The fact that you are engaging in this thread shows me you have considered my opinions, even if you reject them. I think thats great, even in the face of being told I advocate for the collapse of civilization and that I want others to shut up and not be heard.
It is a bit insulting, but I get that these issues are important and people feel like the stakes are sky-high: job loss, misallocation of resources, enshitification, increased social stratification, abrogation of personal responsibility, runaway corporate irresponsibility, amplification of bad actors, and just maybe that `p(doom)` is way higher than AI-optimists are willing to consider. Especially as AI makes advances into warfare, justice, and surveillance.
Even if you think AI is great, it's easy to acknowledge that all it may take is zealotry and the rot within politics to turn it into a disaster. You're absolutely right to identify that there are some eerie similarities to the "gun's don't kill people, people kill people" line of thinking.
There IS a lot to grapple with. However, I disagree with these conclusions (so far) and especially that AI is a unique danger to humanity. I also disagree that AI in any form is our salvation and going to elevate humanity to unfathomable heights (or anything close to that).
But, to bring it back to this specific topic, I think OSS projects stand to benefit (increasingly so as improvements continue) from AI and should avoid taking hardline stances against it.
Sure. I don't necessarily think your opinion is radical. But it's also important to consider biases within oneself, especially when making use of text as a medium where the nuance of body language is lost.
The main thing that put me off on the comment was the outright dismissal of other opinions. That's rarely a recipe for a productive conversation.
>However, I disagree with these conclusions (so far) and especially that AI is a unique danger to humanity. I
I don't think it's unique. It's simply a catalyst. In good times with a system that looks out for its people, AI could do great things and accelerate productivity. It could even create jobs. None of that is out of reach, in theory.
But part of understanding the negative sentiment is understanding that we aren't in that high trust society with systems working for the citizen. So any bouts of productivity will only be used to accelerate that distrust. Looking at the marketing of AI these past few years confirms this. So why would anyone trust it this time?
Rampant layoffs, vague hand waves of "UBI will help" despite no structures in place for that, more than a dozen high profile kerfuffles that can only be described as a grift that made millions anyway, and persistent lobbying to try and make it illegal to regulate AI. These aren't the actions of people who have the best interests of the public masses in mind. It's modern day robber barons.
>I think OSS projects stand to benefit (increasingly so as improvements continue) from AI and should avoid taking hardline stances against it.
I don't have a hard line stance on how organizations handle AI. But from my end I hear that Ai has mostly lead to being a stressor on contributors trying to weed out the flood of low quality submissions. Ai or not (again, Ai is a catalyst. Not the root cause), that's a problem for what's ultimately a volunteer position that requires highly specialized skills.
If the choice comes between banning Ai submissions, restricting submissions altogether with a different system, or burning out talent trying to review all this slop: I don't think most orgs will choose the latter.
The fact that you are engaging in this thread shows me you have considered my opinions, even if you reject them. I think thats great, even in the face of being told I advocate for the collapse of civilization and that I want others to shut up and not be heard.
It is a bit insulting, but I get that these issues are important and people feel like the stakes are sky-high: job loss, misallocation of resources, enshitification, increased social stratification, abrogation of personal responsibility, runaway corporate irresponsibility, amplification of bad actors, and just maybe that `p(doom)` is way higher than AI-optimists are willing to consider. Especially as AI makes advances into warfare, justice, and surveillance.
Even if you think AI is great, it's easy to acknowledge that all it may take is zealotry and the rot within politics to turn it into a disaster. You're absolutely right to identify that there are some eerie similarities to the "gun's don't kill people, people kill people" line of thinking.
There IS a lot to grapple with. However, I disagree with these conclusions (so far) and especially that AI is a unique danger to humanity. I also disagree that AI in any form is our salvation and going to elevate humanity to unfathomable heights (or anything close to that).
But, to bring it back to this specific topic, I think OSS projects stand to benefit (increasingly so as improvements continue) from AI and should avoid taking hardline stances against it.
Sure. I don't necessarily think your opinion is radical. But it's also important to consider biases within oneself, especially when making use of text as a medium where the nuance of body language is lost.
The main thing that put me off on the comment was the outright dismissal of other opinions. That's rarely a recipe for a productive conversation.
>However, I disagree with these conclusions (so far) and especially that AI is a unique danger to humanity. I
I don't think it's unique. It's simply a catalyst. In good times with a system that looks out for its people, AI could do great things and accelerate productivity. It could even create jobs. None of that is out of reach, in theory.
But part of understanding the negative sentiment is understanding that we aren't in that high trust society with systems working for the citizen. So any bouts of productivity will only be used to accelerate that distrust. Looking at the marketing of AI these past few years confirms this. So why would anyone trust it this time?
Rampant layoffs, vague hand waves of "UBI will help" despite no structures in place for that, more than a dozen high profile kerfuffles that can only be described as a grift that made millions anyway, and persistent lobbying to try and make it illegal to regulate AI. These aren't the actions of people who have the best interests of the public masses in mind. It's modern day robber barons.
>I think OSS projects stand to benefit (increasingly so as improvements continue) from AI and should avoid taking hardline stances against it.
I don't have a hard line stance on how organizations handle AI. But from my end I hear that Ai has mostly lead to being a stressor on contributors trying to weed out the flood of low quality submissions. Ai or not (again, Ai is a catalyst. Not the root cause), that's a problem for what's ultimately a volunteer position that requires highly specialized skills.
If the choice comes between banning Ai submissions, restricting submissions altogether with a different system, or burning out talent trying to review all this slop: I don't think most orgs will choose the latter.