Live data from Hacker News

AI and the Automation of Work

ben-evans.com

161–170 of 268 posts

Re: AI and the Automation of Work

#161
post #50

It's not ChatGPT what we should be putting in our forecasts, but its successors. And, from what I have been reading, our AI folk are coming with better performers all the time by chaining multiple neural networks, "making modular brains", so to speak. Any argument that starts by saying "ChatGPT is very bad at X, humans will always do X," is flawed IMO. So I think that any job that can be done by a non-human is up for…

> But assume that there are jobs "high in the ladder," for amazing engineers and creatives super-charged with AI powers. IMHO such jobs won’t exist. Once AI have reach AGI level there is nothing that a human can do that the AI can’t. Might as well just add more AI. Frankly, what scares me is everyone rushing to advance AI but no one seem to be putting any effort into figuring out what to do about society once humans…

I think if they happened, and we live, which probably isn’t likely, everything will be cheap ?

Re: AI and the Automation of Work

#162
post #50

It's not ChatGPT what we should be putting in our forecasts, but its successors. And, from what I have been reading, our AI folk are coming with better performers all the time by chaining multiple neural networks, "making modular brains", so to speak. Any argument that starts by saying "ChatGPT is very bad at X, humans will always do X," is flawed IMO. So I think that any job that can be done by a non-human is up for…

> A security guard at an airport can be a machine gun with wheels, it is more intimidating that way. Jesus. Fucking. H. Christ. RoboCop (1987) should be required watching before anyone is allowed to touch AI.

I love how RoboCop is this extremist satire against capitalism, authoritarianism, rogue technology, etc and we are actually living in a timeline where millions of citizens are plotting their way to be the bad guys in it. Millions of others are desperately trying to recreate the matrix. We're really in for it.

Re: AI and the Automation of Work

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm concerned about who AGI will serve? Rich people surely!

Maybe at first, but they will likely not keep any humans around for long.

Luckily capitalism solves that bit for them. Just gradually automate jobs so people can't make a living and they'll slowly die off in the gutter bit by bit. The slower it, is the less chance of a revolt.

To paraphrase that old quote:

>First they automated the artists, and I did not speak out because I was not an artist.

>Then they automated the writers, and I did not speak out because I was not a writer.

>Then they automated the office workers, and I did not speak out because I was not an office worker.

>Then they automated me and there was no one left to speak for me.

Re: AI and the Automation of Work

#164

I am pretty concerned about AGI. I love computer science and programming. I would love to get into research after I finish my Masters in a couple of years. I think it's fair to say that _some day_ we will achieve AGI. It might not be in 10 years, or 1000, but eventually we'll get there. When we do have AGI, what would that mean for someone like me? Would there be any reason to have programmers (or similar) at all? Wo…

If we have AGI we won’t have to work anymore so why worrying about the future? In the meantime enjoy and try to partecipate in this new paradigm. (Unless the AGI will come up capitalism is the best of the possible systems and they will rule them out of the equation)

I hope you watch more scifi movies and read more books. What people do with technology is basically never utopian or utopia adjacent.

Re: AI and the Automation of Work

#165

I am pretty concerned about AGI. I love computer science and programming. I would love to get into research after I finish my Masters in a couple of years. I think it's fair to say that _some day_ we will achieve AGI. It might not be in 10 years, or 1000, but eventually we'll get there. When we do have AGI, what would that mean for someone like me? Would there be any reason to have programmers (or similar) at all? Wo…

What's the point of research if some new student can do it better than me, right now?

What's the point of playing chess if Magnus Carlsen will beat me every time we play?

This seems a bit absurd, but it's something I have feared since I learned I am not the best at everything.

Re: AI and the Automation of Work

#166
We did automate for the last 200 years, and it created more creative jobs as a return, less manual labor and more mental/creative labor. Now we're about to automate that as well. I am not sure there is anything else to take it's place this time though.

Re: AI and the Automation of Work

#167

I had bought into the GPT-4 hype. I used GPT-4 on ChatGPT Plus for two months, but then I unsubscribed because I wasn't using it as much as I thought I would. It's certainly a very interesting technology. But in it's current form, I just don't see it replacing most jobs. Will it replace jobs if we scale further? I don't know, but my intuition says no. I feel that we will need some other major breakthroughs in AI to g…

It’s been incredibly helpful to me. It helped me figure out how to get docker containers setup. It’s even helped me figure out how to run data analysis on graph data. It’s not just made things simpler – it’s made things possible .

I don't disagree with the usefulness for you particularly.

But all these things were possible before ChatGPT.

Re: AI and the Automation of Work

#168
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a very good example to understand how "AI evangelists" think. Anyone with even slightest common senes would immediately understands why it's a bad idea, but AI evangelists just can't.

Finally HN is starting to treat AI evangelists like Web3 evangelists

Honestly, zealots in general get exhausting quick, especially when they can't acknowledge the faults or limitations of the god/God they serve

Re: AI and the Automation of Work

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chess is a leisure activity, not work, you cannot compare the impact of automation of the two. Also, chess engines did kill chess. Chess used to be a spectacle on the national stage, from 2000 up until Queen's Gambit and the following streamer boom, chess was largely dead. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Chess&hl...

Human chess is still an activity that earns people money tho

Even today, there's a handful of people who make a full living off chess. The owners of chess.com, a few streamers, a handful of super GMs, and chess teachers, and the latter will be automated away.

And prior to the explosion in popularity? Barely anyone.

Post reply on HN