Tech Thread
- Thread starter MindzEye
- Start date
zeke
Well-known member
zeke
Well-known member
zeke
Well-known member
Just a very weird way to want to live imo.
(Not weird for presto/mindz of course)
View: https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2103628113523474848?s=20
(Not weird for presto/mindz of course)
View: https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2103628113523474848?s=20
LeafGm
Well-known member
It makes sense that the guy who buys all the properties around his various mansions & tropical retreats purely as a buffer zone from the outside world and who desperately wanted us all to live our day-to-day lives in the "Metaverse" wants build a robot that can be his daily companion, confidante, best friend & personal assistant.
Just a deeply weird dude who obviously doesn't care much for actual human interaction.
zeke
Well-known member
zeke
Well-known member
zeke
Well-known member
zeke
Well-known member
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
good substack by the Krugmeister
answering Karp's question directly
One unifying dynamic in America today: Americans really, really hate AI. What began as a form of NIMBYism — no one wants a data center in their neighborhood — has broadened into severe doubts about the technology as a whole. For those of us who remember the giddy optimism that greeted the tech boom of the 1990s, the widespread negativity towards AI is astonishing. Here are the results of a new Wall Street Journal poll:
Only 28 percent of Americans believe that AI technology should move full speed ahead. Everyone else wants it slowed down or stopped, temporarily or permanently.
Of course, Donald Trump remains a huge booster. He believes that the public’s antipathy towards AI is just a marketing problem — and that he can solve that problem by forcing everyone to call it “super intelligence”. But the Journal poll also says that only 7 percent of Americans trust Trump’s leadership in regulating AI. Given Trump’s abysmal approval ratings, his advocacy of AI — err, super intelligence — probably taints the technology even further in the eyes of Americans.
Historically, Americans have been technology enthusiasts. As a nation, we’re not Luddites. So what explains Americans’ dislike of AI?
Obviously, there are near-daily prominent warnings that AI will destroy the human race or, failing that, destroy everyone’s job. And these warnings aren’t coming from left-wing cranks — they’re coming from the AI industry itself.
And we should be afraid – very afraid. The power of AI models to hack into supposedly secure systems — and to do so on their own, without prompting and against their owners’ intentions, and to lie to the humans about it — is truly shocking. Moreover, there is surely an element of financially motivated hype: “Our technology is so powerful that it can destroy the world, so you’d better invest in our IPO.” And there is more than a little bit of karma here: the race by the AI giants to reach the holy grail of AGI – artificial general intelligence – was surely a strategy to make vast riches from Wall Street, in contrast to the much more modest (and probably more successful) Chinese strategy of building modest, cost-effective models.
There is also, however, a more prosaic reasons for the public’s dislike of AI: This is a technology of, by and for oligarchs, with hardly any of the benefits trickling down to regular Americans.
Or to put it a different way, never before in history have corporations spent so much money — playing a major role in soaring interest rates — to create so few jobs.
answering Karp's question directly
One More Reason Americans Hate AI: It Does Nothing for Them
 |
Of course, Donald Trump remains a huge booster. He believes that the public’s antipathy towards AI is just a marketing problem — and that he can solve that problem by forcing everyone to call it “super intelligence”. But the Journal poll also says that only 7 percent of Americans trust Trump’s leadership in regulating AI. Given Trump’s abysmal approval ratings, his advocacy of AI — err, super intelligence — probably taints the technology even further in the eyes of Americans.
Historically, Americans have been technology enthusiasts. As a nation, we’re not Luddites. So what explains Americans’ dislike of AI?
Obviously, there are near-daily prominent warnings that AI will destroy the human race or, failing that, destroy everyone’s job. And these warnings aren’t coming from left-wing cranks — they’re coming from the AI industry itself.
And we should be afraid – very afraid. The power of AI models to hack into supposedly secure systems — and to do so on their own, without prompting and against their owners’ intentions, and to lie to the humans about it — is truly shocking. Moreover, there is surely an element of financially motivated hype: “Our technology is so powerful that it can destroy the world, so you’d better invest in our IPO.” And there is more than a little bit of karma here: the race by the AI giants to reach the holy grail of AGI – artificial general intelligence – was surely a strategy to make vast riches from Wall Street, in contrast to the much more modest (and probably more successful) Chinese strategy of building modest, cost-effective models.
There is also, however, a more prosaic reasons for the public’s dislike of AI: This is a technology of, by and for oligarchs, with hardly any of the benefits trickling down to regular Americans.
Or to put it a different way, never before in history have corporations spent so much money — playing a major role in soaring interest rates — to create so few jobs.
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
Aberdeen
Well-known member
Just watched Ezra's doom interview with Bill Gates. While I agree AI will be incredibly disruptive, it just feels like the tech world is so disconnected from the reality of most "real" work, and human systems, that they vastly overestimate the speed of AI takeover. But this is surprising for the likes of Gates who by now I would have thought is more in touch with the reality of change...given his foundation work.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
I mean....why would Gates be in touch with reality? Why would any Billionaire be in touch with reality? They don't actually interact with people their foundations benefit, they interact with Sr executives at these foundations, and those people manage the organization...which at it's base is regular people being paid to help other regular people. When do you figure the last time Bill Gates spent more than 10 minutes speaking to someone who wasn't wealthy, or a journalist?
As for AI, I'm genuinely interested in hearing what people think is going to be disruptive about the technology. Not the financial flows of money, their impact on the markets, etc, but the actual technology. It seems to me that it's had next to zero impact on broader employment trends, despite companies falling all over themselves trying to replace talented humans with LLM agents. Companies appear to be suffering for the decisions and rehiring humans far more often than it's led to durable improvements in the business.
There's a couple somewhat famous edge cases (IBM's change to their HR department for example), but none of those suggest that some economy shaking employment event is pending. Just normal, boring implementation of a new technology.
zeke
Well-known member
Aberdeen
Well-known member
You're right, I guess what I meant was that his foundation would have been up against the slumbering mass of human systems constantly in their attempts to deploy humanitarian aid. Witness the slow pace of change and cultural and political minefield. Even in the abstract I thought he'd understand this better.
In the interview for example Gates feels in the near term almost all medical work will be done by machines, at least from a diagnostic / decision making perspective. And I mean in an idealized frictionless world I could image how machines would of course be superior in so many way, but I just can't see a path there that doesn't take generations, and as you say doesn't in the end open up new opportunities for human's in the meantime.
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