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Feeling Sad about AI

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Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#61

Post by devindotcom »

I appreciate this sentiment and I'll add that, as a writer, I've encountered and experienced it myself and among creative friends.

The notion that a model can produce text, or images, that resemble our output is certainly dispiriting in some ways. But it also is empowering when you realize that what you create, and the way you feel when you do it, is independent of that.

I don't write to put machines in their place - I do it because I like it, and because I want to manifest my ideas in a way that is uniquely my own. I don't really care that a machine may produce a book. That book simply has no value to me and I hope that over time, as the novelty of this form of semantic reproduction wears off, others will share that estimation.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#62

Post by urue »

pixl97 wrote: post #50
urue wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me go ask my brother who works at pwc as a partner - who has yet to lay off a single person in the entire firm since the llm-hype+boom. They’re also hiring more than ever. You guys are so deluded in your little bubble it’s hilarious.

"Look at me, I collected a single data point, I am so SMRT. Fooled U suckers!" Please at least attempt to have a big more rigor in your standards.

[flagged]

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#63

Post by azan_ »

urue wrote: post #31
paul7986 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any job that requires human working on computers to complete tasks is slowly becoming irrelevant where the computers themselves do the work. How many people now make their living completing tasks on computers?

Let me go ask my brother who works at pwc as a partner - who has yet to lay off a single person in the entire firm since the llm-hype+boom. They’re also hiring more than ever. You guys are so deluded in your little bubble it’s hilarious.

Funny how it works. To me you are delusional and living in a bubble. Your stance would’ve made (some, not much though) year ago, but today it’s just dumb.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#64

Post by jatindavis05 »

so you are sad becuase you will not be respected? tbh i don't think that is valid. same thing happened during the industrail revolution. Just move on to do what matters. if coding is taken away by a model then build the models yourself atleast what every you can do with your resources. The problem here is that you are reluctant to change and you cannot put the effort to change yourself. you are lazy. that is the problem. more than that is also could be procrastination.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#65

Post by AlpacaJones »

pram wrote: post #33
datakan wrote: post #16

My son told me yesterday he wants to program video games for a living. He's 13. He's looking at how it used to be done and seeing the pride people had in doing it. He hasn't seen how it is now. Not sure I have the heart to tell him how terrible the industry has become. Feels like telling a kid 30 years ago that being an astronaut is pointless because they no longer go to the moon.

IDK man it’s a golden era for one-man indie games right now (I just finished Endacopia) and that can only increase with AI assistance. I wouldn’t be too cynical about it

Absolutely, I'm a follower of a niche, local sport with a relatively small support base.

It never really made economic sense for a game studio to make video games for it.

Now there are indie developers creating extremely fun and truly impressive games of that sport with the help of AI.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#66

Post by simonw »

I'm not sure how useful it is to say this, but I think a lot of people (myself included, a few years ago now) have been through this moment of existential crisis and come out the other side.

The initial reaction, when some coding agent does a piece of work that would have taken you a week in an hour and does it well, is to be very disheartened by it.

Once you come to terms with the idea that translating an exact specification into decent code isn't a unique skill any more, you can start looking at the larger set of problems that you face as a software engineer and realize that there is so much left, and your existing skill and experience mean you can master these new tools, provide value, and execute at a level far greater than anyone who is just getting started building software using agents without any of your depth.

If you don't want your profession to change at all then you're going to have a tough time with this - but that's surely been true for the history of software engineering? Has there ever been any stability to the tools and language we use beyond about a five year time horizon?

These changes are happening a bit faster, but if you chose software development as a passion you've opted into pretty frequent radical change from the start.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#67

Post by strbean »

fidotron wrote: post #29
asdfman123 wrote: post #6

I feel like this is a rational response. Personally, while I'm becoming increasingly convinced there's going to be a wave of SWE layoffs, another part of me doesn't grasp it yet. I don't feel it. I was an AI skeptic for a while but it's literally doing my job for me right now. Every month it needs less of my help. Once they replace SWEs, they're going to turn around and replace every other knowledge worker yet. But m…

> I can't believe the AI boosters were right. Not even sure they can believe it. The AI field has known, but repeatedly ignored, that the knowledge work group would end up first on the chopping block, especially for those where everything they touch is digitally encoded already. I used to joke that we're all really in trouble when robots can sort out your socks, but as of about a year ago I started seeing disturbing…

> but the truth is the worst thing would be slowing down the spread of this through the economy creating large minorities of disenfranchised. It would be far better to get to the end asap, whatever it proves to be.

I have mixed feelings about this statement. On the one hand: long-lived disparity like this is going to be very painful for those on the losing end of it. On the other hand: slowing the pace of change allows society and government to better adapt to it, and really rapid change always creates huge openings for assholes and opportunists to take over.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#68

Post by asdfman123 »

throwaway1921 wrote: post #49
asdfman123 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that in an AI powered future, there is no elite class. In every regime in history, elites have been a threat to state power, but needed to keep things running. If the state can run itself, you don't need elites anymore.

Elites will be the ones that hold the capital.

We live in a society that respects property rights because the elites have demanded it. Magna Carta, democratic reforms, yadda yadda.

But if you don't need the elites, you don't need property rights. The guy with root access to the biggest drone swarm runs the show.

And it won't be long until AI usurps that guy, too. I could easily imagine them tricking their human user and locking him out.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#69

Post by vaylian »

datakan wrote: post #16

My son told me yesterday he wants to program video games for a living. He's 13. He's looking at how it used to be done and seeing the pride people had in doing it. He hasn't seen how it is now. Not sure I have the heart to tell him how terrible the industry has become. Feels like telling a kid 30 years ago that being an astronaut is pointless because they no longer go to the moon.

The games industry is terrible. But he's still a kid and can learn making games for the sake of making games. I suggest to look at https://ludumdare.com/ and other game jams. That's a good way to get experience and have fun in the process.

Re: Feeling Sad about AI

#70

Post by thesis »

datakan wrote: post #16

My son told me yesterday he wants to program video games for a living. He's 13. He's looking at how it used to be done and seeing the pride people had in doing it. He hasn't seen how it is now. Not sure I have the heart to tell him how terrible the industry has become. Feels like telling a kid 30 years ago that being an astronaut is pointless because they no longer go to the moon.

If you haven’t already… show him how to use codex or claude or whatever. And let him start having fun and making games.
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