Do you realize just how many jobs are going to be rendered unnecessary by AI?

I earned a single (so far) "thumbs down" for my most recent post. And most likely the very question is starting to trigger the denial reflex in some.

But I suspect those in denial have not yet been briefed with a show of what AI can do RIGHT NOW that will leave most in head-shaking disbelief.

And as far as "old farts" not getting it, you might wish to think again. That's a comforting belief for some younger people, I guess. But it's just another form of denial. Older people in a position to make a difference didn't rise to that position because they were mentally inert.

If you want to say "some" old farts won't get it, I wouldn't disagree. But comforting, convenient illusions affect both young and old. And in my experience, frankly, younger people often harbor more illusions than very experienced older people do. It often takes many years to begin to realize, through experience, just how much things can change unexpectedly.

Think back about three years, and try to remember just how many utter certainties held (in near lockstep) by social-media-assured people, both young and old, have now had to be altered or reversed. And if you're old enough, think back to the serious "informed" worries in the media about the possibility of "global cooling."

More money for old people, basically. Don't have to spend so much money on unnecessary human workers when AI can do the work for them. Who cares about the future of the next generation? Boomers have taken everything from the future.

@Neco_Arc_Lurking, don't you think that attacking boomers is an odd reaction to AI? Do you really think "boomers" created AI?

It's important for everybody -- young or old -- to beware carrying around assumptions that are really based upon emotion or peer pressure. ANYBODY can make a mistake. I've made many. Of course, mistakes can teach, sometimes, which is why experience does NOT tend to make people less wise as they age.

No, it's not an odd reaction. Everything boomers in positions of power have done has been a net negative for everyone else. Please act "holier than thou" somewhere else.

@Neco_Arc_Lurking, I haven't remotely claimed to be holy. I raised a legitimate topic for discussion: I didn't attack an entire generation of people. Not all people of any given generation make the same mistakes. Some make them. Some don't. All people make some mistakes. Nobody makes them all.

Indeed, as I just said: "ANYBODY can make a mistake. I've made many." I am certainly not "holier" than others.

The future will be okay. There will be challenges. That's been true for as long as I can remember. But things tend to work out for the best.

People born at the beginning of the last century had to face world war I, the Great Depression, and then World War II. Many even saw further difficulties after that. But it worked out. Somehow, mankind finds a way to keep improving, even as we stumble from time to time.

AI is going to bring much that is good, too.

@Noflaps, just an FYI ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex3_brOUdpA

@boilingFrog, I'm not sure who is meant by "them." Drugs (in the informal, colloquial sense of the Street) I cannot currently recommend. But videogames? They are okay with noflaps!

Indeed, isn't chess on Lichess a "videogame"?

Oh, I think so! But I'll listen to contrary opinions with patience.

By the way: I also cannot recommend boiling frogs, either. I rather appreciate frogs and would not wish to boil one. No, not even so slowly that the frogs don't notice it happening. Despite the political precedent.

Furthermore, no living human (and no squirrel, dog or frog) is "useless" -- each has a noble purpose that can be discovered. I didn't discover what I was good for until I asked my spouse. Indeed, the explanation continues apace.

Let us debate about it.

#18: I don’t need AI to tell me that was unnecessary

@Noflaps said in #11:
> But I suspect those in denial have not yet been briefed with a show of what AI can do RIGHT NOW that will leave most in head-shaking disbelief.

I' a translator and use the free ChatGPT for work, It's not really better than DeepL which is also AI-based and like 3 years old.

I translate into Danish, and DeepL and ChatGPT makes HUGE mistakes all the time. If a company decided to just use AI and no translators it would become utter dogshit.

I think dogshit quality is fine for webpages with articles like "10 ways to loose weight instantly" but it would be bad for many companies. Crazy mistakes makes people think you're stupid.

A fun mistake I saw recently was "In case of problems, do not call costumer service on the number XXX".

I mean sure, people will call costumer service anyway, but also they will laugh and the text and think the company is run by idiots. This sort of really BAD mistake is what I meant with AI mistakes being worse. No mater how it is formulated, no human would read the original however it is worded and think the company intends for clients to not call costumer supports if there is a problem lol.

Some mistakes the current AI simply cannot fix without totally different tech:

- In Danish grammer there's to forms of "you", a singular and a plural. German, Spanish, French, Italian etc has the same.

The AI has no way of knowing is a "Do you want coffee?" refers to one or more persons. It just guesses at random, and for some reason usually guesses at plural. This makes for instance subtitles for TV and movies suck, because the characters are always talking like there's a bunch of invisible people present.

- In Danish grammer nouns have two genders. In English there's only one. French, Spanish, Italian also has 2 noun genders, German has three.

The AI has no way of knowing in a sentence like "Do you want it?" what gender is the "it", because you need to understand what it is about to know what "it" refers to.

If it is subtitles again, a chararcter saying "Do you want to eat it?" while gesturing to a table with a burger and an empty glass standing on it, is probably inquiring if the other person wants to eat the burger and he's probably not asking if you'd like to eat the empty glass.

The AI has no way of knowing though, and at random translates "it" into a random gender.

So yeah you get scenes with characters seemingly asking asking each other if they want to eat glass or if they want to wear a chair or do you want to buy a street dog standing in front of a house for sale.

These two problems can only be fixed if the Ai also could watch the show and tell what is going on - and also understand the text. But that doesn't exist.

The AI translators have a LOT more problems than those two. Also when it just does text and there's no video or audio involved.

It's also sometimes hard for it to tell if windows should be tranltaled as Windows (the software) or as vinduer (just normal windows.) It gets the tone wrong and for instance translated "give 'em hell" into something sounding like "offer them a subscription to hell." It also translates sometimes idioms literally, which just sounds like crazy nonsense.