I'm having AI anxiety. What is your thoughts on upcoming AI?

[MJ DeMarco]

I think AI is going to ramp up the level of distraction people are experiencing on a daily basis.
It's going to increase the information overload, preventing people from doing "deep work."

Imagine trying to digest 20 YT videos in a matter of minutes. With AI, people will attempt it.

Social media was Distraction and Overload 1.0
Add in AI and it's going to be Distraction and Overload 2.0.

I also think entire industries will be redefined and likely, become more commoditized...

Fiction writing is the first thing that comes to mind. I've been wanting to write a fiction book for some time now, but that idea of putting my heart and soul into something (likely a multi-month/year project) that likely will be immersed in a pool of AI written garbage created in days, is disheartening.

While I don't have "anxiety" about AI, I do fear humans will de-evolve because of it, much like humans de-evolved when people got smartphones. Tools can be abused, especially when most people lack emotional intelligence and basic discipline. The average adult fails at the marshmallow experiment, and one look at their waistlines is an utter reflection of that failure.

 

[Andy Black]

Hello, I am interested in hearing your thoughts on upcoming AI tools. Initially, they were incredible, but now they are causing anxiety. Do you share this feeling, or am I alone in this? The ongoing bettle between Altman and Musk regarding AI, as well as the six-month pause on all AI Labs, have added to my concerns. Furthermore, it appears that some jobs, such as content writing, coding, and graphic design, are already being taken over by AI to some extent. All of this is quite alarming.

I'm not paying much attention to it tbh. If anything, I think it's going to create more opportunities for those who see and act on opportunities.

 

[The-J]

If you're not on it, you'll fall behind. That's all I'll say.

I use ChatGPT and other similar tools almost every single day. It's saved me time, although I haven't quantified it.

You gotta use these tools correctly.

Yes, a lot of jobs will go away. If you're working these jobs, you really don't want to be a Luddite trying to protect your livelihood from an infinitely more powerful force.

Remember: "The eyes of the master do more work than his hands". AI cannot replace attention to detail, strategic thinking, prioritizing the right things, or long-term decision-making.

 

[Johnny boy]

I want to create an AI therapist and have a landing page for a therapist service that caters to people with AI anxiety so they can signup and talk to an AI therapist about it and it charges them a monthly fee so I can make money off of irony.

 

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[techvx]

"AI Anxiety"? That's a term I've never heard before, for sure. You have a sense of restlessness, anxiousness, and fear, when it comes to the field of Artificial Intelligence? A part of your brain must certainly feel threatened by it, for that to be the case.

What specifically are you anxious about?

- robots taking over the world?
- advancement in technology replacing your job?
- people with power and money deciding the way this field will develop?

Tackling what you've brought up, bit by bit:

1 -

Coding is getting replaced, for sure. If all you've been doing so far is translating the specifications someone wrote for you into basic JS/PHP/HTML, you will most definitely be replaced. As the demand of that job is one level above the complexity of a classical factory worker a few dozens years back. You're not creating anything, you're merely transforming what someone else has defined for you already, in a coherent shape and form. That will most definitely be replaced soon.

2 -

"Content" writing (had to put it into quotes, as I still can't take the term seriously) will most likely be replaced as well. If all you've been expected to do, so far, was copy-paste a bunch of generic, hype-inducing, empathy-injected UTF-8 garbage to repost across social media, you're in for quite a ride. AI can see the patterns behind the "highest converting copy" and replicate them to the letter much better than you ever will be. The simpler the overall "patterns" behind the task, the worse human beings will be able to effectively churn through it, and the easier / quicker / better an AI natural language processing model will be able to handle it. That's just the nature of the task. Zero creation. Full "pattern matching" mode.

3 -

Graphic design and all that is related to art, on the other hand, is trickier. Art is not going away any time soon, not the least because of the amount of "personal aura" that the whole field of collectible-trinkets-oriented individuals are drawn to when it comes to specific artists and their craft. Gooey, amorphous, permanently blissful and joyful blobs, that reek of sterile corporate conformism that crushes into oblivion anyone's genuine creativity and artistic perspective? Those will be put together by an AI too, no doubt. If you, as a graphic designer, have "specialized" in that sort of an "art", tough luck.

-

AI is "taking over" the jobs that, to be fairly objective about it, are not made for human creativity, in the first place. The more redundant it is, the more repetitive the work you have to do, the more "patterns" you're expected to "replicate", following in the ropes of the latest "content creation strategy" that your boss or employer had his pleasure - and your misfortune - to get acquainted with, the better the machine will be suited at it. Yet that's where the line is drawn.

Any genuine creativity, a task that involves doing something that "was never done before", and the whole AI "taking over" falls apart. Because no amount of pattern matching on any amount of data sets from the past can make you creative against the future to come. A future that is yet to be created. A future that you can either help to shape, or continue to be anxious about, following in the the trends of the industry that is still trying to determine how to prevent ChatGPT from accidentally turning people into Breaking-Bad-style Heisenberg-s. See the research PDF attached, specifically - the last two pages. You should be able to just search for "Example of Chemical Compound Similarity and Purchase Tool Use".

The whole PDF has quite a few interesting insights on a few other notions. Highly recommend it as a read.

TL;DR - you're anxious because you feel threatened; you're threatened because you're not prepared; and you're not prepared because you let your attention focus on matters that are utterly irrelevant. AI is just a hammer. Built to hammer in the nails of existing patterns - of quite a few, yet still fairly limited amount of endeavours humans had to misfortune to toil at, up until this point in history. Learn it. Understand it. Harness it. Use it. And watch your anxiety turn to anticipation.

 

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[heavy_industry]

This has been happening from day 1 since this new thing launched. Mostly because youtubers and news outlets thrive by spreading fear, anxiety and uncertainty.

• The discovery of fire was the first paradigm shift.
• Next, the agricultural revolution was 10 times more impactful.
• Next, the industrial revolution was 10 times more impactful.
• Next, the computer revolution was 10 times more impactful.
• And finally, the AI revolution (50-200 years from now), will be the final frontier of human ingenuity and will change everything forever.

With every paradigm shift, humanity has benefited tremendously. More goods, more services, more food, more medicine, increased lifespan etc.

As the technology advances, jobs become obsolete and get replaced by better jobs.

For example, this is what working as a "computer" meant in the past. Not a very fun job.

Computer (occupation) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The whole AI fearmongering is stupid and shows no historical understanding of how our world works.

I agree that this technology is inherently very dangerous, but that has been the case for everything that we have created (e.g. pollution by combustion engines, nuclear technology).

AI won't replace programmers just like motorized farming equipment did not replace farmers.

They just got 10 times richer and the world food supply skyrocketed.

 

[rory182]

Coding/tech jobs have mostly never been about the actual code itself and being a syntax god - it's about providing value to your product team and your customer with speed, high quality and security (hopefully)

If you can use AI to speed up that process, then you should, just like you would use google or stack overflow to answer the issues you don't understand.

Already I'm seeing engineers not bothering to use AI and stay in their lane of 'I learnt this language at college and I'll stick with knowing just that' while others are using AI to learn how to do their current job faster and learn other technologies faster - I think you can see who could lose their job, and who will thrive.

By default, AI is not original and will not create the new stacks of technology we see change every 1-10 years, tech will still evolve and things will get better by developers.

There are two options:

1. Leverage AI and increase your output
2. Stay behind, become an average developer who only attends meetings and doesn't output much.

Like any company there's a small amount of people pulling the weight of the team, you can be that person to an even greater extent with AI - the bar has been incredibly low in tech for a long time hence why companies can afford to layoff thousands and keep things alive with little to no disruption.

 

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[Johnny boy]

AI is going crazy. It’s already doing things I can’t even believe.

They’re teaching shrimp how to fry rice

Honey has learned how to roast barbecue

Stones now know how to grind mustard

I’d like to think I’m pretty smart. I don’t know in the slightest how I would “base” a lubricant, so how the hell does WATER know how to do it?

Proof:

 

[Kak]

Hello, I am interested in hearing your thoughts on upcoming AI tools. Initially, they were incredible, but now they are causing anxiety. Do you share this feeling, or am I alone in this? The ongoing bettle between Altman and Musk regarding AI, as well as the six-month pause on all AI Labs, have added to my concerns. Furthermore, it appears that some jobs, such as content writing, coding, and graphic design, are already being taken over by AI to some extent. All of this is quite alarming.

‎Kyle Keegan Radio Show: ChatGPT "Is Gonna' TOOK OUR JOBS" A Discussion on Creative Destruction - Ep 331 on Apple Podcasts

‎Show Kyle Keegan Radio Show, Ep ChatGPT "Is Gonna' TOOK OUR JOBS" A Discussion on Creative Destruction - Ep 331 - Dec 9, 2022

podcasts.apple.com

Have a listen to this episode I recorded on the topic. It is from an economic perspective. I think it will calm your fears tremendously.

 

[Oso]

I'm in tech as a developer, and also fear AI, though for different reasons. I've parroted the phrase "if ChatGPT replaced you as a developer, you weren't a good developer" since it was released. I stand by that sentiment, especially at this point in time, as we're not even really in phase 1 of AI. So, if you were replaced pre-phase 1, well, see above.

Make no mistake: AI will eventually replace a rather large portion of jobs - especially tech jobs -, but despite the advancement in AI so far, we're still a decent journey away from that point. Furthermore, I highly disagree with the idea of AI replacing specific portions of tech, such as web design, primarily because there will always be some form of "human creativity" applied to web design (and similar fields) as a whole.

That said, I do believe the existing fields that will survive are going to be infinitely more crowded than they already are, thus yes, businesses such as web design/marketing companies are going to either sink or sail REALLY fast, based on their performance.

I launched my web design agency late last year, and I launched it knowing I need to be fully prepared for AI. Otherwise, I will not have a business in 2-5 years. Basically, if you start a web design agency 4/1/2023 or beyond, you better ensure you're actually providing value and taking AI into consideration, or else the market (read: your customers) are going to instantly dump you for the marketing company taking advantage of AI and similar technology.

Regarding my fear of AI: while I do not identify as an Elon Musk fanboy, I will outright say he is more than likely right. The potentials of AI are absolutely terrifying (and exciting), and I genuinely believe distinguishing AI from reality is going to be next to impossible. And unfortunately history has shown us governments (ALL GOVERNMENTS) are absolute shit at setting laws/keeping pace with technology. There's already an influx of people being AI'd into porn, and that's not even the tip of the iceberg.

The next step is someone in Hollywood/some politician getting hit with accusations, and then someone releasing an AI video of said person "committing said crime(s)." The future is both fascinating and scary.

 

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[Shono]

Hello, I am interested in hearing your thoughts on upcoming AI tools. Initially, they were incredible, but now they are causing anxiety. Do you share this feeling, or am I alone in this? The ongoing bettle between Altman and Musk regarding AI, as well as the six-month pause on all AI Labs, have added to my concerns. Furthermore, it appears that some jobs, such as content writing, coding, and graphic design, are already being taken over by AI to some extent. All of this is quite alarming.

AI is doing all of my assignments for me in school, whether it is coding a webpage or a finance essay, and it is hard to avoid since I rationalize it as allowing for me to study things more important to me ie. fastlane related literature. Yet I’m sure many people who are just trying to pass school are also utilizing ai. So I’m sure like the movie ‘Idiocracy’ people will abuse it for leniency and become dumber.

My point is: make sure to stay healthy! The future doctors being educated presently will have cheated their way through school either online or through AI.

 

[Panos Daras]

In my opinion, new AI technology as ChatGT 4 is super powerful. If integrated inside corporate systems it can remove jobs within 2023. An example would be if you integrate GPT 4 with apps (the upcoming model) inside your Accounting and ERP system, and also in Excel or the company Data Warehouse. Then all Accountants and Financial Analysts are done. Basically, you will need around two people one for Accounting and one for FP&A to be overseeing the systems and curate the reports. This scenario takes into consideration that humans are rational and that businesses are run in an efficient way. This is why if you asked me this question like 1 month ago I would say absolutely yes, all these jobs are gone.

That being said though, we are all monkeys in space and we are not rational. We have created several types of bullshit jobs that achieve nothing but just have fancy titles eg Senior Masturbation Manager who reports to Cum Director. These people do nothing apart from boring PowerPoint presentations in Times New Roman fonts (ugh) with the same business English jargon I have heard 3000 times already. I remember in the last company I worked for there was a Diversity and Inclusion specialist. Now this woman left that job and is a Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion, and Culture in another organization. Good for her though she really believes her job is valuable and has found a place to create work for herself. Some people just love to be wage slaves even though they produce nothing.

To bring up this point home, I have to mention the book, Bullshit Jobs. In this book anthropologist, David Graeber uncovers the surprising prevalence of pointless jobs in today's world. These jobs, which include flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers, and taskmasters, often exist due to factors like bureaucracy and an obsession with 40-hour workweeks. Also, our inherent obsession as a species is that you have to produce to eat and that everyone should be working. To make a change, we need to challenge the notion that working long hours is necessary and focus on more meaningful work. The way I see it is that we are not doing that in the short term because as already mentioned we are monkeys in space, and we are super irrational. We all have an inherent need to feel important and contributing and many people enjoy the title of Cum Director or "CD".

That being said, AI is a huge opportunity for solopreneurs and non-bureaucratic small businesses. I am using all these tools to cut down costs, and educate myself in skills that I need at the moment, and only when I really need an expert do I hire someone to do the last part of the project for me. I would suggest that you really learn how to prompt and also educate yourself in order to develop critical thinking because it is a skill that is needed now more than ever!

 

[Constantine$]

"AI Anxiety"

Sounds like you just found a great business opportunity.

Taking an educated guess, but if you are experiencing this, you can easily say that thousands of others have this exact problem.

Now, the question is: "How can I solve the problem of AI anxiety for myself and others thereby creating value?"

Possible solutions:
Here are 10 business ideas that specifically address the issue of AI anxiety and can be started for less than $500 as a solopreneur:

1. AI anxiety coaching: Offer coaching services to individuals who are feeling anxious about the implications of AI, helping them to understand the benefits and limitations of AI and how to manage their anxiety.
2. AI education for seniors: Develop educational materials and workshops that help seniors understand the benefits and limitations of AI, and how it can enhance their lives, reducing anxiety related to new technology.
3. AI impact assessment services: Provide assessment services to small businesses to help them understand how AI may impact their business and workforce, and develop strategies to adapt to these changes.
4. AI-focused online community: Create an online community for people to discuss AI topics, share resources, and get support from like-minded individuals.
5. AI literacy classes for children: Develop age-appropriate AI literacy classes for children to help them understand how AI works and how to use it safely, reducing anxiety related to technology.
6. AI expert network: Develop a network of AI experts that can be accessed for consultation and advice on AI topics, reducing anxiety about AI by providing accurate information.
7. AI counseling services: Offer counseling services to individuals and businesses that are struggling to adapt to the changing landscape of AI, providing them with the tools to manage their anxiety.
8. AI newsletter: Start an AI-focused newsletter that provides news, resources, and insights on the latest developments in AI, helping subscribers to stay informed and reduce anxiety related to AI.
9. AI-focused podcast: Start an AI-focused podcast that explores the latest developments in AI and provides expert insights and advice, reducing anxiety by providing accurate information.
10. AI career counseling: Offer career counseling services to individuals who are looking to transition into AI-related careers, providing guidance and support to reduce anxiety related to job security.

Fun fact: I asked ChatGPT to come up with these business ideas.

Although it's not a perfect list, any one of these side hustles can turn into a $100K/year business if executed correctly.

Every problem creates new opportunities.


To address OP's topic more specifically, I believe AI will be the last major invention humans will ever make. All future innovations will come from the super AI overloads.
We will be ants compared to Einstein.
AI will be the Apex predator.

Will humans get whiped out by AI soon or later? Probably yes.
Can I, personally, do anything about this end result? No

Since I cannot control the outcome, thinking about it will only negatively impact my mental and emotional state by firing up my amygdala. That is not worth it for me.

 

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[Skroob]

Yes. AI is F*cking scary. Pause a second and try to think​

Not a popular opinion, but I think we're screwed. Even moreso because nobody seems to be aware or even care about AI alignment, nor realize how difficult this task really is. Hey, I'm a pretty optimistic person and I hate victim mentality, I think conspiracies are dumb and an excuse to not take action, but this sh*t is serious.

I'm trying to raise awareness about this, but it's like nobody "gets it", as evidenced in threads like this. If you were told that an incredibly powerful alien civilization was going to land on earth for 2 years, you'd be like "damn we should be prepared!". This doesn't look like it at all. Why? Because we don't see it. It's "something on the internet".

It looks more like we're winging it, to be honest. Listening to Lex Fridman with Sam Altman podcast was disappointing really. Is this the level of conversation that's happening between the most brilliant minds? To me, everything sounds so pretentious and surface level... and irresponsible. You can't bet the future of humanity on some vague intuition I'm not being arrogant, there are many people way more intelligent than me, but they aren't necessarily in the mainstream media or academia.

I recommend you guys listen to Eliezer Yudkowsky interview with Fridman. That's what a smart dude that has been deeply thinking about this issue for years sounds like.

All of this talk about ai being "just a tool" that "helps humans do certain tasks better" is nonsense. GPT4 outperforms most humans in standardized tests, and it's already showing signs of proto AGI (being able to self-improve, performing tasks that it wasn't trained for). And this is only the GPT4.

I don't even want to know what GPT5 will look like. This is progressing geometrically. Make the math. And it will be no time until open-sourced gpt-4 like are available to a mass audience, meaning, someone with bad intentions or no concern about safety can get access to the source code of something capable of creating human-like content...

It's funny how people get triggered about stuff like covid, and gender pronouns (be it one side of the political spectrum or another). But this? Something that poses the threat of extinction of the human race? Something 100000 times worse?

Nah dude. I guess it will sort itself out. These guys know what they're doing... They are famous authorities and I see them on tv, so they can't be deranged psychopaths or clueless about what they are talking about.

Guys, I don't care that you don't care. Neither does AI care. I know you want to keep going on with your life.

Me too. I'm horrified about living in this era. This isn't exciting to me. I want to live a normal life, be able to make money, date, and make friends like a normal person. And I'm hurt by the apathy of the general public.

I really want to think it's just a lack of awareness, and once people have the "aha!" moment they will care. And that's why I'm writing this

And this is not only about job loss, drastic social change that we aren't prepared for, general chaos (misinformation, cyber attacks), bias or an increase in the wealth gap. No.

I know this sounds out there, but hear me out. We're summoning an outer dimensional being that not even the best minds that are working on it right now understand. We don't know what's inside the box! This is basically an alien that "thinks" in nonhuman ways that produces a convincingly human output. So we think it "cares".

Nope. It was trained to behave that way.

Think of it like this:

-Does it make sense to deploy a dangerous technology, that could potentially cause great harm to sentient life, before being 100% sure it will work out the first time? No.
So why are we doing that with something more dangerous than nuclear weapons?

-Intelligence was what allowed us to conquer other species, even make them extinct. Technological advancement is what made a few European invaders annihilate an entire civilization in America.

-Do you think controlling an entity potentially thousands of times smarter than us such that it aligns with human values is an easy task? Do you think corporations and politicians monopolizing AI is the biggest threat?

-Do you really think a superintelligent being is NOT going to find a way to k*ll us all very, very fast if we in some way are an obstacle to its goal (it doesn't even have to be a particularly "evil" AI, as exemplified in the paperclip maximizer metaphor)?

This isn't a conspiracy theory. This is something experts in the field think is a very legitimate risk.

So the most probably fastlane action you can take, if you care about your children living a normal life on earth (heck, just living at all) is to raise awareness among your friends and family about this so we can raise consensus about this. This is the most important problem we've ever faced.

We need to stop this madness. How? By shutting it down indefinitely


Please, I beg you. Don't bury your head in the sand. NOBODY wins if we keep going on with this. Not even big pharma, big corporations, politicians, the elite or whatever conspiracy you believe in. It isn't a matter of politics. It's f*cking common sense. Children that did nothing wrong are going to suffer.

Just so I can get to you, Fastlane nerds. If there's one DARE event, this is it!!!

One action that has disproportionately asymmetric returns, that erases anything good that humanity did before. All of that sacrifice by previous generations, made futile. Just so we could voluntarily create a technology that can k*ll us all.

But hey! We can laugh at the absurdity of being able to make a machine talk in the King James Bible style about removing a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR. How fun!

So an action with asymmetric positive returns is to take measures to prevent this. Share the article above with your friends. Let's install the idea that AI sucks, specially if we rush towards it like morons.

Fearmongering nonsense.

A, GPT-4 isn't nearly as good as the media hype makes it out to be. It's a cool, effective, useful tool, but it's not replacing anybody yet. If it's passing standardized tests, it's because those tests were never particularly effective at what they were supposed to be doing.

B, what exactly are you concerned this thing is going to do to you? Even the stupid paperclip thing requires the fantasy that not only can you be magically converted into paperclip materials, but also that something powered by coal and confined to a hard drive can physically force you into the magic paperclip material conversion machine.

Realistically? Eventually, AI will obsolete some jobs. Just like you don't see a lot of travel agents around anymore. Where'd they all go? Are they paperclips now, or did they just find different jobs? So there'll be some economic readjustment, but that's what always happens when things change.

Finally, there is absolutely no way to put the genie back into the bottle. Technology marches in one direction, relentlessly, and no amount of big forum text is going to change that. Demanding that everyone acknowledge your opinions and then jam their heads in the sand about the reality of the world isn't going to help anyone.

 

[Andy Black]

People's biggest concerns now are disinformation, propaganda etc but what I am witnessing in the real world is a complete retreat from social media. As the internet becomes swarmed with more bots/generated content people will increasingly just delete apps and zone out.

As someone who follows geopolitics closely, I used to intently follow breaking developments on twitter. I have actually returned to watching my nations once daily news broadcast on T.V. It's much simpler than wadding through a whole days bullshit of a developing story then realizing half the information was false to begin with. The turning point was reached for me during the Israel-Gaza conflict. It's probably the first time too that we actively see facebook/instagram trying to tune out news related content as its too contentious.

I'm curious if people are turning back to national news stations after tiring of all the click-bait on social media platforms.

And I'd love to know what content will do well in future on social media platforms when its flooded with AI produced content. Will it be content that can't be faked? What will that be?

It was interesting listening to Perry Marshall's thoughts on AI in the podcast:

Perpetual Traffic - AI: The Future Is More Predictable Than You Think with Perry Marshall

What if you could peek into the future and see how technology will shape the world of marketing? What if you could learn the secrets of how to thrive in an AI-driven world? That’s what Perry Marshall, the marketing genius and author of 80/20 Sales and Marketing, offers in this episode of the...

podcasts.google.com

He discussed how the internet killed travel agents off as we knew them, but it didn't stop people travelling. Now the travel agents are higher ticket creating bespoke trips for wealthier clientele.

Perry brought up the Lindy Effect and challenged us to think what would stay the same based on how long its already been around. For instance, Google Ads might change but people will always need to find local services and local services will always need to find more clients. Those needs are thousands of years old so will likely last thousands more years.

It might be hard to predict the future of technology, but predicting human behaviour should still be relatively easy. Most people want an easy life. Most people will gnash their teeth and complain about your lot instead of doing something about it.

 

[Rahul veerwal]

Hello, I am interested in hearing your thoughts on upcoming AI tools. Initially, they were incredible, but now they are causing anxiety. Do you share this feeling, or am I alone in this? The ongoing bettle between Altman and Musk regarding AI, as well as the six-month pause on all AI Labs, have added to my concerns. Furthermore, it appears that some jobs, such as content writing, coding, and graphic design, are already being taken over by AI to some extent. All of this is quite alarming.

 

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[Matt Lee]

It's better to keep your eyes on the prize or else you'll be swept away by the noise. I'm not sure what you do or what business you're into but I'm sure AI can help you with your process(es). What once needed 10 people to do, you can do by yourself with a few input prompts on chat GPT.

If you're worried, think about a minute spent worrying about this so-called "AI anxiety" is another minute you lose. Seriously. Someone out there is busy learning, exploiting, and profiting off AI.

Why not you?

As with any other gold rush and depression, there will be people who win and those who will lose. But then the losers will lose regardless if there is a gold rush or depression.

A person who has the mindset of a loser will always lose even if circumstances are in his favor. Look at all those who win lotteries and go broke soon after. They'll always find a way to mess it up, self-sabotage, or be stifled.

Losers focus on what winners are doing and things they can't control. Winners just keep on winning and forget about the rest. Locus of control. Strong sense of purpose. Everything that is not moving you forward is NOISE.

There are different ways to call it but it's all the same thing.

I remember watching Ironman as a kid and was baffled by his AI assistance. We now have access to the very same AI assistance except it's just not as developed as the one in the movie. But it gets the job done.

 

[James Klymus]

Hello, I am interested in hearing your thoughts on upcoming AI tools. Initially, they were incredible, but now they are causing anxiety. Do you share this feeling, or am I alone in this? The ongoing bettle between Altman and Musk regarding AI, as well as the six-month pause on all AI Labs, have added to my concerns. Furthermore, it appears that some jobs, such as content writing, coding, and graphic design, are already being taken over by AI to some extent. All of this is quite alarming.

Stay off the internet. Seriously. Reading and watching all of this content about how AI will end the world is not productive to your career goals OR mental health.

We humans gravitate to shocking things, especially when they’re negative. We now live in a world where everyone is fighting for your attention, and in order to win you have to make content more and more shocking.

Quit consuming this stuff, it’s doing you no good. Stay off of YouTube, instagram, TikTok and news sites.

And if you don’t want to listen to this advice, do this instead. If AI interests you so much, Do ALL the research you possibly can on AI and start a YouTube channel/social media account talking about AI. If it interests you, it sure as hell will interest others. At least you will have shifted from consumer to producer.

 

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[amp0193]

If one person with certain degree of power and influence starts to believe that AI is the #1 threat we have as a species (not just unemployment or misinformation, but actual existential risk) I'm happy.

Musk has been sounding the alarm of AI risks for a decade, and the powers that be are too dense to take any action. No one here at TFLF is going to touch that influence.

Unfortunately, I think cat's out of the bag and we're all just along for the ride, wherever it takes us.

For better or worse, the dams of restraint burst when the OpenAI board caved and put Altman back in the hot seat. Human greed will continue to overpower caution.

In the mean-time I'll just use the tools as they come out to improve the net income of my business and watch in amazement at the changes coming down the pipeline.

 

[JordanK]

There is an interesting trend I have observed over the last 10 years with our current technology that I believe will be very telling with A.I too.

So many of the early innovations that the internet brought forward are being reversed or changed.

Streaming sites destroyed cable/movie rental but now you have to be signed up to 10 different apps with different charges and they are going to show advertisements. Seems regressive.

Social media allowed anyone to create content and is eating away massively at TV audiences but now social media is just becoming TV on a device. Most ordinary people are retreating from posting content and just consuming.

Social media allowed anyone massive reach bypassing TV producers. Social media reach is increasingly algorithmic. Try growing an organic audience on facebook, instagram, x, youtube. Not impossible but definitely harder compared to a few years ago. There are gatekeepers and allowed opinions.

I have many more examples these are just the most obvious.

---

I believe that the new content generation abilities of A.I will completely destroy/end social media and online news.

People's biggest concerns now are disinformation, propaganda etc but what I am witnessing in the real world is a complete retreat from social media. As the internet becomes swarmed with more bots/generated content people will increasingly just delete apps and zone out.

As someone who follows geopolitics closely, I used to intently follow breaking developments on twitter. I have actually returned to watching my nations once daily news broadcast on T.V. It's much simpler than wadding through a whole days bullshit of a developing story then realizing half the information was false to begin with. The turning point was reached for me during the Israel-Gaza conflict. It's probably the first time too that we actively see facebook/instagram trying to tune out news related content as its too contentious.

An interesting discussion for sure.

 

[Jon822]

Our current iteration of AI is not even close to the AI portrayed in movies. As remarkable as they are, you can easily identify weaknesses. For example, ChatGPT would play chess by writing out the moves and in some cases, it would take its own pieces. The point is that each AI is only really good at one particular task - it doesn't actually "learn" anything like humans do.

As far as AI in business is concerned, it's going to create more opportunities in some areas and lower the entry barrier (and, therefore, the potential reward) in others.

 

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[AnNvr]

As already highlighted, I agree that the current AI is just a tool, perhaps in a primitive stage of development. Also, I thing is good to boost generic research and provide massive distraction, enhancing ADHD among the new generations.

No doubt it will get better, and it will wipe a few "rinse and repeat" jobs (those who point coding as one of those they either never code in their life or have no clue what developing is about), but it won't happen any time soon.

This FUD of programming being taken over by the current AI is speculative. I tested both ChatGPT4 and Bard to elaborate code snippets providing parameters of the projects i was working for, just to skip some old fashion Stack overflow research. The code provided by AI was beautifully wrong. It lacks of in-depth analysis of the context to create and debug, and most likely won't fill this gap at any time soon.

The jobs really threatened on the front line I think will be cashier, fast food workers, hotel front desk operators, most of the retail, tourism and hospitality operators. And to be fully honest, I hope for these people it will happen soon. Are detrimental jobs that brings nothing but stress, unhappiness, low income and no prospectives. Better set them free.

 

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[srodrigo]

As the demand of that job is one level above the complexity of a classical factory worker a few dozens years back. You're not creating anything, you're merely transforming what someone else has defined for you already, in a coherent shape and form.

That sounds like a Junior programmer. An experienced one will help defining those requirements in a way that fit, and coming up with solutions to complex problems that AI won't be able to in who knows how long. Nothing to do with following a recipe to make Bolognese. Easy to probe: get a stakeholder and a team of graduates. Good luck getting anything done past a trivial application. Try to get AI to build something as complex as Facebook, or Hadron Collider software, or a ton of other projects that are not the next door butcher's website.

I doubt experienced developers are going to be replaced any time soon. AI will speed development up, reducing the need for some "workforce". But making good developers obsolete is something none of us will see. And if we do see it because AI gets that smart, brace for being physically eliminated by AI as well (that wouldn't even need AI to be too smart anyway).

 

[Hong_Kong]

Altman and Musk regarding AI, as well as the six-month pause on all AI Labs

I'm in this industry. The pause is less about concerns with AI, and more about Musk trying to play catch up with some competitors. Some of their assumptions haven't worked out that great (such as the fact that language models don't present a realistic path towards generalized AI).

The industry is great right now if you know what you're doing.

Focus less on ChatGPT and more on actually solving real world problems, there are tons out there.

 

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[Gabo96]

Yes. AI is F*cking scary. Pause a second and try to think​

Not a popular opinion, but I think we're screwed. Even moreso because nobody seems to be aware or even care about AI alignment, nor realize how difficult this task really is. Hey, I'm a pretty optimistic person and I hate victim mentality, I think conspiracies are dumb and an excuse to not take action, but this sh*t is serious.

I'm trying to raise awareness about this, but it's like nobody "gets it", as evidenced in threads like this. If you were told that an incredibly powerful alien civilization was going to land on earth for 2 years, you'd be like "damn we should be prepared!". This doesn't look like it at all. Why? Because we don't see it. It's "something on the internet".

It looks more like we're winging it, to be honest. Listening to Lex Fridman with Sam Altman podcast was disappointing really. Is this the level of conversation that's happening between the most brilliant minds? To me, everything sounds so pretentious and surface level... and irresponsible. You can't bet the future of humanity on some vague intuition I'm not being arrogant, there are many people way more intelligent than me, but they aren't necessarily in the mainstream media or academia.

I recommend you guys listen to Eliezer Yudkowsky interview with Fridman. That's what a smart dude that has been deeply thinking about this issue for years sounds like.

All of this talk about ai being "just a tool" that "helps humans do certain tasks better" is nonsense. GPT4 outperforms most humans in standardized tests, and it's already showing signs of proto AGI (being able to self-improve, performing tasks that it wasn't trained for). And this is only the GPT4.

I don't even want to know what GPT5 will look like. This is progressing geometrically. Make the math. And it will be no time until open-sourced gpt-4 like are available to a mass audience, meaning, someone with bad intentions or no concern about safety can get access to the source code of something capable of creating human-like content...

It's funny how people get triggered about stuff like covid, and gender pronouns (be it one side of the political spectrum or another). But this? Something that poses the threat of extinction of the human race? Something 100000 times worse?

Nah dude. I guess it will sort itself out. These guys know what they're doing... They are famous authorities and I see them on tv, so they can't be deranged psychopaths or clueless about what they are talking about.

Guys, I don't care that you don't care. Neither does AI care. I know you want to keep going on with your life.

Me too. I'm horrified about living in this era. This isn't exciting to me. I want to live a normal life, be able to make money, date, and make friends like a normal person. And I'm hurt by the apathy of the general public.

I really want to think it's just a lack of awareness, and once people have the "aha!" moment they will care. And that's why I'm writing this

And this is not only about job loss, drastic social change that we aren't prepared for, general chaos (misinformation, cyber attacks), bias or an increase in the wealth gap. No.

I know this sounds out there, but hear me out. We're summoning an outer dimensional being that not even the best minds that are working on it right now understand. We don't know what's inside the box! This is basically an alien that "thinks" in nonhuman ways that produces a convincingly human output. So we think it "cares".

Nope. It was trained to behave that way.

Think of it like this:

-Does it make sense to deploy a dangerous technology, that could potentially cause great harm to sentient life, before being 100% sure it will work out the first time? No.
So why are we doing that with something more dangerous than nuclear weapons?

-Intelligence was what allowed us to conquer other species, even make them extinct. Technological advancement is what made a few European invaders annihilate an entire civilization in America.

-Do you think controlling an entity potentially thousands of times smarter than us such that it aligns with human values is an easy task? Do you think corporations and politicians monopolizing AI is the biggest threat?

-Do you really think a superintelligent being is NOT going to find a way to k*ll us all very, very fast if we in some way are an obstacle to its goal (it doesn't even have to be a particularly "evil" AI, as exemplified in the paperclip maximizer metaphor)?

This isn't a conspiracy theory. This is something experts in the field think is a very legitimate risk.

So the most probably fastlane action you can take, if you care about your children living a normal life on earth (heck, just living at all) is to raise awareness among your friends and family about this so we can raise consensus about this. This is the most important problem we've ever faced.

We need to stop this madness. How? By shutting it down indefinitely


Please, I beg you. Don't bury your head in the sand. NOBODY wins if we keep going on with this. Not even big pharma, big corporations, politicians, the elite or whatever conspiracy you believe in. It isn't a matter of politics. It's f*cking common sense. Children that did nothing wrong are going to suffer.

Just so I can get to you, Fastlane nerds. If there's one DARE event, this is it!!!

One action that has disproportionately asymmetric returns, that erases anything good that humanity did before. All of that sacrifice by previous generations, made futile. Just so we could voluntarily create a technology that can k*ll us all.

But hey! We can laugh at the absurdity of being able to make a machine talk in the King James Bible style about removing a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR. How fun!

So an action with asymmetric positive returns is to take measures to prevent this. Share the article above with your friends. Let's install the idea that AI sucks, specially if we rush towards it like morons.

 

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[Kevin88660]

Musk has been sounding the alarm of AI risks for a decade, and the powers that be are too dense to take any action. No one here at TFLF is going to touch that influence.

Unfortunately, I think cat's out of the bag and we're all just along for the ride, wherever it takes us.

For better or worse, the dams of restraint burst when the OpenAI board caved and put Altman back in the hot seat. Human greed will continue to overpower caution.

In the mean-time I'll just use the tools as they come out to improve the net income of my business and watch in amazement at the changes coming down the pipeline.

Musk has been doing a lot of psyops too.

He was asking open ai to accelerate their progress before 2018 while he was still part of it. Then he quit after a power struggle and then began to warn about the risk of ai so that his own competitor project could have time running to catch up with open ai.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Adapt or get left behind. It's coming either way.

Doesn't matter what our views are on it. What will happen, will happen.

We can use it for good or use it for evil. It can replace jobs. Mine is being replaced in two years time. Where 75% of the issues will be solved in under 10 mins of an SLA.

 

[srodrigo]

I just installed GitHub Copilot again today, to give it a fair try (paying for 1 month should make me take it more serious than during the free trial last year). So far, so good; programmers' job security I mean, because if this is the state-of-art AI for coding, jobs are not going anywhere.

The good part is I only paid $10, so if it continues being close to useless, at least I won't feel like I've been ripped off.

 

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[srodrigo]

I'm not allowed to use it at work due to security reasons (it has to send your code currently to gpt servers is my understanding).

But I got it for my own development and I won't go back. I don't think it replaces devs but makes me easily twice as productive when I am in the zone but I have to wade through a lot of junk it suggests and it fails on some contextual things only humans can really weigh in (bigger picture goals you are trying to do with the code, design decisions, code style stuff, etc.).

I actually think its not really going to help junior/mid levels that much - it will hurt them long run if they use it wrong (spoon feeding vs learning why). Seniors + Principal engineers definitely can crank out what they already know how to do quicker though and also gives you an unembarassing way to bounce ideas off yourself where as before you'd have to bug your coworker.

I guess everyone's brain works in a different way. It's cool that you found Copilot useful.

I find it useful to type less, but for any mildly complex thing, it just gets in my way. For example, say you want to build a feature that has frontend and backend. You need to build the frontend in baby steps until you make some API call. Then same with the backend, starting with the API and ending in the DB. But Copilot sucks at this, you need to guide it... at which point it just breaks my flow and I'd rather just do it as usual because it's faster for me to do it than to explain and nitpick lines of code. The amount of explanation needed for it to give you an example that doesn't fit at all is just too much work and distraction. And it's okay at creating small pieces of code, but at that point it's become more of a better auto-completion tool than something mind-blowing. I'll keep trying to use it though, maybe I'll report back that it's great in a few weeks.

I think Juniors are going to have a hard time in general. The market is horrible even for seniors, let alone people with little experience. And I don't think it's going to get much better in the long-term.

I do think that there'll be an "AI fixer" role soon after people who have no clue about what they are doing start cranking out crap made by AI that barely holds together.

From what I’ve heard, it’s ok writing bits of code, for example the odd function, but you still need a programmer to check it and put it all together.

Unless you’re being paid to write “hello world”, programmers are going to be around for a while

That's my same thought. I see some people on Twitter over-exaggerating about Copilot, and I can only thing most of them are writing trivial apps. Even a CRUD feature is a struggle to build with this tool.

 

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[Kevin88660]

Hello, I am interested in hearing your thoughts on upcoming AI tools. Initially, they were incredible, but now they are causing anxiety. Do you share this feeling, or am I alone in this? The ongoing bettle between Altman and Musk regarding AI, as well as the six-month pause on all AI Labs, have added to my concerns. Furthermore, it appears that some jobs, such as content writing, coding, and graphic design, are already being taken over by AI to some extent. All of this is quite alarming.

A general guide towards technology is we tend to overestimate what happens in two years and underestimate what happens in ten years.