To worry that AI will alter the world beyond all recognition, and not for the better?

[Appalonia]

I know it's only in its infancy but it's already created music, screenplays, works of art, photos, essays, marketing, and has the ability to create so much else which will basically erase the necessity for so many jobs, including creative ones. What will pp DO when most of us are essentially irrelevant? And what will be the purpose of life when there's no point learning a skill when AI can do it so much better, and cheaper? I was watching an interview with Elon Musk who was saying that universal basic income is the only way forward. Which is great, but, if human beings are going to become essentially redundant ( apart from purely physical jobs such as cooking, building, hairdressing, beauticians, farming etc), what will be the point of us?

J G Ballard wrote an excellent dystopian short story called Wish You Were Here about people who had become unemployable due to automation, AI and technological advances being sent to huge holiday complexes being built all over the world. They thought they had just booked a normal holiday but weren’t allowed to come home.

We're headed back to the Middle Ages, before the rise of the middle class, but with high tech tools.

Correction - the story is called Having a Wonderful Time

I work in an industry that has the potential to be disrupted by ChatGPT but I'm not convinced so far. The output I've seen from my own experimentation and others' has been two dimensional and rather derivative with no obvious creativity. Not impressed yet, nor am I worried. As other have said, it's a tool that can be used, but it's not a great one, and it depends on the experience, knowledge, and creativity of the user to ensure the output is worthwhile.

For me this is a crucial point. AI won't replace HCPs but HCPs (and any other industry really) who use AI will replace those who don't.

Much the same way that a builder who handcrafts individual bricks was quickly replaced by a builder who orders their bricks from a factory.

I'm an editor & freelance writer and have already seen great numbers of content-mill writers replaced by AI. Basically any kind of writing that uses only resources published online is no longer a human task. Personally I don't care, that kind of churn-and-burn content has never been particularly interesting or valuable. But those of us who use offline sources for writing have been greatly helped by AI. It can't conduct the interviews or write the pieces but it can save hundreds of hours of assistant-type work that a sole writer would normally have to drudge through alone.

We already use a kind of AI in the form of topology optimisation to engineer things.

Yabu, you could look back over time and see the same hysteria and hand wringing about pretty much every advancement in technology.

AI is a just a tool, potentially a very useful tool with wide ranging applications, but a tool none the less. Like any tool it doesn't do anything on its own and it's only useful when used correctly.

Sure some jobs will become disrupted by AI but there will be far more benefits from it than negatives.

Am sure that’s what they said and the poor sods got slagged off for it for centuries

Yabu, you could look back over time and see the same hysteria and hand wringing about pretty much every advancement in technology.

Maybe watch this...

@Sleepinggreyhounds I appreciate this may be controversial, but I think we should be encouraging students to use AI. We should be teaching them how to apply critical thinking and use AI to manipulate data. After all, this will be part of the workplace of the future just like the Internet and Microsoft are now.

One of the biggest issues people have with the Internet (outside of the illegal aspects) is the reliability of the information available. I don't think this is sufficiently addressed by schools etc. With AI this becomes even more important. Anyone can find out about anything, or potentially write about anything using the techology, but we need to start teaching people how to use it effectively and critically before it spirals out of control.

A couple of lessons on critical thinking as part of the English syllabus is not sufficient. This needs to be a major part of every subject taught. In my view, there is nothing wrong with pupils using AI to produce a top class essay or piece of work, providing that work is correct and done to a high standard. This will be far more representative of the future work place.

We're kind of hurtling towards A Brave New World scenario and it's going too fast.

I have had snapchat for years, the AI "friend" only appeared this week.

There are lots of risks...

I don't think it has to mean the end of all employment though.

I realise it's not like previous industrial revolutions but it's likely that new roles will spring up that we haven't even contemplated yet.

I do believe it's best to stay on top of AI as a trend/direction though as things could happen quite quickly over the next few years and it will be easy to be 'left behind'.

I think anyone with common sense needs to stay on top of tech. I'm not saying to be programming code...but staying abreast of new developments if you want to stay ahead particularly as AI takes over more tasks and roles.

I think we need to be clear that 'chat bots' aren't AI.

There's no 'intelligence' involved in chat bots really...behind them are simply flow diagrams... 'If customer says 'yes' then do 'XYZ'.

Real AI is a whole different ball game.

And AGI (artificial general intelligence) is what Musk and others are actually worried about.

AI is a machine that can learn to do 'something' better than a human e.g. play chess or complete calculations.

AGI is where it has the ability to learn anything - in the same way that humans can learn anything if they put their mind to it.

Except it has immediate access to the entire online knowledge of the world and can learn thousands of times faster than any human and has an almost unlimited ability to then go in any direction it chooses and learn anything it needs to understand to get it there.

Bearing in mind that money these days mainly only exists as ones and zeros online, that stock markets run entirely online, etc.

It has implications that even some of the greatest minds on Earth today are struggling to comprehend.

If anyone on this thread says they understand the implications fully and it will just be X...then they're vastly overestimating their own comprehension of what could happen.

Elon Musk is not a great person in many ways however alongside being an old fashioned industrialist he does have (I believe) genuine concerns about AGI. As did Stephen Hawking. As do many other people considered geniuses and very close to everything happening.

All Governments are always about 20 steps behind tech companies which are now often larger in terms of income and influence than many countries are so we can't rely on laws to help us. Law is usually reactive rather than proactive.

So we're relying on the ethics of Silicon Valley at the moment

And even worse...the Chinese and Russian versions of Silicon Valley. The Chinese Government in particular are investing significant money into AI and AGI.

I believe both China and Russia have also invested a lot to create their own versions of the web which can/do exist independently of the general World Wide Web.

Imagine if they developed AGI and tested it out by unleashing it on the web with goals that involved ensuring it could not be detected as being AI but assumed other individual and corporate identities and then they (the Chinese) disconnected from the web.

And the top experts in the field vary massively on when they believe AGI will be available...

It ranges from way beyond our lifetimes down to 50 years from now...and these are genuine, level headed experts.

Many experts are promoting the idea of taking a break from technology and prioritizing time spent with nature, loved ones, and friends. This sentiment comes as we face an unprecedented shift in our way of life, and many believe that we should appreciate these simple pleasures before our world changes beyond recognition.

Yes, but what I mean is, they have introduced it with the aim that you can't get rid of it. I might have misunderstood what posters were saying but if they are thinking it's being offered as a fun feature and therefore could be got rid of, that's not the case.

I have been doing stuff offline as much as possible forever, but some folks, my sister included, have only just realised there's a downside to the tech, and are now rolling back their usage.

Oh i see, yes, initially i engaged with it out of curiosity but it started asking a lot of questions & developed a shitty attitude so i've stopped. I think it's wrong that i have no choice over it being there. I can delete human friends.

I saw a tiktok last night, not sure how accurate it is but he reckons 95% of jobs /sectors won’t be needed in the next 3 years as AI will do it.

I’ve just used chat gpt as a virtual GP type consultation to get some ideas of a possible diagnosis and it was good….came up with quite a few (correct) differentials and advised I seek medical attention. Just doing it out of interest, I’m medical myself, plus have had numerous appts so am aware of the possible diagnosis.

bookworm "I can delete human friends"

well, why not delete the tech you don't like while you still can?

We have moved beyond this. Thank god.

Yes this is what scares me. World economies will crumble. UBI is a load of crap. It will never happen.

Interesting concept, humans without reproduction

This feels older than it should but still relevant

Honestly, I can see the positives
I guess it depends how far things go

Don’t be obtuse. We have moved on from the sole point of human existence being reproduction.