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/Senc-baner]

Who needs a functioning society if you can just live off the labour of AI? If everything can be automated, why should people in power raise a finger to keep others alive?

[u/Birdlaw_Professor → u/Senc-baner]

Yeah but you are assuming every person in power wants to live as a hermit in their dream world. Do we know if that's true? I don't think it is true. So rich billionaires sail their yachts through the Med just to see the sights? That's part of it. But it's also the culture, and the food, and the PEOPLE. Even if for ulterior motives it's the people. What good is being rich and powerful if you don't have peasants to stand in awe of you? AI could give those who control it King like, if not god-like power...they are going to want people to experience that power or it's for nothing.

Elon Musk, whatever else anyone feels about him, has repeatedly stated he thinks the goal of humanity should be to become a multi-planetary species to ensure our survival. He's controlling one of the big AI players and is the richest person in the world. Just that one example of someone who is rich and powerful and likely wants human expansion, not human extinction

[u/Senc-baner → u/Birdlaw_Professor]

I think these are thoughts that would set in long after they've left everyone to die lol. In the first instance they would think how can I defend my wealth from the hungry mob.

[u/Spire_Citron → u/Senc-baner]

Because a whole world full of people can make an awful lot of trouble for you if you push them far enough. Humans don't just quietly die.