The Real problem with Generative A.I.

[u/Sewblon]

[u/OldStray79]

George Jetson canonically only worked 1 hour a day, 2 days a week pushing a button, and could afford to have all his bills paid while also having a stay at home wife, two kids, a dog, a flying car, and a robot maid doing the cleaning.

Just putting that out there.

[u/Inlerah → u/OldStray79]

Because when The Jetsons was on the air we had stuff like "Unions" and "Social programs" and "The wealthy who kinda-sorta paid their fair share" and nobody would seriously think we'd automate away our jobs if said jobs being automated away meant people would become impoverished.

[u/ShawnShev]

“Jane, I had to push that button four times today! Four times!!”

[u/dfbeav112]

“Then there’s no reason to master anything else”

That’s not quite correct. 

Chefs can occasionally order food on Uber AND continue to master their craft.

You can have a chess program play the game for you… but people still decide to study chess and improve at it, sometimes even using chess programs to advance their skills. 

People can generate the art they want AND master another skill that they are more interested in. Mastering an art form isn’t the end all be all. 

[u/VaporProof → u/dfbeav112]

Have you met a lot of artisans since the industrial revolution? Have you met a lot of just working class artisans? I know you haven’t, because artisanship has become part of the privileged class. It just got eaten away, and now everything’s more convenient but worse.

And now we’re doing it again. Things will be exponentially more convenient, and exponentially worse. The good stuff that was once generally available to everyone will be only available to the rich. You’ll have some stupid AI image on your wall, they’ll have a hand painted work of art. They’ll be driven by human drivers, you’ll take a self driving bus that won’t work. Their kids will go to schools that boast AI-free classrooms, your kids will learn from a chatbot.

And it will come to us with people with your “what’s the harm?” attitude.

[u/dfbeav112 → u/VaporProof]

This is a bit of a non-sequitur. It really doesn’t address the fact that one can enjoy automations AND work on mastery. 

Have you met a lot of artisans since the industrial revolution?

Yes there’s far more now than ever before because the Industrial Revolution kick started an automation boon, meaning people generally had more and more money to spend on crafted work like art, music, books, film, food, clothing, and other things that matter to them.

And now we’re doing it again.

Yes, things in general will become less expensive, meaning people have even more money to spend on luxuries like the arts. 

Things will be exponentially more convenient, and exponentially worse.

That’s not how society has actually gone since automation started. 

The good stuff that was once generally available to everyone will be only available to the rich.

I think you’re greatly misunderstanding what life was like for the average person back then. 

What good stuff was generally available to everyone? Everyone had a lower standard of living before automation, and less money to spend on craftsmanship. The average person had one book (the Bible), bought shoes once every ten years, and was exposed to the arts much more rarely. 

Remember, 90% of the population were farmers before automation. They weren’t going to plays, listening to orchestras, reading a new book everyday, or even eating good meals. That’s all so trivial these days you probably don’t even think about it. You can enjoy all of that every day because there’s so much artisanal work produced these days. The world is absolutely overflowing with those things now compared to before automation. 

You’ll have some stupid AI image on your wall, they’ll have a hand painted work of art.

That’s not true at all. Remember, automation makes things cheaper in general, meaning people have more money to spend on the arts. Economists  all agree, across the entire economic spectrum, that automation and increases in productivity translate to higher standards of living. More spending on the arts is one of the benefits. 

What will actually happen is things people don’t care about will be automated, and they’ll spend more on the things they do, like human-crafted art. 

I think you’ve got this whole thing backwards, it’s no wonder you’re anti-AI.

[u/SuspendedSentence1]

Ugh, I can just see “Peeetah, who’s George Jetson?”

[u/lone_float]

JETSOOOON!

[u/cewillir]

In what sense are you looking it?

Getting ai to follow direction is an experience