After the AI boom: what might we be left with? • Hacker News Board

Re: After the AI boom: what might we be left with?

#481

Post by taurath » Wed, Oct 15, 2025, 6:53 AM UTC

lifthrasiir wrote: post #446

f4uCL9dNSnQm wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is absurd to claim that an intelligent-looking entity doesn't have intelligence Is it? I am pretty sure biology will solve good old "are viruses alive?" sooner than we agree on definition of intelligence. "Chinese Room" is at least 40 years old.

And so do tons of counterarguments against the Chinese Room argument. Practically speaking, the inherentness of intelligence doesn't really matter because both intelligent-looking entity and provably intelligent entity are capable for societal disruptions anyway. I partly dislike the Chinese Room argument for this reason; it facilitates useless discussions in most cases.

If societal disruption is the key, then I can name quite a few inanimate objects that match the criteria for intelligence

Re: After the AI boom: what might we be left with?

#482

Post by discordance » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 2:12 AM UTC

bpt3 wrote: post #479

discordance wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is ranked 14th in terms of standard of living in (in order): Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, Oman, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Austria, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, United States, Estonia. Based on these metrics: Quality of Life Index, Purchasing Power Index, Safety Index, Health Care Index, Cost of Living Index, Property Price to Income Ratio, Traffic Commute Time Index, Pollution Ind…

And by a very objective metric, which is disposable income for the median household, the US is #1. Sorry if I don't take numbeo.com all that seriously. If you do, you should poll people to see if they'd rather live in Oman or the US and think again.

That’s a fair point and looking at most of the countries on the list with higher ratings, it looks like they are more socialist and have higher equality.

No doubt in my mind that if you are wealthy in the US you can have a very good life, but on a whole and for most people there it’s probably fitting that it’s lower down the list for quality of life.

Re: After the AI boom: what might we be left with?

#483

Post by hiq » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 11:32 PM UTC

ACCount37 wrote: post #468

hiq wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't follow the comparison to Apple. Apple phones are not like Android phones, Apple computers are not like Windows computers. There's a real difference between Apple products and others. There's definitely an appeal for devices that just work and are polished (or so I've heard). I don't think ChatGPT has done that in its space.

If you want a smartphone but know nothing about smartphones? You get an iPhone and don't think about it. If you want an AI chatbot but know nothing about AI chatbots? ChatGPT is the go-to. Almost synonymous with AI now. Same exact broad appeal.

There's a wild difference in features and ecosystem when using an iPhone, as well as quite some friction in changing, to the point that it's way more than simple brand recognition. iPhones tend to be more expensive, yet they are bought by a wide range of consumers who value them and the Apple ecosystem, the customer support etc. If brand recognition were the main reason for consumers to choose Apple devices, they'd have all switched to Android once they realized they can just pay half.

This friction to switch is just not there for chatbots offering substantially equivalent features. That's why ChatGPT is still mostly free: most users would leave the moment they impose stricter limits. If you know nothing about smartphones but they cost a significant amount of your income, well you try to know more before you buy anything. There's no reason to do that for chatbots yet given that they're free to use, just try it out and stick to the first one you tried until they make it bad enough for you to want to switch.

Re: After the AI boom: what might we be left with?

#484

Post by chlorodose » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 7:26 AM UTC

grafmax wrote: post #409

test6554 wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm worried all that cheap easily accessible LLM capacity will be serving us ads if we're lucky and subtly pushing us to use brands that pay money if we're not. If AI says don't buy a subaru it's not worth the money, then Subaru pays attention and they are willing to pay money to get a better rec. Same for Univerisites. Students who see phrases like "If the degree is from brown flush it down" (ok hyperbole, but still…

It’s a tried and true method of Silicon Valley VCs. Produce something as a loss leader. Build a moat. Then extract rent. Not only can you stop having to produce anything of value, you can even degrade your product and people won’t be able to leave thanks to lock-in. We wonder why the US has lost or losing competitiveness with China in most industries. Their government has focused on public investment and public owner…

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Re: After the AI boom: what might we be left with?

#485

Post by chlorodose » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 7:47 AM UTC

gsf_emergency_4 wrote: post #370

overfeed wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where's this can-do attitude towards housing, healthcare and stronger social safety in general? It sounds like woo to me, more specifically, Roko's basilisk by proxy. What's doubly duplicitous is that even if LLMs achieve general intelligence, the whole idea is to enrich a tiny fraction of humanity that happens to be shareholders.

AGILMs that have anything like a working internet connection will likely find a way to replace these shareholders sureptitiously --- and without alerting/injuring their caregivers. how you feel about that? depends on your temperament.. EDIT: trying to address the Roko part..I'm assuming once AGI is achieved.. the AGI doesn't need more compute to increase its intelligence beyond those of an average activist employee (…

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Re: After the AI boom: what might we be left with?

#486

Post by chlorodose » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 7:55 AM UTC

CuriouslyC wrote: post #434

paulryanrogers wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...striking back with collaborative economic warfare. What does that look like?

I outline it in my article. Don't do business with unethical companies. If 50% of the American populace used its power of the purse in a collaborative fashion, it could kill every unethical company within 1-2 years.

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Re: After the AI boom: what might we be left with?

#487

Post by chlorodose » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 8:03 AM UTC

taurath wrote: post #324

lifthrasiir wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today's AI does exhibit some intelligence, period. It is absurd to claim that an intelligent-looking entity doesn't have intelligence, only because we might not be able to determine which part of the entity has one. The superintelligence is an entirely different problem though because there is no clear path from intelligence to so-called superintelligence, everything has been just a speculation so far.

> It is absurd to claim that an intelligent-looking entity doesn't have intelligence I think if one really thinks about this statement, they'll find the opposite to be at least as possible.

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Re: After the AI boom: what might we be left with?

#488

Post by chlorodose » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 8:19 AM UTC

bpt3 wrote: post #479

discordance wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is ranked 14th in terms of standard of living in (in order): Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, Oman, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Austria, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, United States, Estonia. Based on these metrics: Quality of Life Index, Purchasing Power Index, Safety Index, Health Care Index, Cost of Living Index, Property Price to Income Ratio, Traffic Commute Time Index, Pollution Ind…

And by a very objective metric, which is disposable income for the median household, the US is #1. Sorry if I don't take numbeo.com all that seriously. If you do, you should poll people to see if they'd rather live in Oman or the US and think again.

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Re: After the AI boom: what might we be left with?

#489

Post by mjhay » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 8:26 PM UTC

arisAlexis wrote: post #450

mjhay wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to listen to what people besides Sam Altman and Ray Kurweil say, at least once in a while.

That AI progress will stop because X? It's their normalcy bias (look it up) talking. There is no stopping.

Thank you for letting me know about “normalcy bias.” This is a term and concept I previously hadn’t the slightest inkling of. Now I understand the Light of our Machine God.