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The AI industry is discovering that the public hates it

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Re: The AI industry is discovering that the public hates it

#381

Post by joquarky »

jhack wrote: post #90

To a lot of people AI is just image and text generation. And yes, these uses alone aren't worth the time, money, and energy. But there are a lot of areas where AI is helping that people don't see, like in medicine. Drug development, cancer research and early detection, CT and MRI analysis, just to name a few. These uses cases are vastly more important but rarely get discussed. It's important to know that AI isn't thi…

> Drug development, cancer research and early detection, CT and MRI analysis, just to name a few.

What good are these to someone who will never afford them?

A lot of this talk reminds me of Elysium (2013).

Re: The AI industry is discovering that the public hates it

#382

Post by joquarky »

fnoef wrote: post #107
jhack wrote: post #90

To a lot of people AI is just image and text generation. And yes, these uses alone aren't worth the time, money, and energy. But there are a lot of areas where AI is helping that people don't see, like in medicine. Drug development, cancer research and early detection, CT and MRI analysis, just to name a few. These uses cases are vastly more important but rarely get discussed. It's important to know that AI isn't thi…

You know, perspective matters. When you sell a knife with the promise of a tool that helps you cut onions, is a completely different story from when you market it as a weapon to kill your neighbor. AI is massively marketed by AI people as a tool to replace your job. So either the AI people are bad at marketing or the gains in other industry are insignificant/ do not generate shareholder value.

> AI is massively marketed by AI people as a tool to replace your job

Keep in mind who pays the AI companies.

It's not you, it's the C-levels. The marketing is aimed at them.

Re: The AI industry is discovering that the public hates it

#383

Post by joquarky »

KaiserPro wrote: post #48

I think there is conflation here. Data centres popping up near you probably means higher electricity prices, poor air quality and water problems Sam Altman is a massive penis, with a gift for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. The two things that link them are "rich" people imposing their will on everyone else, publicly.

> with a gift for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time

It's not a gift, it's ignorance.

Altman and his peers live in a bubble.

They don't interact with former translators, copywriters, or web developers.

They don't hear feedback from the people they have put out of a job.

Re: The AI industry is discovering that the public hates it

#384

Post by joquarky »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #343
simianwords wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why? I think both generally track. And I won't appreciate category errors such as calling it similar to smoking

That's your experience, perhaps. I use it extensively in my work, and some in my personal life. I also think it's a net negative for society, will likely be highly destructive, and I would be happy to give up my use of it in exchange for its elimination.

Yep, anyone familiar with the Red Queen's race will recognize the importance of staying on top of AI advancements.

But that position is orthogonal to whether they like having to participate in the race to begin with.

Re: The AI industry is discovering that the public hates it

#385

Post by joquarky »

Devasta wrote: post #66

It has destroyed art, it has destroyed public trust with fabricated videos, it has caused skyrocketing prices in components so stuff like Valves console cannot get made, and its enriched freaks like Sam Altman. The fact that AI acolytes are positively giddy about the above is just icing on the cake.

I agree on all but the first. The signal:noise is now much lower for discovery of high quality art, but that art is still being made by people.

Re: The AI industry is discovering that the public hates it

#386

Post by joquarky »

florisuga wrote: post #347
masijo wrote: post #56

AI has automated my favorite part of the job: coding. Gone is all the experience in clean code, good idioms, etc. All replaced by easily generated shitty code that can be removed and generated again as we please, until it works. No thought about the quality of code itself. Some companies are straight up forcing programmers to live in Claude Code and never even see the code, just write the spec. It’s disgusting. And t…

I've experienced myself that even if you explain to your AI-loving boss in a well reasoned manner that an LLM is not the right tool for the job he wants you to use it for, you simply get labeled as anti tech and your chances of advancement plummet (he was explicit about that). But I still do it, because dammit I'm still a human with a brain. The thought of being a corporate drone who just falls in line with any deman…

In my observation, this is becoming more common over time.

The "boss" is often not a promoted engineer, but an MBA brought in to "manage" engineers.

Engineering is where idealism hits reality, and the increasingly undisciplined cronies who "manage" us don't like hearing that their idea is incompatible with physics.

We are subject matter experts who are burdened with responsibility but denied agency and authority in our area of expertise.

Re: The AI industry is discovering that the public hates it

#387

Post by Unmotivator2677 »

nunez wrote: post #261

It's unbelievable and frustrating that _we basically built our own demise._ We built the most meritocratic and accessible career path possible. If you knew how to code, and you invested in your craft (or didn't!), you were more-or-less guaranteed multiple amazing, well-paying career paths anywhere in the world. Yet, a cohort of us decided "what if we built this thing that literally does our job? what could possibly g…

It wasn't us, this was the plan it Tech oligarchs for a long time now, and they are continuing to do this, no longer even hiding it. Do you know what people on H1B visas and Meta forcing their workers to be spied on have in common? That people on visa have to agree to anything and can't refuse. This is how this tech came about, by forcing people who literally have no other choice.

Re: The AI industry is discovering that the public hates it

#388

Post by Unmotivator2677 »

SJMG wrote: post #54

I think the truth is in fact asymmetric on this front. People, esp. many SWEs, like generating with AI, or more telling, wouldn't want to give it up in their work. On the other hand, people generally hate consuming the product of gen AI. Consumer experience = mostly negative Producer experience = mostly positive

As a SWE i absolutely hate gen AI, it produces crappy code and I can't be proud of "my own work". In the past, huge part of the work enjoyment was that I could learn something on the job, or at least be happy to have figured out a hard problem. Now I feel like my skills are slipping overall.

Re: The AI industry is discovering that the public hates it

#389

Post by Devasta »

joquarky wrote: post #385
Devasta wrote: post #66

It has destroyed art, it has destroyed public trust with fabricated videos, it has caused skyrocketing prices in components so stuff like Valves console cannot get made, and its enriched freaks like Sam Altman. The fact that AI acolytes are positively giddy about the above is just icing on the cake.

I agree on all but the first. The signal:noise is now much lower for discovery of high quality art, but that art is still being made by people.

I agree that it is mostly that the discovery mechanism is shot to bits, but its also the case that before I could find a new artist and marvel, now I have to treat with suspicion to be sure there is no AI before I do anything else.

Re: The AI industry is discovering that the public hates it

#390

Post by happytoexplain »

simianwords wrote: post #332
beej71 wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use LLMs and I think they should be nuked from orbit. [Speaking figuratively, NSA.] Helpful, sure. Would humanity be better off without generative AI? Definitely.

> I think they should be nuked from orbit This kind of hyperbloic stance amongst the broad public is sad concerning

Maybe you should consider that they have good reasons to feel that way? That the "broad public" isn't necessarily wrong, stupid, and ignorant on every single topic?
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