Tim Bray1d ago

1. GenAI is probably going to impact us but how? Nobody knows.
2. The worst thing about GenAI isn't the technology, it's the shitty people: https://karlbode.com/the-problem-with-ai-is-shitty-human-beings [<must-read]
3. We can’t have a grown-up conversation on the subject because the trillion-dollar bet’s fear+greed pressure crowds out truth.
4. When the bubble pops, the shitty people will melt away. Then we can maybe figure it out.
5. We so *SO* need that bubble to pop. Next week would be ideal.

#GenAI

The Problem With AI Is Shitty Human Beings

The problem with AI isn't going to be Skynet. It's going to be amoral extraction class assholes applying half-cooked automation at scale onto deeply broken sectors in exploitative ways in a country too corrupt to have functioning regulators.

The Fine Print*
Show threadJohn
@timbray the UBI seems like the answer but curiously off the map of late
Apr 2 at 10:47pmMastodon for Android
Show threadIBBoard21h ago

@buckfiftyseven @timbray UBI as a "solution" for creeping GenAI would be a sticking plaster. A poor compensation. Like someone hacking off a limb and then saying "but I've paid your rent!".

Great. I don't have to worry about rent. But you've still affected my life for the worse and I can't do all the things that I used to enjoy, just because of your actions!

UBI would still leave the environmental impact, the social impact, the creative impact and the exploitative arseholes. It's just that people wouldn't have to worry about enshittification (or terminating) of their jobs as much.

Show threadJohn12h ago
@ibboard @timbray Here's the problem I see: without the UBI it seems everything is the politics of the impossible. It's either the impossible hope that AI will just go away, or it's the impossible hope that the economy can run without earners and consumers.
Show threadIBBoard12h ago

@buckfiftyseven @timbray And with UBI it's the impossible hope that "AI" will just go away, or the impossible hope that the economy can run with extreme company valuations that are disconnected from reality and ridiculous expectations of growth and/or productivity!

UBI doesn't solve any of the GenAI problems. It just makes people's lives slightly less financially uncomfortable while it happens.

(UBI in general is a good thing, but it's not a fix-all solution)

Show threadJohn12h ago

@ibboard @timbray There used to be a thing that some people called robot socialism. It is completely compatible with AI, and indeed relies on it.

Back to funny things about 2026 though, some modern proponents of it fail to grasp that it does require a high corporate tax rate and a UBI.