Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

fast.ai

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 221 posts

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#11

Post by kadushka »

japhyr wrote: post #2

Of course everyone hates AI. For most people, it's actively making their lives worse, not better. AI is a really effective technology when used with restraint, in appropriate places. But it's rarely being used with restraint, and it's being inserted just about everywhere. If you're trying to work in AI on a product related to education, you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping stude…

Everyone I know loves AI. It is actively making their lives better. All kinds of people, all kind of ages - universally love it and use it every day for all kind of stuff (shopping, health, learning, home improvement, etc, etc).

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#12

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #5

> I want to figure out how to use AI in ways that protect human creativity, autonomy, and problem-solving I think this is an admirable goal but I'd be curious how the author plans to even begin approaching it. It seems to me that this ship has sailed. Generative AI is here now, which is seems like it will lead us down a lowest common denominator path, not an enlightened one. How do we "protect human creativity, auton…

If you assume that you can't fix something, you're right.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#13

Post by Octoth0rpe »

xyzsparetimexyz wrote: post #6

The only thing more annoying than ai boosters is aai self-haters. Either use it and shut up or don't use it. It's like when people are all like 'oh I know that I should really be vegan but im not mentally strong enough'

> Either use it and shut up or don't use it.

Many people do not have a choice to not use it at their jobs due to internal mandates. Regardless of their own use, many people are subjected to externalized cost of AI proliferation (data centers, layoffs, electrical bills, etc).

One cannot choose to not be affected by it. But even if one were personally not at all affected by it, it is still reasonable for someone to push back against what they see as a negative effect on society, even if it's not hitting them personally. Climate change's effect on me personally is pretty minimal, and I still deeply care about it.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#14

Post by a2ff6eeb0 »

kadushka wrote: post #11
japhyr wrote: post #2

Of course everyone hates AI. For most people, it's actively making their lives worse, not better. AI is a really effective technology when used with restraint, in appropriate places. But it's rarely being used with restraint, and it's being inserted just about everywhere. If you're trying to work in AI on a product related to education, you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping stude…

Everyone I know loves AI. It is actively making their lives better. All kinds of people, all kind of ages - universally love it and use it every day for all kind of stuff (shopping, health, learning, home improvement, etc, etc).

You must live in a bubble; 16% of Americans think AI is making their lives better, the remainder are evenly split between not knowing and disliking it.

It's still inevitable, but people aren't dumb, and they know that it's only going to help those who manage to escape the permanent underclass.

It'll eliminate the toil of thinking, but that also means that the people who make a living selling their thinking will end up replaced. Educators especially -- because, once we've automated thinking, it becomes economically worthless. Strength used to be very important, until the industrial revolution replaced muscle with steam and steel. AI will do the same for brains, and thinking will become a sport, similar to weight lifting; most people simply won't bother. Some people will win in this world, lots are going to lose.

We're obviously not there yet, but if you think to where we were two years ago, we're probably only a few breakthroughs and improvements away.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/712751/americans-cool-toward.as...

https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/17/only-16-percent-of-america...

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#16

Post by rrr_oh_man »

krat0sprakhar wrote: post #8
CSMastermind wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No saying you're wrong but how is it making their lives worse? Most people know use AI for basic applications and seem to enjoy it while the people I know who hate it all seem to be idelogically motivated (seemingly this is a cause de célèbre on the left right now?)

The AI slop that's everywhere is making it worse. Even if someone doesn't care about AI, their feeds (YT, Instagram, LinkedIn) is now filled with AI slop

You forgot HN

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#17

Post by bryan0 »

xyzsparetimexyz wrote: post #6

The only thing more annoying than ai boosters is aai self-haters. Either use it and shut up or don't use it. It's like when people are all like 'oh I know that I should really be vegan but im not mentally strong enough'

I think this is the wrong attitude to have. There is moral complexity in these topics and it's better for people to openly share their concerns rather than pick a side and "shut up". Yes you might find it annoying, but that's really your problem, not theirs.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#19

Post by bothers »

CSMastermind wrote: post #7
japhyr wrote: post #2

Of course everyone hates AI. For most people, it's actively making their lives worse, not better. AI is a really effective technology when used with restraint, in appropriate places. But it's rarely being used with restraint, and it's being inserted just about everywhere. If you're trying to work in AI on a product related to education, you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping stude…

No saying you're wrong but how is it making their lives worse? Most people know use AI for basic applications and seem to enjoy it while the people I know who hate it all seem to be idelogically motivated (seemingly this is a cause de célèbre on the left right now?)

[dead]

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#20

Post by simonw »

Octoth0rpe wrote: post #9
CSMastermind wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No saying you're wrong but how is it making their lives worse? Most people know use AI for basic applications and seem to enjoy it while the people I know who hate it all seem to be idelogically motivated (seemingly this is a cause de célèbre on the left right now?)

> No saying you're wrong but how is it making their lives worse? Data centers and their side effects (higher electricity prices, etc) and job layoffs attributed to AI; plus a bunch of industry specific objections (like say, how it's currently destroying the educational system). > Most people know use AI for basic applications and seem to enjoy it Not sure what crowd you're running with. Myself and coworkers use AI an…

I enjoy it. I have a small army of weird little golems that mostly do what I tell them to do. What's not fun about that?

The other day I asked one of them (running directly on my laptop) to "draw an svg of a circle" and it "thought" for 20 minutes and produced this: https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer#url=ht...

I'm still chuckling to myself about that two days later.

Post reply on HN