General Discussion

harmful is obnoxious. Especially when they're posting on a message board for liberals and apparently deciding they can make a carveout for AI as something they don't need to apply liberal values to.

I'm doing what I can to make AI users here aware of the many reasons why they shouldn't use AI voluntarily. And some of them apparently don't care, which I find astonishing, disappointing - and, yes, obnoxious.

Posting AI slop here is a big FU to the people whose work was stolen to train the AI. That's obnoxious. I'd have a very hard time convincing any of the artists I know that the people posting AI slop of any type here care at all about the creatives whose work was stolen. And if there aren't continuing objections, it leaves the impression that other DUers are just as uncaring, just as unethical.

Which is a horrible look for what is supposed to be a liberal forum with liberal values.

You don't have any idea how much AI affects me personally. But I've warned about AI since ChatGPT was released since it was immediately obvious it was harmful. And as time went on, more and more news stories and studies backed that up. If anything, I underestimated how harmful it would be, and how fast it would wreak damage.

I don't have kids of my own, but I'm close to my siblings' kids, and my extended family includes two developers in their 40s, with 7 young children between them, and wives (two of one of my brothers' daughters) who have not worked for many years; they'll have a nearly impossible time keeping their houses if those jobs are wiped out. One of those devs told his teenaged son he'd better forget his dream of becoming a videographer, because AI would probably wipe out that profession, and I hated hearing about that. My young relatives who are in school and very aware of AI aren't sure how to make any plans. That's terrible for kids.

I have a cousin in his 50s who works for UPS. He has a disabled wife and daughter. UPS is laying off a lot of employees, in part because of AI. His sister had been planning to return to teaching after years of caregiving, after their mother died, but with what AI has done to teaching, she doesn't think she can do it. I think the older of the two lawyers in the family might be fine even if a lot of lawyers lose their jobs, but the younger one might not be. The relatives who own some successful appliance stores are well off but their stores might not be as more people lose their jobs and have less money for appliances.

A data center may be built soon beside a town where one of my brothers and some of his kids and grandkids live.

Generative AI is making the future much bleaker for most people, and that's because of AI robber barons who stole the world's intellectual property for their private profit, and who have marketed their AI tools to businesses as a way to lay off workers. Using the tech dumbs people down, and it produces inferior work including code with security risks.

It's hyped anyway. But it shouldn't be hyped here.