I’ve been opting out of the internet at large. It started a few years back just disconnecting from social media, but as AI has begun to pollute everything and enshittification ruins everything, I’m just kinda done with it all.
I’ve been enjoying Lemmy, and I’m hoping Lemmy doesn’t turn into an AI circle jerk.
As a result I’ve been building out my server with services I want to use that I control so I’m not trapped by enshittification or inundated with AI where I don’t want it.
With all that being said, I know AI is here to stay. My biggest problem with AI is these companies gleefully gobbling up our data, our art, our words, our creativity, using it to feed and train, and to make billions, while we get nothing. It would be one thing if all these generative models were open source and freely available for everyone to use and benefit from, but that’s not the case. I know there are open source models, but the big ones are all paywalled and in many ways being weaponized against us.
At some point I hope generative AI becomes a boon to society. Right now, I’m too cynical to believe it will. I feel like it’s just going to make things worse for the majority of people.
I’m starting to think that we need to see AI research in the same way we see biological weapon research - a visit from a SEAL team or a cruise missile for any identified laboratory. Smash the disks, burn all the print outs!
Okay, this is hyperbolic and unrealistic, but I agree with this lion-maned YouTuber - we are really not ready.
AI as a tech is game changing, but it practically demands at least UBI (and probably some form of socialism) as a prerequisite. We, meanwhile, are still electing conservative governments! The same arseholes that will label the legions of unemployed artists, actors, musicians, coders, admin assistants etc etc as lazy and cut their benefits.
Does anyone truly believe that a tech that can replace half of human jobs is going to create happy outcomes in today’s society? Or will it just make tech-bros and scammers richer, and virtually everyone else poorer?
I haven’t clicked on the video but since you’ve said “Lion-maned YouTuber” I’m going to guess it’s Kyle Hill.
any changes bound to happen will eventually do, sooner or later, wanted or not.
we have the word for it in dictionary, “evolution”.
Eh, I’d say a better word is “progress.” Or maybe “technological progress.” Evolution is the change in gene frequency in a population over time.
Agree, otherwise. Its like trying to tell people not to make things go boom using saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur. Luddites will always want to burn down the textile mill.
I 100% agree the genie is out of the bottle. People who want to walk back this change are not dealing with reality. AI and robotics are so valuable I very much doubt there’s even any point in talking about slowing it down. All that’s left now is to figure out how to use the good and deal with the bad - likely on a timeline of months to maybe one or two years.
That timeline of dealing with the bad looks incredibly optimistic. I imagine new issues will likely be regularly cropping up as well which we’ll also have to address.
I agree. I’m talking about how quickly we’re going to have strategies in place to deal not how quickly we’ll have it all figured out. My guess is we have at best a year before it’s a huge issue, and I agree with your take that figuring out human vs. AI content etc. is going to be an ongoing thing. Perhaps until AI gets so good it ceases to matter as much because it will be functionally the same.
This is Kyle Hill’s video on the predicted impact of AI-generated content on the internet, especially as it becomes more difficult to tell machine from human over text and video. He relays that experts say within a year huge portions of online content will be AI-generated. What do you guys think? Do you care that you may soon be having discussions/arguments with chatbots more often than not on popular platforms like Reddit, X, YouTube, etc?
I generate AI content (some of which is art) for fun, so I am not against it in theory. I just dont so far find much enjoyment consuming AI content made by others. So far the vast majority of it is mediocre. Which seems like a natural consequence of lowering the barriers to entry.
The Sora demo, for example, is very compelling technologically, but it didn’t impress me at all as something that would replace creative work, so much as provide a tool to get it done differently.
As AI content becomes more prevalent, I will continue to further disengage with that content and prefer authentic human experiences, to the extent that AI content continues to feel mostly soulless and vacuous.