To be utterly despondent about AI

[AnotherGreyMorning]

and our future?

Jobs becoming obsolete. People unable to earn a living.

Villains harnessing for their own ends.

It will all move far too fast and at sophisticated levels for even the most dedicated to manage.

Governments will be stunned by it. People will really suffer.

I just feel quiet dread because whilst life will be great for the wealthy and those who are protected, for the vast majority, I think it will be hellish.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/14/an-ai-generated-band-got-1m-plays-on-spotify-now-music-insiders-say-listeners-should-be-warned

I've fallen foul of listening to "new" music that turns out to be AI generated. Music is such an emotive thing. When it resonates, it makes me think that it's an expression of common human experience. Realising it's just been created by a few taps on a keyboard from a "brief" makes me feel as though I've been conned.

Reminds me of the fiction-writing machines from 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'.

Just listened to the interview with Geoffrey Hinton linked a few pages back.

If a Nobel prize winner who was involved in the creation of AI has now devoted himself to warning people about its dangers and the possibility it may even lead to the extinction of humanity, then I reckon it's safe to say such fears are not just for 'Luddites'.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/15/children-arrested-in-investigation-of-russian-and-iranian-plots-against-uk-say-police

At the end of the article are concerns about the role AI chat bots etc are playing in terrorism, particularly around the recruitment of teenagers. Oh joy.

The biggest issue I think will be the adjustment to accepting A.I

In just over five years from now, we will no longer be the most intelligent brains in the room. A.I will be able to out think even the smartest human that has ever lived. A single machine, sitting on your table, or in your pocket, will have all the knowledge it's possible to know, and be able to access it instantly. We will pale in comparison.

Imagine calling your bank or LA, and the chat bot answers in your regional accent, including human inflections and pauses. Not only that, it will store your conversation, so when you call again, the A.I will be able to instantly access the previous call log and pick right back up on the conversation. This will happen instantly. No more explaining your issue to a call center worker.

People also assume that the "robots" will be too expensive for companies to buy, so jobs will be safe. Not so, commercial androids will be available for as little as 15k, the reason is that they won't need independant operating systems, they will just need a WiFi signal, the big, expensive A.I systems will be owned and operated by the major software firms. Businesses will just pay a subscription to have the instructions sent to their droids. That way the price of the robotics will be reasonably cheap.

should companies implementing AI and replacing peoples jobs should be paying a bigger tax to society?

Possibly. Governments and economic institutes need to start discussing this asap.

Agree, this has got to be one of the most pressing issues that governments / civil service need to be focused on. Eveyrthing else will pale in comparison. Not sure that tax is necessarily always the right answer, especially in the global world (look at how the NI taxes are impacting the labour market).

Few links if anyone's interested:

This morning's Times podcast interviews Niall Ferguson about the impact AI's having on higher education, with suggestions for solutions: The Story | The Times and The Sunday Times. Found it very interesting, though maybe rather depressing. Answer seems to be that a few extraordinarily talented students will be able to effectively merge the analogue and the digital, leading to immense productivity. And the rest will be stuck at home playing video games and producing data for AI, while being kept alive by UBI.

An Economist article which is basically what is says in the title: Will AI make you stupid? TL;DR Yes, AI appears to make people quite significantly stupider, and less creative. In a study of 666 (!), "participants who made more use of AI scored lower across the board." Worryingly, when discussing possible adjustments to force people to think more: "“People do not like to be pushed to engage” ... Demand for workarounds would therefore probably be high."

And lastly, another Economist article which discusses how AI's being used as a search engine, so rather than people being directed to source material, they're just asking a question and accepting the AI summary: AI is killing the web. Can anything save it? "Science and education sites have lost 10% of their visitors. Reference sites have lost 15%. Health sites have lost 31%."

The article's more focussed on the damage being done to content providers, and how financial compensations might help, but it occurs to me that we are heading for a society where people's knowledge consists primarily of AI interpretations rather than their own reasoned conclusions based on a wide pool of data. Which seems to me to be absolutely terrifying, and very 1984. The ministry of unelected tech-bros feeding us carefully curated information, designed according to their own standards and beliefs...

(Next on playlist is Times Tech Podcast which might be more optimistic; it looks at using AI for science, which is where it really could be force for good.)

The article's more focussed on the damage being done to content providers, and how financial compensations might help, but it occurs to me that we are heading for a society where people's knowledge consists primarily of AI interpretations rather than their own reasoned conclusions based on a wide pool of data.

A couple of weeks ago, Google started putting AI answers at the top of the page in response to searches. So when before you'd have to scroll down and check one or more sources to find your answer, now you have an instant 'summary' from AI. I've found myself using it simply because it's easy, which is probably what the vast majority of people will do, because speed and convenience almost always win out over anything else.

I've also heard of studies which show that AI damages critical thinking so while it's early days, it does seem that AI is going to have a negative impact on human intelligence. It's hard to see how it could not.

Critical thinking has already taken a hit with the Internet. I remember as a student having to go the the library and spending days scouring through books, journals and materials archived on microfiches. Also asking librarians to unlock precious texts to get what I needed to write an essay. It will definitely downgrade degrees.

Thanks for sharing these links @rumblegrumble adding it to this weekends reads.

It will.

Then again, since AI has the potential to make knowledge and expertise into something which can be accessed with a few clicks - rather than the precious, hard earned commodities we think of them as - then you'd have to wonder what value many university degrees will have in the not too distant future.

It's all very scary. At least to me.

username checks out

https://www.yahoo.com/news/people-being-involuntarily-committed-jailed-130014629.html

Things are getting very dark for some people.

Thing is, I think given the general lack of security many are experiencing in their lives and the apparently insane state of the world, no-one is necessarily immune.

My Facebook feed is currently full of AI boyfriend apps, which is somewhat amusing. I barely post, but occasionally watch videos. I'm a widow of 3 and a half years and am too jaded and long in the tooth to even contemplate another relationship, besides, I'm a bit Queen Vic about my late DP because he was definitely "the one". (Never say never of course, but this is my current situation).

However, the tech bros and their algorithms think if I don't want a real one, a pretend bloke will do. Urgh. The cringe factor is off the scale.....

But seriously, when people are ending up hospitalised due to playing around wth oh so harmless Claude or whatever, it's really time to take stock.

I say again, people are being used as labrats in an extremely unethical and dangerous experiment.

Wow, I can’t believe software designed to hack our brains and addict us is hacking our brains and addicting us.

Check out today's news about the Amazon leak...

I have not read the thread, but watched a Ch4 Dispatches episode about AI and jobs recently. It was very sobering.
They found people in 4 industries... a GP, a solicitor, a musician, and a fashion photographer. and put them up against AI versions of them.
The one that really lost out was the fashion photographer. It took 2 women on laptops a couple of hours to do her job, which was hours with at least 20 people. So all their jobs would be at risk too. This was practical things like make up artists etc.
A lot of folk think computer based jobs are in danger from being replaced by AI. It is so much more.

100% it will affect creative industries

My dds boss has already quit her job as a prop designer working for high end brands to be a teacher as she can't get new commissions. It's devastating for my dd as she has lost her work too as she work for her as a freelancer.

Another artist I know is now working in a nail bar.

So depressing.

I hope it's a blip and people will want real artist back in time but I fear it will take decades to turn back around.

Money money money.

What gets me is the pressure to adapt by embracing all the new technology and learning to use it when the reason creative generally go into the field is because of it's tactile and innovative facets that are real and not just achieved by the twitch of a mouse or the press of a few keys.

And yes, one can be creative in one's brain, but if everything else about the creative process is synthesised through technology, the knock on effect is huge.

Art and craft materials could become rare and expensive, and those without recourse to technology will be stuck, although one could argue that it might lead people to be more innovative to plug the gap as necessity is often the mother of invention, and creative souls will feed that need somehow.

Does anyone else find themselves going round in circles with it all yet still thinking that no good can come of this? Even when I try to think positively and rationally my gut instinct is noping away from AI like I just saw a tiger through the trees and even though it's purring, tickling it's chin is not a good idea....😂

@MistressoftheDarkSide
Absolutely. Well put.

The other point is that if all creative endeavour is being fed into the big machine, teaching it to be creative by itself, we will become obsolete. We will be reduced to button pushers and programmers and monitors. And when that industry is saturated, we'll see the wages for it diminish too. It really does feel like a race to the bottom, and devotees of AI seem really unwilling to address the fact that our current economic model won't be able to adapt to the societal implications because it's all moving too quickly.

It's very much akin to "manifestation" bollocks - just think positively, it will all be fine, and if it isn't it's your own fault because you aren't "thinking" correctly.

I’m with you OP. Creative jobs are disappearing and even mumsnet is rife with AI generated threads. Fake images and videos are everywhere. I doubt that the wealthy will be significantly protected for long.

A.I will change our society. And this change will happen remarkably quickly. We won't be able to make the necessary societal changes fast enough to adapt.

Most people don't have a clue about the magnitude of the coming disruption. And I'm not being overly dramatic or pessimistic. The people who say that new jobs will be created, and liken the changes to the industrial or agricultural revolution, are mistaken. Logically, if A.I can take over your job, then it can also take over the "new" job that was created by your redundancy. It's an ever decreasing circle.

A.I gets better with each generation, we don't. A.i gets faster and more efficient with each generation, we don't.

Within five years, A.I video will be literally indistinguishable from real footage. This will have massive implications, because we won't know what's real anymore. News articles will no longer have any merit. Events were once filmed to provide proof they happened, by 2030, there will be no proof.

One solution being talked about on the forums is a "Super German". This refers to a take on the current German laws concerning filming in public and data protection. Basically, in Germany it's an offence to film someone in public or private without their explicit consent. So you can't film an argument with a restauraunt server and post it online. And you can only film public servants if it's in relation to their work. So it's an offence to film someone being arrested if you don't have their explicit concent. And you can't walk up to police and film them without reasonable cause as that would also be an offence. I've simplified the laws for illustration, but you get the idea.

We will probably need some sort of regulation here. So that only "official" unedited, non A.I generated footage can be broadcast or shared online.

But the coming changes are going to be breathtaking. And we, as a society, aren't ready for any of it.

I was in a bookshop recently looking for a children's book for my niece. I noticed that some of the books advertised that they were 'written by a human' rather than AI. I thought this was sad. We've always thought of creativity as something uniquely human and therefore immune to technological advances. That no longer seems to be the case, which begs the question, what really will be left to humans to do? You often hear people saying that 'other jobs' will come along to replace the ones lost, as they did in previous 'revolutions' but I simply cannot see where these jobs are going to come from.