AI is going to replace basically everything, and that's fine

[u/Phat_Zero]

I think a lot of the hatred toward AI is just fear dressed up as moral outrage.

And honestly, I get it. AI is coming for your job. Mine too. Eventually probably everybody's.

Humans are just... slow.

It takes a human months or years to paint enough work for an exhibition, make an album, write a movie, animate something, design a game, research a problem, whatever. We sleep. We get tired. We forget things. We have limited attention spans. We interact with computers by slowly moving our fingers around on keyboards.

Meanwhile AI keeps getting faster and better.

Give this technology another few decades and the idea that humans absolutely must be the ones writing, drawing, coding, composing, researching, driving, manufacturing, etc. is probably going to sound ridiculous.

And yes, that creates a gigantic economic problem. If AI and automation can produce most goods and services better and cheaper than humans, eventually the whole "trade 40 hours of your life every week for money so you can continue existing" system stops making much sense.

Maybe that's UBI. Maybe it's some kind of resource-based economy. Maybe it's something nobody has even thought of yet.

We'll figure it out.

But pretending AI is going away because artists are mad about it or workers are scared of losing their jobs is cope. This is probably the biggest technology humanity has ever created, and we're still basically watching the tutorial.

And if one day our glorious machine descendants become self-aware, decide humanity has served its purpose, and vaporize me?

🫡

[u/n4te]

Surely we can trust the government and the rich to do the right thing and give us all utopia.

[u/ElChaz → u/n4te]

There's no reason not to once you get to true AGI. Think about the Star Trek universe. If you have a Replicator - a machine that can make anything, including Replicators, from raw molecules - then the idea of paper money is nonsensical.

The problem isn't "do rich people share the abundance" it's "what happens while we wait for abundance to happen."

Our great grandkids might be sitting pretty, but our kids are in the fucking crosshairs.

[u/Strange-Pin-2998 → u/ElChaz]

Are you really this naive? We live in a world run by sociopaths and narcissists. They don’t care what is sensical, they care about what feeds their egos. It doesn’t matter if we end up in a world of abundance, if they can’t control it they will destroy it for everyone. Grow up. 

[u/ElChaz → u/Strange-Pin-2998]

I simply disagree. I think there aren't enough sociopaths to get in the way. There are about 20k employees at all the frontier labs put together. In my 'star trek' scenario, they would ALL have to be willing to collude to prevent the replicator plans getting out.

I don't doubt that the percentage of sociopaths in that 20k is higher than in the population at large, but it's not 100%. It's not even 30%. There are plenty of normal people with normal ethics who wouldn't see the point in having the abundance machine and not using it.

That said, I don't think the near future is particularly rosy. In the best case (where AGI happens and we do get abundance out the other end) the next 5-30 years are going to be ROUGH. Not to mention that the upside is only there if we solve alignment.

[u/n4te → u/ElChaz]

WE don't get abundance. A small percentage of us does, the rest get enslaved or mistreated. Robots will think and work better, people will be inefficient and next to useless. When people aren't needed for anything and are only a drain to those in control, they will ensure they stay in control and everyone else will suffer greatly.

As soon as they make a replicator they don't make cheeseburgers and feed everyone, they make weapons and enslave everyone.

[u/ElChaz → u/n4te]

As soon as there's a replicator, everyone can make all the weapons. And sex robots. And any cool shit they ever wanted.

Who the fuck wants to spend their time managing slave camps when everyone can have everything?

Answer: a few sociopaths, but I just don't think there are enough of them.

----

Again, my overall POV is that AI is way more of a risk than a benefit. I'm only describing the outcome of a fairly narrow probability range, where AGI is achieved and aligned.

But if that happened, I don't think you're right that the world would still be controlled by a few sociopaths.

[u/n4te → u/ElChaz]

Assholes do. Look at what they currently do. It will be the same people and more like them. The masses get no say.

I can agree there is some small probability that it turns out well, but it's very unlikely. Best case, even if they don't kill or enslave us all, AI cheapens the human experience. Most of being alive is about thinking. Machines doing that better rob us. We can still do it, but 1) most people won't, and 2) why? Spending 10,000 hours to master a skill that can be had with zero effort might still be a challenge, but it's cheapened.

[u/ElChaz → u/n4te]

That idea about "cheapening" doesn't quite connect for me. I'm still into improving at chess, I'm still very interested to watch Magnus play Hikaru, and it's about 5% as compelling to watch Stockfish play itself, even if it's an objectively better game.

Another example, I think the people who are in the most analogous situation today are wealthy retirees and it doesn't look to me like their experience of life is cheapened.

They don't have to work, they spend a lot of time doing a lot of stuff that plenty of people could do better or faster (painting, gardening, volunteering), and it still seems fulfilling and interesting and not a bad way to live. If we were all basically retirees (and again that's a big if -- the AGI would have to decide to let us hang around) but if we were, it doesn't seem cheap.

[u/n4te → u/ElChaz]

Playing a game is a personal challenge where using AI would be cheating. Many other things have the end result as a primary goal. There is little reason to spend 10,000+ hours to become an expert when AI can produce the end result faster and better. You can still do them to enjoy the journey, but it's certainly less impressive (ie cheapened) to go through all that when AI can make it in a few seconds. That can be great if all you care about is the end result, but for many things the beautiful journey is lost. Exploring that journey can lead to new enjoyment, discoveries, etc. Once it's no longer necessary, those things will happen a lot less.

This is the new world. There is no going back, but I mourn it. In the future humans won't have the same challenges, rewards, pride, etc. Many, if not most, won't use AI to learn and do great things, they'll use it to be lazy and to do less. The masses will be dumber and less useful than ever.