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Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

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Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#21

Post by dmbche »

jstanley wrote: post #17
booleandilemma wrote: post #6

There is nothing about AI that seems like it's going to have a net positive for humanity. Faster code? Sure. Better chatbots? Sure. Textual analysis? Sure. But the downside, and it's huge, is massive unemployment and societal collapse. Nothing AI brings to the table is worth having an unemployment rate of 25% (or more). Our society is simply not ready for this. We need to rework things from the ground up, not proceed…

We've done this dozens of times before. In the short term some people suffer and that is bad for them. In the long term everyone is much better off due to increased productivity.

When is the productivity showing up?

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#23

Post by littlexsparkee »

jstanley wrote: post #17
booleandilemma wrote: post #6

There is nothing about AI that seems like it's going to have a net positive for humanity. Faster code? Sure. Better chatbots? Sure. Textual analysis? Sure. But the downside, and it's huge, is massive unemployment and societal collapse. Nothing AI brings to the table is worth having an unemployment rate of 25% (or more). Our society is simply not ready for this. We need to rework things from the ground up, not proceed…

We've done this dozens of times before. In the short term some people suffer and that is bad for them. In the long term everyone is much better off due to increased productivity.

everyone? this is pure conjecture and cold comfort for anyone early/mid career

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#24

Post by mkw5053 »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #3

College students are cooked for entry level work. I'm guessing there will soon be a government mandate requiring some percentage of NCGs to be hired, similar to India and other countries with huge cohorts.

I believe Anthropic has stopped hiring junior and mid eng. So if they're an indication of what's the come (or is already here)

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#25

Post by jstanley »

dmbche wrote: post #21
jstanley wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've done this dozens of times before. In the short term some people suffer and that is bad for them. In the long term everyone is much better off due to increased productivity.

When is the productivity showing up?

If productivity doesn't increase then you don't need to worry about displaced workers.

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#26

Post by jcranmer »

I know a lot of people are going to focus on the employment issue for new graduates, but there's another dimension to consider: this group of students is going to be the first group who have gone through all of college with the enhanced cheating power of LLMs. The majority of people graduating will either have used LLMs to cheat on some classes, or at least known someone who did so. Which incidentally also means that they have a much better idea than the speakers do about how good these AI tools at the variety of tasks someone in an entry-level role might be expected to do. It is also worth noting that Gen Z in general is the most skeptical of the generations of the utility of AI.

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#27

Post by Mordisquitos »

ethanplant wrote: post #5

I’m genuinely confused as to why the speakers are baffled by the boos. Everyone, and especially new grads constantly hear that AI is going to replace every job. And absolutely no one seems to be interested in answering the question of “okay, then what?” Of course people are going to react negatively when they hear, “the machines are going to take your jobs from you. No, we don’t care how you’ll be able to pay your re…

> I’m genuinely confused as to why the speakers are baffled by the boos.

Absolutely, I just made a similar comment before I saw yours. In fact, I would argue that the headline is also arguably burying the lede on commencement speakers believing that their AI pep talk speeches will be well-received by students. The newsworthy item is 'Man Bites Dog', not 'Vet Treats Bitten Dog'.

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#28

Post by sbarre »

palmotea wrote: post #10

Those kids are crazy. We're finally close to realizing the dream of making labor obsolete, how could they not be excited and enthusiastic about the future? Most of them will no longer needed, and thankfully those that are still needed can be paid more reasonable wages (i.e. lower ones). It's a win-win for everyone. The lower prices enabled by automation allow them to stretch their savings or inheritance further befor…

> The lower prices enabled by automation

LOL

In the modern digital era, technological efficiencies and disruption have almost always led to rent-seeking monopolies, regulatory capture to prevent competition and enshittification leading to higher prices for end users.

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#29

Post by throwaway27448 »

jstanley wrote: post #17
booleandilemma wrote: post #6

There is nothing about AI that seems like it's going to have a net positive for humanity. Faster code? Sure. Better chatbots? Sure. Textual analysis? Sure. But the downside, and it's huge, is massive unemployment and societal collapse. Nothing AI brings to the table is worth having an unemployment rate of 25% (or more). Our society is simply not ready for this. We need to rework things from the ground up, not proceed…

We've done this dozens of times before. In the short term some people suffer and that is bad for them. In the long term everyone is much better off due to increased productivity.

Only if you view productivity as likely to distribute results to society. This has been proven false again and again over the last fifty years, and the k-shaped economic trend seems to be accelerating.

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#30

Post by [deleted] »

ipython wrote: post #18
palmotea wrote: post #10

Those kids are crazy. We're finally close to realizing the dream of making labor obsolete, how could they not be excited and enthusiastic about the future? Most of them will no longer needed, and thankfully those that are still needed can be paid more reasonable wages (i.e. lower ones). It's a win-win for everyone. The lower prices enabled by automation allow them to stretch their savings or inheritance further befor…

how do you... earn those savings in the first place? (or am I missing a /s somewhere?)

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