AI is stealing writers’ words and jobs…

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Do you really think people had more opportunities before steam engines or weaving mills or computers...?

People had to have jobs to work to eat. Generally speaking, I believe a lot of people essentially were sharecroppers for their lords what have you before heavy industrialization.

People were building cars before Ford. Ford's assembly line meant four people could make a Model T instead of ten people. The assertion I was responding to was that when we have more AI in more places, people will be 'freer'. Freer to do what? The post I responded to was that people will be free to sit around and read and eat grapes and have luxury, that AI will magically put us in some Roddenberry utopia where there's, to quote Roddenberry himself, 'no hunger, no greed and all the children can read'.

AI will simply add Nox to the engine of capitalism. There is no utopia that comes from an abundance of AI. Is it useful? Definitely. But the notion it will magically make out lives better,... that's not how humans and capitalism work. Unless the poster I was replying to lives in a country where they have basic income already...

 

[lynnfredricks]

I remember the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act days. This reminds me of that.

Congress never really addressed the dumb loopholes in it.

And all the fun of requesting Google remove links and have them then post them to Chilling Effects, making them easier to find.

 

[CapnZapp]

But the notion it will magically make out lives better,... that's not how humans and capitalism work.

I did not say such a thing and you are inventing a straw man.

The invention of the assembly line didn't make the lives of the workers "magically better" in the short run. But technological progress is here to stay. And yes, in the long run technology is the only thing that can save us.

The main difference this time is that the "machine" comes for YOUR job as a privileged educated middle-class creative, not the job of some immigrant or migrant worker. And somehow that's different and worse.

But the truth is that nobody cares. Yes, creatives have more free time to complain at social media than factory workers. But I think it is all futile.

Remember, the ability to use words to paint is WONDERFUL.

 

[Ryujin]

The main difference this time is that the "machine" comes for YOUR job as a privileged educated middle-class creative, not the job of some immigrant or migrant worker. And somehow that's different and worse.

It seems you have never heard the expression "struggling artist."

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It seems you have never heard the expression "struggling artist."

You don't here of many struggling artists from poor families.

 

[Ryujin]

You don't here of many struggling artists from poor families.

You don't hear about a lot of the artists out there, at all, because they haven't made a name for themselves. They are, however, in the majority and if published on the 'net, will have their work strip mined for AI.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You don't hear about a lot of the artists out there

You hear about a lot more artists than you do weavers.

But Art has never been something people do because it's their only option for making a living.

I make art because I enjoy doing it. And sometimes people pay me for it. But If I want to earn enough to live on, I have to do things that I don't enjoy. That's life.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I did not say such a thing and you are inventing a straw man.

The invention of the assembly line didn't make the lives of the workers "magically better" in the short run. But technological progress is here to stay. And yes, in the long run technology is the only thing that can save us.

The main difference this time is that the "machine" comes for YOUR job as a privileged educated middle-class creative, not the job of some immigrant or migrant worker. And somehow that's different and worse.

But the truth is that nobody cares. Yes, creatives have more free time to complain at social media than factory workers. But I think it is all futile.

Remember, the ability to use words to paint is WONDERFUL.

I apologize. Maybe we've been saying the same thing.

Someone had originally posted that the AI will free workers. That was what I was responding to. I'm not against AI, I'm not against automation - but I recognize that both will have a serious impact on workers. The person I had been replying to had been making the assertion that AI will improve Humanity as a whole - and it won't. It will improve capitalism. It will improve a large company that can afford it by allowing them to increase profits by trading out machines for workers. The original poster I'd been replying to was asserting that was a 'benefit', but it's not a benefit if those displaced workers have nowhere to go to make money.

 

[Ryujin]

You hear about a lot more artists than you do weavers.

But Art has never been something people do because it's their only option for making a living.

I make art because I enjoy doing it. And sometimes people pay me for it. But If I want to earn enough to live on, I have to do things that I don't enjoy. That's life.

Perhaps. Perhaps not. I suppose it all depends on how much you value the concept of art. This thread tends to highlight one of the problems I have with Dell Spooner's monologue about robots in the movie "I, Robot." It's not just that AI makes a better chair, faster. It's that AI breaks into the warehouse where the artisan stores every chair he's ever made, steals them, mixes up the parts, and then sells them.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Perhaps. Perhaps not. I suppose it all depends on how much you value the concept of art. This thread tends to highlight one of the problems I have with Dell Spooner's monologue about robots in the movie "I, Robot." It's not just that AI makes a better chair, faster. It's that AI breaks into the warehouse where the artisan stores every chair he's ever made, steals them, mixes up the parts, and then sells them.

So you would be quite happy for AI to replace human artists if they where not trained on human art, but generated it via some other means?