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Shunning AI is the human choice

thehandbasket.co

191–200 of 572 posts

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#191
I understand some of the sentiment, but these folks certainly won't be denying the drug discovered through AI that will save their life or that of their children.

I don't think people truly hate AI. What they hate is how it's used. That's a very different thing and it's a human problem not a technology problem.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#192
I don't hate AI. What I hate is while billionaires are promising us a utopian future where work is optional, the price of food, housing, and healthcare in the USA is through the roof. Many people my age (millennials) cannot afford to buy a house for themselves like prior generations were able to. The supposed riches being produced by AI are not being realized for the majority of Americans.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#193
post #8

I'm in film and highly exposed to the AI media and arts scene. I was very early to this hate, and I've experienced it personally by the metric boat load. I'm fine with people not liking the technology, but the number of death threats, rude comments ("your mother didn't use the coat hanger well enough"), and literal stalking and doxxing I've received from some of these rabidly anti-AI people is appalling. Whatever com…

Being upset about blocked traffic for a protest but not upset that the rich are trying to kill off the labor market is the exact hilariously short sighted issue.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#194
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans will not flourish if you remove their jobs, they will become violent criminals because they will have nothing else to fill their days and no purpose in their community. People may hate their job, but they will hate being unemployed way more.

This is an incredibly pessimistic view of humanity.

It is extremely naive to think that if remove a fundamental pillar of human society everything else will just continue on as if nothing happened.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#195

Hating "AI" in the abstract is like hating public-key encryption. Ultimately it's just math. Once the math is out there, there's no going back. Instead of futilely demanding technology to go away, it would be better to focus on organizing together for better outcomes. https://opcraft.co/writing/2026/04/getting-the-good-ai-futur...

The people who hate "AI" are correctly understanding it as a political project, not simply a technology. Ali Alkhatib's definition here is clarifying in this regard: https://ali-alkhatib.com/blog/defining-ai

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#197

Every waves of automation are naturally creating resistance, as they tend to make the lives of a large number of people miserable during the transition. Nothing new here. What I find surprising with the anti-AI sentiment is that it seems to be a lot more prevalent among the younger generation. I am not sure why or if this is a new pattern.

I think social media is a big factor. Anti-AI posts and comments are very popular on mainstream Reddit subs at least. Not sure if its a cause or an effect or even external manipulation

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#198

Historians will tell you that in many ways, agriculture was the worst thing that ever happened to humanity. Agriculture meant hard, back-breaking, monotonous labor; it meant pests and disease due to population concentration; it meant a bland diet that did fully meet nutritional requirements; it meant social hierarchies of kings and priests. But societies that did not adopt agriculture were outcompeted and eventually…

Ishmael is a good read.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#199

There's a massive difference between the hatred of a CEO who is actively wanting to replace workers with what is essentially applied mathematics. AI seems more like easy reasoning for mass-layoffs & cost saving measures - and I rarely see articles that actually attempt to delve into this, instead seeking to just cancel out an entire technology. This article doesn't hate AI - it hates capitalism - which is a completel…

You don't need to have a "good knowledge" of a misused technology to hate it when it's used by malevolent people. In the same way I don't need to be a virologist to know that is better to avoid the flu, I don't need to be a ML/AI expert to see its direct detrimental effects on people, communities, and the internet as a whole.

To use your analogy, I would say the "blanket ban" attitude would be more like wishing all viruses would just go away, or have never existed in the first place, which:

1) is an impossible and unproductive attitude, and

2) fails to recognize the important contribution to evolution, genetic diversity, and our immune systems that viruses introduced, not to mention the possible beneficial applications that could exist by understanding it.

Rejecting something without nuance makes you more vulnerable down the road because it prevents you from building an effective immunity. Engaging with it is the only productive way to mitigate its downsides and promote its benefits.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#200
post #63
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife is a former journalist and was beginning her career when the web began to take off. All the old editors and reporters in her industry blew off the Internet, blogs, and web publishing in general. They thought no one will ever quit buying papers, it was a staple of modern life! She tried to clue them in but hit a brick wall ever time. I feel like history is repeating. I use AI regularly, where it works it works…

Your wife is right. History is repeating itself. And not even for the first time. Horse carriage drivers -> Cars Print media -> Internet Drafting -> CAD Music -> Electronic music, DAWs Film photography -> Digital Traditional film special effects -> CGI Hollywood nepotism -> YouTube / TikTok / Creator economy (there are more millionaire creators now than movie stars) In each of these cases, there was a subset of peopl…

> When people criticize my AI films, I ask them what they've made.

They're saying that your contribution is negative. Even if their contribution is zero, zero is still better than negative.

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