I’'m curious about the strong negative feelings towards AI and LLMs. While I don’t defend them, I see their usefulness, especially in coding. Is the backlash due to media narratives about AI replacing software engineers? Or is it the theft of training material without attribution? I want to understand why this topic evokes such emotion and why discussions often focus on negativity rather than control, safety, or advancements.
Because the goal of “AI” is to make the grand majority of us all obsolete. The billion-dollar question AI is trying to solve is “why should we continue to pay wages?”. That is bad for everyone who isn’t part of the owner class. Even if you personally benefit from using it to make yourself more productive/creative/… the data you input can and WILL eventually be used against you.
If you only self-host and know what you’re doing, this might be somewhat different, but it still won’t stop the big guys from trying to swallow all the others whole.
Can you expand further on this?
User data has been the internet’s greatest treasure trove since the advent of Google. LLM’s are perfectly set up to extract the most intimate data available from their users (“mental health” conversations, financial advice, …) which can be used against them in a soft way (higher prices when looking for mental health help) or they can be used to outright manipulate or blackmail you.
Regardless, there is no scenario in which the end user wins.
Reads like a rant against the industrial revolution. “The industry is only concerned about replacing workers with steam engines!”
You’re probably not wrong. It’s definitely along the same lines… although the repercussions of this particular one will be infinitely greater than those of the industrial revolution.
Also, industrialization made for better products because of better manufacturing processes. I’m by no means sure we can say the same about AI. Maybe some day, but today it’s just “an advanced dumbass” considering most real world scenarios.
You should check out this https://thenib.com/im-a-luddite/
Read ‘The Communist Manifesto’ if you’d like to understand in which ways the bourgeoisie used the industrial revolution to hurt the proletariat, exactly as they are with AI.
The industrial revolution is what made socialism possible, since now a smaller amount of workers can support the elderly, children, etc.
Just look at China before and after industrializing. Life expectancy way up, the government can provide services like public transit and medicine (for a nominal fee)
We’re discussing how industry and technology are used against the proletariat, not how state economies form. You can read the pamphlet referenced in the previous post if you’d like to understand the topic at hand.