Live data from Hacker News

Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

apnews.com

91–100 of 207 posts

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#91
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> None of these changes has been 100% positive, even in the long run, Personally i do in fact think we are better off (in the long term) because of e.g. the industrial revolution. Short term, it was horrific, but i'd still rather live now than as a peasent in the mid-1700s. I'd be intersted in hearing a counter argument from anyone who disagrees, as its hard for me to imagine.

I said 100%. Not on average. Billions of humans are more complicated than that. We can be elevated in some ways while being degraded in others. I.e. progress is not free, and some costs last forever , they are not only up-front. Ignoring the costs is deadly.

This view seems morally rephrensible. Basically everything you just said could be used to justify slavery or any atrocity you want.

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#92

There is nothing about AI that seems like it's going to have a net positive for humanity. Faster code? Sure. Better chatbots? Sure. Textual analysis? Sure. But the downside, and it's huge, is massive unemployment and societal collapse. Nothing AI brings to the table is worth having an unemployment rate of 25% (or more). Our society is simply not ready for this. We need to rework things from the ground up, not proceed…

We've done this dozens of times before. In the short term some people suffer and that is bad for them. In the long term everyone is much better off due to increased productivity.

Ya, fuck those people suffering in the short term! I got mine!

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#93
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CEOs: “Do something about it.” Luigi Mangione: … CEOs: “Not like that… I’m not suggesting that it’s a good response. I’m suggesting that this interpretation of what CEOs are saying is wrong.

This is a deeply sick way of thinking. Mangione was and is a fool, a 3rd rate thinker. His manifesto is muddled, factually mistaken, and by his own words he understood the topic poorly. You only need a cursory knowledge of the late 60s and early 70s to know that political violence rarely achieves its aims and is much more likely to empower reactionaries. There's no quick fix for political change.

> political violence rarely achieves its aims and is much more likely to empower reactionaries.

Cursory knowledge of history also shows that, when it comes to violence, logic does not matter. People are scared for their livelihoods. If the rich and powerful keep shouting to the word that they are going to destroy your way of life, there will be violence. It doesn't matter how futile or counterproductive it is.

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#94
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CEOs: “Do something about it.” Luigi Mangione: … CEOs: “Not like that… I’m not suggesting that it’s a good response. I’m suggesting that this interpretation of what CEOs are saying is wrong.

This is a deeply sick way of thinking. Mangione was and is a fool, a 3rd rate thinker. His manifesto is muddled, factually mistaken, and by his own words he understood the topic poorly. You only need a cursory knowledge of the late 60s and early 70s to know that political violence rarely achieves its aims and is much more likely to empower reactionaries. There's no quick fix for political change.

> You only need a cursory knowledge of the late 60s and early 70s to know that political violence rarely achieves its aims

Maybe cursory knowledge isn't enough, actually. The Civil Rights Act was ultimately only passed because of political violence. As another commenter said, the literal founding of the country was based on political violence.

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who are faced with this question are so far removed from the idea that losing your job means not being able to eat or pay rent that it seems pointless to ask them. Whenever I try to get serious answers to this question I get far-future projections about how much better people’s lives will be in the aggregate, at some point in the future, on the assumption that their baseless, faith-based projections about…

I'm becoming more and more convinced that this will eventually be leading to violence. This kind of selfishness has historically fueled movements like Marxism across many countries. It feels like the Industrial Revolution repeating itself, except now the pressure extends across far more of the so called society classes as well. I do not wish for it but humans have ugly trait to prevent fires only when it is burning a…

It already has led to violence, by the cultists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zizians

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#96

> “His speech was incredibly disrespectful to students,” said Malone. “We as students are discouraged from using it and penalized for using it. And then to have our speaker be the champion of AI is just like, OK? Why?” It's a perfectly fair question and the answer is that being a practitioner is different from being a student. If you want to hear some nice music you can learn to play and then record yourself, or you…

[dead]

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#97
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CEOs: “Do something about it.” Luigi Mangione: … CEOs: “Not like that… I’m not suggesting that it’s a good response. I’m suggesting that this interpretation of what CEOs are saying is wrong.

This is a deeply sick way of thinking. Mangione was and is a fool, a 3rd rate thinker. His manifesto is muddled, factually mistaken, and by his own words he understood the topic poorly. You only need a cursory knowledge of the late 60s and early 70s to know that political violence rarely achieves its aims and is much more likely to empower reactionaries. There's no quick fix for political change.

Mangione was a one-off, and a lot of people understand why he may have done what he did. Just wait until the American version of the French Revolution happens. If AI keeps stealing all the jobs, it will come sooner rather than later.

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the economic system rewards depravity - the more constraints you self-impose, the fewer opportunities for profit

I'm not entirely sure there are rewards for depravity, but your second point is certainly true. The more willing you are to work within the bounds of "legal, but probably reprehensible" the more business opportunities you have.

if we take the definition of depravity as moral corruption, i stand by the word choice - much damage (social, ecological) has been countenanced as the 'cost of doing business'. you can argue amoral or immoral but my bet is that most know these transgressions are wrong at heart.

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "I got mine, fuck you" mindset is genuinely going to be the death of the USA. It's genuinely astonishing how many people are willing to burn everything including their own house to spite random strangers.

I don’t disagree, but the actual beliefs of the AGI cult are much worse, and much more dangerous, than “I got mine, fuck you”

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment for details

Re: Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

#100
post #36

I’m genuinely confused as to why the speakers are baffled by the boos. Everyone, and especially new grads constantly hear that AI is going to replace every job. And absolutely no one seems to be interested in answering the question of “okay, then what?” Of course people are going to react negatively when they hear, “the machines are going to take your jobs from you. No, we don’t care how you’ll be able to pay your re…

> And absolutely no one seems to be interested in answering the question of “okay, then what?” I don’t see why the people being booed should be responsible for answering this question. How many such questions did the inventor of the tractor have to answer?

The tractor displaced horse and oxen.

Which were slaughtered when no longer needed.

You should rethink your metaphor because it's not having the effect you intended.

Post reply on HN