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

Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches

nbcnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 185 posts

Re: Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches

#101

Post by SlinkyOnStairs »

logicchains wrote: post #80
SlinkyOnStairs wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It had the vibe of “These people need to hear the Truth”. Schmidt anticipated the response, but does not understand it. He falls flat on his face here precisely because "needing to hear the truth" is a self-contradiction. The very fact that he has to go around saying 'AI is inevitable, suck it up you live in our world now', proves that it's not true. Nothing that is actually inevitable is declared as such. Nobody g…

AI is inevitable in the sense that if a country rejects the development of AI, it'll eventually end up subjugated military by the robots of a country that did invest in AI.

"But the commies will do it" is just an old hat version of what I just described.

And in the specifics of military, it's all nonsense anyway. Reagan pulled it with his dumb space lasers and we ain't got those up there anymore.

The only time it was kind of true was with nuclear weapons between the US and USSR. Both countries very rapidly obtained enough weapons to destroy the other utterly, and were just wasting their money afterwards.

For the smaller states, nuclear weapons have universally been not worth it. The only two "losers" right now are Ukraine and Iran, neither of which would be in the position to use their nuclear weapons had they retained/obtained them.

Anyone who's paid attention to these recent wars has seen the actual military development be lower tech weapons. Cheap drones rather than million dollar missiles.

With regard to "AI weaponry": First, AI weapons are broadly a dumb idea. Second: As mentioned, nuclear weapons exist. AI isn't going to magically stop [insert western country] from obliterating China if China were to send their army of wunderwaffe robots.

Re: Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches

#103

Post by [deleted] »

Mizza wrote: post #74
weregiraffe wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is "accused of rape" and "raped" the same in your mind?

It's up to you to choose to who to believe about what happened on the yacht in the gulf of Mexico, the seventy year old billionaire cheating on his wife, or the thirty year old woman who accused him of forcible rape. There was some form of financial settlement, but it's still in private arbitration. The public documents said: “He followed me into a shower, slammed me against the wall, and forcibly raped me. I begged…

[deleted]

Re: Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches

#105

Post by lkey »

breezybottom wrote: post #36
va1a wrote: post #31

I've noticed, as a student, that many college students - particularly those not in STEM/engineering fields - have an almost irrational hatred of AI. It's to the point where they'll mock you for using it, even when it provides such an insane productivity boost. I understand the disdain for trying to inject the concept everywhere, and like any new technology, it's apt to be used where it is unneeded, and mentioned when…

You do realize luddites were people made unemployable and impoverished by new technology? Calling them luddites just proves their point.

They weren't even against it! They were the users of the new tech. They wanted regulation and a cut of the increased productivity. They were a nascent labour movement asking for things you and I take for granted. The responses at the time was, of course, violent reprisal.

Re: Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches

#106

Post by kleiba2 »

sam_lowry_ wrote: post #71
unfirehose wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"don't be evil"

What about the presumption of innocence? The case is in open court now, AFAIU.

Can someone who downvoted parent's comment explain what's wrong with the presumption of innocence in their opinion?

Re: Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches

#107

Post by sheikhnbake »

logicchains wrote: post #86
gilrain wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until convictions of rape are justly meted out, you’ll have to stomach accusations taking justice’s place. Justice won’t just sleep. Blame wealth for making the corruption of the courts too damn obvious. Now they’re not taken seriously.

You could just as easily say blame wealth for the rape accusations; there's much more incentive to make fake rape accusations of rich men than of poor men.

There's also a higher chance that wealthy perpetrators of sexual violence are under-represented in data. There's no denying the relationship between the 'justice' system and the wealthy. Case in point: Judge Persky in the Brock Turner trial.

Re: Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches

#108

Post by raffael_de »

SlinkyOnStairs wrote: post #51
muglug wrote: post #7

I’m reasonably certain that Schmidt anticipated that reaction after the first speaker was booed. It had the vibe of “These people need to hear the Truth”.

> It had the vibe of “These people need to hear the Truth”. Schmidt anticipated the response, but does not understand it. He falls flat on his face here precisely because "needing to hear the truth" is a self-contradiction. The very fact that he has to go around saying 'AI is inevitable, suck it up you live in our world now', proves that it's not true. Nothing that is actually inevitable is declared as such. Nobody g…

> he very fact that he has to go around saying 'AI is inevitable, suck it up you live in our world now', proves that it's not true.

If somebody visits a flat earther conference and says "you all need to accept the fact that the earth is not flat!" ... then this certainly doesn't prove that the earth is flat. I think you trip over your choice of words. If s/b in general has to go around saying that then your reasoning makes some sense. But if s/b in particular (like Schmidt) has to go around saying sth then this only proves that this particular person has some personal intention or feeling s/he wants to express. I couldn't care less why someone like Schmidt feels like that but I have my ideas. Maybe he just identifies with AI financially and ideologically and likes to provoke.

Re: Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches

#109

Post by _heimdall »

azan_ wrote: post #100
_heimdall wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good start would have been them not calling this artificial intelligence at all. The hype is largely based on the term "AI" and if it really is simply a (very impressive) auto complete tool it isn't intelligence at all, though as you said can be a very useful tool.

It's amazing that there are people who still believe in "it's just autocomplete". It hasn't been true for a long time, but currently it's position that reveals complete lack of awareness how good AI has become. It has solved Erdos problem using novel approach. Constant moving of goalpost is recurring theme when discussing AI, but it's really impossible to move it so far that you can frame this achievement as "impress…

I would draw a distinction here. If its a tool (as the GP proposed), it is just fancy auto complete. If it isn't a tool and is instead solving problems in novel ways, inventing new things, etc then it is intelligence and not a tool.

It can't be both in my opinion. To be a tool it needs to be controllable and predictable, intelligences are neither. See humans, and really all living things, for plenty of examples where they can't be completely controlled or predicted.

Re: Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches

#110

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

logicchains wrote: post #86
gilrain wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until convictions of rape are justly meted out, you’ll have to stomach accusations taking justice’s place. Justice won’t just sleep. Blame wealth for making the corruption of the courts too damn obvious. Now they’re not taken seriously.

You could just as easily say blame wealth for the rape accusations; there's much more incentive to make fake rape accusations of rich men than of poor men.

There really isn’t that much incentive to accuse a much wealthier man of rape. Famously, justice is rarely (if ever) metered out when the accused person is wealthy and influential. This guy (allegedly) violently raped a woman on his boat and he still gets a speaking gig, so.

If you’re so confident it’s a solid way to get ahead, please go ahead and try it yourself.

Post reply on HN