I’m not an AI techie and I’m not well educated on LLMs/AI in general. The issue I’m having is the dichotomy between how people talk about it. I’ve heard completely opposite ends of the spectrum. From AI is quickly becoming advanced enough to threaten human society, all the way to its a glorified dictionary/search engine that can’t really do much of anything. I know Lemmy has a steep anti-AI slant. But, can someone talk about this in a way I can wrap my head around why the divide seems so big?
This is exactly how I feel. I’m not even opposed to automation of these tasks on a fundamental level like some people might be. I just fear the transition won’t be thought out at all and will be devastating for the working class. The last time we had sudden automation of this scale was the Industrial Revolution which completely reshaped western society and was very bad for those who lived through it despite the eventual high modern standard of living it produced. I think this may end up going similarly.
The transition is rarely, if ever, thought out. Daring risk-takers go too far too fast and fail. Over-conservatives ignore the new and get left behind. There is a sweet spot in the middle, but exactly where in the middle isn’t planned, can’t really be planned - life and business and politics and the economy and the ecology and unforeseen signifiant contributors to the situation mean that the sweet spot is unpredictable - and as long as we continue living by the golden rule: “He who has the gold, makes the rules” it will continue to be unpredictable, otherwise Wall Street could be rigged and those with the inside information would get all the gains - and then the losers would quit playing, not even by choice, but because they’ve bankrupted and have nothing left to play with.
There are alternative approaches - investing in people instead of greed as the ultimate goal is one great alternative that some countries are pursuing more than others, but it’s hard to compete in a global economy where some players are only playing for maximization of financial returns when you are not.