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

151–160 of 221 posts

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

#151

Post by OroPla »

crote wrote: post #117
Legend2440 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think your premise is true. Remember John Henry, worried that the steam engine would put him out of a job drilling holes in rocks? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_(folklore) Ludditism has a long history, and they made the exact same arguments about job loss in the 1800s as today.

You should look up the history of what actually happened with the Luddites. They weren't opposed to the machines (many were even machine operators!), they were opposed to the manufacturers circumventing labour rights . Turns out people don't like routinely seeing 12-year-old children getting scalped by a weaving machine! They targeted the machines because it was the most convenient way to sabotage a factory, not beca…

Luddites are generally made fun of because they somehow believed that destroying property was an effective way of protest, instead of providing others with an excuse to arrest them.

Labor rights did not exist at the time (1768-1817), so nobody would need to circumvent them, either. This was when efforts were made to create them. And the Luddites made a negative contribution.

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

#152

Post by aitchnyu »

dlx wrote: post #127
krat0sprakhar wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm actually thinking that may be a good thing. Maybe people will get off these feeds and...interact with people IRL? ;)

IME people actually adore the videos of people eating a dripping and crunchy pulav (soft and dry rice dish) and it filling the stomach in 3 swallows, completely unchewed.

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

#153

Post by OroPla »

ogou wrote: post #33

When I tell friends or family I just got a job in AI, they look at me with sympathy and disgust, as if I had told them I have gonorrhea. Nobody says "congratulations."

Weird contrast. Everyone uninvolved with tech I know in real life either doesn't care about AI or thinks it is neat.

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

#154

Post by Yizahi »

dlubarov wrote: post #62
mintplant wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner cried the other day because her long-planned PC upgrade is now an order of magnitude more expensive than she budgeted for pre-AI-boom.

I don't love this either, but at least it's a short-term economic quirk. At some point fabs will figure out what the long-term demand looks like and scale up production accordingly.

Aaaand, then watch prices continue rising regardless.

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

#155

Post by harvey9 »

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

Previously, in the case of LinkedIn, filled with handcrafted slop.

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

#156

Post by nylonstrung »

mintplant wrote: post #10
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?)

My partner cried the other day because her long-planned PC upgrade is now an order of magnitude more expensive than she budgeted for pre-AI-boom.

Order of magnitude? It's 10x more expensive now?

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

#157

Post by nylonstrung »

yogthos wrote: post #45
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…

What I find interesting is the contrast between the West and China here. Most people in the West expect that AI will make their lives worse in some way. Meanwhile, 84% of Chinese are excited about this tech, and expect that it will be used to make their lives better. it's a really vivid contrast between the way new technology becomes integrated into each type of society. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-0…

I think a lot of what's underlying this is just a big difference in general societal optimism/pessimism

In polls 80-90% of Chinese say their country/govt is headed in a positive direction vs <30% in US

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

#158

Post by mathw »

hresvelgr wrote: post #103
pier25 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping students learn better, and teachers teach better Absolutely. In fact the data from the past 10-15 years clearly shows the best education technology is still pen and paper, books, and good pedagogy.

I have tried memorisation systems like Anki, but nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing consolidates my knowledge better than writing the actual concept down with pen and paper.

It took me far too long to realise that writing on paper is better than typing.

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

#160

Post by nylonstrung »

swatcoder wrote: post #23
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?)

So far, AI lowers the quality and increases the quantity of the media we experience. Blogslam has become cheaper, more voluminous, and worse. Bot operations on social media sites and forums have become cheaper, more voluminous, and worse. Advertising content has become cheaper, more voluminous, and worse. The content of streaming music, online art communities, and video platforms has beckme cheaper, more voluminous,…

I do think this is true but I think it also reflects negatively on the general populace that this new technology is evaluated in terms of the negative effects on their consumption pattens

Transformer models solved the Protein Folding problem in totality but they are categorically "bad" because more of the videos in my feed are low-quality or the advertisement for a cheeseburger looks fake

It's predictable but I do think the entire technology is being collectively processed through the lens of media consumption which is sort of tip of the iceberg of what it does and honestly the least important dimension of it

Post reply on HN