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Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

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Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#61

Post by jqpabc123 »

lanfeust6 wrote: post #4
jqpabc123 wrote: post #2

[flagged]

No, anti-vax is comparatively much older with a spike during the pandemic, but even the more recent global populist phenomenon preceded the salience of AI. Software hiring rate has rebounded this year. Even those most impacted aren't looking very "obsolete" yet. But leaving the uncertain future aside, this idea that being economically unproductive means the wealthy would want to "purge" you is for the birds, it doesn…

No, anti-vax is comparatively much older...

Yes but official anti-vax *policy* changes are new.

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#62

Post by qudat »

3 citations and a lot of conjecture. Is the article only targeting SWEs? The one study cited said 22-25 age range saw a 16% decrease in relative employment declines (for SWEs)[0]. But everyone outside that range was not impacted. Further, what about all the trades jobs around data center development?

“Demand is also being intensified by major investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, reshoring, and AI. Data center growth alone has added a net 315,000 skilled-trade workers over the past five years, according to the report, putting additional pressure on an already tight labor market.”

https://www.morningstar.com/news/pr-newswire/20260825cg32433...

We literally do not have enough trades people to build out data centers and their salaries are increasing as a result. These are skilled labor jobs (plumbers, electricians, IT, etc.). Does Bill Gates care about the rest of the economy outside of SWE?

[0]: https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/app/uploads/2025/11/Cana...

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#63

Post by ActionHank »

ActionHank wrote: post #57
dostick wrote: post #13

> We have to think now about how to reduce job losses so that everyone can share in the prosperity that AI creates. And I thought he is a smart man. This is so last century thinking. We need to prepare that there will definitely be no jobs for everyone and that will be falling all the time, it’s not a one-time event you should “prepare for”. There’s nothing to prepare, we already have funds and productivity to feed a…

The funny thing is that the wealthy and powerful don't realise that a collapse of that scale means that every switches to professional guillotine builder over night. There is no preparing for that. I doubt we get there to be honest, they all have wealth and power because there are consumers with money. No more consumers, no more wealth and power.

P.S. remember my guy Bill didn't write a nice blog post about any of the allegations around his involvement with Epstein. So, you know, this is basically just marketing more than Bill's thoughts.

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#64

Post by lotsofpulp »

shay_ker wrote: post #45

> In the United States, I’ve met families who, understandably, were overwhelmed by the process of applying for health insurance, student aid, or food assistance. Faced with a huge stack of complicated bureaucratic forms, many felt like giving up. AI can streamline things dramatically I'd love to see anyone building Grokbot or ChatGPT Work talk about how they're thinking about this use case, specifically. It seems gre…

>On the other end - yes, it will create massive vectors for abuse & fraud, since govt services are designed to have roadblocks to reduce usage.

That the government collects taxes and then understaffs the department that distributes the benefit is the first fraud. 30 years after email was invented, why do people have to wait on the phone for hours to talk to a government employee?

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#65

Post by ActionHank »

qudat wrote: post #62

3 citations and a lot of conjecture. Is the article only targeting SWEs? The one study cited said 22-25 age range saw a 16% decrease in relative employment declines (for SWEs)[0]. But everyone outside that range was not impacted. Further, what about all the trades jobs around data center development? “Demand is also being intensified by major investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, reshoring, and AI. Data cente…

Honestly a lot of those decreases are also because companies are trying to wait and see as much as possible to see if there is any truth to the conjecture.

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#66

Post by tartuffe78 »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #48
worthless-trash wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we already have funds and productivity to feed and shelter everyone. Where ? who ?

You can build livable domiciles for a few grand in bulk, recycle waste via composting to reduce infrastructure needs, shared batteries and solar, etc. There are plenty of people on youtube demonstrating the permie off grid lifestyle. Grains are cheap and we have a wild boar and deer problem in a lot of the country so food wouldn't be too expensive either.

Most people don't want to live like that. They want AC, central plumbing, trendy food, and cheap clothing.

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#67

Post by sophrosyne42 »

swed420 wrote: post #55
sophrosyne42 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Election denialism is unbecoming of anyone with a brain

> Election denialism is unbecoming of anyone with a brain Convincing argument you have there, but the choices we're provided between shit sandwich A and shit sandwich B are the problem, not which one wins.

This is a well known mathematical property of first-past-the-post election systems, as opposed to evidence of your grand conspiracy theory

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#68

Post by hydrogen7800 »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #33
dostick wrote: post #13

> We have to think now about how to reduce job losses so that everyone can share in the prosperity that AI creates. And I thought he is a smart man. This is so last century thinking. We need to prepare that there will definitely be no jobs for everyone and that will be falling all the time, it’s not a one-time event you should “prepare for”. There’s nothing to prepare, we already have funds and productivity to feed a…

Yeah it's total horseshit, to be frank. Worker protections have almost never been granted by the profiteers... not child labor laws, not weekends, not overtime, not safety regulations, not minimum wage, not workers comp... the working class is not what it is today because of "sharing prosperity" and there's been a lot of prosperity — it's all a series of fights.

This is all well known, but I recently visited an old coal mine in Pennsylvania, and much of the tour was talking about the labor conditions, and the generational "trap" of working there. If a worker died, the family had little time to leave the company-provided house without providing someone to work. What often happened is that one of the children would work to maintain the household.

>[0]the "rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for—not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country."

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1902_anthracite_coal_strike

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#69

Post by shay_ker »

> I’m also worried about AI’s impact on education. Ironically, the same tool that will allow people to learn more than ever could also lead to many people learning less.

For teachers/admins who are on HN: what has worked in a past for a "new way to educate" students to actually be implemented by educators? Does it happen through conferences? Do some states take the lead and others follow? Does it follow from private schools into public schools?

I know AI labs are trying to include teachers here and there... but IME teachers are very "anti-AI", "anti-datacenter", etc. etc. In coastal cities, the unions will be entirely opposed. This seems less of a "can AI be useful for education" question and more around politics and messaging. But I'd love to learn more.

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#70

Post by phn »

If all jobs are taken away for the sake of robot driven productivity, who will consume the products and services being offered that result in profit?!

(EDIT: I am not against AI at all, just trying to understand where this all leads)

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