Comment by babyent
2 days ago
I would prefer we just find ways to empower people and put them to work. I don't like this marketing bs trap like shifting AGI (artificial general intelligence) -> ASI (artificial super intelligence). Are people really so dense they don't see this obvious marketing shift?
As much as many people hate on "gig" economy, the fact remains that most of these people would be worse off without driving Uber or delivering with DoorDash (and for example, they don't care about the depreciation as much as those of us with the means to care about such things do).
I find Uber, DD, etc. to be valuable to my day to day life. I tip my delivery person like 8 bucks, and they're making more money than they would doing some min wage job. They need their car anyway, and speaking with some folks who only know Spanish in SF, they're happy to put $3k on their moped and make 200-250+ a day. That's really not that bad, if you actually care to speak with them and understand their circumstance.
Not everyone can be a self taught SWE, or entrepreneur, or perform surgery. And lots can't even do so-called "basic" jobs in an office for various reasons.
Put people to work, instead of out of work.
Current hype is also so terrible. AGENTS. AGENTS EVERYWHERE. Except they don't work most of the time and by the time you realize it isn't working you've already spent $20. 100k people do the same thing, company reports 2M x 12 = 24 million ARR UNLOCKED!!!!!! And raises another round of funding...
FWIW I don't disagree with what you're saying / your vibe overall.
> Are people really so dense they don't see this obvious marketing shift?
I haven't noticed any shift from AGI to ASI, or either used in marketing.
The steelman would be 'but Amodei/Altman do mention in interviews 'oh just wait for 2027' or 'this year we'll see AI employees'
However, that is far afield from being used in marketing, quite far afield from an "obvious marketing shift", and worlds away from such an obvious marketing shift that it's worth calling your readers dense if they don't "see" it.
It's also not even wrong, in the Pauli sense, in that: what, exactly, would be the marketing benefit of "shifting from AGI to ASI"? Both imply human replacement.
> As much as many people hate on "gig" economy
Is this relevant?
> most of these people would be worse off without driving Uber or delivering with DoorDash
Do people who hate on the gig economy think gig economy employees would be better off without gig economy jobs?
Given the well-worn tracks of history, do we think that these things are zero sum, where if you preserve jobs that could be automated, that keeps people better off, because otherwise they would never have a job?
> ...lots more delivery service stuff...
?
> Current hype is also so terrible. AGENTS. AGENTS EVERYWHERE. Except they don't work most of the time and by the time you realize it isn't working you've already spent $20. 100k people do the same thing, company reports 2M x 12 = 24 million ARR UNLOCKED!!!!!! And raises another round of funding...
I hate buzzwords too, I'm stunned how many people took their not-working thing and relaunched it as an "agent" that still doesn't work.
But this is a hell of a strawman.
If the idea is 100K people try it, and cancel after one month, which means they're getting 100K new suckers every month to replace the old ones...I'd tell you that its safe to assume there's more that goes into getting an investor check than "whats your ARR claim?" --- here, they'd certainly see the churn.
Loved your reply, cheers! My post was made with a mix of humor, skepticism, anticipation, and unease about the $statusQuo.
As far as hating on gig economy, that pot has been stirring in California quite a bit (prop 22, labor law discussions, etc.). I think many people (IMO, mostly from positions of privilege) make assumptions on gig workers' behalf and bad ideas sometimes balloon out of proportion.
Also, just from my experience as a gold miner who moved out here to SF and being around founders, I've learned that lies, and a damn lot of lies, are more common than I thought they'd be. Quite surprising, but hey I guess quite a non-insignificant number of people are too busy fooling the King that it is actually real gold! And there are a lot of Kings these days.
edit: ESL lol