F0rtysxity t1_j6sz7nq wrote
“The wheel changed the world. The steam engine could destroy it.”
I’m not saying that AI won’t. I’m just saying we’ve had these headlines before.
CaringRationalist t1_j6utw26 wrote
It's not comparable though. Technology before now only replaced physical power, something humans never had in spades anyway.
Now, AI is poised to surpass our intellectual power, which is our strongest evolutionary tool. Unless we drastically redistribute the gains from AI in a way that the global right would absolutely revolt against, AI is guaranteed to lead to widespread unemployment and poverty the likes of which will make the great depression look tame.
mouserat_hat t1_j6v0ski wrote
Pardon me, dear scholar, but I think our strongest evolutionary tools are our Pee-Pees and our Hoo-Hahs.
CaringRationalist t1_j6vq5ch wrote
Can't tell if this is a joke, but considering that's not a unique characteristic of our species and that asexual reproduction exists, on the chance that it isn't a joke that's silly AF.
pipboyover9000 t1_j6vxsq5 wrote
1000% a joke
[deleted] t1_j7aiffw wrote
[removed]
jazzageguy t1_j6wesgh wrote
"Technology before now only replaced physical power"
You typed those words into a computer. They've been around for 70 years. They don't replace physical power. They evolve about a million times faster than we do, yet they don't seem to be trying to eliminate or impoverish us.
"...guaranteed to lead to widespread unemployment and poverty..."
Just as mechanical looms were sure to impoverish everybody. And every other invention. They've said that about technology for centuries. Some artifact in our brains leads us to imagine imminent doom. Dial phones, farm machinery, every invention was going to be catastrophic. But wow, no doom! It turns out all that scary tech is great for our species. Unemployment? Jobs are both more numerous and more rewarding when technology takes care of the grunt work. The record is crystal clear on this. There's the occasional problematic invention (nuclear bombs and internal combustion engines spring to mind), but the bombs prevented a lot of wars and cars improve standards of living until we cook the planet.
AI will not replace our intellectual power but augment it. That's what tech does. It makes us richer, not poorer. Do you really imagine us in an existential evolutionary struggle for survival with the machines we build to sell each other cheeseburgers and make restaurant reservations? Competing for what sort of resource? It's a curious perspective. The grim future you imagine sounds like the alt-right nonsense about "replacement" by purportedly inferior ethnicities.
Geog28 t1_j6vdit9 wrote
We don't have nor is it expected to have the type of A.I that you're talking about anytime soon.
CaringRationalist t1_j6vpzqk wrote
We already have it. AI is replacing some art functions, is better at finding new oil reserves than PHDs, can nearly handle shipping, and will likely be able to replace most of the accounting and finance industries by the end of the decade
Geog28 t1_j6x3s7n wrote
We might have some AI capable of some really cool stuff. But none of it is actual intellectual thought let alone some that surpasses our own. It's all just really good pattern recognition but not something that is able to actually solve problems.
therealxris t1_j70zznb wrote
Literally excel spreadsheets
therealxris t1_j70zqx8 wrote
AI can’t surpass shit. It only spits back what we tell it and it’s not very good https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/01/wolframalpha-as-the-way-to-bring-computational-knowledge-superpowers-to-chatgpt/
Chat gpt for example gets so much basic stuff just blatantly wrong that no ai is taking over anything any time soon. And thinking they have any actual intellect is just wrong.
CaringRationalist t1_j7254vq wrote
Compare Chat GPT to AI 5 years ago.
You're just wrong. AI is literally already replacing sophisticated labor, and companies are pumping billions more into their development than they were before specifically because of the positive results.
therealxris t1_j794gxo wrote
What you said doesn’t contradict what I said though. Chat gpt is only as good as the data it’s fed and it can easily be fed wrong data that it will confidently repeat as fact. Yes people are using it for labor but that doesn’t mean it’s smart or self learning. I’m not wrong, you just don’t understand the tech.
CaringRationalist t1_j796pps wrote
And humans can't be fed the wrong data that they confidently repeat as fact?...
I think I understand it just fine given that my original claim was about it being smart enough to replace our intellectual labor, which you've now agreed to, and not that it was either self learning or perfect.
therealxris t1_j7a38eu wrote
No. You are wrong. Again.
The part of your post that I disagreed with is, and I quote:
>"AI is poised to surpass our intellectual power"
I still disagree with this. It is still a stupid thing for you to have said and has nothing to support it.
I also never said that AI is replacing "intellectual" labor, so whatever point you think you made there is equally stupid.
Funny for someone with rationalist in their name to be so out of their mind over AI
CaringRationalist t1_j7a595x wrote
Nothing to support it? I specifically mentioned several fields in which AI is already better than highly educated labor. The qualifications for being a geologist capable of finding new oil reserves is a PHD, the highest level of education that very few laborers ever reach. AI is already better at doing their jobs than they are. That's what was funded first, and now the funding is on mainstream applications, it just hasn't caught up yet.
No, you didn't, I did, and you responded to me ignoring that. That's the context of what I said that you responded to.
Sorry that I'm not historically illiterate I guess.
ItsAConspiracy t1_j6urw72 wrote
At the rate we're going, the steam engine and its successors might yet do that.
Fighting-Cerberus t1_j6xcrdd wrote
Yeah we don't need to wait for AI, the age of planetary devastation has arrived.
newest-reddit-user t1_j6w97xr wrote
And if you are not saying that it won't, what's the point of saying that we've seen these headlines before?
Also, I don't think we have seen these headlines before except in the case of nuclear weapons, and they can definitely destroy the world.
People said that industrialization would lead to social upheaval, unemployment, and inequality—and they were right in the short term, the only timeframe that mattered for them.
F0rtysxity t1_j6w9yek wrote
The point was to bring suspicion to headlines that are being sensationalist. Heck they headlines were Marijuana Would Destroy Colorado just 10 years ago. I didn't read the article. Maybe it was more nuanced and intelligent than the headlines. But I doubt it.
newest-reddit-user t1_j6wb25y wrote
Yes, but surely by insinuating that it won't happen?
F0rtysxity t1_j6wczmr wrote
I did say “I’m not saying it won’t happen.”
newest-reddit-user t1_j6wh0kw wrote
Yes, that's why I asked "if you are not saying that it won't, then what is the point?" since if you are not saying that it won't happen, you presumably do think it can happen, and then you would agree that "AI could destroy the world", just like the headlines suggest.
F0rtysxity t1_j6wpc7d wrote
The point was to bring suspicion to headlines that are being sensationalist. Heck they headlines were Marijuana Would Destroy Colorado just 10 years ago. I didn't read the article. Maybe it was more nuanced and intelligent than the headlines. But I doubt it.
mattstorm360 t1_j6x87z8 wrote
News papers will ruin society!
Books will make people forgetful!
The written word is the worst thing to ever happen to mankind!
Stick make men weak.
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