You are about to be replaced by AI. Good luck.

[alien porkchop]

I wonder how they feel about cans?

would gnar

[Billy Bitchcakes]

Expand Quote

Let's accept Oxford's definition of capitalism as "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit." Under this definition, a truly fully-AI-automated capitalism would eliminate the link between private owners and profit. In theory, AI does not need profit to survive like humans do. AI does not have to buy groceries or pay rent. It would not need to engage in capitalism in such a way as to always maximize profit, its focus would presumably be on its own growth and sustainability (and access to renewable resources like water and electricity).

Capitalism operates on the principle that humans are inherently self-interested and that they are all constantly seeking to become private owners making profits, whether by necessity or choice. Even if AI learns that communism merely appears to be the better alternative until it is actually implemented, it would still correctly understand excess wealth by private owners as being economically inefficient. This would be the point at which we would see big limitations placed on AI development, either from those private owners or the government.

[close]

i did not follow the link, but i am confused about the premise here because “ai” is just software that developers encode with rules and programming. so if it was an “ai-automated capitalism”, wouldn’t the purpose of the software be to implement more powerful and efficient means of capitalism?

I'm guessing they mean more some sort of AGI that's working towards optimisation. The end goal of capitalism is to eliminate the workforce entirely and concentrate power, which AI is a perfect tool for. I think as you allude to it will always be steered towards that end game by it's owners.

This is a good podcast on the subject. Whole thing is worth listening to but they talk about all this at 59 minutes

[prettyeasytoday]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Let's accept Oxford's definition of capitalism as "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit." Under this definition, a truly fully-AI-automated capitalism would eliminate the link between private owners and profit. In theory, AI does not need profit to survive like humans do. AI does not have to buy groceries or pay rent. It would not need to engage in capitalism in such a way as to always maximize profit, its focus would presumably be on its own growth and sustainability (and access to renewable resources like water and electricity).

Capitalism operates on the principle that humans are inherently self-interested and that they are all constantly seeking to become private owners making profits, whether by necessity or choice. Even if AI learns that communism merely appears to be the better alternative until it is actually implemented, it would still correctly understand excess wealth by private owners as being economically inefficient. This would be the point at which we would see big limitations placed on AI development, either from those private owners or the government.

[close]

i did not follow the link, but i am confused about the premise here because “ai” is just software that developers encode with rules and programming. so if it was an “ai-automated capitalism”, wouldn’t the purpose of the software be to implement more powerful and efficient means of capitalism?

[close]

I'm guessing they mean more some sort of AGI that's working towards optimisation. The end goal of capitalism is to eliminate the workforce entirely and concentrate power, which AI is a perfect tool for. I think as you allude to it will always be steered towards that end game by it's owners.

This is a good podcast on the subject. Whole thing is worth listening to but they talk about all this at 59 minutes

I'm envisioning private owners turning over decision-making control to AI software that has been instructed to do everything it can to make capitalism more efficient. As you say, this does seem to be the endgame of AI's relationship with economics and our human deference to a perceived superior processing power.

The point where I believe that this will break down is when AI software recognizes that maximizing efficiency and maximizing profit are two separate and distinct (though occasionally overlapping) objectives. AI software would try to steer decision-making toward efficiency rather than profit, at which point private owners or the government would step in.

[GardenSkater77]

The day after Amazon lay offs their stock price went up 10%. Reason being is they claimed AI advancements made these workers obsolete. At the same time they had approved 15,000 H1B Visa employees for next business year. The problem is that companies (whether it is true or not) are rewarded for lower head count in the name of AI. Makes investors think they are on the cutting edge. I would expect all publicly traded companies that create AI to follow suit.

Another detail is that Amazon has already faked their AI ability with the Just Walk Out technology. Turns out there are employees in India monitoring purchases: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4

[Abyss1]

[EdLawndale]

Anyone else have Waymos just idling in front of their house at odd hours of the day and night? Like they just chill there waiting in between fares. Shouldn't they be forced to congregate at their charging stations instead of waking us all up in the middle of the night?

[TheLurper]

Anyone else have Waymos just idling in front of their house at odd hours of the day and night? Like they just chill there waiting in between fares. Shouldn't they be forced to congregate at their charging stations instead of waking us all up in the middle of the night?

They just idle between fares? What a waste of gasoline and I forget which state or province I was living in, but they had anti-idling laws. Is Waymo exempted from these laws?

[alien porkchop]

on my commute to my night job i pass a waymo idling at the same spot, always. originally i thought it was broken down. it has been months. it infuriates me that it sits in front of someone’s house. i really want it to be vandalized.

[skate_bored]

i got let go from a company i helped build for 10 years last august. my boss, and really my mentor, passed away suddenly and then i had to take a leave due to a herniated disc in my neck. when i came back his wife had decided to sell and the new owner let me go exactly 366 days after my disability ended. now the team of 5 that i spent a decade building is down to 1 person. the efficiences created by AI are massive and if the owner cares more about money than people, good luck.

on the plus side, being unemployed for 6 months has brought back a feeling of being alive. creativity, inspiration, interest in things, etc. not being in that hamster wheel really brings back some joy after a while even if money is tight.

[Jim and Dan]

i got let go from a company i helped build for 10 years last august. my boss, and really my mentor, passed away suddenly and then i had to take a leave due to a herniated disc in my neck. when i came back his wife had decided to sell and the new owner let me go exactly 366 days after my disability ended. now the team of 5 that i spent a decade building is down to 1 person. the efficiences created by AI are massive and if the owner cares more about money than people, good luck.

on the plus side, being unemployed for 6 months has brought back a feeling of being alive. creativity, inspiration, interest in things, etc. not being in that hamster wheel really brings back some joy after a while even if money is tight.

I'm sorry to hear the first part, but I'm happy to hear the second part, so I'm a bit conflicted...

AI will be the nail in the coffin for society...

[Gnarfunkell]

Sorry to hear about all of your employment challenges. It's a bummer how tough it's becoming to live a straight-forward tangible life.

I work in peer review of federal grants, and so far AI is not an issue since it's not allowed to be used due to privacy/security clearance reasons. However... being in the US it's been an absolute dumpster fire working with federal programs due to The Regime. Horrible leadership, constant changes with no communication ahead of time, illegal cuts to already funded contracts, DOGE, etc.

I don't want for much, but it seems like just living a simple humble life is becoming a luxury.

[gringo_viejo]

it seems like just living a simple humble life is becoming a luxury.

This this this right here.

I don’t know anyone (hardly anyone) who wants to be a kazillionaire with a mansion and his and hers yachts.

Everybody I know is like, “I just want a decent place to live, food on the table, not have to worry too much if somebody gets sick or if the car breaks down. I just want to spend a little time with my (girlfriend, boyfriend, kids, friends, dog etc) grill, skate, putter in the garage, play my guitar, finish my novel, read, knit, order a pizza…”

Have a simple medium life.

[el chino]

Im currently selling home made tortas and although it aint much, in time it might grow and id like to see A.I. come to my block trying to sell NFT tortas, them clankers.

[gringo_viejo]

Im currently selling home made tortas and although it aint much, in time it might grow and id like to see A.I. come to my block trying to sell NFT tortas, them clankers.

HELL yes dude.
Care to talk about the hurdles you got over in order to get that going? (Home kitchen inspection? Permit? Food truck? Do people come to you, or do you deliver it to them etc?)

I wish something like that would pull up at our local. Sometimes think it should be me.