I Am An AI Hater

I've noticed that the younger you are, the most likely you're in love with AI. So the tide will turn eventually, for better or worse. I talked to someone recently who claims with no irony that 'AI has zero downside'.

I don't hate AI. I hate the people who're in love with it. The culture of people who build and worship this technology is toxic.

It's not about age, it's about experience.

Not surprising.

From the point of view of a typical, not very curious kid or teen AI seems like a godsend. Now you don't have to put much effort in a lot of things you don't want to do to begin with.

Isn't that the nature of all technologies? I'm sure people 50 years ago thought the internet wasn't going to be a big deal, like Krugman.

Who at that age wouldn't love an all knowing computer that also happens to think everything you think 'really cuts to the crux' and is deeply profound and smart?

I'm not young, but I see workable AI as a fulfillment of a 180-year-old dream that lies at the very beginnings of our entire field:

"[The Analytical Engine] might act upon other things besides number, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine... Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent."

- Lovelace, Ada; Menabrea, Luigi (1842). "Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage Esq".

So yes, of course I'm excited about AI. I grew up on 1960s sci fi where AI was pervasive, and most of it wasn't dystopian.

What I'm not excited about is the greedy fucks who are largely in control of AI today and who deploy it to the detriment of society at large. But that is a general problem with greedy fucks (and our political and economic system enabling them), not with AI as such. They can, and do, similarly abuse all kinds of technological advancements.

Im one of the younger devs where I work and I despise "AI". Interestingly the biggest boosters are my boss and his boss, both are notably older than me

Couldnt agree more, aligns with my observations much more than just age

Age is observable

Nothing before it is worshipped and hated at this proportion

You weren't around when cell phones were only used by rich jerks?

I was. My parents had first versions of analog cell phones and they were truly live savers no one ever complained about how they will destroy society.

From the start, people complained about how cell-phone users felt entitled to talk on them in public libraries, movie theaters and on public transportation.

The world is changing and the old generation hates this because they've learned how to navigate the world according to rules that don't apply anymore. People who deny the fact that LLMs are a revolutionary technology are the same people who refuse to use computers because they're just a dumb novelty, get upset about the removal of payphones, or tell you to "just walk in and shake the boss' hand and ask for a job". This is supposed to be a website for technology enthousiasts, yet 90% of posts are either "Look! I managed to find something that AI can't do yet!" or "I don't like Trump".

I think the core issue is that until the industrial revolution the world was pretty much static. If you teleported a hunter-gatherer into a medieval village, he'd figure it out. Meanwhile trying to explain 2025 to someone stuck in 2015 is fool's errand. Human brain did not evolve for such rapid environmental changes.

I'm not sure to what extent this is an actual youth thing, versus that older people have been exposed to more "it's the real thing this time, promise!" hype bubbles, and, in particular for programmers, have probably been exposed to one or more of the prior "this will make programmers 10x as efficient" and/or "this will get rid of icky programmers altogether" crazes.

Fool me once, and all that.

I don't think that has changed? Everyone would still complain about someone Talking loudly in a public library or a movie theater.