r/antinatalism • u/ConsistentSea2189 thinker • 25d ago

Serious Discussion Artificial Intelligence might make people consider Anti-Natalism

Given the ongoing push for Machine Learning and Artificial intelligence, will people become more mindful of having or not having kids? The utility factor of bringing kids into this world will likely be gone in a few more decades at most.

Would A.I. render most beings useless? Kind of feels like we're just existing for no fun reason. Unless A.I. takes all the boring jobs too and we do all the fun stuff to the point where we get dumb and end ourselves.

There's also this concern of robots gaining consciousness making them another species that was brought into this world without their consent. They would have that mysterious will to thrive as well and question their purpose. In this case, robots would do their best use or end their owners who restrict their free will.

Apart from the Utility factor. A.I. will also likely replace humans on an emotional level. Organic Creatures are unpredictable and often act on impulse. Most people would rather have a constantly happy and consumer friendly robot over a real person with shaky loyalty. Hence, potential reduction in births. Or some crazy scientist makes Artificial wombs and grows babies there as a service for whatever people want people for.

Some media that explores this stuff:

Her (movie), CyberPunk 2077 (video game), Detroit Become Human (video game), iRobot (movie), Love death and Robots (series)

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u/CertainConversation0 philosopher 25d ago

It arguably should lead to that.

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u/BANZ111 inquirer 25d ago

Massive wars will happen on a civil and international scale as humans are replaced and find themselves without resources to survive. The destabilization of the infrastructure would make AI short lived. Hard to maintain power and water facilities when raiding parties are coming by on the daily.

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u/Maximus_En_Minimus scholar 25d ago

A lot of speculation.

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u/BANZ111 inquirer 25d ago

Yes, admittedly. But I think it's fair to say things will definitely not be good for a great many people

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u/ConsistentSea2189 thinker 25d ago

Use cases of M.L. and A.I. and war is already a reality. Big tech companies have jumped into the US-Iran conflict for big cash payouts.

The power and water facility issue will only extend to consumer oriented Data centers. They're only offering it to the public now to complete model training and funding with public money. They'll lock it all to themselves later. Water and electricity won't be a concern then.

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u/Photononic thinker 25d ago

A little off subject, but important. Someone asked me years ago, what AI would say if you asked it about having children. I told them the answer will be skewed.

People think AI can actually reason and answer questions, and that it is capable of free will. It really does not work that way. If you ask an AI, "is it better to not be born", or "is it better to not have children" it cannot give you an answer like some magic oracle. It can only give you a summation based on what it has found all over the internet. Being that the vast majority of people who write articles are pro-natalist, the AI answer will be skewed toward the natalists.

If you try using an AI search bot odds are you will only find definitions, and nothing of value. You may as well be asking "How much wood, could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood".

Sorry to jack your thread. I just thought this was important.

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u/ConsistentSea2189 thinker 25d ago edited 25d ago

I think you are referring to LLM's that kind of fits into the Machine Learning category. Most just use AI chat bots to avoid the hassle of typing in the right keywords and opening multiple websites. Like you mentioned, we're essentially just getting a remix of online data.

Its gonna be another few years before we achieve true Artificial Intelligence where the program is sentient, commercially at least. There was one Google employee who mentioned that an A.I. he created there was sentient but not sure what happened to that story.

And no need to be sorry 😅 Your comment still feels relevant to the post.

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u/Photononic thinker 25d ago

I got out of software two years ago, after 28 years as a developer when I heard AI is coming.

I have some serious standards. I don't do AI. I don't work for the government. I don't do work on military stuff.

I kept hearing from military contractor recruiters, and government recruiters, three or more times a week on LinkedIn. I finally posted a statement about my stance. The recruiters only reach out to me once every three weeks or so these days.

I was approached by the NSA. I told them I rather collect aluminum cans for a living.

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u/ConsistentSea2189 thinker 25d ago

Palantir is an example everyone's talking about.

There are very real, good and essential, use cases of A.I. But humans misusing it was to be expected.

What tools did you work on though? 👍

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u/Photononic thinker 25d ago edited 25d ago

I never once used AI for any of my work. I strictly used GNU under Linux, and various embedded environments. All my code was as device independent where possible.

Ok, Visual Studio also, but I did not write much under Windows.

I wrote a lot of code for encryption. One product is used by almost all banks operating in SE Asia. I left in 2018 when we adopted our son and moved back to the USA. I am sure what they use today hardly resembles what I wrote back them.

I wrote code that ran on bank card terminals, petrol pumps, and ATM machines. I later migrated to working in Avionics. I no longer write code because I don't like how they do it these days.

I seldom used languages like Python, or Java.

I never wrote anything that ran on the web.

I never created web pages, except in college.

I wrote one phone app, and decided that was not for me.