Shunning AI is the human choice • Hacker News Board

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#31

Post by empath75 » Thu, May 21, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC

mrbungie wrote: post #9

splittydev wrote: post #2

These people are going to have a really hard time coming to grips with reality in the next few years. AI is here to stay, and it's expanding very rapidly. If you can't fight them, join them.

AI as a tech is fine. But disliking it and the social/economic effects around it is fine too, people should be allowed to feel however they want to feel about certain techs and situations. To recommend people to suck it up is not the answer I wish in the society I want to live in.

I would not recommend that people "suck it up", but I think people have to come to terms with the fact that AI is a legitimate technology that is going to transform the way people live and work. That is just a fact of life, as surely true about AI as it was true about the internet, or smart phones, or cars, or radio, or the train.

You can close your eyes and pretend that it is not coming, or you can organize politically to mitigate the damage it is going to do while harnessing the benefits of it. Because it absolutely _is_ going to harm a lot of individuals, even if the best case scenario of benefiting humanity as a whole comes to pass.

There is no possible universe where AI is banned, or it just fails and goes away as a technology. None. People have to just accept that and focus on realistic ways to regulate it and tax it, instead.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#32

Post by dale_glass » Thu, May 21, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC

dfxm12 wrote: post #18

splittydev wrote: post #2

These people are going to have a really hard time coming to grips with reality in the next few years. AI is here to stay, and it's expanding very rapidly. If you can't fight them, join them.

If your ability to engage with the article and this topic is reduced to parroting cliches, consider this one: if all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?

I'm generally friends with good, sane, smart people. If they're all jumping from the bridge, there's almost certainly something to jump from, so yes I would.

https://xkcd.com/1170/

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#33

Post by add-sub-mul-div » Thu, May 21, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC

splittydev wrote: post #2

These people are going to have a really hard time coming to grips with reality in the next few years. AI is here to stay, and it's expanding very rapidly. If you can't fight them, join them.

Not everyone is empty enough to be okay with participating in the expansion of something they strongly believe will be a net negative for the world.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#34

Post by justonepost2 » Thu, May 21, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC

echelon wrote: 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…

It will take a few years for the multigenerational dark age to set in, but eventually you too will realize that they had a point.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#35

Post by dist-epoch » Thu, May 21, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC

satvikpendem wrote: post #5

Interesting what the disconnect is between what the vocal minority say about AI versus the vast majority who use it every day and do not care, such as coders and even regular people, as ChatGPT has almost a billion users.

This is the old "why do protesters against capitalism have iPhones" defense.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#36

Post by Lambdanaut » Thu, May 21, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC

satvikpendem wrote: post #5

Interesting what the disconnect is between what the vocal minority say about AI versus the vast majority who use it every day and do not care, such as coders and even regular people, as ChatGPT has almost a billion users.

I'm not sure what you mean because you didn't actually say it, but AI is polling as one of the most disliked topics in the USA right now. More hated than ICE.

Source: https://pos.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/260072-NBC-March-...

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#37

Post by Filligree » Thu, May 21, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

dfxm12 wrote: post #18

splittydev wrote: post #2

These people are going to have a really hard time coming to grips with reality in the next few years. AI is here to stay, and it's expanding very rapidly. If you can't fight them, join them.

If your ability to engage with the article and this topic is reduced to parroting cliches, consider this one: if all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?

I mean. Yes? Probably?

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#38

Post by b65e8bee43c2ed0 » Thu, May 21, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

mrbungie wrote: post #9

splittydev wrote: post #2

These people are going to have a really hard time coming to grips with reality in the next few years. AI is here to stay, and it's expanding very rapidly. If you can't fight them, join them.

AI as a tech is fine. But disliking it and the social/economic effects around it is fine too, people should be allowed to feel however they want to feel about certain techs and situations. To recommend people to suck it up is not the answer I wish in the society I want to live in.

none of us lives in the society they want to live in. had it been up to me, we would all retvrn to monke.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#39

Post by rd42 » Thu, May 21, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

I kinda get the hate now - all of social media is being awash with AI. I think maybe a better option is to have new social media which is restricted to humans and human produced content. Hard to enforce - but I am sure there are ways out there.

Re: Shunning AI is the human choice

#40

Post by probably_wrong » Thu, May 21, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

splittydev wrote: post #2

These people are going to have a really hard time coming to grips with reality in the next few years. AI is here to stay, and it's expanding very rapidly. If you can't fight them, join them.

> If you can't fight them, join them.

This is a similar argument that the one people used to justify Facebook: "if you don't join then say goodbye to your social life". Now that we have papers, books, and even court decisions showing conclusively that this was a bad idea (including, paradoxically, the death of social life), I would argue the exact opposite: if you don't fight against it now then Silicon Valley will take your choice away from you.

And more generally: I find it interesting that your argument isn't "this is good" but rather "this is unstoppable". With that attitude we might as well bring CFC and leaded gasoline back.