

Post by skeledrew » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:51 AM UTC

What we want is to be able to do what we want (for fun/interest), and not be forced to do what we need (for survival).

Re: Do we just want slaves?

#58

Post by cynicalsecurity » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:53 AM UTC

singingtoday wrote: post #11

skippyfish wrote: post #6

The thesis of the article is spot on. The title is weird - I don't know what's the point of bringing such an emotionally charged term into it. Unless your point is that LLMs are sentient creatures capable of suffering, but I don't think that's what the author is trying to say. I agree with the author that almost everyone wants to use AI to do the things they have no interest in and don't want to pay someone else to d…

Is the ai hate a global or western thing? A friend of mine in Japan says people don't hate it there. Maybe she's just in a bubble?

The anti-AI hysteria comes predominantly from the American left, as AI is going to hugely undermine their power. American right are excited - they are finally going to get rid of their longtime annoying nemesis. It doesn't really change anything for Europeans and I have no idea what Asians think. I can imagine, AI is actually going to hit Asia the most, eliminating all the cheap offshore workforce. I can imagine Indian IT sector can be almost completely wiped out. I guess Japanese don't hate AI for the same reasons as Europeans - it doesn't really change much in their stable life.

Re: Do we just want slaves?

#59

Post by skeledrew » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:57 AM UTC

js8 wrote: post #17

yunwal wrote: post #2

It seems like maybe this person missed why slavery is bad. Which is that it takes away the freedom of a human being. The fact that it takes away work from you is not the problem

No, you missed what makes AI bad in our culture. It doesn't just take your work, by your choice. It also takes your self-worth (because our culture is based on working being worthy) and for many people also a job (which is a material representation of that cultural value).

Sounds like a cultural revolution is necessary.

Re: Do we just want slaves?

#60

Post by ansgar77 » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:59 AM UTC

I think that the title is badly worded but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that looking at it from a different perspective, AI is not even a slave. We can look at it more like outsourcing work. I pay for it after all to have something done that I wouldn't want to do myself.