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Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

gatesnotes.com

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Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#131

Post by soulofmischief »

lanfeust6 wrote: post #109
swed420 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 akin to arguing "nothing ever changes or improves in Liberal democracies", when policy history doesn't reflect that. Large parties represent large coalitions, so there are more compromises and things happen slower, but they still happen. Not always for the better, as we're seeing when populists are elected.

This take completely ignores the amount of money in politics and that both parties have funding from overlapping sources which in turn represent how similar the two parties are on certain key issues such as the Palestinian genocide.

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#132

Post by rescripting »

dhd415 wrote: post #27

I thought Gates' take on the human relational aspects of AI to be thoughtful, but I am surprised that his analysis on the economic and jobs aspect of AI offers little more than the party line. Every other technological advance that improved productivity (Industrial Revolution, etc.) has resulted in the loss of some jobs but the creation of jobs in other areas and an overall increase in the standard of living (althoug…

If you believe the hype then this isn't a transformation like, say, the power loom replacing handmade textiles. Both AI boosters and doomers are envisioning a future where almost all white collar work is obsolete. It isn't just one industry, its broad swaths labour across all segments of the economy.

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#133

Post by tcgv »

swed420 wrote: post #12

> Instead, solutions should be developed through a public democratic process that includes elected officials, policymakers, educators, health workers, local officials, and community leaders. Millions of people will have their lives disrupted, and we’ll need a stronger, more flexible social safety net to help them manage the transition. Local communities are already raising concerns about the energy and water needed f…

[flagged]

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#134

Post by tttrr »

simianwords wrote: post #41
dhd415 wrote: post #27

I thought Gates' take on the human relational aspects of AI to be thoughtful, but I am surprised that his analysis on the economic and jobs aspect of AI offers little more than the party line. Every other technological advance that improved productivity (Industrial Revolution, etc.) has resulted in the loss of some jobs but the creation of jobs in other areas and an overall increase in the standard of living (althoug…

Do you think we could have handled Industrial Revolution with more care by offering a soft landing for those affected? I don’t think he’s disagreeing that this technology can be used for net good.

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Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#135

Post by tejohnso »

sophrosyne42 wrote: post #49
swed420 wrote: post #12

> Instead, solutions should be developed through a public democratic process that includes elected officials, policymakers, educators, health workers, local officials, and community leaders. Millions of people will have their lives disrupted, and we’ll need a stronger, more flexible social safety net to help them manage the transition. Local communities are already raising concerns about the energy and water needed f…

Election denialism is unbecoming of anyone with a brain

Election denialism is about rejecting official election results.

But anyway, on the subject of the usefulness of your vote, Trump was elected on an America first platform, touting ending foreign wars and avoiding new ones.

If you elected him and his party based on that I think you're going to be pretty disappointed with the effectiveness of your vote in its ability to bring about actual outcomes that you want.

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#136

Post by ciupicri »

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…

> we already have funds and productivity to feed and shelter everyone

For how long?

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#137

Post by nextaccountic »

debo_ wrote: post #19
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…

I support UBI and wealth taxes, but I also think generally that will be a difficult transition in terms of social upheaval. There are so many people I know who are financially well-off but completely fall apart when there is no visible professional hierarchy to give them meaning. One would hope that this would still go down better than destituting large percentages of the world population, but I wonder.

> I know who are financially well-off but completely fall apart when there is no visible professional hierarchy to give them meaning.

This reminds me of white people in the American south that didn't personally own slaves, but fought in the civil war anyway to maintain their place in the social hierarchy https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/67fvaf/comme...

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/f9j6hg/why_d...

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#138

Post by mythrwy »

ActionHank wrote: post #83
simianwords wrote: post #14

It’s a good thoughtful piece. If I may suggest, the main problem and I mean the actual main problem are those people who underestimate the capabilities of AI. The ones who think it hallucinates all the time, unreliable and mostly useless. The average person thinks this technology is overhyped (like Emily Bender) so how would one even begin to have a conversation with them on the risks?

It is overhyped. It's powerful, and very useful in specific situations. It's not the second coming of jesus christ.

Agreed.

It can code and we saw it eat(ing) our former occupation, but that was always a defined finite space with defined rules and to be frank, not as hard as us practitioners liked to believe. So I don't think we can extrapolate this progress out to every other human endeavor in the near term at least.

More automation is coming though most likely.

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#139

Post by k310 »

It always is a matter of choice. Rich people choose wisely for the fast buck, and poorly for the suckers they bend, fold, spindle and mutilate.

I get the sense of "Every Accusation is a confession"

> During my entire life I’ve only had two jobs. In the first one, I played a role in developing software to empower people through my work at Microsoft.

Some of us remember the story/urban legend of Bill Gates "developing" BASIC by retrieving a printout of source code from a dumpster, a process infinitely more efficient than an LLM.

NOTE. "Played a role in developing", not "Played a role BY developing"

The former could be said by the coffee maker. Or dumpster diver.

Re: Bill Gates: The turbulent AI era is here

#140

Post by kalleboo »

phn wrote: post #70

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)

Other bots. The sequel to "don't build the torment nexus" is "don't make dead internet theory a reality"
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