I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney • Hacker News Board

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#241

Post by latency-guy2 » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 7:06 AM UTC

falsaberN1 wrote: post #207

muyuu wrote: post #52

Some people say there isn't enough empathy to go around for those creatives that are seeing their jobs either endangered or automated to a degree they've become sweatshop janitors with little prospects to be anything else. I wonder if that sort of empathy was so plentiful when the automation was shredding the prospects of farmers, miners, truckers and other blue collar workers? Make no mistake, generative AI is going…

No, there was no empathy for them. And I feel there's no real empathy for artists, either. Before the eeeevil robot came to be, no one gave much of a damn about artists or their opinion. Suddenly we are instrumental to humanity's culture, but people is too busy spreading hatred to listen to any artists that aren't in agreement, what makes me feel it's less about being an artist and more about being emotionally-charge…

> Before the eeeevil robot came to be, no one gave much of a damn about artists or their opinion. Suddenly we are instrumental to humanity's culture, but people is too busy spreading hatred to listen to any artists that aren't in agreement, what makes me feel it's less about being an artist and more about being emotionally-charged "useful idiots" for anti-AI agendas.

Artists spread disinformation and hate too, in fact I'd count them as one of the primary sources of those things. Mere existence of political cartoonists is the simplest example if we go by the literal term "artist". Artists are rarely if ever divorced from their work either, so I don't think they can claim that the art really takes on it's own life.

I do agree with you on everything else you have said.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#242

Post by borissk » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 7:08 AM UTC

mLuby wrote: post #50

First they came for the artists, and I did not speak out—because that job doesn't require real creativity. Then they came for the engineers, and I did not speak out—because that job doesn't require real reasoning. Then they came for the sales folks, and I did not speak out—because that job doesn't require real human connection. Then they came for the executives and politicians, and I did not speak out—because that jo…

The progress in IT have already made unemployed millions of people. E.g. there used to be shops selling flights and holidays on every corner. There used to be a number of insurance shops in every town center. Every company used to have rooms full of typewriters and typists.

After the software developers made a lot of jobs obsolete, their own job is being made obsolete by the data scientists.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#243

Post by throwawaylinux » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 7:10 AM UTC

tlocke wrote: post #231

We've created a society where there are such things as 'jobs' and unless you're rich, you need a job to support yourself and maybe a family. I think this model of society worked reasonably well for a while, but with AI we're coming to the end of that era. In the next era we'll probably live like aristocrats, but instead of the work being done by servants, it'll be done by AI. Back to the case of the 3D artist, in thi…

We've needed "jobs" to support ourselves since we descended from the trees. Actually before that too. "Society" came about because we invented tools and techniques to make our jobs easier so people could spend more time on different things. "AI" is some more steps down that same path.

> In the next era we'll probably live like aristocrats, but instead of the work being done by servants, it'll be done by AI.

Not in the way you imagine. We live like aristocrats today. We live in vast mansions that have hot running water, electricity, refrigeration, heating and cooling, lighting, we have servants bring us gluttonous feasts whenever we like, we careen around in our horseless carriages and flying machines. We laze around many hours of the day wasting time on frivolities like watching TV, playing computer games, reading books, drinking and taking drugs, etc. We have armies of doctors and security at our disposal if we should break a leg or even get a sniffle.

So we live better than kings did 200 years ago.

Life might get better for the average commoner in another 200 years. There will still be the haves and have nots though. People with a lot of wealth won't want to share it with others, and people with less will be envious of those with more, that's the constant in the human condition.

Nobody with the robots is going to give money to a bunch of hippies to laze around. If they want a piece of it they'll have to either work to create it themselves or to take it by force. Either way it won't come for free.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#244

Post by testHNac » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 7:11 AM UTC

Reading some of the comments about coding and AI got me thinking.

Can modern AI come up with new Javscript libraries, Open source projects, Browser Specifications etc The new way of doing things that improve things.

When most people start using AI to make their work easier. Then very few people will develop the competency to create new things, innovate.

At some point will that cause progress to slow down ?

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#245

Post by anoy8888 » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 7:14 AM UTC

kodah wrote: post #105

rafaelero wrote: post #78

When DALL-E 2 was released, I remember reading lots of people here in HN saying it would never take the jobs of artists. Well, seems like this argument is aging badly. This is exactly the type of conversation we need to have as a society. Instead of deluding ourselves that our skills are impossible to be reproduced by a machine, we should strive to build a system with values in which we can find a way to build a good…

AI won't take a thought workers job. It just sucks the life out of it. Like the person who wrote this post, I make bespoke software. I tinker, I experiment, and I produce high quality results in reasonable timelines. Executives could not give a shit about that, except that those qualities in me are a good signal that I am dependable. Now, if most companies allow AI bottom performers will speed up and their quality wi…

This statement is a bit arrogant considering the current pace of AI progress. I bet it won’t age well in a couple of years

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#246

Post by bitwize » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 7:14 AM UTC

thorncorona wrote: post #191

nomilk wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is exactly the type of conversation we need to have as a society. Jobs have been disappearing at a high rate for at least a couple of generations now, and have steadily been replaced with new ones, often high paying ones. We can't control which jobs are in high, low, and no demand, so we're best off swimming with the current, whichever way it flows. 1. Accept that professions come and go. 2. Expect jobs to dis…

> 1. Accept that professions come and go. 2. Expect jobs to disappear every decade or so and plan accordingly. 3. Look forward to an awesome new job after your current one is made obsolete. That goes for all of us. What can we do? Hope to save enough to not go into more debt for a second degree? Hope that second degree isn’t obsoleted either? As AI becomes more advanced the minimum education and likely IQ required to…

Socialism. The answer is socialism.

AI is a philosopher's stone that transmutes labor into capital. This is as good as lead into gold for capitalists, but the rest of us are hosed.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#247

Post by fxtentacle » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 7:15 AM UTC

thorncorona wrote: post #191

nomilk wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is exactly the type of conversation we need to have as a society. Jobs have been disappearing at a high rate for at least a couple of generations now, and have steadily been replaced with new ones, often high paying ones. We can't control which jobs are in high, low, and no demand, so we're best off swimming with the current, whichever way it flows. 1. Accept that professions come and go. 2. Expect jobs to dis…

> 1. Accept that professions come and go. 2. Expect jobs to disappear every decade or so and plan accordingly. 3. Look forward to an awesome new job after your current one is made obsolete. That goes for all of us. What can we do? Hope to save enough to not go into more debt for a second degree? Hope that second degree isn’t obsoleted either? As AI becomes more advanced the minimum education and likely IQ required to…

> What are we gonna do about the ever increasing N+1% of people who won’t be cost effective versus an AI?

Fairly tax companies' profits.

And then you can afford to just feed 10% of society even if they don't contribute a thing. Also, free world-class education seems to do wonders in Europe ;)

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#248

Post by fxtentacle » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 7:20 AM UTC

kodah wrote: post #116

rafaelero wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AI won't take a thought workers job. I don't understand how you can hold this position considering not only where we are but also the rate of progress in AI. It has been taking thought workers job and it will increasingly do so in the future until the surplus cognitive workers offer is just so minimal that it's not worth to automate it.

What jobs have been totally replaced thus far?

Didn't all major companies do mass-firings recently?

What do you expect will happen if an entry-level software engineer becomes 2x as productive? You need 2x less, so you fire half the team.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#249

Post by asah » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 7:25 AM UTC

thorncorona wrote: post #191

nomilk wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is exactly the type of conversation we need to have as a society. Jobs have been disappearing at a high rate for at least a couple of generations now, and have steadily been replaced with new ones, often high paying ones. We can't control which jobs are in high, low, and no demand, so we're best off swimming with the current, whichever way it flows. 1. Accept that professions come and go. 2. Expect jobs to dis…

> 1. Accept that professions come and go. 2. Expect jobs to disappear every decade or so and plan accordingly. 3. Look forward to an awesome new job after your current one is made obsolete. That goes for all of us. What can we do? Hope to save enough to not go into more debt for a second degree? Hope that second degree isn’t obsoleted either? As AI becomes more advanced the minimum education and likely IQ required to…

What about jobs that take years of training? We need them done...

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#250

Post by nbzso » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 7:26 AM UTC

I do work in tech. Almost 25 years.

As a traditionally trained artist, my advantage over the years always was the knowledge of composition, color and my drawing skills when producing the visual part of the products.

I focused early in my company (2005) on UX and UCD processes, and with the time realized that people don't care about craftsmanship or maximizing the quality.

We are approaching a time of generative design. Personalization of UX by data based generative interfaces. So even the flow and journey mapping will be automated soon (UX researchers, hello).

For me, this is the end of an era of innovation driven by human creativity. You will have a data scientist and secretary, which will prompt all day the "boss" vision.

A.I. art is not art. I will give you a simple example: Who will be the creator of the famous David sculpture? Michelangelo or the rich patron who gave the description of the task? According to the definition of A.I. "art" the patron is the artist.

So in this scenario, the art becomes a commodity generated without human touch and personal expression. Just a synthetic membrane of average results trained on stolen data and genius intellectual property laundering machine.

Personally, my decision is to capitalize the remains of an industry and detach myself from any form of metaverse interactions. I started to paint recently again and don't give any F* about commercial viability of the process. If people of the future want to live in A.I. induced corporate coma, so be it.