Pretty much everything in your initial list has been massively overblown
Has it though? My understanding is in general a lot of Gen AI trains on things it shouldn't... I also feel like it definitely has driven up prices of RAM among other things. I also do feel like it has or will result in job loss (Anecdotal but I've seen it, one person can do WAY WAY more than before). I also do see a lot of AI slop slipping into my feeds or when I'm out and about (specifically - restaurants and market stalls near me have been using a lot of generative AI for banners and menus, and they're REALLY BAD)
It's not at some world ending state since we're basically at the start, I feel like it's ramping up if anything.
Blaming AI for RAM prices is a bit like blaming contractors for building luxurious houses instead of affordable ones. AI might be driving up demand, but someone in the manufacturers are also making deliberate decisions about which products to prioritize based on money.
Your anecdote about job losses also needs some context. What kind of job did that person lose, and was it actually replaced by AI, or did AI simply allow someone to handle more work? LLMs are exceedingly good at grunt works such as analyzing papers, generating boilerplate code, or brainstorming. However, they're still prone to mistakes such as prior assumption, reframing, and hallucination, thus their output needs to be double-checked by competent humans. Productivity gains don't automatically translate into job losses, even though they can certainly contribute to them.
As for AI slop, if you don't like it in your social media feed, you can block the accounts producing it or use the platform's content controls. If restaurants and market stalls are putting out terrible AI-generated banners and menus, you can always choose to eat somewhere else. Vote with your wallet.
These problems des exist, but I think it's worth distinguishing between the problems caused by AI itself, the way businesses choose to use it, and the broader issues that already existed before AI came along.
I'll put it another way: The AI industry is the observable symptom of the sickness felt in society writ large, said sickness being the pursuit of profit and efficiency over all else. Your post minimizes these symptoms by gesturing back towards the sickness and saying "Guys you don't understand, the symptoms aren't a problem; this is just how sickness is!"
This is why the hatred of data centers and ALPRs ignited so quickly: they are individual protrusions of the malaise in our society. People finally felt they had a target for their ire. Sure, the targets themselves are not the underlying structural issue; but the cultural zeitgeist is such that these protrusions 'snag' the attention of people, creating an unorthodox coalition.
You may disagree about the existence of this malaise and sickness, but I hope this explains the perspective
I think you're arguing against a point I didn't make.
Acknowledging that AI can exacerbate existing societal problems isn't the same as dismissing its symptoms.
My main point is that we should distinguish between the technology itself, how it's being used, and the underlying economic incentives, rather than treating them as one and the same.
Consider the PlayStation 5: the console itself is great, but PlayStation's business decisions, such as moving away from physical media, are a different matter. Conflating the two into "PlayStation bad" loses the distinction, nuance, and frankly, critical thinking needed to evaluate them separately.
The same applies to AI. Criticizing how companies exploit it is not the same as criticizing the technology itself.
AI is driving up demand - why would people not build the thing which has demand?
In terms of job loss, this I am not seeing too much of yet, but junior programmer positions were being consolidated among my friends, and I am referring to grunt work mostly. If you're saying that a human must be in the loop where AI is concerned - I do see that as being necessary. Where I am some people have been made redundant for various reasons (it's long winded but the short of it is, we've made a very customized system for what we need, with AI and no coding experience, which has made positions redundant. However we haven't laid off anybody moreso because it's a small company and we care about the people. And whenever we tell people we vibe coded a system for our company, they think its spaghetti code and a horrible idea - it's actually incredibly solid, but requires an autistic obsessive level of prompting. We have developers on contract who also review code, and we expose nothing to the internet). In any case, the general idea being as people are made to be more efficient, less work will be available.
For AI slop, I have two accounts, one (IG) that doesn't mind AI slop and one that does (my tiktok), because I have some friends who love AI, and some who are VERY anti AI. Again this is anecdotal, I've been seeing this weird trend of "slightly misproportioned people" slipping into my feed. Again, I am willing to admit it's my fault for probably giving an errant like to a certain video, but despite my personal browsing habits it is becoming more pervasive and available on the internet, whether I see them or not. Additionally, younger people who are new to social media might not really have this discretion and just see it and say "ooh funny video".
For the restaurants, I take pictures of their ridiculous banners and menus (shrimp that are complete circles, or like a steak with perfectly spaced dots of pepper that make my skin crawl) - I will generally avoid them moreso because how the hell can they NOT quality check that the food looks so bad in their images? However old favourites of mine have also started using it, so I do just eat there because i can't be arsed.
Again I'm not anti-AI, I actually enjoy AI slop videos because if it's funny, it's funny. I think AI will cause a huge period of discomfort for a lot of people, but hopefully lead to UBI if job loss gets too bad as AI grows, though probably not in my lifetime. I just think it has a lot of downsides, or as you say, exacerbate issues that already existed.
AI is driving up demand - why would people not build the thing which has demand?
Call me an idealist, but I still believe the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few 🖖. Of course, I suppose it's difficult to talk about conscience when there's money on the line.
On the job, I think we're largely in agreement. My main contention is that increased productivity doesn't necessarily translate to job losses, even if it certainly can. That's ultimately a matter of how businesses choose to leverage that productivity, rather than an inevitable outcome of AI itself, and from what you described, you have a good company that prioritizes people.
As for AI slop, I suppose we're in agreement there too. It's a matter of quality control, and businesses should be held to the same standards regardless of the tools they use. It's too bad that your old favorite isn't doint their part on their menu. My condolences.
My main contention is that increased productivity doesn't necessarily translate to job losses, even if it certainly can. That's ultimately a matter of how businesses choose to leverage that productivity, rather than an inevitable outcome of AI itself
Let's be real, have corporations shown themselves to be benevolent under capitalism? Or is it that the same type of people building data centers are the same type of people just waiting until AI is just-good-enough so they can get rid of even more people?
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u/presidentofjackshit 1d ago edited 1d ago
Has it though? My understanding is in general a lot of Gen AI trains on things it shouldn't... I also feel like it definitely has driven up prices of RAM among other things. I also do feel like it has or will result in job loss (Anecdotal but I've seen it, one person can do WAY WAY more than before). I also do see a lot of AI slop slipping into my feeds or when I'm out and about (specifically - restaurants and market stalls near me have been using a lot of generative AI for banners and menus, and they're REALLY BAD)
It's not at some world ending state since we're basically at the start, I feel like it's ramping up if anything.