“AI” Hurts Consumers and Workers -- and Isn’t Intelligent (techpolicy.press)

submitted 1 year ago by JRepin@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/2811405

"We view this moment of hype around generative AI as dangerous. There is a pack mentality in rushing to invest in these tools, while overlooking the fact that they threaten workers and impact consumers by creating lesser quality products and allowing more erroneous outputs. For example, earlier this year America’s National Eating Disorders Association fired helpline workers and attempted to replace them with a chatbot. The bot was then shut down after its responses actively encouraged disordered eating behaviors. "

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[-] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

We really need to reform capitalism so “worse quality but slightly cheaper now” isn’t the default. Like, say what you want about communism, when they made a hammer and/or sickle, it was designed to last.

I’m not sure how to do it. 20 year warranties for everything? But we need to move away from cheap plastic crap replacing solid things.

[-] MasterBlaster@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Actually, that's not true. Quality of product and communist countries is generally low because there is no incentive to do quality work.

[-] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

What’s the incentive to do quality work in a system where lazy ass shareholders take all the surpluses?

[-] sjm@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

ah, that must be why hundreds of people have contributed to one of the most popular and highest quality operating systems for free over the last few decades.

the profit incentive is not the only motive to do quality work, and i think there's plenty of examples that it's not even the best incentive.

I crochet for a hobby so I can make gifts for my friends and family. I've put hundreds of hours in and started from scratch just to undo a mistake, and i've never been paid a penny.

[-] MasterBlaster@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

A hobby or a passion is not a job you do to keep a roof over your head and feed your family. You also probably don't live in a communist country where you are compelled to work at low wages and wait your turn to get access to meager supplies for your crochet.

[-] dulce_3t_decorum_3st@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm five times better at my job thanks to AI. My life is better. I'm happier. I'm earning more.

So, yeah, fuck these articles. They're clearly written by people who don't understand it for people who can't use it. "John replaced walking with driving a car and then he ran over a dog. Therefore cars are useless, overhyped, and bad."

That said, the less competitors that use it, the better for me.

[-] Nurgle@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

“These articles about cars running people over and cooking the planet are dumb because I can drive to the grocery store 10x faster than walking”

Just cause chatgpt can write some code for you doesn’t mean the bad parts aren’t true

[-] MasterBlaster@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Your point is valid, but it lacks the empathy for all the people who are displaced. In our society, displaced people are not given help to find a new place.

When a skilled worker is displaced, and can no longer find work in their skills, their choices are to spend a huge amount of money to go back to college or trade school to get new skills or be forever lost in low-income jobs.

Going from $100,000 per year to $40,000 per year overnight is devastating.

[-] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

AI won't replace jobs in that way. What it will do is make people who use it more productive, which will mean fewer people needed to do the work, which means fewer people doing that job. The speed at which it does this is what will determine the impact on how people are affected by it.

Like OP I find AI to be incredibly useful in my job. I was able to learn Ansible in less than a week by asking it how to do things and trying the result. It saves me time by doing grunt work for me that would otherwise be too fiddly or cumbersome to figure out.

We're not going to wake up one day and have AI lawyers/programmers/writers, with all the humans on the dole. What will happen is people who can effectively utilize AI will have an advantage over those who don't, just like people who can use a computer have an advantage over those who don't.

But we also need worker owned cooperatives and a universal standard of living or it's just going to make technofuedalism worse.

[-] whataboutshutup@discuss.online 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The trick is not to say it outloud, otherwise you set a standard for others in the eyes of bosses and they'd think it should be paid less for the same amount of work. Those who can't adapt become less valued and you don't benefit that much from that either. When it's all about wage, it's better to free your time to work on your own projects or work half-time on remote before your higher ups know, or even some colleagues of a snitchy variety. That's what the lack of unions does.

[-] dulce_3t_decorum_3st@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Fortunately, I'm a sole practising lawyer. So the results speak for themselves. Nobody cares how you crafted 100 pages of written argument. The court is only concerned whether it's persuasive and accurately represents the applicable legal principles. It's hard work to make sure gpt-4 isn't confused, but that's a skill one develops over time.

[-] whataboutshutup@discuss.online 1 points 1 year ago

That's a good case, right, including their formulated nature and distinct language.

[-] virtualfiber@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

IMO, AI won't replace you, a person using will. AI does really help you make your job easier, but you still have to do the work. There ain't no easy jobs

[-] dulce_3t_decorum_3st@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Exactly. It doesn't do your job, it helps you do your job better. But apparently that's a bad thing?

[-] virtualfiber@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I guess some people must learn to swallow their ego and give it a try. I consider AI as a tool, not an entity who has a will of their own!

It's always adapt or just stop even working all together.

[-] FaceDeer@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

"The technology is currently flawed. Therefore we should not invest resources in making it better." Odd approach.

Frankly, even if the "quality" is poor, the quantity is actually a significant boon. I can have content that actually caters to my interests rather than just whatever the big studios decide I'm going to get to pick from. I can make it myself, if I want. Even with the relatively crude tools we already have.

For example, I do game-mastering for TTRPGs, and ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion have vastly improved the quality and quantity of material I'm able to present to my players. I can lavishly illustrate my adventures. The images aren't as good as a professional artist would make, but given that I would never have hired a professional artist in the first place and even if I did they wouldn't have been able to churn those images out in time for tomorrow's session, that's still a huge improvement.

[-] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

An example of a common meme in which Skeletor from the "He-Man" cartoon dispenses a disturbing fact before running away from the reader. In this one Skeletor says "You know the stupid autocomplete on your phone which never gets anything quite right? The A.I. currently being hyped up all over tech news is just bigger and flashier autocomplete." He then runs away, shouting "Until we meet again!"

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this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023

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