Comment by Razengan
6 hours ago
> and now that skill is not paying the bills. ... you cannot put your life on pause to learn something new
Yes, but that's a social issue, external to technology but exacerbated by every new technology, AI or not:
UBI should be a thing: let people work on what they find fulfilling, instead of having to work to survive.
AI could help design a system for UBI that everyone agrees with, since it's so good at maths and shit now.
This problem HAS to be tackled. Removing/slowing AI will only kick it further down the road, not eliminate it.
If UBI was a thing and people felt safe that they would not be poor, then obviously AI (and all technological innovation for that matter) would be much more welcomed. I do not see such initiatives being taken however.
It seems to me that all we are doing is a wild goose chase; Progress above all, to hell with any environmental/social impacts, the end justifies the means.
> This problem HAS to be tackled. Removing/slowing AI will only kick it further down the road, not eliminate it.
True, but people are generally selfish. They will put their own prosperity above that of the future generations, and I cannot blame them.
> people felt safe that they would not be poor
The actual fear underpinning this isn't even about being "poor", it's that being poor means starving, freezing, not having a bed to sleep on, not being able to get basic healthcare in emergencies..
It's possible to provide all those things without "giving away free money" to everybody, but..that's probably more complicated for now.
In any case, whether one "deserves" to live in basic comfort shouldn't depend on one's ability to do jobs that depend on holding back technological progress.
> In any case, whether one "deserves" to live in basic comfort shouldn't depend on one's ability to do jobs that depend on holding back technological progress.
It shouldn't, but it does. So if we can't change this fact, we have to find a middle ground so that the people alive right now aren't thrown under the bus.
I don't disagree with what you are saying. Progress is inevitable in the end. I just wonder if we have to be destructive in our road to achieve it. Environmental and social damage are also problems that we need to tackle. Keep in mind that unstable societies, where people are fearful of the future, are prone to revolutions, and an unstable political climate is detrimental to technological progress.
I see very few people at the top speaking up about this, and that only makes me more skeptical of the usefulness of AI. If it's only going to be used against me, why would I ever support it?