To be utterly despondent about AI

That's the theory, but technology is making us dumber, not smarter

I watched a shopping robot trying to cross the road yesterday. We’re ok for a few decades I reckon

I just use it for multi question tasks such as travel itineraries, how to use public transport, train times, and so on. For me it's an overview of things where I want to go.

I don't use it for work (retired) or for much really, although I suppose that will happen sooner or later. I am more afraid of robots taking the place of humans TBH, although that might be ok if I need an inanimate object to wipe my bum when I get very old and can't do it myself 😊

I can't help but see AI as the death of creativity. When you can create 'art' with AI and write 'books' with AI (none of which will give any new insights into the human condition - how can it, when AI doesn't know what it IS to be human?) why would you pay an artist to paint a picture of bees in an apple tree? Or an author to write a book about how it feels to live with a disability? You can get AI to do it - it might well be wrong, but you won't have to pay someone for it.

My dc did homework this morning, their school use an AI reader and the pupils homework is set on AI generated stories😣… just like when washing machines came in, right?

That makes no sense whatsoever.How can AI run a warehouse?

At the moment it’s the Wild West while we’re in flux. Hopefully it will eventually get sorted out and as long as we start to implement a UBI (universal basic income) we can thrive.

There would have to be some major changes to welfare in the UK e.g. mortgage payers eligible to housing benefit.

I’m looking forward to a future where everything will be taken over by A1, making all our jobs obsolete, and we can then all go on benefits and not have to work at all. Ever. That will be true equality. Not sure of how benefits will be sourced if no tax, but we’ll figure that out when it happens…..

I don't think people have realised the extent of job losses as AI progresses.

There is a lot of hype - but did see US graduate level unempolyment rates and they're higher than rest of economy - and AI being blamed. A few in comments said it was companies cutting back due to economy - but others agreed AI was taking entry level poistions.

It's so short sighted though as if you don't get talent in at entry level - there comes a point existing entry level people move on and up - and people who tried to get in will have moved on to other things and it will be considered a poor bet by generation under - so that's going to have an impact.

I'd say there were several sectors already suffering from a lack of talent - because it's so hard to get in so pool of who mange to get in come from same small group with contacts and output eventually suffers.

Those with money don't want unrest directed towards themselves no. But history shows there is always a scape goat (the EU, asylum seekers, legal immigrants, women in the workforce, old people, young people) to direct the blame towards. So I don't think they are afraid of the consequences of mass unemployment.

I think a lot of the promises of AI won't come to anything. It will also probably bring benefits/changes noone has thought of yet. But in the meantime there is a cash grab going on by the worst in society.

You’re so right @AnotherGreyMorning
jobs around transcription, translation, copy , graphic design are especially impacted

have to say though little things have changed so much though, I had to make a little artistic picture and Copilot did it for me in 1 min!!

either way if you can’t beat them, join them! Lots of opportunities to use AI to your advantage

AI can only keep getting better and better, it has to because there’s so much money involved.

I too am worried about what’s coming. Ultimately your employer won’t care AI isn’t quite as efficient as you (yet), the employer only cares that the AI is much cheaper than you.

But capitalism is what will hamper AI as well. If all jobs go, who will buy the products AI is producing? Corporations need the population to have money, they can’t withstand high unemployment.

There were. But lots of jobs were lost or became much more alienating. So at one point Weavers worked from home and it was actually comparitively well paid and involved the whole family in different roles. They were artisans. Working class but dignified. When it was automated and moved.into factories the work was considered unskilled and extremely poorly paid. Women and children worked for the least pay in extremely unhealthy and dangerous conditions. Housing also became slums. In the long term, the industrial revolution brought us all sorts of nice things. But it made many people's lives much worse.

My gut feeling (for what it's worth) is that there won't be mass redundancies, even if AI does replace humans. True, those with money generally don't care about the rest of us, but they also know it's unwise to simply lay off two-thirds of the work force. Even the richest still have to live in society. And the last thing they want is mass unrest. If a business is struggling, the owners will sack people without hesitation. But if AI boosts profits, there won't be much incentive to sack them – not en mass. It will be better to retain their employees even if there isn't much for them to do. That way they can keep things ticking over while they enjoy ever bigger profits.

The op is right to be concerned. Anyone saying it’s the same as other technology and changes in our lifetime, it really isn’t, it’s not apples with apples. If you’re dismissing it as the same as when microwaves came in to family homes, we got used to that, didn’t we attitude, you’re being very naive.
You won’t be left behind if you catastrophise about it, because you’ll be left behind even if you embrace it 🤷‍♀️ What we have to adapt to is the change and impact on our society, not actually embracing and using some form of AI in our day to day lives, as it’s inevitable for any of us who still have a job. How much you allow to be part of your family life will still be up to you.

The other side of that is that AI could also make it easier for people to do high value work by freeing them from the most mundane tasks and genuinely increase productivity (AI can also decrease productivity if it free your boss to bombard you with 50 emails a day about nonsense instead of 5). It's about how it's used
And why it's really important to keep the tech billionaires sweaty fingers away from the levers of government as rules brought in about how.intellectual copywrite is protected, how work is valued and compensated are going to really matter.

I’m no history expert, but weren’t there millions of jobs created after the Industrial Revolution?

Not quite the same as AI but there are now driverless taxi services in parts of America. But, they still need to employ cleaners to make sure the cars are in a decent state.for the next users
People shopping online meant that a lot of shops closed and workers lost their jobs but there is still employment in warehouses
When self driving lorries become a thing they will likely still need human "ride alongs" to male sure the lorries can navigate tricky sections
Copywriters/translators are being replaced by AI but you still.need someone at the end to come in and "check" the work. Sometimes it's such a mess it's as much work as fixing it from scratch but the perception is they are only adding to the AIs work.

So AI etc isn't making human jobs obsolete. It's making it easier to downgrade what people do and portray it as something that is less skilled and should pay less. That's the real trick.
I'ts a bit of a conspiracy theory but I was suspicious when there was a huge push in the manosphere podcaster space to talk about how different men and women are and how women are better at X,Y but men are much better at A,B,C,De and thats why they get paid more and we should be honest about that. All the "male" supposedly more important skills (from coding to heavy lifting) are things computers/machines are better at. So all the skills that are left to humans are the low value ones. Bros got played.

‘They’ really didn’t

I don't know about utterly despondent, but certainly worried. There could be a sensible path if corporations were made to pay out to support the societal and economic consequences of mass automation, but that's never going to happen given, y'know, capitalism. It's not a given it'll take jobs en masse, it may not be able to get good enough to be viable and other support roles may evolve, but yeah, I'm on the pessimistic side, most of all perhaps about the environmental cost, which is huge.

I know what you mean. But the truth is that the world doesn't stay the same.
I don't love it either but don't want to be one of those older people who resists change.

They're really not! We have adapted beyond our evolution. We are so far where we should be, processed food, lack of human relationships, surrounded by chemicals, not at one with nature, sedentary, too much technology thw list goes on. And as a result look at the mental health of most.