AI is stealing writers’ words and jobs…

[Bohandas]

I've always stood by that anything that requires a soul cannot be replicated through AI.

AI painters have no purpose in their strokes, since they don't even stroke a canvas. AI writers will throw concepts into their sentence soup but won't have any particular message in mind.

Sure, maybe company icons and trash films will be mass-produced with AI. But until AI has a new technique in its "creative" process, it will not be able to make anything we consider masterpieces.

The soul is an outmoded superstition

 

[Scribe]

The soul is an outmoded superstition

While I would agree in the strictest terms, that being I do not believe in a 'soul' I do believe that the conceit of consciousness, of emotion and a desire to communicate it in various forms and media, is something that could be translated to 'soul'.

 

[Bohandas]

The biggest fallacy I see in these discussions is that we’ve “been here before”, with the Industrial Revolution and replacement of manufacturing jobs. We replaced those jobs so the same should hold true now right?

The problem is…all jobs are a combination of physical and intellectual effort. We took care of a lot of physical labor before, and now its intellectuals turn. Once AI is sophisticated enough to be trained on new jobs….there isn’t a new job you could make that would be safe for humans.

Why is that a problem? You're assuming the current paradigm of people needing jobs, but that state of affairs is every bit as artificial as AI itself. Do the birds have jobs? Do the beasts?

 

[Bohandas]

Also. Look at how much of the music, film, and television industry is derivative and formulaic regardless. The joke when I was growing up in the 1990's was that all the boy bands and pop singers were robots already. Having seen some of what AI can do I can't say that that was unfair. And there were hack writers before there were any of those other hacks.

 

[Stalker0]

Why is that a problem? You're assuming the current paradigm of people needing jobs, but that state of affairs is every bit as artificial as AI itself. Do the birds have jobs? Do the beasts?

Of course, there job is to get food and water and avoid predators, all day every day.

I am assuming the current paradigm, because tk get off it too big things have to Happen.

1) we create an economy that doesn’t require people to work. Possible but it’s a major rethink.

2) people have to find fulfillment outside of work. This to me is the really hard part. I think some people would be just fine with nothing but leisure time…other people will diminish and flounder without the purpose of labor

 

[overgeeked]

Of course, there job is to get food and water and avoid predators, all day every day.

I am assuming the current paradigm, because tk get off it too big things have to Happen.

1) we create an economy that doesn’t require people to work. Possible but it’s a major rethink.

Not that big of a rethink. There’s lots of ideas out there. They’re all politics though, so…

2) people have to find fulfillment outside of work. This to me is the really hard part. I think some people would be just fine with nothing but leisure time…other people will diminish and flounder without the purpose of labor

Decoupling survival from work would be enough. People generally like to work. What they don’t like is boring, unfulfilling, mindless, and pointless work. People would still plant gardens, make games, volunteer, etc.

 

[Andvari]

I’m not sure how fulfilling it would be to have an unnecessary job function only because others feel sorry for you. Seems like they could just give you money at that point and leave you to enjoy your hobbies or learn another trade.

 

[dragoner]

There is Divya's Machinehood: https://sbdivya.com/machinehood

Change comes always. In my sci-fi setting people work about 20 hours a week, mostly to feel useful. Families cluster together as is normal in the rest of the world. The government encourages having children as being the most patriotic, and good for the economy. Labor is replaced by robots. There is UBI as they do not allow poverty, it breeds social chaos, and prevents people from taking part in the economy. You only get taxed if you make more than 999 million. "Happiness free for everyone, and let nobody be forgotten" does have a sinister quality to it. Nothing is perfect, though I have tried to imagine a plausible future, using things I learned in graduate level econ classes, might as well put that to use.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Why is that a problem? You're assuming the current paradigm of people needing jobs, but that state of affairs is every bit as artificial as AI itself. Do the birds have jobs? Do the beasts?

Birds and beasts also are not under the direct systemic control of capitalism. Hell, even the McDonald's where I live is using an AI system to take orders at the drive-thru. They've already taken out all but two cash resisters and route people through a touchscreen kiosk. So, there are jobs cut.

If automation takes jobs out there, be they creative, fast-food or warehousing, there is not going to be anything where magically people displaced by that are supplemented financially. That's not how the Western world works, and you know that.

 

[CapnZapp]

It’s wild that anyone who cares at all about artists and writers of any kind would support this tech.

Our job as compassionate humans isn't to stand in the way of innovation and progress.

Yes, a couple of artists may have to find another job. But enabling millions more to express themselves visually where we could not before is a huge benefit for humanity.

• Monks lost their scribing job when the printing press came along. Too bad, but anyone saying "it's wild that anyone who cares about scribes of any kind would support the printing press" is... shortsighted at best.
• Typesetters lost their jobs at newspaper printers when desktop publishing allowed the journalists to layout their own articles. Again, saying "it's wild that anyone who cares about typesetters would continue to subscribe to their newspaper" is the mindset of, frankly, a luddite.

Of course we care. We want these people to find another way of earning a living now that technology has come for their jobs. What we don't do, of course, is to try to but the genie back into the bottle. That's worse than useless.

But more importantly, that you and I can now create fantastical vistas and images just by typing text is WONDERFUL. It truly is an invention comparable to the printing press.

Yes, there are various issues that need to be ironed out. And yes, this will destroy a couple of careers. But don't go down the path where you try to cast shade at progression. There's no future for you there. Instead let's focus on the possibilities here