Mojo Request I'm not trying to depress you, it's just that if you're still thinking of AI as "glorified Google search", then you're really not keeping up with this

[smurfco]

I use ChatGPT Professional 5.4 for a lot of my work (with the encouragement of our company) and it has gotten frighteningly good. It doesn't hallucinate nearly as much, it has gotten better at "thinking like a human" and getting me what I need on the first or second try. Each new version they've released has been noticeably better than the one before it. This thing can already do about 80% of my job as well or better than I can. I don't think it will be too long before that number is 100%.

And it's not just my job. It's most jobs.

The article linked below is very long, but I think it's smartly written and tracks very closely with my direct experience. In my opinion it's an essential read. It's written as if it's 2028, and looking back at the course of events over the three years leading up to it.

THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS

A Thought Exercise in Financial History, from the Future

www.citriniresearch.com

 

[smurfco]

This is another must-read IMO: https://shumer.dev/something-big-is-happening

 

[Peen Simmons]

I am super disinterested in AI. I tend to be a late-ish adopter of tech. For instance, I didn’t own a cell phone until 2011. I never really stopped buying physical media.

Also, doing “obsolete” and “unmarketable” things doesn’t freak me out. I have degrees in useless fields like English and History.

I don’t think that AI is “for” me. Generally, I’m not super into the things AI wants to prioritize. And now considering how much time I do at work sorting through people’s AI-generated dreck and making it actually understandable/actionable, I’m sure I’ll remain annoyed by it.

 

[sonik]

If your job can be done on a computer it will be "improved" and then replaced by ai. Not a matter of if, but when.

lurn 2 code weld

That is until the automatons come a callin.

 

[smurfco]

I am super disinterested in AI. I tend to be a late-ish adopter of tech. For instance, I didn’t own a cell phone until 2011. I never really stopped buying physical media.

Also, doing “obsolete” and “unmarketable” things doesn’t freak me out. I have degrees in useless fields like English and History.

I don’t think that AI is “for” me. Generally, I’m not super into the things AI wants to prioritize. And now considering how much time I do at work sorting through people’s AI-generated dreck and making it actually understandable/actionable, I’m sure I’ll remain annoyed by it.

Didja read 'em tho? One of the points they make, which is debatable, is it's quickly becoming "for" a lot more people, whether they want it to be or not...

 

[sonik]

I'm with peen regarding most tech. It's interesting and impressive on some level. But simultaneously rather meh.

While it was fun for a hot minute, I'm already incredibly bored by ai music and video.

There is always the occasional exception, but when the slop is like Niagara Falls it just becomes too tedious to look at.

 

[Peen Simmons]

Didja read 'em tho? One of the points they make, which is debatable, is it's quickly becoming "for" a lot more people, whether they want it to be or not...

Yeah, I read the second one. The first one seems like I need to focus more. But the general gist is reasonable/plausible.

And I have no doubt it’s going to become ubiquitous and unavoidable and generally make existing under capitalism more harrowing. And given that I just sort of tend towards adaptability, I’m sure I’ll learn to deal.

But I don’t like it and I find it boring and I’m sure I’ll be cranky because I firmly believe people probably need to think/discern more and “do” less—which is both a pretty countercultural stance and definitely a stance at odds with the logic of AI. So I’m gonna be pretty cranky well into my dotage thanks to these tech freaks. But nothing was likely gonna stop that.

AI can’t help me with what I’m most interested in which is keeping the old meat suit operational (beyond niche technical uses in the medical fields which I 100% support) and using my old boring analog brain to surprise me through sensory experience and personal creative endeavors for my own pleasure and sense of accomplishment. And yeah, small AI enabled utilities to spell check or whatever aren’t the devil. But I don’t want it writing my songs because that’s my job. And beyond that, it’s all community and interpersonal relationships and being in the world and taking pleasure in learning and changing and being.

 

[jrockbridge]

Data driven jobs are the most affected by AI. Customer Service jobs, including call centers, technical support, chat agents, etc, are being replaced by AI. Administrative Assistants, Scheduling Agents, Basic Bookkeepers, Payroll Clerks, Data Entry Specialists, and even Secretaries are slipping away to AI. Drivers are being replaced. Warehouse workers are being replaced. Dispatchers are being replaced. Factory workers, including Assembly Line Workers, Quality Control Specialists, Machine Operators, are being replaced. Cashier jobs have been affected as Self Checkout continues to increase. The Finance industry is being affected as Loan Processors and Underwriters are getting replaced by AI. In the computer field, Software Developers and Programmers are being replaced. In the legal professions, Paralegals, Legal Researchers, and Contract Analysts are getting replaced.

Doctors, Lawyers, Dentists, Nurses, Surgical Assistants, etc, are safe for now. Hands on jobs are still safe for the time being, Mechanics, Plumbers, Skilled Trades are safe for now. Fire Fighters, Police, Sheriff, Law Enforcement, Emergency Responders, Teachers, Therapists are safe for the time being.

Of course, AI will also create a lot of new jobs. It’s not all gloom and doom. But, the sky is falling.

 

[sonik]

The future is now luddites!

 

[smurfco]

I'm with peen regarding most tech. It's interesting and impressive on some level. But simultaneously rather meh.

While it was fun for a hot minute, I'm already incredibly bored by ai music and video.

There is always the occasional exception, but when the slop is like Niagara Falls it just becomes too tedious to look at.

I'm talking less about AI-generated "art" (slop, music, etc.) - which is still largely shit - and AI replacing non-manual work / labor, which it is becoming increasingly, frighteningly good at doing.

 

[smurfco]

From the second article:

"But I tried AI and it wasn't that good"
I hear this constantly. I understand it, because it used to be true.

If you tried ChatGPT in 2023 or early 2024 and thought "this makes stuff up" or "this isn't that impressive", you were right. Those early versions were genuinely limited. They hallucinated. They confidently said things that were nonsense.

That was two years ago. In AI time, that is ancient history.

The models available today are unrecognizable from what existed even six months ago. The debate about whether AI is "really getting better" or "hitting a wall" — which has been going on for over a year — is over. It's done. Anyone still making that argument either hasn't used the current models, has an incentive to downplay what's happening, or is evaluating based on an experience from 2024 that is no longer relevant. I don't say that to be dismissive. I say it because the gap between public perception and current reality is now enormous, and that gap is dangerous... because it's preventing people from preparing.

 

[shoeless]

I'm talking less about AI-generated "art" (slop, music, etc.) - which is still largely shit - and AI replacing non-manual work / labor, which it is becoming increasingly, frighteningly good at doing.

It is, no doubt. I see both positives and negatives associated with the AI advancement. But I guess that's pretty much the case with any major tech.

 

[Punchy]

Good thing I'm a state worker. . . I'll likely be retired by the time anything gets disrupted here. Hell, our guvnor is still trying to force people back to the office rather than telework, even if the job is 100% remote capable.

 

[shoeless]

Good thing I'm a state worker. . . I'll likely be retired by the time anything gets disrupted here. Hell, our guvnor is still trying to force people back to the office rather than telework, even if the job is 100% remote capable.

I'm in a similar boat, but not a gov't worker. We were forced back into the office pretty much immediately after COVID ramped down 5 years ago. I'm a couple of years away from retiring as well. If I were a parent of a high school kid, I'm not sure what career advice I'd give them.

 

[Punchy]

I'm in a similar boat, but not a gov't worker. We were forced back into the office pretty much immediately after COVID ramped down 5 years ago. I'm a couple of years away from retiring as well. If I were a parent of a high school kid, I'm not sure what career advice I'd give them.

One of our kids is really into animals, and any time we go to the aquarium or zoo or whatever they think it'd be cool to work there. I tell them they better have a skill other than just a degree in biology (welding, plumbing, electrical) because that's going to be much more marketable to a place like that. Or a research vessel. . . everybody on those boats are engineers plus whatever their degree specialty is.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

Yea it sucks and I'm not gonna read the articles, sry.
Thankfully I'm old and out of the work force and not long for this world anyway so like Peen I can hopefully just ignore it for the most part.
It's not gonna take my job cause I ain't got one, and I'm too proud to let it write songs for me even if I suck at it.
I do feel sorry for those who are gonna be out of work and have to live in a tent and eat bugs in the approaching nightmare, heck we're practically there already.

 

[Chicken Man]

All the AI companies are still burning investor money. Once they have to be profitable, the product will just barely make financial sense to use, just like everything else in the tech sector. Remember when using Uber was a revelation? Remember when Door Dashing didn't require Klarna payments? Remember when Facebook was a useful way to stay in contact with far off loved ones?

 

[jp_nyc]

Doctors, Lawyers, Dentists, Nurses, Surgical Assistants, etc, are safe for now.

Young lawyers are fucked in the very near future. My husband tried the latest version of legal brief writing tools and it can bang out a rough draft of a legal brief in minutes. Not good enough to use, but on par with what a young lawyer would write before a senior lawyer would clean it up. AI is also starting to be useful for searching, sorting, and processing documents. And the research AI (I think Westlaw makes the good one) is getting much better at delivering correct answers and not hallucinating. It’s just like what’s happening with vibe coding replacing teams of junior and mid level programmers.

 

[smurfco]

Young lawyers are fucked in the very near future. My husband tried the latest version of legal brief writing tools and it can bang out a rough draft of a legal brief in minutes. Not good enough to use, but on par with what a young lawyer would write before a senior lawyer would clean it up. AI is also starting to be useful for searching, sorting, and processing documents. And the research AI (I think Westlaw makes the good one) is getting much better at delivering correct answers and not hallucinating. It’s just like what’s happening with vibe coding replacing teams of junior and mid level programmers.

Yeah - and "vibe coding" is now more like coding-coding - the guy in the second article talks about how good GPT is at not only creating an app, but doing it the way an actual trained and educated professional coder would do and basically doing what would have been a weeks-long project for him in a couple of days - and as well as he would have done it himself. I think that we're very close, if not already, to the point where it just doesn't make sense to go to school for computer programming anymore. The AI already has us beat, and it's just going to keep improving itself.

 

[smurfco]

All the AI companies are still burning investor money. Once they have to be profitable, the product will just barely make financial sense to use, just like everything else in the tech sector. Remember when using Uber was a revelation? Remember when Door Dashing didn't require Klarna payments? Remember when Facebook was a useful way to stay in contact with far off loved ones?

I hope this is the case, and I hope I'm not coming off as an AI cheerleader here. I do appreciate the efficiency and drudgery-reduction it has brought to my job, but on the balance I'm very scared of the near-term implications of the speed at which this is improving combined with the hunger by companies to maximize profits. Why hire a team of coders when "AI can do it" for a fraction of the price - and unlike a year or two ago, AI actually can do it at least as good as that team of coders, if not better? "Well they can train for other jobs" - which ones? The number of industries this is going to impact beyond computer programming in the next few years is going to be very large...

It really sucks and I (and other friends of mine who are more tech-adjacent in their jobs than I am) are literally losing sleep over it. I get the comparison to earlier technologies / apps / platforms, but this seems inherently different to me at a very foundational level. I would love to be proven wrong...