The Ai thread

🤖 AI Thread Summary ▶ Generated 05 Jun 2026 · 50 posts

Summary: "The AI Thread"

Key Points & Conclusions

  • Historical precedent: Multiple members cited past technological disruptions (telegraph, printing press, steam engine, computers) where initial concerns proved manageable long-term
  • Job displacement concerns: Unemployment is identified as a major risk, particularly in banking, insurance, accounting, diagnostics, and creative fields like writing
  • Writer anxiety: The thread originated from concerns about writers during their strike regarding AI-generated content
  • Need for adaptation: New technologies typically create new opportunities, though skill transitions may not be easy for all workers
  • Wealth distribution challenge: One member emphasized that capitalism without regulation may struggle to manage AI's societal impact fairly
  • Data privacy issues: Extended discussion of tracking pixels, browser fingerprinting, and cross-platform data sharing by Meta and Google
  • Creative authenticity: Discussion of AI's impact on influencers, content creators, and the future ability to verify real vs. AI-generated content
  • Search market shift: Users migrating to DuckDuckGo in response to Google's mandatory AI search features
  • Security vulnerabilities: Reports of AI chatbots being exploited for unauthorized account access

Areas of Disagreement

No significant disagreements were identified. Members generally agreed that:

  • AI displacement concerns are legitimate but historically manageable
  • The real challenge is ensuring equitable distribution of benefits
  • Some members acknowledged potential job loss while maintaining optimism about long-term adaptation

The discussion remained largely collaborative, with members building on each other's points rather than debating fundamental positions.

destroy-exterminate-obey.jpg
 
Huntn said:
AI should be to improve our lives, not replace our livelihoods.


View attachment 38941
Click to expand...
There's a revolution coming. Governments seems incapable of expeditious action. Any government that attempts to thwart AI replacing jobs will only see those companies moving offshore to more hospitable bureaucracies. Capitalism has been inherently flawed....allowing a handful to attain untold wealth.

We've started to see the jobs being eliminated by AI. (IBM laid off about 8000 last year).

"So far this year, 49,135 layoffs have been attributed to AI", according to this article.

Capitalism (as it exists today) falls on its face when we no longer have enough people working to fund our governments and our economies. The US is already insolvent - owing far more than they can ever realistically repay....getting to the point that they won't be able to pay the interest on the debt.

The only way to keep this society spinning is to embrace Universal Basic Income and evolve our capitalism into something else. Reclaim the trillions held by a handful of people. Free education for everyone. Eradicate poverty and disease. Let's see how many Hawkings there are out there, when given the opportunity to learn.

We need a hybrid of capitalism that rewards people for their contributions to society. Maybe THAT should be the problem that we get AI to solve. In such a society, social workers and teachers would have a more lavish lifestyle than plastic surgeons that only perform liposuction and boob jobs.

Because we have seen all too well how deplorable the teeming masses can be....I suspect we're far more likely to end up in a "Mad Max" world than a Utopia where everyone gets to follow their dreams. Well, provided we don't nuke ourselves and cover the world in radioactive glass first (keep Donnie away from the football!!!)

Happy Monday! :D
 
One of my concerns with AI is it is going to create hivemind for solutions and marketing for "industry standard" software, tools, and hardware killing innovation and alternatives.

I might have already mentioned this, but studies have shown with Google's top AI response a lot of people aren't scrolling beyond that for the answer. A lot of times that could be good enough, but like I said, that can keep new or even better solutions from being found. It's all just based on current consensus. It probably couldn't be a better time in internet history to be the current industry standard.
 
I mean, an even bigger problem is that so-called AI can't even be relied upon to deliver correct "current consensus" answers, as in the story @KingOfPain linked about a kid dying after trusting ChatGPT's advice on what drugs and dosages it was safe to take together.

An even bigger problem than that is that there's no known path for further developing LLMs until they can reliably understand what facts are, because they don't understand what truth even is, and they have no cognition. They're just word arrangers, not intelligences. "Stochastic parrot" continues to be a generally accurate description of what they do, no matter how much it makes AI boosters whine.
 
Now from TechCrunch

“On Friday, OpenAI launched a new set of personal finance tools in preview for ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the U.S., letting them connect their accounts and ask questions ranging from spending analysis to future financial planning.

OpenAI has partnered with the financial connection service Plaid to manage the account connections. Users can connect to over 12,000 financial institutions, including Schwab, Fidelity, Chase, Robinhood, American Express, and Capital One. Once users connect these accounts, they will see a dashboard of their portfolio performance, spending, subscriptions, and upcoming payments.”

What we Really need or exactly what they really need
 
fischersd said:
There's a revolution coming. Governments seems incapable of expeditious action. Any government that attempts to thwart AI replacing jobs will only see those companies moving offshore to more hospitable bureaucracies. Capitalism has been inherently flawed....allowing a handful to attain untold wealth.

We've started to see the jobs being eliminated by AI. (IBM laid off about 8000 last year).

"So far this year, 49,135 layoffs have been attributed to AI", according to this article.

Capitalism (as it exists today) falls on its face when we no longer have enough people working to fund our governments and our economies. The US is already insolvent - owing far more than they can ever realistically repay....getting to the point that they won't be able to pay the interest on the debt.

The only way to keep this society spinning is to embrace Universal Basic Income and evolve our capitalism into something else. Reclaim the trillions held by a handful of people. Free education for everyone. Eradicate poverty and disease. Let's see how many Hawkings there are out there, when given the opportunity to learn.

We need a hybrid of capitalism that rewards people for their contributions to society. Maybe THAT should be the problem that we get AI to solve. In such a society, social workers and teachers would have a more lavish lifestyle than plastic surgeons that only perform liposuction and boob jobs.

Because we have seen all too well how deplorable the teeming masses can be....I suspect we're far more likely to end up in a "Mad Max" world than a Utopia where everyone gets to follow their dreams. Well, provided we don't nuke ourselves and cover the world in radioactive glass first (keep Donnie away from the football!!!)

Happy Monday! :D
Click to expand...
It’s a mindset of business, the “engines of $$$”, ultimately they know what’s best for us. This is a fallacy. We The Sheep, must stop being the sheep and take charge. The problem, we are not organized, nor on the same page, just a bunch of individuals maneuvering mostly for individual advantage. We think in small terms, not bigs one, we’re just too selfish to get 400m of us (US) on the same page.
 
We called the BMW dealership to make an appointment for an oil change and it was all automated, but obviously AI powered. We told it what we wanted and it asked us about scheduling, recommended a time and we said no and it asked when we wanted to do it, we responded and it gave us open times for that day and we confirmed, also got a text reminder. A different experience but wasn't bad. This surely killed someone's job though.
 
Katbel said:
Now from TechCrunch

“On Friday, OpenAI launched a new set of personal finance tools in preview for ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the U.S., letting them connect their accounts and ask questions ranging from spending analysis to future financial planning.

OpenAI has partnered with the financial connection service Plaid to manage the account connections. Users can connect to over 12,000 financial institutions, including Schwab, Fidelity, Chase, Robinhood, American Express, and Capital One. Once users connect these accounts, they will see a dashboard of their portfolio performance, spending, subscriptions, and upcoming payments.”

What we Really need or exactly what they really need
Click to expand...
Oh my! Yeah, that sounds like something I want ChatGPT to learn. Access to my finances.
 
rdrr said:
Since WebMD, my doctor has banned me from internet medical diagnosis. However… AI might be able to bring me back from the sure path of death WebMD put me on.
Click to expand...
I agree we shouldn't use it for diagnosis but it sure has gotten smarter and patients can now go to their doctors far more informed about their conditions. There's still no substitute for having a doctor physically check you out though.
 
Eric said:
I agree we shouldn't use it for diagnosis but it sure has gotten smarter and patients can now go to their doctors far more informed about their conditions. There's still no substitute for having a doctor physically check you out though.
Click to expand...
Hopefully your doctor will have accomplished their degree without cheating using AI
 
AI has some good qualities, I have a photo manipulation program that uses AI and it’s pretty spiffy. This helps me a “know nothing” fix up old family photos pretty easily. Including enlarging photos. So it has a role.

The issue here, is not whether it’s good or not, or it has potential to do great things. It’s how it’s being used by corporations to cut corners, disenfranchise workers, make $$$$, degrade the environment. And then there’s The Capitalist End Game. Further long term issues maybe forgetting how to do things and becoming reliant on technology to function in all manner if things, where average people don’t know how to stuff without it. 🤔
 

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