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Generative AI: My Enhancement, Your Replacement
A response to Noah Smith and roon’s post, “Generative AI: autocomplete for everything”
Today we’re up for a challenge.
A couple of weeks ago I read this thought-provoking article co-written by Noah Smith and roon on AI and automation: “Generative AI: autocomplete for everything.”
The thesis they defend, rather eloquently, is that generative AI isn’t going to destroy jobs or replace humans to the degree less optimistic people think. They claim AI-driven automation shouldn’t be so fear-inducing because the risks and harms it entails are vastly overstated: “AI is far more likely to complement and empower human workers than to impoverish them or displace them onto the welfare rolls.”
They acknowledge this isn’t a black-and-white issue and recognize that “there will certainly be some people who lose out,” but they don’t believe there’s anything special about this new wave of AI. As they see it, “Generative AI … will largely behave like the productivity-enhancing, labor-saving tools of past waves of innovation.”
In case you don’t know it from my previous posts on the topic, let me be clear: I disagree (not in everything, but in a major part).
