Hacker News Reader

Comment by goatlover | Hacker News Reader

And why is there even a desire to replace research scientists? Presumably this is the kind of job humans find meaningful and are good at. I don't understand AI as a replacement for humans instead of a smart tool for humans to make use of.

View on HN

Why is there even a desire to replace software developers? Presumably this is the kind of job humans find meaningful

Why is there even a desire to replace car manufacturers? Presumably this is the kind of job humans find meaningful

[...]

Reduce labor costs to increase profits. But that's for the good of a small number of people when all meaningful work can be automated. And I don't trust the billionaires to make society better for the rest of us.

Why? to increase productivity and improve the human condition. If AI can do research then technological and scientific progress will increase dramatically.

There's an unknown cost if all human endeavor becomes replaceable by AI. I would be cautious about this.

For who though? The research scientist can no longer do the work they trained for. Apply this to the entire economy at some point, and you have a serious problem.

In a world where human labor is no longer necessary, why do you think the people who control the AI models will care about “improving the condition” of anyone but themselves?

Human labor hasn't been necessary for a large portion of people. We have more than enough people to make food and collect water for us to survive. We can always make up jobs for people to do.

Talk to the person who pays the scientist. Anyone who works, works for someone. Who you work for is the person who wants to replace you.

I don't see that as a net good for society. I do see it as eventual grounds for another French-style Revolution.

Society doesn't work because everyone is collaborating for the greater good. Society works because everyone generally cares very little about society and they care more about themselves. The net effect of everyone caring only about themselves is the result you have today.

That's a very western, libertarian way of looking at things. But even so, replacing workers en masse leads to high unemployment and civil unrest. If we get to the point of automating research scientists, then a whole lot of jobs can be automated.

Most of society and people on HN are from western society. I'd say it's more of a capitalist view point. Which is basically all of society you see today.

To ensure net benefit to society one must make policies that benefit individuals and hope that the network effects balance out and make society better overall. Expecting altruism is unrealistic.

Or Luddites destroying machines that replace them while using machines as tools to make their labor easier.

The working class wants to automate labor to increase their free time.

The owner class wants to automate labor so they can rid themselves of the working class.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com