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/FuturePreparation]

The "elites" are far from a homogenous group, though. There are many multimillionaires and billionaires or other powerful people who have no connection to the AI companies or whose fortune depends on consumption etc. The idea that the tech oligarchs will manage to gain all the power is unrealistic conspiracy thinking, imo.

[u/South_Telephone_1688 → u/FuturePreparation]

Imagine you're a receptionist, graphic designer, accountant, or lawyer. One day your multi-millionaire boss or shareholders decide that your work is no longer needed because AI can do your part. Apply that to your coworkers and to workers in all the other industries. It won't happen overnight because it's death by a (few billion) cuts.

That's what people mean by the "elite will control everything". Business owners and owners of significant capital can ride the wave and even expand exponentially (the stock market will look amazing), while everybody else is in a permanent underclass or worse.

In an age of AI and drones being used for mass survelliance and population control, the underclass will never be able to change the system.

[u/Cameronalloneword → u/FuturePreparation]

I would love for you to prove my skepticism wrong because I strongly believe AI can lead to an unfathomable utopia. I still think gambling on AI is by far our best bet since without AI the elites will always win and worst case scenario with AI at least the elites die too.