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

Feeling Sad about AI

artificialworlds.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 285 posts

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#51

Post by xp84 »

paul7986 wrote: post #23
asdfman123 wrote: post #6

I feel like this is a rational response. Personally, while I'm becoming increasingly convinced there's going to be a wave of SWE layoffs, another part of me doesn't grasp it yet. I don't feel it. I was an AI skeptic for a while but it's literally doing my job for me right now. Every month it needs less of my help. Once they replace SWEs, they're going to turn around and replace every other knowledge worker yet. But m…

The Ai overlords have been banging this drum for over a decade with Altman posting about the need for Universal Basic Income on here in 2016.

I didn't remember/realize this so I went searching [1] and found multiple sources e.g. [2]

1. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1483401600&dateRange=custom&...

2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13207552

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#52

Post by brokencode »

alexambarch wrote: post #28

It’s been hard for me to overcome the feeling that anything I can do, the machine can do better and faster. I know people have been saying “If you’re worried about it replacing you, you weren’t a good engineer to start with,” but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. I had a lot of fun solving problems and thinking deeply, but now my time is much better spent reviewing the plans and code of a machine that’s done that par…

I think that’s going to be one of the biggest impacts of AI in society. We will need to find new ways to occupy our time and find meaning in life once machines can do everything better, faster, and cheaper.

What will it look like? Will everybody spend their time playing sports and games? Or on art? Perhaps exploring the solar system or beyond if our technology advances enough?

Quite a time to be alive to even have to think of such things outside of science fiction.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#53

Post by urue »

pixl97 wrote: post #39
urue wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lmao this is hilarious. I’m not a SWE (I’m retired) but this idea that hurrrr durr - if SWE’s are fked so is everyone else! No this is wrong - it may hurt your ego but get over it. What software is and what software engineers do is pretty unique compared with other industries and what workers do. And it just so happens producing software is uniquely suited to llm’s. Moreover much of software will become consolidated…

>- if SWE’s are fked so is everyone else! - Technical writers: It will never be me. [Oh no, it was me] - Graphics designers: It will never be me. [Oh no, it was me] - SWE: It will never be me. [Oh no, it was me] - everybody else: Haha, Idiots, it will never be me. <- We are here.

Technical writers?

Mate that job was outsourced to places like India years ago.

Moreover who’s actually getting laid off?

The bozo’s whose value was questionable.

The good ones remain.

Market does its thing. And?

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#54

Post by ActionHank »

datakan wrote: post #16

My son told me yesterday he wants to program video games for a living. He's 13. He's looking at how it used to be done and seeing the pride people had in doing it. He hasn't seen how it is now. Not sure I have the heart to tell him how terrible the industry has become. Feels like telling a kid 30 years ago that being an astronaut is pointless because they no longer go to the moon.

Only studios that have had a big mouth about using AI are the big ones. Indie studios are eating the industry and most of them are not bullish on AI for replacing the craft, but for optimizing and automating the mundane.

My son is 12, he doesn't care, I've told him how LLMs work, he's used claude, he's not convinced that AI changes things that much and frankly, so am I.

The work was always to build, thoughtfully, carefully, with vision, and ingenuity. That hasn't gone away.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#55

Post by qarl »

datakan wrote: post #16

My son told me yesterday he wants to program video games for a living. He's 13. He's looking at how it used to be done and seeing the pride people had in doing it. He hasn't seen how it is now. Not sure I have the heart to tell him how terrible the industry has become. Feels like telling a kid 30 years ago that being an astronaut is pointless because they no longer go to the moon.

As someone who has worked in both the game industry and the film industry - tell your son this:

When you are passionate about your work - it comes at a serious price. We live in capitalism and so everything has its cost. Passion in the workplace is taken-advantage of by the corporation. Sure, maybe there are a few places. Maybe more at the beginning of the industry. But by and large you and your skills will be treated very poorly. Because you really want to be there. And so they can get away with it. Paid less, treated less, considered less.

It's the same dynamic at play with teachers, who also feel passionate about their work. Probably every profitable field that has passion.

I don't say this to dissuade your son. But he should know what he's getting himself into. What the real price is. And what we need to fix.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#56

Post by augment_me »

This points to the bigger issue of people tying their value and identity to their livelihood. There is way too much clout, ego and identity chasing going on in all informational fields.

If you instead identified as a parent, as a hobbyist programmer, as a rock climber, as a learner, as a meditator, in essence as anything that is not directly tied to your occupation, you don't have anything to worry or be sad about.

This is hard, capitalism has forced us to identify with occupations, and then when it gets automated you feel a loss. But it's inevitable that this will need to be the outcome, so the sooner you start building an identity outside of your livelihood the sooner you will feel at peace.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#57

Post by pixl97 »

datakan wrote: post #16

My son told me yesterday he wants to program video games for a living. He's 13. He's looking at how it used to be done and seeing the pride people had in doing it. He hasn't seen how it is now. Not sure I have the heart to tell him how terrible the industry has become. Feels like telling a kid 30 years ago that being an astronaut is pointless because they no longer go to the moon.

Tell him to run now. Time to become a plumber at least for a bit.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#58

Post by sdsdssweew213 »

urue wrote: post #22
asdfman123 wrote: post #6

I feel like this is a rational response. Personally, while I'm becoming increasingly convinced there's going to be a wave of SWE layoffs, another part of me doesn't grasp it yet. I don't feel it. I was an AI skeptic for a while but it's literally doing my job for me right now. Every month it needs less of my help. Once they replace SWEs, they're going to turn around and replace every other knowledge worker yet. But m…

Lmao this is hilarious. I’m not a SWE (I’m retired) but this idea that hurrrr durr - if SWE’s are fked so is everyone else! No this is wrong - it may hurt your ego but get over it. What software is and what software engineers do is pretty unique compared with other industries and what workers do. And it just so happens producing software is uniquely suited to llm’s. Moreover much of software will become consolidated…

LLM's are perfectly capable of replacing tons of jobs in fields like marketing, corporate communications, journalism etc. Also, as price of software is driven down thanks to LLM's, more custom software can be built to automate all kinds of tasks in many fields, tasks that were not previously economically viable to automate. You are delusional if you think SWE's will be fkd and all other white collar professions will be fine.

The way I see it, few professions will be completely replaced, but people using LLM's as their tools will do more work, reducing the need for labour. Humans in many, many fields will focus more on quality assurance, less on the daily tasks they used to do.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#59

Post by californical »

ploden wrote: post #19

Excellent post. How many careers and industries has software killed? Now it’s our turn. We sold out for crypto scams and toxic social media and surveillance capitalism. We deserve zero sympathy.

> We sold out for crypto scams and toxic social media and surveillance capitalism

Eh maybe you did, I and a bunch of people that I know have worked in companies that build software that genuinely helps people and improves their lives - either by simplifying something that sucked for them or by just improving inefficient industries and giving people new abilities.

I don’t feel that way about anything I’ve worked on in my 20 years of building software

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#60

Post by asdfman123 »

urue wrote: post #22
asdfman123 wrote: post #6

I feel like this is a rational response. Personally, while I'm becoming increasingly convinced there's going to be a wave of SWE layoffs, another part of me doesn't grasp it yet. I don't feel it. I was an AI skeptic for a while but it's literally doing my job for me right now. Every month it needs less of my help. Once they replace SWEs, they're going to turn around and replace every other knowledge worker yet. But m…

Lmao this is hilarious. I’m not a SWE (I’m retired) but this idea that hurrrr durr - if SWE’s are fked so is everyone else! No this is wrong - it may hurt your ego but get over it. What software is and what software engineers do is pretty unique compared with other industries and what workers do. And it just so happens producing software is uniquely suited to llm’s. Moreover much of software will become consolidated…

Dismissive, uninformed, and in denial is not an attractive combination of traits to have.
Post reply on HN