The Ai thread

I'll just say that I'm getting to a point later in life where I'm thankful for growing up in the era I did (isn't that what everyone from every generation says?) because this push for AI by every tech company and every tech billionaire is sickening to me. I think there is a place for it, especially in the office and some tech environments but for regular people it's a loss of humanity on all fronts. Human growth will be stunted both mentally and physically when you have AI doing literally everything for you.
 
I'll just say that I'm getting to a point later in life where I'm thankful for growing up in the era I did (isn't that what everyone from every generation says?) because this push for AI by every tech company and every tech billionaire is sickening to me. I think there is a place for it, especially in the office and some tech environments but for regular people it's a loss of humanity on all fronts. Human growth will be stunted both mentally and physically when you have AI doing literally everything for you.

I mean, I'm also thinking the luddites had a point. Technology should be there to enrich us, not to attack the very things we want to do as humans when we have enough time to do more than subsist (create culture). We make music, art, stories when we have spare time. We build communities. Yet because we've commodified culture, it's one of the first things on the block.

Your post immediately put Wall-E back in my head. Especially the shot that showed all the Axiom's captains in a row. How the captains became ever more sedentary, while Auto loomed larger in each frame as it took over more of the actual job and thinking.
 
I mean, I'm also thinking the luddites had a point. Technology should be there to enrich us, not to attack the very things we want to do as humans when we have enough time to do more than subsist (create culture). We make music, art, stories when we have spare time. We build communities. Yet because we've commodified culture, it's one of the first things on the block.

Your post immediately put Wall-E back in my head. Especially the shot that showed all the Axiom's captains in a row. How the captains became ever more sedentary, while Auto loomed larger in each frame as it took over more of the actual job and thinking.
I’ve always liked that Wall-E is extremely optimistic in the end montage/credits where it’s implied they learn to live with robots without wholly depending on them to do the thinking/labor. Though they don’t explicitly say how, we see human and robots working together rather than robots merely being slaves who in turn control their masters (even if most of the work shown is supporting human needs). Of course what is pretty explicit throughout the movie is that the robots are in fact sentient and by the end have achieved autonomy (despite what the name robot means). So we’re left to infer that humans not being dependent on them goes hand-in-hand with respect for their rights.

Of course the “AI” systems we’re currently building aren’t that and are extremely unlikely to be so despite breathless insistence to the contrary by certain people (especially AI CEOs). So sadly that ending doesn’t apply here.
 
Butlerian Jihad

As mankind spread throughout the known universe, technology advanced and eventually machines were made that would make decisions for people. This propelled the creators of these machines into a new technocratic class, effectively controlling the worlds of the common people.

Mankind eventually rebelled against these machines and their creators in a nigh-religious war that sought to retake the thinking soul of mankind from the gods of machine logic. After two generations of violence, humanity took pause. Following this, their gods and rituals were looked upon in a different, perhaps even jaded, light. Both were largely seen to be guilty of using fear as a means of control.

Herbert has been gone for nearly four decades, but his vision looks spot-on.
 


As a former scientist this makes me so angry (not at arxiv or biorxiv). Original research can still be submitted for preprint but I worry and this is still a loss for the science community.
 


As a former scientist this makes me so angry (not at arxiv or biorxiv). Original research can still be submitted for preprint but I worry and this is still a loss for the science community.

Who would've imagined that we would live in a world where you have to prove you are a human being to other human beings.

I have a friend who has been at a company for several years and after a re-org he had to interview with an AI bot in order to keep his job. We are our own worst enemies.
 
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OpenAI wants to come to Canada to pay less for electricity and water for its data centres 😡
This morning I received an email from our Energy company asking us to consume less energy and we could get one rebate of 100$ (it doubled from last year)
...so we could give it to AI?! In the past I did all what I could to consume less for the world , besides having to deal with my family not helping too much. Young and older members were very forgetful ..🙄
Not going to do any extra effort now. I will do my best but for spending less, not for Sam Altman !
 
OpenAI wants to come to Canada to pay less for electricity and water for its data centres 😡
This morning I received an email from our Energy company asking us to consume less energy and we could get one rebate of 100$ (it doubled from last year)
...so we could give it to AI?! In the past I did all what I could to consume less for the world , besides having to deal with my family not helping too much. Young and older members were very forgetful ..🙄
Not going to do any extra effort now. I will do my best but for spending less, not for Sam Altman !
It starts at the top, we have the same thing with PGE in California. The same elected officials approved millions in rate hikes, several every year for bullshit like this.

It’ll keep happening until the people do something about it.
 
we have the same thing with PGE in California

PGE is not in California. We used to use that as a shibboleth to spot immigrants (mostly news reporters) from there. PGE is Portland General Electric – the one in California is PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric).
 
PGE is not in California. We used to use that as a shibboleth to spot immigrants (mostly news reporters) from there. PGE is Portland General Electric – the one in California is PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric).
Yes, it is also in California and is the power company for millions here. Forgive my lack of an ampersand, you knew what I was talking about.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) provides natural gas and electric service to residential and business customers in northern and central California.
 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during an interview alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that the problem in the AI industry is not an excess supply of compute, but rather a lack of power to accommodate all those GPUs. In fact, Nadella said that the company currently has a problem of not having enough power to plug in some of the AI GPUs the firm has in inventory.

This has already caused consumer energy bills to skyrocket, showing how the AI infrastructure being built out is negatively affecting the average American.

Aside from the lack of power, they also discussed the possibility of more advanced consumer hardware hitting the market.

This highlights another risk that companies must bear as they bet billions of dollars on massive AI data centers. While you would still need the infrastructure to train new models, the data center demand that many estimate will come from the widespread use of AI might not materialize if semiconductor advancements enable us to run them locally.

This could hasten the popping of the AI bubble, which some experts like Pat Gelsinger say is still several years away. But if and when that happens, we will be in for a shock as even non-tech companies would be hit by this collapse, exposing nearly $20 trillion in market cap.

That’ll be a rough ride …
 
OpenAI wants to come to Canada to pay less for electricity and water for its data centres 😡
This morning I received an email from our Energy company asking us to consume less energy and we could get one rebate of 100$ (it doubled from last year)
...so we could give it to AI?! In the past I did all what I could to consume less for the world , besides having to deal with my family not helping too much. Young and older members were very forgetful ..🙄
Not going to do any extra effort now. I will do my best but for spending less, not for Sam Altman !
BC's looking at making changes so AI and similar industries would have to bid for power (last in line).

New Power Rules for AI
 
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