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My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

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Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#31

Post by sien »

a2ff6eeb0 wrote: post #14
kadushka wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone I know loves AI. It is actively making their lives better. All kinds of people, all kind of ages - universally love it and use it every day for all kind of stuff (shopping, health, learning, home improvement, etc, etc).

You must live in a bubble; 16% of Americans think AI is making their lives better, the remainder are evenly split between not knowing and disliking it. It's still inevitable, but people aren't dumb, and they know that it's only going to help those who manage to escape the permanent underclass. It'll eliminate the toil of thinking, but that also means that the people who make a living selling their thinking will end u…

US views on AI are interesting. There is actually some nuance in the answers people give :

"50% say they’re more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life, up from 37% in 2021. 10% are more excited than concerned. 38% say they’re equally excited and concerned."

https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/09/17/how-americans...

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#32

Post by datakan »

bryan0 wrote: post #21
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you assume that you can't fix something, you're right.

I find it surprising how many people think we're doomed when it comes to AI, and don't even want to try use this technology in a positive way. I'm not sure if this is a modern american cultural thing or what.

3 entire departments of people at my work are being walked out of the building this week for AI. Not replaced by AI, cost cutting to later possibly afford AI so they can put everyone else out of work too.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#34

Post by kaashif »

a2ff6eeb0 wrote: post #14
kadushka wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone I know loves AI. It is actively making their lives better. All kinds of people, all kind of ages - universally love it and use it every day for all kind of stuff (shopping, health, learning, home improvement, etc, etc).

You must live in a bubble; 16% of Americans think AI is making their lives better, the remainder are evenly split between not knowing and disliking it. It's still inevitable, but people aren't dumb, and they know that it's only going to help those who manage to escape the permanent underclass. It'll eliminate the toil of thinking, but that also means that the people who make a living selling their thinking will end u…

I'm not American, but most people I know who are not in tech just use ChatGPT like they'd use Google but better e.g. what bird is this, what's a good word for X or Y, what's the weather, what was that movie with Z. Edit this meme for me, make this photo not have the guy in the back, how do I grow chillies, etc.

Now if you ask them if AI is making their lives better, they might say they don't know.

I literally don't know anyone who "hates" AI.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#35

Post by GPerson »

kadushka wrote: post #11
japhyr wrote: post #2

Of course everyone hates AI. For most people, it's actively making their lives worse, not better. AI is a really effective technology when used with restraint, in appropriate places. But it's rarely being used with restraint, and it's being inserted just about everywhere. If you're trying to work in AI on a product related to education, you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping stude…

Everyone I know loves AI. It is actively making their lives better. All kinds of people, all kind of ages - universally love it and use it every day for all kind of stuff (shopping, health, learning, home improvement, etc, etc).

The people I know who like it the most are at least aware of a lot of the problems with it. I’m surprised everyone in your friend group is uncritically enamored by it.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#36

Post by singpolyma3 »

japhyr wrote: post #2

Of course everyone hates AI. For most people, it's actively making their lives worse, not better. AI is a really effective technology when used with restraint, in appropriate places. But it's rarely being used with restraint, and it's being inserted just about everywhere. If you're trying to work in AI on a product related to education, you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping stude…

I have yet to meet anyone outside the tech elite who hates AI.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#37

Post by solid_fuel »

CSMastermind wrote: post #7
japhyr wrote: post #2

Of course everyone hates AI. For most people, it's actively making their lives worse, not better. AI is a really effective technology when used with restraint, in appropriate places. But it's rarely being used with restraint, and it's being inserted just about everywhere. If you're trying to work in AI on a product related to education, you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping stude…

No saying you're wrong but how is it making their lives worse? Most people know use AI for basic applications and seem to enjoy it while the people I know who hate it all seem to be idelogically motivated (seemingly this is a cause de célèbre on the left right now?)

> No saying you're wrong but how is it making their lives worse?

You google something, and the AI overview makes shit up. Just happened the other day with my oven - it hallucinated a diagnostic step that doesn't exist on my model.

You go to type an email in gmail, and it tries to suggest sentences as you're typing. Press the wrong key and now you have to delete what it inserted. The things it suggests are just wordy platitudes, not things you actually intend to say.

You open instagram and the feed is full of slop, or worse - incendiary AI generated videos of things that never happened.

You get 3 page rambling replies to your posts online that obviously aren't human, and now you get the choice of ignoring the lies or arguing with a bot.

You go to work and half the QA team has been fired - replaced with AI. Now tickets you were talking with a human about get closed without resolution or meander off into meaninglessness without the human who actual encountered the issue, and your job gets harder.

Your boss leans on you all day, every day - why aren't you using AI for X, Y, Z? "I tried", you say, "and it kept hallucinating a library that doesn't exist". Doesn't matter, velocity must be higher now because we're AI native.

You turn on the news and Sam Altman is talking about how in 2 years you won't have a job anymore. Don't worry, they say, this is inevitable.

You call your doctor about some heartburn. Instead of a human, you get a machine. The receptionist you knew for 5 years is gone. You describe your symptoms and good news! There's an appointment available in 3 months. You schedule it, and go. You have to describe all your symptoms again, because the transcription has hallucinations in it and didn't catch that bit where you mumbled. Your doctor bill is higher, again, despite the lower staffing.

You get your electric bill and it's gone up again - 20% higher than last year. The datacenter down the street is getting a tax break though, good for them.

On and on it goes. Prices get higher, quality of service gets worse. It gets harder to find accurate information. Google used to be reliable, now half the results are slop.

---

Meanwhile, people with $350k salaries, fantastic health insurance, and 2500 shares of GOOGL vesting are looking around - "why don't you love it?"

---

This is how a lot of people are experiencing the current AI revolution.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#38

Post by usaar333 »

a2ff6eeb0 wrote: post #14
kadushka wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone I know loves AI. It is actively making their lives better. All kinds of people, all kind of ages - universally love it and use it every day for all kind of stuff (shopping, health, learning, home improvement, etc, etc).

You must live in a bubble; 16% of Americans think AI is making their lives better, the remainder are evenly split between not knowing and disliking it. It's still inevitable, but people aren't dumb, and they know that it's only going to help those who manage to escape the permanent underclass. It'll eliminate the toil of thinking, but that also means that the people who make a living selling their thinking will end u…

Where's that stat from?

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/06/17/americans-an...

That's 30% positive on productive/informed, and only ~5% on hinders.

Whether you think AI will turn out bad (say by killing us all) is a different question from whether it is positive or negative at the moment.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#39

Post by threethirtytwo »

japhyr wrote: post #2

Of course everyone hates AI. For most people, it's actively making their lives worse, not better. AI is a really effective technology when used with restraint, in appropriate places. But it's rarely being used with restraint, and it's being inserted just about everywhere. If you're trying to work in AI on a product related to education, you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping stude…

I think the thing people can't face is that it makes our lives worse not because it's worse than us.

It makes our lives worse because it is better. It is superior. And our lives are worse because it is actively replacing us and we are actively trying to keep up with it.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#40

Post by svachalek »

singpolyma3 wrote: post #36
japhyr wrote: post #2

Of course everyone hates AI. For most people, it's actively making their lives worse, not better. AI is a really effective technology when used with restraint, in appropriate places. But it's rarely being used with restraint, and it's being inserted just about everywhere. If you're trying to work in AI on a product related to education, you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping stude…

I have yet to meet anyone outside the tech elite who hates AI.

I've hardly met anyone outside the tech elite who likes it. I can think of one doctor who's a counterexample.
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