Aviator, I am now curious, what do you do, or did you do for a living? It is funny just how much you *hate* AI, and those that work on it. First because AI is too ineffective, now it seems because it is all too effective. I wonder why?

But anyway, I think part of your attack on the "tech bro" crowd has merit.

None that I have ever met "come to work with the notion of ending someone's job. Indeed there is a very myopic "we are all making the world a better place" kind of vibe in most places. I am not trying to defend that as representing truth. the truth is most got into the fields because it seems COOL. Some also did so for money. But the ones who are really moving the field forward (and thus making large differences in businesses are PhD types that generally did not choose the path for money. There are much more certain ways of making money than this!

Still now that they are there, I agree there is not much real honest thought as to the social consequences.

I think the picture is complex. At the turn of the last century 85%+ percent of the population were farmers. This is now down to 3%. All technology, not just AI, tends to destroy jobs. Proponents will say, it replaces them with BETTER jobs. I doubt you feel that way. But I suspect you also are happy that you didn't need to spend your life being a subsistence farmer. I find the whole thing too complicated to have a simple opinion about. I think modernity has taken something away from being human... AI is definitely part of that story, but not even the main actor. And I cannot personally decide if it has given more than it has taken.

as far as being the destroyer of worlds. really maybe so. but I am definitely in the minority in seeing that as a real possibility.

(This has been a ridiculous reply to reply to reply :-)