I am not optimistic. What we learned from history is that despite all warnings and good intentions, governments, corps and citizens will make every possible mistake before we finally arrive at another precariously stable situation. Experts are famously bad at predicting the outcomes of new technologies/policies even in times of relatively low upheaval. And plans have a way of producing many significant unintended consequences. This is not going to prevent people with strong opinions from asserting that they know exactly what needs to be done. And in the rush to do something many things will certainly be done. We are screwed at least for a while.
The turbulent AI era is here
251–260 of 290 posts
Re: The turbulent AI era is here
#252Re: The turbulent AI era is here
#253If A.I. starts to replace jobs en masse I propose we tax the companies profiting from this at a rate of 95% so we can finance welfare and Universal Basic Income schemes. We need to be aware that said companies and the people behind them will do anything in their power, including bribing politicians, to prevent this and to keep the money they believe are they're entitled to. I even believe the Big Tech bigwigs have lo…
Anyone seriously trust in the fairytale that the rich and powerful gives 95% of their profit back to customers?
It's not really what they've built their business empires for.
Re: The turbulent AI era is here
#254If A.I. starts to replace jobs en masse I propose we tax the companies profiting from this at a rate of 95% so we can finance welfare and Universal Basic Income schemes. We need to be aware that said companies and the people behind them will do anything in their power, including bribing politicians, to prevent this and to keep the money they believe are they're entitled to. I even believe the Big Tech bigwigs have lo…
> If A.I. starts to replace jobs en masse But then nobody will have money to buy anything anymore, then nobody will have money to pay the AI companies, and then they won't have any money. The jobless will starve to death and then those who have their food made by robots will reign over an empty world where money has become meaningless. LLMs and robots don't eat money, they eat electricity.
If you really simplify how this works:
Owners of capital use the capital in combination with workers to produces goods and services. They give half of the production to the workers and keep the other half.
If AI replaces workers, the owners of capital will simply keep all of the production to themselves. So they would be better off. If I have a construction company, I could just lay off the workers and distribute the surplus houses to myself and other owners.
There are nuances to this of course, but this is a point that most people miss.
Re: The turbulent AI era is here
#255Lemme in now, Lemme in now, Bill Gates Donald Trump lemme in now we f-ckin lesbian twins now
Re: The turbulent AI era is here
#256Guys like Gates are extrapolating recent trends (ChatGPT onwards), but what if you defined the start of AI as the 1950s (when it actually started). Perhaps I’m too distant from the inner circles of Silicon Valley but as an outsider… I suggest taking the longer term trend. It’s an awesome tool. It will be used in war. People will lose jobs, and others will become more efficient. It’s probably an extension of computers…
If you look at the difference between AI in 1960 and AI in 2020, you probably won't see much much difference. If you look at the difference between 2020 and 2026, the difference is around 80% of the time I spent as a software engineer in 2020.
Re: The turbulent AI era is here
#257[flagged]
Re: The turbulent AI era is here
#258God, I wish I knew which PR firm he hires. Changing his public image from the most despised, greediest, nastiest businessman of his era to a calm, wise sage over a course of 10-20 years -- that's quite an achievement.
Just read the intro to this post, it sounds like music:
"The transition to the AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history" -- are you even qualified to make this claim?
"Right now, we are not preparing adequately for that transition" -- who are you to know that for certain?
"If the world takes the right steps, AI will be a force for good and leave everyone better off" -- awwwwww.
Re: The turbulent AI era is here
#259I feel this is merely stating the obvious. It goes back to the industrial revolution and every revolution before and after. There was a point where they thought a majority of people would be working as switchboard operators and then telephone switching came along. Horses to cars, etc. Jobs transition, new space is created, people are caught in tbe crossfire of supply and demand curves. Incan agree the bullwhip of thi…
Industrial transitions pushed more people from leg-work to hand-work and then brain-work. What is left once AI is better at that?
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Re: The turbulent AI era is here
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
The fascist leader needs to catch every single revolutionary group every single time. But a single revolutionary with a pistol only needs to catch the leader ONCE.
You should probably read the history of anarchism in Imperial Russia. There were tons of assassination attempts against the tsars in the 1800s, and they even killed a tsar. Yet the empire fell due to an external war, roughly 100 years later. Aristocracy became useless around 1600-1700, when gunpowder meant that peasant armies took over instead of knights, yet it took between 200 and 400 years for full legal equality…
> Aristocracy became useless around 1600-1700, when gunpowder meant that peasant armies took over instead of knights
Does this view rest on the claim that the only use of the aristocracy is warfare?