I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney • Hacker News Board

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#691

Post by juvvel » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 4:58 PM UTC

HervalFreire wrote: post #679

juvvel wrote: post #665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism and its value system is subjective, too. It's not set in stone. I believe we can still steer away from profit as the sole driver of, well, everything, if we want to.

It's possible. But unlikely. Historically speaking, from crypto to AI, the market constantly evolves towards the next most profitable thing. Only regulatory systems like the government has the tendency to temper such things (see the Fed and rising interest rates). However do note that capitalist entities have infiltrated the government and have huge sway over it's regulatory policies meaning that anti-business regula…

> However do note that capitalist entities have infiltrated the government and have huge sway over it's regulatory policies meaning that anti-business regulatory policies are unlikely to occur.

Maybe this is the case in the US, the EU is known for being much more strict in its regulations, which is often ridiculed by the rest of the world. Those same people are going to hope for regulations once we see the effects of the current Wild West that is AI.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#692

Post by lowbloodsugar » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

habibur wrote: post #447

elforce002 wrote: post #437

The discussion is creating 3 groups: First group is sure AI will be an enabler and it won't replace them; The second group is saying AI won't replace them at least in the near future (1~10 years); Then we have the third group, which is basically the sentiment the op is living rn: AI is taking away their hopes, dreams, and livelihood. Now, I think we'll see the strongest counterculture in human history against AI and…

And then industrial revolution didn't take out jobs, rather created more. So did computers in the 80s and 90s. I remember typesetters in our locality were protesting in the 80s that computers were taking off their jobs. They started something like "burn the computers" movement. More people were later employed as composers than there were typesetters.

>And then industrial revolution didn't take out jobs, rather created more.

This is your thinking: "Because all previous technological revolutions created more jobs, it follows that the AI technological revolution will create more jobs."

However there is an obvious difference between all previous revolutions and this one: previous revolutions replaced labor. The AI revolution replaces thought. Even the computer revolution replaced labor, such as "typing things onto paper" or "updating a ledger".

For me, the whole ChatGPT debacle just showed me that 99% (or 100%) of humans are, themselves, just autocompletion generators, with the training model being a religious text, a political manifesto or propaganda masquerading as a school system.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#693

Post by lowbloodsugar » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 5:21 PM UTC

muyuu wrote: post #52

Some people say there isn't enough empathy to go around for those creatives that are seeing their jobs either endangered or automated to a degree they've become sweatshop janitors with little prospects to be anything else. I wonder if that sort of empathy was so plentiful when the automation was shredding the prospects of farmers, miners, truckers and other blue collar workers? Make no mistake, generative AI is going…

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#694

Post by lowbloodsugar » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 5:34 PM UTC

8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #129

pkdpic wrote: post #128

This is a tragic disappointment a lot of (if not most (if not an overwhelming majority (if not literally all))) artists experience at some point early or late in their professional careers. I taught art for a long time and I would always try to frame this inevitable experience as an important moment of growth. When you have to form a deeper relationship to your creative work and think strategically about how you want…

What's an analogy in the software world to this sort of tragic disappointment? Going from building fun videogame side projects to having to crank out dozens of over-engineered B2B SaaS microservices, for the sake of job security, for yet another sales workflow optimization tool?

Or even just going from writing video games by yourself, getting to do all of it (graphics, "AI", design), to being one of a hundred programmers churning out the latest version of some "AAA" title. I now work at a FAANG, and in many ways, it is more rewarding. I'd love to be part of a five person indie studio making great games but it is a fucking lottery and my kid is heading off to college.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#695

Post by lowbloodsugar » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 5:35 PM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #153

LesZedCB wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes. instead of spending weeks thinking about and designing some sweet algorithm Knuth himself would be proud of, you write the same CRUD app with the same design patterns.

> the same CRUD app with the same design patterns The same —hilariously inefficient— design patterns.

That's the change in perspective. They are inefficient from a CPU point of view. They are efficient from the perspective of "churning out more shit for less". So it's the same, soul destroying effect as for artistic professions.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#696

Post by lowbloodsugar » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

nbzso wrote: post #672

falsaberN1 wrote: post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Trained on stolen data" This is emotionally charged wording with a clear confrontational bias and a dark intent to discredit. As someone with over 30 years of experience with art and artists, do you realize how many influences are present in any given artist? Do you know how many artists use "reference images" heavily? Do you know how many artists trace images (specially in 3D modeling)? By your logic, every piece o…

Sorry, the idea that artists are synthesizers of the past art is ludicrous. The human is not the machine. There are a billion factors for interpretation in creating a personal style. The A.I. image generators are just machines which produce average from all previous artists. They have no personality or agency (yet). > Stable Diffusion trained its algorithm on data sets collected by the German nonprofit LAION, which h…

>a billion factors

precisely.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#697

Post by lowbloodsugar » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 5:46 PM UTC

nullsense wrote: post #79

muyuu wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally speaking, whatever output people can do, generative AI can do to the point you wouldn't be able to tell it apart.

I think the point is it's not going to suddenly give us surprises like Banksy shredding art.

Quite the opposite. AI will be better at learning "what surprises" humans than humans because it won't be filtered by a human going "oh, that wouldn't surprise me" (because you just thought of it, idiot). Now imagine a million, a billion "banksy" "surprise" pieces. This is the future.

And the future is now, of course, because there are tons of such artists and the value comes only from the elite who ascribe value and not some inherent value of the thing itself. Things are important ("worth money") because tasteless fucks with money say they are worth money. Go watch "The Menu". Ralph Fiennes face cooking the last meal says it all.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#698

Post by anonyfox » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 7:48 PM UTC

tekknik wrote: post #680

anonyfox wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said dimishing, not gone already. A shrinking middle class is a real problem, leading to all kinds of issues, like reduced spending power - something that until recently was hidden by people going into debt massively… which now turns into even more problems soon. All the while you can now do stuff in English all over europe increasingly well and legislations are getting normalized between countries, ignoring the od…

This comment can be read as you being happy for the demise of the US. It’s wonderful to see how many actual allies we have, who the minute we trip up they’re immediately on scene saying “i told you so” and ready to pick the bones.

You are reading that wrong, and it even sounds you want to read it that way.

For sure Europeans are not keen to have to deal with china or Russia as the new world powers instead of the US. Really! But sometimes friends have to call out each other when things go in a bad direction.

But most Americans probably have to deal with the fact that they really aren’t the greatest country on earth any longer, except for military spending, gun deaths and prisoners. This realization is needed before one can really make steps into improving things again.

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#699

Post by MichaelZuo » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 8:21 PM UTC

antifa wrote: post #660

MichaelZuo wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> single (treatable) disease from crippling debt. This sounds a lot better than being a single (treatable) disease from guaranteed death? Which many, many, historical monarchs experienced. At least some fraction of such monarchs would have gladly taken the opportunity to swap places if they had known in advance.

> This sounds a lot better than You can justify pretty much any horrible thing with "sounds better than a torment nexus"

What's a 'torment nexus'?

Re: I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney

#700

Post by HervalFreire » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 8:34 PM UTC

juvvel wrote: post #691

HervalFreire wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible. But unlikely. Historically speaking, from crypto to AI, the market constantly evolves towards the next most profitable thing. Only regulatory systems like the government has the tendency to temper such things (see the Fed and rising interest rates). However do note that capitalist entities have infiltrated the government and have huge sway over it's regulatory policies meaning that anti-business regula…

> However do note that capitalist entities have infiltrated the government and have huge sway over it's regulatory policies meaning that anti-business regulatory policies are unlikely to occur. Maybe this is the case in the US, the EU is known for being much more strict in its regulations, which is often ridiculed by the rest of the world. Those same people are going to hope for regulations once we see the effects of…

Agreed. The EU is ridiculed but it's also one of the happiest places to live. The relationship between the US and EU is almost parasitic with the EU simply feeding off most of the business innovation coming from the US.

I don't think the world needs this much constant innovation. Additionally the innovation itself can be disruptive. The US will doggedly pursue profits even if those profits involve technology that can cause the US to eat itself. If AI replaces all jobs and nobody has any money to buy stuff who will the companies sell shit too?