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.

Tech evolves. Always has. Shan’t get exercised until robot gangs are prowling the streets picking of humans.

Not exactly 'creative' but yesterday I was chatting with someone who worked in IT for a major bank. He said that they've basically stopped taking on entry level workers in his area, because all their roles are being done by AI. So the jobs that graduates would take to allow them to get a foothold and work their way up in their chosen field are now disappearing. Soon, the more senior jobs will go too.

This isn't evolution so much as revolution.

Where can I read the transcript please?

As ai said. Those "new" jobs will also be taken over by A.I.

The machine learning will always increase in speed and ability. We don't.

So that "new" job will already be obsolete by the time you have gotten your first pay check.

Exactly.

I think this is the thing. Until we come up against a direct negative impact of AI on our ability to run our lives, or have our choices or plans scuppered by it, it's easy to think it's something parallel to us, not that we are being gradually immersed in it whether we like it or not.

And I can't help thinking about our reliance on technology in general, and how all it would take is a prolonged power outage for everything to collapse. Which places us in an extremely vulnerable position, especially if all education boils down to "there's an app for that" and practical skills are lost. There seems to be little scope for balance given the way society is structured. Food production for example - bit tricky to be self sufficient with a window box in a high rise, or even to keep the suggested 3 days of supplies at hand if you live in a shoe box on limited income.

And then my dark little mind wanders to the culling of the herd....

More tea required and a dose of optimism?

It's not the same at all. Washing machines etc are controlled by us, on an individual level. Even the programmable and app controlled ones need us to tell them what to do and give them "permission" to do it. AI does not. Nobody is ever going to use (or be able to use) a washing machine against you, in a way that will cause you harm, but it's entirely possible that AI could be used in a detrimental way.

@MistressoftheDarkSide - I’m thinking along the same lines…

The devil finds work for idle hands and if we have vast swathes of people - young men in particular - with no prospects then I can imagine an explosion in crime/gang warfare etc.

Posters saying “Study STEM!” - all well and good, but these jobs will also decline. Frankly ultimately all that will be left is goods delivery and healthcare.

I am an author and while I'm not out of work yet, the tide is coming in of AI generated content. I'd urge people to choose books that are written by actual PEOPLE, not just to keep authors in work and earning but because AI does not understand what it is to be human, and books should help you understand the nature of humanity.

AI can go through the motions, but it can't UNDERSTAND love, grief, loss, pain, suffering, disappointment. So it might parrot the words but it won't help you through situations because it will all be superficial - words taken from other books and regurgitated but without meaning and the understanding of what it is to actually feel.

Bill Gates and Elon musk don’t say that washing machines will take over 80% of human jobs and in Gates own words we will decide what jobs. Musks own words it’s like summoning the demon. It’s not like the technocrats don’t tell you

I don't think you appreciate what we're on the threshold of.

Once it's intelligent enough we will lose all control of it. When it is autonomous, anything could happen, including things we cannot foresee. Just switch it off? Not when it has distributed itself throughout the intenet.

Before then, it will be used by 'bad actors' for the acquisition of (more) wealth, power, and control. Autonomous weapons? Coming soon enough, and you can bet that they're at least under active consideration now.

Fake news and opinion manipulation are bad enough now - what do you think it will be like once fake stuff is indistinguishable from the real?

We're already relinquishing control to systems that we do not understand.

This will not end well.

It's the "LED problem" but on much bigger scale.

The "LED problem" refers to the law of unintended consequences. Policy makers insisted that we all have LED headlights in our cars, they said it was for our safety because they were brighter and would also be cheaper because we would no longer need to buy bulbs.

Then the policy makers insisted that we all drove an EV. They said it was for our own good, and that we would save the planet at the same time. They showed us what a carbon footprint was to make sure we understood.

What they didn't appreciate, was the effect that combining those two things together would have.

So, your massively expensive, save the planet, new EV, now has LED headlights. Those headlights won't last anywhere as long as your EV. So all the environmental benefits of driving an EV will be wiped out when the car is written off prematurely because those disproportionately expensive headlights fail.

Car makers have only just acknowledged that there is a manufactured crisis coming around 2030 when the vast majority of EVs on the road will have to be scrapped because of a headlight. They have acknowledged also that EV models are being sold in such small numbers that there won't be any viable stock of parts or second hand units available. This is a massive crisis for the Auto industry and one government doesn't want to admit to.

So we have to make sure that decisions we make now, aren't going to cause further more serious problems down the line.

Studying STEM might just add to the problem of mass unemployment. Practical skills may be the way forward in a world where your phone is more intelligent than you are.

Our only hope may well be 'gatekeeper' AI, to either control or limit damage from the other stuff. But who would control that?

We're f*cked.

It's all a fascinating and pretty terrifying conundrum isn't it? And it's easy to see how it leads people down all sorts on conspiracy theory rabbit holes.

Climate change for example. It's perfectly clear to see that mass industrialisation and modern life in general will have environmental impact that should be considered and addressed. But records also show that the climate seems to go through natural cycles - in both the Elizabeth's and Victorian eras skating and Winter Fairs happened on the Thames for example. Not so much now .... how these issues intersect requires careful study as to how we move forward.

However, some chump with pound signs in his eyes and a good way of spinning an idea will get into bed with politicians and convince them that X is the answer and everything should be funnelled into that thing, with pillow talk including the mutual financial benefits. And then, as the LED thing demonstrates, we have the fallout, which may or may not have been predictable.

When even the founders of AI are questioning its growth and capitalist driven application without mitigation or concern, you'd think people might stop and think. But the fun bits always overshadow the not so great side effects until something becomes a crisis.

I assume this is satire? No one is that naive.

China's doing a pretty good job of automating goods delivery. I think all that will remain is manual care work.

It could be a golden age of leisure, cultural & sporting pursuits.

We have all the technology we need now to make the world a Utopia, but instead we're using it to kill each other. I can't see this changing.

Good things came out of the agricultural & industrial revolution & we live lives of unimaginable ease & luxury compared to previous times. Maybe we’re being too pessimistic?

AI destroys jobs
The industrial revolution resulted in people moving from agriculture to industry
What job do you think an unskilled clerical worker can do when AI takes thwir job?

Not only China. I listened to a podcast recently about a supposedly successful trial of drone deliveries in Dublin. Granted the person interviewed had a vested interest in talking it up, but he thought that soon enough many routine deliveries will be automated. Human couriers won't be entirely replaced, but way fewer of them will be needed.

And if driverless vehicles become a real thing, which sooner or later they surely will, then imagine how many jobs wil be lost. It's scary.

If nobody has a job, who's going to pay for all these "leisure, cultural & sporting pursuits"?

I really hope so, but it's not looking good. Don't forget that ongoing climate change is a product of the industrial revolution, and we're not getting to grips with that - that alone will pose an existential threat to humanity.

There would be no need for money.