Has there ever been a sustained backlash and doubt about a new big technology like what we are seeing with AI? Where the most vocal critics are tech people?
It's similar to bitcoin, to NFTs...
It's also similar to the internet-connected device trend, though I don't remember the resistance and doubt to that being as intense. I was mostly very excited about "the internet of things" I still put wifi in places where it doesn't belong with the most flimsy of excuses.
It's just really unusual to hear some of my biggest "early adopter" friends filled with bile for AI. And well I'm right there with them. I'm irritated most by the dishonesty of the claims about what it can do. With "internet of things" the objection was not "you can't track your water bottle on the internet, it won't work the way you describe" it was more like "why would you want to do that?" and "your data will be sold to companies, you will be spied on"
Both proved to be correct.
I mean: With smart home stuff or bitcoin, it was mostly a "you do you" situation (except when blockchain started to get mentioned at business meetings, to the loud groaning of the more tech-affine people).
The AI hype reminds me more of being surrounded by diehard Apple fans:
They do annoying stuff and then tell you all about it. And then start to criticize you because you don't do the same thing.
"You should use a Mac because it makes you more creative and working becomes sooo much easier."
"You should use AI because that way you are done in half the time so you can do exciting stuff like work even more."
I've always been a bit of an apple fan, though I only think I was annoying in the late 90s when using a mac felt like you really were doing something different.
@futurebird
There is this special "religious zealot" vibe some people have.
Their focus doesn't have to be tech. Can be meditation. Or bicycles. Or weird protein shakes.
But in any situation they will invariably come up with their current object of obsession as a solution.
"Maybe I should clean up the cellar this weekend."
"You should use meditation for that. It's the best. Honestly, I don't understand how people ever got anything done before it was invented."
@wakame @futurebird After I switched a certain workplace to Moodle and saved them millions they had been paying Adobe, a high-school educated director who allegedly got that position thanks to connections told me to "put Moodle on blockchain so that people can't cheat on exams".
ETA: Don't get me wrong, many competent people only have high school education, but for a director in that company a master's degree was a requirement.
Reminds me of Amazon announcing a "centralized blockchain"... which is just a database.
Next time I get a weird requirement, I will try to figure out if I can create a company that provides exactly that.
"We are syncing the Moodle database to the Tamper-Proof Centralized Blockchain ™️ now."
myrmepropagandist
Not a Spring Onion
Enola Knezevic