Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution

404media.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 242 posts

Re: Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution

#71

Post by JumpCrisscross »

spijdar wrote: post #62
lsy wrote: post #33

There's a very real possibility that AI proponents completely lose the next generation of adults. The output is not enjoyable to consume, the people who rely on it are not cool, and the effects of using it are unpleasant and hard to defend on aesthetic, intellectual, or moral grounds. There are real use cases for this technology! But the idea that the generation of superficially plausible text is "the next Industrial…

> comes out of the same mindset that has turned a neat technology into a banal hellscape for consumers and employees I'm going to say up front that I'm not as familiar with this period of history as I should be, but -- would it be totally unfair to say the same of the "Industrial Revolution"? I'm not gonna say they're equivalent by any means, but my understanding is the "Industrial Revolution" was hellish for many pe…

> the mistake is the framing that "the revolution" or "the next big thing" is always a good thing?

They are good things. If you were an adult, male aristocrat, yes, your untouched meadows and streams got tainted. If you were a woman you stopped dying in childbirth. If you think of infants as people, they stopped massively dying.

The Industrial Revolution was good. But it also required erecting the modern administrative state to manage. People had to soberly measure the problems, weigh the benefits and risks, and then invent new institutions and ways of thinking to accommodate the new world.

Re: Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution

#73

Post by ianm218 »

multiplegeorges wrote: post #45
lsy wrote: post #33

There's a very real possibility that AI proponents completely lose the next generation of adults. The output is not enjoyable to consume, the people who rely on it are not cool, and the effects of using it are unpleasant and hard to defend on aesthetic, intellectual, or moral grounds. There are real use cases for this technology! But the idea that the generation of superficially plausible text is "the next Industrial…

When the leading CEOs are saying the next generation will be unemployed due to AI... uh yeah, you're gonna lose them!

Isn't it bad now that Sam Altman and the others are backpedaling on this and going "jobs are going to still exist you just can't imagine them!" because the PR problem was getting so big? [1]

Like don't we want people running these companies to be honest to the public rather than misdirection?

[1]. https://www.platformer.news/sam-altman-ai-backlash/

Re: Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution

#74

Post by ryandrake »

bogzz wrote: post #68

[flagged]

Timestamp 1:20:50 is about where the clown show starts. Totally out of touch. Her nervous giggling and throwing her hands up when she realizes the audience doesn't think AI is the greatest invention since sliced bread.... Wow.

"Passion--let's go!" Lady read the room.

Re: Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution

#75

Post by cjs_ac »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #71
spijdar wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> comes out of the same mindset that has turned a neat technology into a banal hellscape for consumers and employees I'm going to say up front that I'm not as familiar with this period of history as I should be, but -- would it be totally unfair to say the same of the "Industrial Revolution"? I'm not gonna say they're equivalent by any means, but my understanding is the "Industrial Revolution" was hellish for many pe…

> the mistake is the framing that "the revolution" or "the next big thing" is always a good thing? They are good things. If you were an adult, male aristocrat, yes, your untouched meadows and streams got tainted. If you were a woman you stopped dying in childbirth. If you think of infants as people, they stopped massively dying. The Industrial Revolution was good. But it also required erecting the modern administrati…

> They are good things. If you were an adult, male aristocrat, yes, your untouched meadows and streams got tainted. If you were a woman you stopped dying in childbirth. If you think of infants as people, they stopped massively dying.

That happened in the Second Industrial Revolution. The First Industrial Revolution was much less comfortable for both workers (who were given much worse working conditions) and the aristocracy (whose landholdings were much less valuable) - it was the middle class who benefited.

> The Industrial Revolution was good.

The outcomes of the Industrial Revolutions were good. The experience of living through those revolutions was mixed.

Re: Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution

#76

Post by JumpCrisscross »

ianm218 wrote: post #73
multiplegeorges wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the leading CEOs are saying the next generation will be unemployed due to AI... uh yeah, you're gonna lose them!

Isn't it bad now that Sam Altman and the others are backpedaling on this and going "jobs are going to still exist you just can't imagine them!" because the PR problem was getting so big? [1] Like don't we want people running these companies to be honest to the public rather than misdirection? [1]. https://www.platformer.news/sam-altman-ai-backlash/

> don't we want people running these companies to be honest

What about any of these folks’ biographies hints that they’re capable of being honest?

Re: Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution

#77

Post by notaustinpowers »

mywacaday wrote: post #55
lsy wrote: post #33

There's a very real possibility that AI proponents completely lose the next generation of adults. The output is not enjoyable to consume, the people who rely on it are not cool, and the effects of using it are unpleasant and hard to defend on aesthetic, intellectual, or moral grounds. There are real use cases for this technology! But the idea that the generation of superficially plausible text is "the next Industrial…

My great hope for AI is that it kills social media by making 99% of content and comments untrustworthy and not worth consuming.

The content being untrustworthy doesn't matter when it comes to social media, as most of what is enticing about social media nowadays isn't the content of the content. It's the fact that there is a never-ending stream of content specifically catered to maximize your dopamine to keep you scrolling.

So much of social media nowadays is just low quality clips of TV shows/movies with an AI-generated song over them. Or the same Minecraft parkour map as an AI voice recites an r/AmITheAsshole post. Or AI-generated funny videos. The quality of the content doesn't matter at all.

Anyone I've talked to about how it was all just AI just responds with something akin to "I don't care if it's AI, it's funny! Let people enjoy things!"

Re: Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution

#78

Post by piloto_ciego »

richwater wrote: post #9
jklinger410 wrote: post #6

If you want people to like AI, show them a future that doesn't leave them in abject poverty.

That's quite an unsubstantiated leap. The world has gone through plenty of digital transformations and the number of people in poverty has only _shrank_.

Doom is popular right now. People want to feel terrible and pessimistic and their media diets only reinforce this.

Re: Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution

#79

Post by ForHackernews »

hello_moto wrote: post #34
ForHackernews wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's why unions exist.

Unions and worker's rights exist because workers were exploited to the max during the Industrial Revolution.

yes.

Re: Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution

#80

Post by setopt »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #71
spijdar wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> comes out of the same mindset that has turned a neat technology into a banal hellscape for consumers and employees I'm going to say up front that I'm not as familiar with this period of history as I should be, but -- would it be totally unfair to say the same of the "Industrial Revolution"? I'm not gonna say they're equivalent by any means, but my understanding is the "Industrial Revolution" was hellish for many pe…

> the mistake is the framing that "the revolution" or "the next big thing" is always a good thing? They are good things. If you were an adult, male aristocrat, yes, your untouched meadows and streams got tainted. If you were a woman you stopped dying in childbirth. If you think of infants as people, they stopped massively dying. The Industrial Revolution was good. But it also required erecting the modern administrati…

It was good on a long time scale, but I think the parent poster refers to the short term. If I recall correctly, during the early Industrial Revolution the average life span decreased, child mortality went through the roof, and malnutrition meant adults lost their teeth in their early 20s at best. That was… worse. It took time for the revolution to become a net-positive for the average person (which I certainly wouldn’t dispute).
Post reply on HN