To be utterly despondent about AI

YANBU ... I am sick of it. Stuff being written by it, pictures being drawn by it, and even songs can be written by it. Then there's the fake AI videos on Facebook and the like, where a 'kind man' saves a tiger cub's life, or helps a distressed giraffe, and it turns out to be shitty AI.

I am baffled that so many posters aren't arsed about it. It's literally stealing peoples careers and businesses, and conning people. I hate it.

Humans are very good at adapting. That’s why we are so successful!

phones have changed the way we interact socially, I agree not always for the better however

As an immigrant I remember buying scratch card mobile cards with minutes on them that allowed me to call my grandparents for a limited amount of time for a lot of money. Now I can video call them in seconds and share that I got engaged, my baby was born, someone close to me was passing away. That’s invaluable.

Blind people can hold up their phone camera up to an object and the phone tells them what it is.

Hard of hearing can connect up their hearing aids to a phone which processes noise around them to clearly translate a conversation

You can call for help when you’re lost, you can get directions, you can order food when your mobility is reduced

it’s really not all doom and gloom.

Brilliant example. I was talking to someone about copywriters last week. The issue with AI is you can get it to do the grunt work but you need an expert to review and finesse it. But people don't realise it so the art and skill is lost which will happen with everything. Journalism is a really great example where want is classed as a journalist is a very low bar

That's a bit different though. How many people were put out of jobs when people started to have washing machines in their own homes compared to the amount of graphic designers,lyricists, illustrators, writers,song writers, composers, etc that will be put out of business by AI??

People talk about previous Industrial Revolutions but the life expectancy was much much lower then. I’m wealthy so unlikely to be affected but it does worry me. It’s taking out the middle jobs and that’s the first time that’s happened before. So jobs at the v bottom and top will remain but the middle will be squeezed. The talk of a living wage via benefits is all v well but having millions of unemployed young males across Europe cannot be good.

I feel the same op. No one I speak to seems to be that concerned. The changes will be nothing like the 80s/90s and millennium bug etc..

AI will be a huge in the not too distant future. I am worried for my dc and their future job prospects too.

The government is not doing enough to stop the AI takeover and put some guard rails in place 😔

My partner is a copywriter,and he's gone from earning £2k a month,at least,to nothing/the odd £200 every now and then.
I don't think people have realised the extent of job losses as AI progresses.
There is a warehouse opening local to me,which was expected to provide thousands of job opportunities,but as it turns out,it's going to be mainly AI run.
I'm very concerned about how many jobs will be lost to AI,not just now,but for our sons and daughters.
I'm all for progress but I genuinely think AI will ultimately end the need for humans.

Well the cellphone has basically destroyed society so I don't think OP is too far off?

AI needs, and always will need, human interaction. Best thing to do is get on board with it, people need to start understanding its capabilities more and the younger generations should be using it in their daily lives to build skills. It's not going anywhere. AI will replace some jobs, others it will transform. But it will also create new jobs.

People said the same in the eighties about robots !
the nineties about the internet
before that and after that same … same lament, different tune !

you may as well be despondent that the sea tides move in and out !!!

move with it, or be left behind
don’t catastrophise and you will feel better

But what about when you are reading books and you've no idea whether this is an original work written by a real person (who has done or experienced what they write about) or whether the book was scraped from other books and then cobbled together by AI with no exernal fact checking?

Look at the current furore over The Salt Path, and that was actually written by a person! Who can you trust when most books will be written by an AI that has no idea about actual human behaviour?

Yes AI may be streamlining some jobs. But someone still needs to program and maintain these AI tools. So jobs will be available, just in a different field. Which is why I think it’s important for our kids to go in to STEM and technology in general in order to keep up with the change. Technology is not the enemy - it can really revolutionise and streamline things that are costing too much / take too much time / are associated with too much bureaucracy.

AI can be a useful tool, BUT you still need intelligent, educated humans to check its veracity. It is still far too US-centric. It lies, perhaps not deliberately. It does not provide accurate, factual information. It only responds, so not proactive.
I am not too concerned at present.
If you are concerned, why not learn more about it and become a certified AI practitioner?

The same, and worse, was said about the internet in the 90s.

Well, it’s inevitable so hand-wringing isn’t going to achieve much. And I’m pretty sure similar things have been said with every technological innovation.

Get on with adapting to the changes.

If you’re really concerned, start articulating your point of view through lobbying and advocacy.

But this is exactly the fears when the Industrial Revolution wiped out so many manual jobs. Yet I’m pretty sure you would agree that child labour in factories was a good thing to move on from.

adapt.

They said the same about washing machines, and other such new fangled ideas.