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Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

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Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#121

Post by mbgerring »

wvbdmp wrote: post #103
davemp wrote: post #3

Kind of goes to show how out of touch and insular the tech exec sphere can be. Almost everyone I interact with in reality has a deep distain for LLMs and their touted trajectory.

Idk what people you interact with, but my personal sample of “normal people” post AI generated pics and videos in their WhatsApp status and adorn their homes with AI generated imagery for christmas. They may not actively use LLMs or even know what they are, but they’re satisfied with Google’s AI overview and they love using voice assistants. These aren’t people from any particular sphere I sought out or which self-se…

I live in San Francisco, and my personal sample of “normal people” think AI generated imagery looks like shit, abhor the proliferation of slop, and are doing their best to avoid this stuff at all costs.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#122

Post by sweezyjeezy »

_fat_santa wrote: post #112

The biggest issue I see with discourse around AI is you have two voices: one is of the tech CEO's and other elites that talk about it largely in the abstract and how it's going to take everyone's jobs, and then you have folks on Twitter/X that talk about things that they are actually using it for. Generally what I found listening to both sides is the latter group is very optimistic about AI and what it can do while t…

And how about the group of kids who are just graduating college, and entering a job market where it's non-abstractly harder to to land a junior role as it's been in decades? It's the elites who have their finger on that scale, not the twitter folks.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#123

Post by finnthehuman »

rdtsc wrote: post #55

> “If you’d let me make this point, please —” Schmidt said amid boos. “The point I’d like to make is choose a diversity of perspectives, including the perspective of the immigrant who has so often been the person who came to this country and made it better. America is at its best when we are the country that ambitious people want to come to. Let us not lose that.” How does that tie in? You have to like AI because of…

> What’s the logic here

Tenuous connection between unrelated topics to fit them into larger ingroup/outgroup dynamics is the junkfood of persuasion tactics. Bad for you but addictive anyway. If you look for it you'll see it all the time.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#124

Post by mark_l_watson »

davemp wrote: post #3

Kind of goes to show how out of touch and insular the tech exec sphere can be. Almost everyone I interact with in reality has a deep distain for LLMs and their touted trajectory.

Yeah, I mostly agree with you on both points. 1. Tech execs are all in for making money. A small tangent: my wife and I used to enjoy the All In Podcast, but now those four guys mostly lie (my opinion) in ways to profit themselves and their rich friends - really out of touch, and now they are kind-of boring. Used to be a fun podcast. 2. I am a super techie, retired now (I have 55 patents, written many books on AI, many great jobs): I am a little shocked at how most non-tech people I talk with don’t like AI: some because of energy use/data centers forced on unwilling communities, many fear for their or their children's or grandchildren’s jobs, etc.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#125

Post by gk1 »

LoganDark wrote: post #31
gk1 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That quote reads totally differently to me. It seems if you already have negative feelings about AI or the speaker, you’re going to interpret their comments as something that reinforces your negative feelings.

What does it read like to you? To me, the speech (as a whole) reads like: "don't assume AI is going to be as bad as the last technological revolution; embrace it". Computing is great and I love it; LLMs are great and I love them too. But computing is now used by corporations to harass and abuse us on a scale never seen before and AI is starting to be used for that too. So that is why I don't believe it's our responsi…

Was commenting on the quote in particular. It’s just a version of “the future is in your hands” which you can find in one form or another in many graduation speeches. Just seems odd to me to read a cliche line as something cynical.

Ali G’s version of it in his 2004 Harvard commencement speech:

> “You lot will become powerful people who can change de future — and you need to, coz de world at de moment iz totally f—ed up.”

Come to think of it… very appropriate today!

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#126

Post by echelon »

mbgerring wrote: post #89
echelon wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Almost everyone I interact with in reality has a deep distain for LLMs and their touted trajectory. The Western media is stoking these fears. Asia is embracing AI. Japan is using it in anime. India is going wild with large and small business usage. All of my friends in India report how popular it is, and how they're using it to get work done. I don't even have to mention China. I am sick of how our media is brainwa…

The people running these companies give interviews every few months where they gleefully proclaim that AI will eliminate thousands of jobs. The people building this technology are the ones creating the hatred you’re seeing.

> The people running these companies give interviews every few months where the gleefully proclaim that AI will eliminate thousands of jobs.

That was not the original narrative by any company. I was here ten years ago when WaveNet and DeepDream were first published.

The media started shitting on this stuff immediately. DALL-E and Midjourney were not describing themselves as artist destroyers. GPT-3 was not hailed as a white collar job killer. Yet the news media hounded the industry relentlessly.

Labs started co-opting this narrative from the news media to create FOMO for investors and possible customers.

I work in AI. I had a coworker quit a job four years ago because his sister had a long talk with him that "AI destroyed art", which is something she learned from YouTube. Four years ago.

No AI CEO was saying any of this stuff back then. It was all seeded by the news media and certain YouTubers.

I can remember when John Oliver was joking around with Midjourney and DeepDream on his show and laughing about how fun and cool it was. He can't do that now because he'd be crucified for it.

I can go back and do an archeological dig if you like.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#127

Post by Applejinx »

petra wrote: post #54
10xDev wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The numbers speak for itself. What has had the same level of user growth?

People can like talking to gemini, but dislike claude taking their programming job.

I was able to avoid talking to Gemini, but only by switching to DuckDuckGo and then also doctoring Chromium to run searches using a 'no-AI' option. At least I think I'm avoiding talking to Gemini, but for all I know I'm talking to it right now.

This is what bugs people.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#128

Post by enoint »

jrsj wrote: post #102
newsclues wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if they take your jobs for a fraction of your worth, and drive up the cost of living, while extracting massive subsidies from your taxes? You love the people who destroy your quality of life? For the record, I love real diversity, I grew up in home where we have exchange students from abroad (to help pay the bills), but in Canada, the last 10 years or so has soured my opinion because my standard of living has de…

[flagged]

Sounds more like 534 years.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#130

Post by enoint »

panny wrote: post #97
nilirl wrote: post #8

> Schmidt urged graduates to embrace freedom, open debate, equality and the willingness to engage with those they disagree with. I think it was a great embrace of freedom and open debate to boo him for only asserting predictions that benefit him.

[flagged]

Schmidt wasn’t specifically talking about Israel. Kirk was.
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