AI’s flaws and dangers are glaring, yet the industry keeps growing, fueled by fantasies and fears of missing out.

As long as there’s been research on AI, there’s been AI hype. In the most commonly told narrative about the research field’s development, mathematician John McCarthy and computer scientist Marvin Minsky organized a summer-long workshop in 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, to discuss a set of methods around “thinking machines”. The term “artificial intelligence” is attributed to…

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  • Photuris@lemmy.ml
    3·
    8 days ago

    In terms of AI use, I’ve been “slightly left of center” on the spectrum between “AI is evil and I refuse to use it” and “I use AI for literally everything.” I’ve used it to automate away some monkey work, but I still do all the real heavy thinking and creativity myself.

    So, now, due to luck and happenstance, my new job is 100% based on AI hype. It’s interesting work, sure, but it’s also taking a solution and looking for a problem to solve with it, basically. It feels like shoehorning.

    I need to earn a living. I am not independently wealthy, sadly. Layoffs and Return to Office mandates (soft layoffs) are growing rapidly. Developers are scrambling, and of course we don’t have any collective bargaining. IT labor is being “disciplined,” fast and hard. And, my industry is all in on AI, for better or for worse (some better, mostly worse IMO). So those AI-centered jobs are (for now) the more secure ones.

    Am I a scab by working with AI? I don’t know. I’m not actively replacing any jobs, and I’ve always done automation, it’s just a different kind of automation now. Well, in any case, I’ve invested decades into my IT skillset. I mean, I guess I could go be a plumber now. I’d certainly be a shitty one though. I really good at computers, shit at anything else. I just don’t know.