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Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

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Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see AI exactly as what will help future generations, the possibilities it provides in terms of learning, research, analysis are huge. It confusing to me how people complain about jobs - there is no guarantee that any job will be there forever, there is no guarantee that current social and economic model will be there forever, things always change, you have to adapt, there is no other way.

Present generations see the primary role for AI as being identical to the biggest disruption to US business in the past century — namely the gigantic sucking sound from the outsourcing of millions of US jobs in order to reduce labor costs. Of course they're terrified of it. By singing its praises AND IGNORING THAT CONCERN, Schmidt showed that he couldn't be more out of touch with the top priority of this generation —…

>WILL AI TAKE MY JOB?

At this point I don't think its a concern, I think its going to happen sooner or later.

1st world countries have a bunch of support programs for the unemployed/homeless, so its not the end of the world. 3rd world countries are more or less used to live off the land, I guess village lifestyle will make a comeback.

Once enough jobs are lost then social and economic structures will change. I don't know how exactly, so I'm just working on my skills, maybe some of them will be useful.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#422
post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you don't like AI, you're a nazi."

And remember: they don't call you a nazi because they think you are. They call you a nazi to make you a valid target.

Are there many cases where calling someone a Nazi - especially powerful people - actually did something to their lives? Ruin their careers, ruin them financially, led to their family breaking up?

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#423
post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see AI exactly as what will help future generations, the possibilities it provides in terms of learning, research, analysis are huge. It confusing to me how people complain about jobs - there is no guarantee that any job will be there forever, there is no guarantee that current social and economic model will be there forever, things always change, you have to adapt, there is no other way.

Per CEO rhetoric's, the future generation will be useless and none of them will do research or analysis. They wont do art either. All that stuff will be done by AI. They will be either homeless or useless living of UBI if wealthy owners allow them to. They will never amount to anything that matters. Oh, and those powerful AI tools will be controlled by a winning monopoly corporation pretty much guaranteed to abuse no…

This is the thing - you define things "that matter" based on how they valued in terms of monetary compensation or social approval. But there are people who just enjoy playing a piano, there are people who just enjoy learning things.

We see hobby as an inferior thing because there is a "real" job to do that earns us money. Once its gone - you have to find what to do with all that time, and then hobby becomes a real thing.

We will have all the time to spend on what we like, simply because there is nothing else to do. Assuming the basic things will be covered by UBI or something like that.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a working artist. Professional visual artists were furious about DALL-E and Midjourney immediately . If you didn’t see this, or you weren’t aware of it, it’s a self-selection problem. Sam Altman was talking about how we neeeed UBI because AI was going to take everyone’s job very early in the development of LLMs. I have no idea why you don’t remember that, but it’s in writing everywhere.

Oh sure. But that was a different tone and audience. The "it's stealing" arguments have quieted down. Especially since there are weights trained on fully licensed materials by Adobe and others. Now that code models can do it, it's a moot point. Data can be found anywhere, and models are pretty good at generalizing out of domain, not unlike human brains. Engineers finding out these models are good is drawing a lot of…

No, the “it’s stealing” argument has not died down, and if you think this it’s because you don’t actually spend time with artists.

What happened is that anyone who makes commercial art, like anyone who (used to) write software for a living, is now forced to use AI to survive, or else switch careers.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm more "the kids are showing healthy skepticism of corporate dystopia but AI is vital" camp, here is my argument: 1. Yes the risk of AI corporate/authoritarian dystopia is HUGE, we'll have to fight for our rights MANY times this century. Transcendental AI takeover is probably less of a risk than humans in power using armies of robots and Stasi-AI surveillance. 2. Our current economy is bs and the last century of 'r…

I feel like the main issue here is that it does seem like in the current trajectory the job loss outcome is going to happen before any of these potential really good outcomes. I'm down for a utopian future, but I don't have to want to spend 10 to 20 years in a depressing unemployed hellscape before I get there.

Agreed, there is one simple solution that always works albeit limited and temporary. Jefferson said it, Luigi did it, many are thinking it - but we must ensure it does not turn into a mass purge, just limit to maybe a few parasitical PE players and everyone else will fall in line for at least a few years.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#426
post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was able to avoid talking to Gemini, but only by switching to DuckDuckGo and then also doctoring Chromium to run searches using a 'no-AI' option. At least I think I'm avoiding talking to Gemini, but for all I know I'm talking to it right now. This is what bugs people.

We now have an official noai Chrome Extension here: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/duckduckgo-no-ai-se...

Appreciated, though I did say chromium. Chrome updates itself and changes itself when you're not looking, and I find that so distressing that I use ungoogled chromium instead :)

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#427
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd phrase it like this: every time you delegate, you're letting that skill atrophy.

Strong disagree. How many times have you written a boring CRUD endpoint that returns a list of results? Half the stuff I lose time on is the boring boilerplate code (despite using frameworks). Now I can focus on the fun stuff like determining an optimal algorithm or even getting the LLM to walk me through using kubectl on the terminal Now I know some kubectl commands off by heart, which I didn't before. - kubectl get…

Every time you do not write boring api code, some of your skill atrophies there. And, perfectly honestly, maybe that's OK.

I had an AI write some Vimscript for me and I lost out on that skill building. And I was fine with that.

But it is loss.

Or, in your case, do you think you'd still be building the same algorithm skills if you punted those to the AI, as well?

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#428
post #64
post #8

> Schmidt urged graduates to embrace freedom, open debate, equality and the willingness to engage with those they disagree with. I think it was a great embrace of freedom and open debate to boo him for only asserting predictions that benefit him.

It's not clear to me why they booed him. you think for only asserting predictions that benefit him? Not because they agree on those predictions and don't want that future, blame him for this role in it?

I'm guessing the reason is probably the sex allegations. I don't see a graduating class that probably used an LLM for every single homework assignment boo'ing a speech because of AI alone. When it comes to sex allegations in the US, you are guilty until proven innocent, even more so as a powerful and/or rich individual. Of course shame on him if it's true, but in this day and age it doesn't matter whether it's true or not.

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#429
post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We now have an official noai Chrome Extension here: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/duckduckgo-no-ai-se...

Appreciated, though I did say chromium. Chrome updates itself and changes itself when you're not looking, and I find that so distressing that I use ungoogled chromium instead :)

Do extensions not work there as well? In any case you could set it yourself as default search: noai.duckduckgo.com

Re: Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation

#430
post #191
post #8

> Schmidt urged graduates to embrace freedom, open debate, equality and the willingness to engage with those they disagree with. I think it was a great embrace of freedom and open debate to boo him for only asserting predictions that benefit him.

Shouting people down isn’t “open debate”.

This was a speech, not a debate. When you don’t like someone’s speech, this is how you can show it. People have been doing it for as long as people have given speeches.
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