Oh sweet baby Jesus no, burn AI to the ground, humanity can't be trusted with it

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Hades

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On one hand the AI bubble bursting will be fun and richly deserved. On the other I think the AI bubble is so intertwined with the economy that its going to be very damaging when it does burst

And I have a feeling those pushing AI so hard won't be paying the bill for the damage.
 
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Agema

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On one hand the AI bubble bursting will be fun and richly deserved. On the other I think the AI bubble is so intertwined with the economy that its going to be very damaging when it does burst
I don't look forward to a bubble bursting, because the result is likely to be a market crash, recession, contagion across the globe so everyone gets one, and quite likely more support for the far right.

I do sort of want AI to fail. Or be constrained. Or removed from the power of a handful of excessively powerful billionaire scumbags, and globalised away from the USA and China. Let's imagine AI succeeds and causes mass unemployment by replacing many jobs. What are our societies going to do about it? It's a social catastrophe - and an environmental one, as in in order to drive mass misery we torch the planet even faster.

I say this, but I have spent the last week getting AI to write my exam questions. I reckon pretty much all are superficially okay - I mean, basically correct despite flaws. About 10% need pretty much no amendment, about 20% need significant amendment, the remaining 70% have subtle but annoying problems that take a lot of time to fix, or just don't quite ask what I want to test, etc.

And I have a feeling those pushing AI so hard won't be paying the bill for the damage.
Again, we need to make them. Honestly, if AI companies replace zillions of workers, then the money mostly flows to them. In that case, aggressively take money off them to make good the damage.
 

Satinavian

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Talking about Google, it's worth reading this about Google's plans to monetise AI.

Google says it's AI-derived "personalised pricing" will only be used for discounts, and the article points out how laughably easy it is to manipulate the system to make paying more than you should seem like a discount. If something could be sold for $1.00, make the basic cost $2.00 and then the discounts up to 90c so $1.10 looks like a great deal. Everyone pays more, but think they're getting it cheap.

Maybe, just maybe, if you haven't already get out of Google now. As much as possible stop using Google search, stop using Gmail, stop using Google Maps, etc.
This thing will fail hard.

First, it is super illegal in many jusrisdictions. And not only because of price gauching, fair competition and antidiscrimination laws, but also about privacy laws
Second, people would hate it
Third, this kind of personal data misuse just begs for civil lawsuits and carries huge monetary risks for anyone involved.
Fourth, very soon people would start to "massage" their information to get cheaper prices.

On one hand the AI bubble bursting will be fun and richly deserved. On the other I think the AI bubble is so intertwined with the economy that its going to be very damaging when it does burst
It will mostly only hurt the US economy. Most of the others are not really exposed and might even benefit from investor money looking for places elsewhere.
 

Thaluikhain

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It will mostly only hurt the US economy. Most of the others are not really exposed and might even benefit from investor money looking for places elsewhere.
The US economy in trouble puts the world in trouble.

OTOH, fortunately Trump has gotten people to be wary of close ties with the US, so the damage would be less. If we can get him to blather about tariffs until the crash happens, it might not be so bad and he's sorta have achieved something.


And I have a feeling those pushing AI so hard won't be paying the bill for the damage.
The big players, as a rule, won't ever suffer for the problems they cause. OTOH, a lot of wannabe big players will find out they aren't too big to fall, and will make blogs and videos over how unfair it is they've lost everything, and not understand why people are laughing at them.
 
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The Rogue Wolf

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Agema

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First, it is super illegal in many jusrisdictions.
For now. But what happens when Google starts lobbying the shit out of those governments? And what happens if the US trade representative starts threatening punitive action unless other governments agree to it? What happens if Google headquarter themselves on a modestly-populated state within a economic and political union and bribe its government into refusing to carry out the laws of that economic and political union?

And not only because of price gauching, fair competition and antidiscrimination laws, but also about privacy laws
Second, people would hate it
Third, this kind of personal data misuse just begs for civil lawsuits and carries huge monetary risks for anyone involved.
Fourth, very soon people would start to "massage" their information to get cheaper prices.

It will mostly only hurt the US economy. Most of the others are not really exposed and might even benefit from investor money looking for places elsewhere.
I don't think any of those things are the barriers that you do. Our governments do lots of things the people hate and make the country and it's people worse off.

A state is not run for the people and for the best interests of the state and its people. A state is run by whoever claims enough power, for the benefit of that whoever has the power. So a state controlled by the aristocracy is run for the aristocracy, a state controlled by the bourgeoisie is run for the bourgeoisie, a state controlled by corporations is run for corporations. Occasionally, just occasionally, the controlling power may have an interest in the general good, but it's strictly optional.

This is why many states fail. Because ultimately the power group in charge put their (usually short-term) interests ahead of the nation's or the general good, sometimes all the way to collapse. For instance, many resource-rich states could use that wealth for massive human development and springboard themselves into an advanced nation, but the elites prefer to shove the poor into the salt mines and the money into their own pockets. And even where sometimes parties aspiring to represent the poor take over, they end up as dictators servicing their own power fantasies whilst reinforcing poverty.
 

Agema

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This is why I'm so amused by the cultural assumption that investors are rich because they're smarter and braver than the rest of us, when every move they make expresses stupidity and cowardice.
I'm not sure it's that stupid.

After all, how are we going to play computer games when the AI industry has made chips so expensive we can't afford computers?
 

Drathnoxis

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Gee, thanks Adobe, but I'd prefer to actually read my books myself.

Incidentally, does anybody know a decent alternative pdf reader? Adobe Acrobat is bloated, slow, and I hate it.
 

Agema

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Incidentally, does anybody know a decent alternative pdf reader? Adobe Acrobat is bloated, slow, and I hate it.
I presume you mean for editing? If so, no. Last time I tried I found some with limited free use (like, up to a week, or 10 uses) before they started demanding $$$ but that was it.
 

Drathnoxis

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I presume you mean for editing? If so, no. Last time I tried I found some with limited free use (like, up to a week, or 10 uses) before they started demanding $$$ but that was it.
Nah, just for reading. I just want something simple that will let me read pdfs, search for words, and load fast. Preferably no built in AI garbage.
 

Agema

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That's a good point. I could just default it to my browser. Don't know why I never thought of that!
Yes, browsers is how I read them. As an FYI, I use Firefox (home) and Edge (work). I think Edge is better than Firefox for pdfs, but it's not like there's that much difference.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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Apparently the Super Bowl had a large percentage of ad spots that were either taken by either AI related companies or were AI generated content. I saw some comments that the same thing happened with the dot com and crypto bubbles. It would be kind of hilarious if the collapse of AI was heralded by awful looking ads that some idiots paid millions of dollars for. But I'm not that optimistic.

In general, AI ads being used at this level kind of shock me. When I see an AI ad, I assume the company is a scam, a "startup" managed by college students , or a family owned business whose owners are too old to know how to use Canva. Everyone in my social circle sees AI ads as a red flag, but I imagine quite a few older people and maybe even the kids do not.