| Jaicee said: Matter-of-factly, I often struggle to think of good uses for this tech and it seems that I'm not alone in feeling that way, as Pew's latest survey on the subject of artificial intelligence found that just 17% of Americans believe that A.I. will have a net positive impact on American life over the next couple decades. I share this profound sense of optimism because I'm already seeing lots of A.I.'s ramifications right now. For example, I listen to a lot of music in the time I spend online if you haven't noticed, and YouTube every so often recommends me A.I.-generated tunes. They can best be described as lifeless, generic, and often comically error-prone garbage and as much should surprise no one. The defining quality of art, after all, is that it expresses someone's feelings about things and machines don't have feelings. A large percentage of the ads I see online nowadays are likewise clearly A.I.-generated in a way that causes me more than just the usual irritation of ads being there; it causes me pain to see them because they're so goddamn bizarre and creepy, like hideous, nonsensical mismatches between images and text. Normal ads are just a nuisance. A.I. ads give me the shivers. Machine logic fucking creeps me out! Those are just two of the benefits of this miraculous technology I get to experience every day of my life now and I wish it would just...go...away!! Far, far away. (Well okay, it can stay in video games, but you know what I mean.) But there are more benefits, even beyond these and deepfakes! Artificial intelligence also poses a serious risk to the future of entire careers ranging from those of factory workers and truck drivers (yep, self-driving trucks, they say, are the future) to, perhaps most distressingly, public-facing occupations like cashiering. I'm most concerned about the latter, tbh, because of what it represents in terms of further disconnecting human beings from other human beings. Speaking of, the technology is also currently being used by many a lonely man as an alternative to dating actual women. This way he needn't become more sociable or accommodating and instead learns to think of dating as a service to him and of women as basically machines who's task in life is to provide subservience and unconditional flattery and approval. Chatbot girlfriends aren't exactly improving the dating pool, in other words. Indeed A.I. chatbots have already begun accruing a human death toll, successfully convincing some people to take their own lives. And the algorithms behind them will only get more sophisticated. But am I just being a luddite here? Maybe the potential benefits outweigh the problems and I'm just not seeing it? Well until I see otherwise, I think this technology should very strictly controlled. |
Lately I've been thinking AI would be best if it was relegated to personal use, ban it for industrial uses.
I was always excited for AI growing up, thought it would be cool to have custom stuff being made that could be more personal.
But now I'm generally overall concerned.
But I do think there are some positive uses. Generating subtitles or even voices for content that will never get translated could be a really good accessibility feature.
Currently Online 
). That certainly includes me. Mocking and excoriating this administration's general policy direction and attitude is something I find easy and often fun and cathartic too. Thought I'd do something different for a change of pace here though because no, I don't actually disapprove of just everything that's being done in Washington right now, believe it or not. I supported the Laken Riley Act, for example, and was glad that it passed and that not every Democrat voted against it.
Yes, I've always been the optimist you see today. Also a long-time fan of a number of dystopian type shows ranging from Serial Experiments Lain way back in the day to the likes of The Handmaid's Tale, The Last of Us, and Squid Game today. Artificial intelligence has always been the stuff of cartoonish nightmare futures to me, so maybe I approach its advancement in the real world with some negative bias. Still though, my lived experience with it so far just...does nothing to make me more optimistic about it. I worry about things like excessive dependence on technology, widespread internet addiction (especially amongst younger people), and the growing atomization of life. There's much more than just recent advancements in A.I. to all that, obviously, but it's becoming an increasingly significant factor.
