varx/techMay 21

I very much get a "we just discovered radium and want to put it in everything" vibe from this whole generative AI bubble.

(Including the thing where companies used to slap the word "radium" on existing products even though they thankfully did not actually have any radioactive materials. Like "radium butter".)

Show threadJeff MartinMay 21
@varx I think the rich people that run the world are utterly fascinated by AI because it lets them access skills for the first time ever without needing to hire people. So more of this everywhere all the time just seems like bliss to them.
Show threadiamsMay 21
@cuchaz @varx Have you seen those terrible ads where the techset use AI glasses or AI apps to assist them in performing basic tasks? Like reading, driving, speaking, cooking, doing maths, completing an email... etc. They look like complete idiots. I think you're right, and I feel saddness that there are many people who can both function and have the intelligence to run international business - lacking only for opportunity, social connections, and wealth. AI will ruin so much and solve nothing.
Show threadWulfy

@iams @cuchaz @varx

Counterpoint:

Intelligentsia is distressed by #AI because they see it as encroaching on their ability to sell their labour to the oligarchs.

But when physical labour of the proletariat was eroded by automation over the last 80-100 years. The replacement of physical effort and reduction in the proletariat and stability of menial and semi-skilled #labor was seen as progress and efficiency.
Any opponents of the destruction of Labor and consequently industrial democracy (#tradeunions) were seen as simpletons, #luddites, #communists and troglodytes.

TLDR; AI opponents are the living embodiment of Martin Niemöller poem, which must be remembered condemns complicity of German #intellectuals in the purges.

May 23 at 6:25pmWeb