| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? 09:32 - Sep 29 with 3347 views | Cotty |
Suddenly it's so good that it's clear that anybody not heavily relying on it in my "industry" are going to be left in the dust. And it seems inevitable to me that the longterm outlook for what I do isn't looking quite so rosey. I'm absolutely not a luddite and have been using it for years, but the leap forward in the last few weeks/months is frightening. Life is going to look very different for all of us in the next ten years... |  | | |  |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 09:35 - Sep 29 with 2295 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
Meanwhile gardening carries on regardless. It is literally passing me by and I'm not even trying to understand it. |  |
| "They break our legs and tell us to be grateful when they offer us crutches." | | Poll: | What you watching. |
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| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 09:41 - Sep 29 with 2265 views | giant_stow |
Yeah, my low-end websiting is screwed and on a steady decline: new clients hard to come by and very hard to land - very skint, bills to pay and shitting bricks. I'm thinking about people-focused stuff as a career change, but currently stuck in 'rabbit in headlights mode'.
On a wider level I wonder what everyone will do for money if we're getting AI-ed? |  |
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| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 09:42 - Sep 29 with 2259 views | NthQldITFC |
And even in the best case outlook, there are people in a range of industries that don't yet realise that they too will be superseded by tech in the very near future.
Universal Basic Income is the only logical next step, but the corporate-government complex will need to break out of its capitalism-is-king ideology and decide and implement UBI bloody swift like, or there'll be one helluva societal breakdown. |  |
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| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 09:49 - Sep 29 with 2220 views | MattinLondon |
I know a few solicitors at quite good firms who’ve told me that AI is bone doing a lot of the jobs which their juniors have traditionally completed in order to gain experience.
At the moment AI is too inconsistent to do the more complicated deals - well that’s what they’ve told me.
In a few years time it sounds like there’s going to be a lot of graduates with good degrees from good universities who will struggle to impose themselves in the higher end jobs market.
Possibly the way to go for AI not to take over is to become an electrician, plumber or builder. |  | | |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 09:56 - Sep 29 with 2180 views | Cotty |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 09:49 - Sep 29 by MattinLondon |
I know a few solicitors at quite good firms who’ve told me that AI is bone doing a lot of the jobs which their juniors have traditionally completed in order to gain experience.
At the moment AI is too inconsistent to do the more complicated deals - well that’s what they’ve told me.
In a few years time it sounds like there’s going to be a lot of graduates with good degrees from good universities who will struggle to impose themselves in the higher end jobs market.
Possibly the way to go for AI not to take over is to become an electrician, plumber or builder. |
Well this is the double whammy for me, I work in higher education, and AI is quite possibly going to take away the research AND the students. Probably take a decade or two to completely crumble though. | | | |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:04 - Sep 29 with 2129 views | giant_stow |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 09:49 - Sep 29 by MattinLondon |
I know a few solicitors at quite good firms who’ve told me that AI is bone doing a lot of the jobs which their juniors have traditionally completed in order to gain experience.
At the moment AI is too inconsistent to do the more complicated deals - well that’s what they’ve told me.
In a few years time it sounds like there’s going to be a lot of graduates with good degrees from good universities who will struggle to impose themselves in the higher end jobs market.
Possibly the way to go for AI not to take over is to become an electrician, plumber or builder. |
You touch on another expect of this: that AI is forcing / encouraging / allowing us to turn on each other's specialisms. For instance, one of my biggest clients wants a big site wide re-jig of quite a large site. They know my price, but are considering hiring a UX specialist to come in on the gig, which will most likely come at the the expense of my budget. So I'm currently running UX reviews through various AI platforms to try and cut this off.
Am I being a bastad trying to do another human out of the spoils of the meagre pickings, or sensible / staying alive? | |
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| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:06 - Sep 29 with 2093 views | giant_stow |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 09:56 - Sep 29 by Cotty |
Well this is the double whammy for me, I work in higher education, and AI is quite possibly going to take away the research AND the students. Probably take a decade or two to completely crumble though. |
What would advice a 14 year old to do with their high education? I know that's too broad a question, so assume we're talking about someone with no special interest in higher-level courses like maths, sciences or indeed vocational stuff? | |
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| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:09 - Sep 29 with 2086 views | Pippin1970 |
Luckily I do poultry farming. Still have to interact with people and chickens. |  | | |
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| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:22 - Sep 29 with 2033 views | NthQldITFC |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:09 - Sep 29 by Pippin1970 |
Luckily I do poultry farming. Still have to interact with people and chickens. |
Don't count your chickens mate - Grok is off to the moon to collect DNA from the Iron Chicken, so soon your farmyard is going to be full of robotic fowl. | |
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| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:32 - Sep 29 with 1994 views | gordon |
It's really hard to imagine what it's going to do to lots of research-type careers - in my field (ecology) over the last 15 years or so there's been a big boom in students basically using freely avalaible global datasets (species distributions, climate, land use, soil type, human infrastructure) to make inferences about global patterns/threats to biodiversity etc. There are loads of big careers based on this type of research, whole departments in big universities doing this sort of thing.
Now, almost overnight, you could replace whole departments with a big server and an AI agent searching the literature for gaps, coming up with hypotheses, downloading data, writing scripts, running analyses and writing the papers.
Field-based / experimental research can be more challenging and interesting in ecology, but the fact that data-driven/desk based research is going to become pretty meaningless is going to totally reshape things. |  | | |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:38 - Sep 29 with 1959 views | homer_123 |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 09:49 - Sep 29 by MattinLondon |
I know a few solicitors at quite good firms who’ve told me that AI is bone doing a lot of the jobs which their juniors have traditionally completed in order to gain experience.
At the moment AI is too inconsistent to do the more complicated deals - well that’s what they’ve told me.
In a few years time it sounds like there’s going to be a lot of graduates with good degrees from good universities who will struggle to impose themselves in the higher end jobs market.
Possibly the way to go for AI not to take over is to become an electrician, plumber or builder. |
I know two professional service firms that made around 150 (between) them redundant due to AI implementation around 9 months ago.
Both are currently in the process of rapidly re-hiring for those roles they let go. |  |
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| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:44 - Sep 29 with 1856 views | baxterbasics |
My own role is probably going to be safe at least until I get to retirement age as it does require human decision making and intervention. But I still worry about the wider impact and where it all leads. AI could realistically end up replacing the small team I manage in the near future - I wouldn't make that decision but it could be made for me by my corporate overlords. Then there's my kids futures to worry about too. Hmm. It will all work out/come out in the wash, right? |  |
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| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:46 - Sep 29 with 1845 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 09:42 - Sep 29 by NthQldITFC |
And even in the best case outlook, there are people in a range of industries that don't yet realise that they too will be superseded by tech in the very near future.
Universal Basic Income is the only logical next step, but the corporate-government complex will need to break out of its capitalism-is-king ideology and decide and implement UBI bloody swift like, or there'll be one helluva societal breakdown. |
Capitalism ceases to exist if AI is really the game changer that it’s hyped up to be. If I automate all the jobs at my car manufacturer, who is going to buy my product? With no products to sell, if you are in the small circle of billionaires, your equities are suddenly worthless.
I think it’s just the next Industrial Revolution to be honest. We do need to figure out an AI tax though. Logically you’d look at data centres since they consume vast resources and are essential to AI uptake. | | | |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:51 - Sep 29 with 1802 views | lowhouseblue |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:32 - Sep 29 by gordon |
It's really hard to imagine what it's going to do to lots of research-type careers - in my field (ecology) over the last 15 years or so there's been a big boom in students basically using freely avalaible global datasets (species distributions, climate, land use, soil type, human infrastructure) to make inferences about global patterns/threats to biodiversity etc. There are loads of big careers based on this type of research, whole departments in big universities doing this sort of thing.
Now, almost overnight, you could replace whole departments with a big server and an AI agent searching the literature for gaps, coming up with hypotheses, downloading data, writing scripts, running analyses and writing the papers.
Field-based / experimental research can be more challenging and interesting in ecology, but the fact that data-driven/desk based research is going to become pretty meaningless is going to totally reshape things. |
a different discipline - to avoid any friction i know nothing about yours and i'm not making any claims or criticisms.
but we've seen a very similar transition to what you describe in your first para. big expansion, more research output, pretty mechanical in using the same methodology in increasingly narrow areas, increase in journals, massive increase in articles which are read by no one, primarily act to bolster cvs for career purposes, and add next to nothing to understanding. it's going through the motions for the sake of moving up professional ladder rather than the real value of the output.
the fact that it might be done by ai in the future rather points to the pointlessness of a lot of it at present. again, i'm not suggesting any of this applies to your discipline, about which i know nothing, just a cynical take on my own. |  |
| And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show |
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| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:55 - Sep 29 with 1782 views | Cotty |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:51 - Sep 29 by lowhouseblue |
a different discipline - to avoid any friction i know nothing about yours and i'm not making any claims or criticisms.
but we've seen a very similar transition to what you describe in your first para. big expansion, more research output, pretty mechanical in using the same methodology in increasingly narrow areas, increase in journals, massive increase in articles which are read by no one, primarily act to bolster cvs for career purposes, and add next to nothing to understanding. it's going through the motions for the sake of moving up professional ladder rather than the real value of the output.
the fact that it might be done by ai in the future rather points to the pointlessness of a lot of it at present. again, i'm not suggesting any of this applies to your discipline, about which i know nothing, just a cynical take on my own. |
In maths it's just solving long standing problems with ease. Essentially I think that pure mathematics will be dead as a field (at least in terms of humans actually doing it) within the next 30 years. Fortunately I am more on the applied/statistical side, but the writing is probably on the wall there too. | | | |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 11:03 - Sep 29 with 1742 views | mellowblue |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 09:42 - Sep 29 by NthQldITFC |
And even in the best case outlook, there are people in a range of industries that don't yet realise that they too will be superseded by tech in the very near future.
Universal Basic Income is the only logical next step, but the corporate-government complex will need to break out of its capitalism-is-king ideology and decide and implement UBI bloody swift like, or there'll be one helluva societal breakdown. |
Being paid to exist rather than rewarded for work achieved sounds grim though. Leave fulltime education and are effectively pensioned off unless it is a job with physical skills AI robotics cannot master. | | | |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 11:06 - Sep 29 with 1726 views | baxterbasics |
Even in the best case scenario, where the spoils are shared around and life gets really easy for everyone, it's going to turn us into a fat, low skilled and low knowledge race, isn't it? AI doing all the thinking for us, and robots doing the manual work. We're heading into 'Idiocracy' territory, with nothing to do but seek entertainment all day every day. | |
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| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 11:10 - Sep 29 with 1702 views | gordon |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 10:51 - Sep 29 by lowhouseblue |
a different discipline - to avoid any friction i know nothing about yours and i'm not making any claims or criticisms.
but we've seen a very similar transition to what you describe in your first para. big expansion, more research output, pretty mechanical in using the same methodology in increasingly narrow areas, increase in journals, massive increase in articles which are read by no one, primarily act to bolster cvs for career purposes, and add next to nothing to understanding. it's going through the motions for the sake of moving up professional ladder rather than the real value of the output.
the fact that it might be done by ai in the future rather points to the pointlessness of a lot of it at present. again, i'm not suggesting any of this applies to your discipline, about which i know nothing, just a cynical take on my own. |
Yep, a lot of that applies to ecology - the departments/professors need high-ranking pubs, and big journals want global findings/papers, which means, in practise that students/researchers end up manipulating global datasets to find patterns/trends.
It's intellectually stultifying and doesn't require much actual real-world expertise or knowledge beyond a grasp of how to run big models - which, the AI is going to win at. It's definitely for the best in the long term in terms of stripping away the pointless research, but it is going to be a massive change. Colleagues who are journal editors are also taking of being swamped by research papers at the moment as well, which may precipitate some kind of change to scientific publishing as well. | | | |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 11:17 - Sep 29 with 1655 views | mellowblue |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 11:06 - Sep 29 by baxterbasics |
Even in the best case scenario, where the spoils are shared around and life gets really easy for everyone, it's going to turn us into a fat, low skilled and low knowledge race, isn't it? AI doing all the thinking for us, and robots doing the manual work. We're heading into 'Idiocracy' territory, with nothing to do but seek entertainment all day every day. |
very much mirrored in a sci-fi book from the 60's where everything is on tap and free to keep a bored non-working population entertained with structured exercise, religious worshipping of the wealthfare state, token bureaucratic work which achieves nothing but gives people a role living within huge walled communities surrounded by impenetrable jungle so people can be controlled adequately. The only real freedom is for the animals living in the jungle. | | | |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 11:18 - Sep 29 with 1649 views | J2BLUE |
Yep, been saying on here it's way better than most people think.
I use it daily now for all sorts of things. It's going to be a gamechanger for good and bad. |  | | |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 11:22 - Sep 29 with 1618 views | Vaughan8 |
I use it for not too much at the moment.
To work out say a sum of digits finance agreement figures, split interest and capital - Excellent
Basic tax advice - client can probably look this up themselves
Anything beyond basic it can get it totally wrong.
I've had clients say "yeah but Google AI says this". Yes but that isn't your situation!!!  | | | |
| Anybody else suffering from an AI-induced existential crisis? on 11:24 - Sep 29 with 1592 views | jasondozzell |
I wouldn't worry about it. No one really wants it and despite their best efforts no one really has a clue how to use it in business.
It is also useless. It couldn't add up a spreadsheet and it told me Polanski was an MP currently.
They've got to make 300 billion a year to break even on it. Coke makes 14 billion a year.
Humans are better than machines. More beauty, imagination and intelligence. [Post edited 29 Sep 11:25]
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