this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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US experts who work in artificial intelligence fields seem to have a much rosier outlook on AI than the rest of us.

In a survey comparing views of a nationally representative sample (5,410) of the general public to a sample of 1,013 AI experts, the Pew Research Center found that "experts are far more positive and enthusiastic about AI than the public" and "far more likely than Americans overall to believe AI will have a very or somewhat positive impact on the United States over the next 20 years" (56 percent vs. 17 percent). And perhaps most glaringly, 76 percent of experts believe these technologies will benefit them personally rather than harm them (15 percent).

The public does not share this confidence. Only about 11 percent of the public says that "they are more excited than concerned about the increased use of AI in daily life." They're much more likely (51 percent) to say they're more concerned than excited, whereas only 15 percent of experts shared that pessimism. Unlike the majority of experts, just 24 percent of the public thinks AI will be good for them, whereas nearly half the public anticipates they will be personally harmed by AI.

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[–] HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee 3 points 7 hours ago

I mean, it hasn't thus far.

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 16 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

AI has it's place, but they need to stop trying to shoehorn it into anything and everything. It's the new "internet of things" cramming of internet connectivity into shit that doesn't need it.

[–] poopkins@lemmy.world 7 points 20 hours ago

You're saying the addition of Copilot into MS Paint is anything short of revolutionary? You heretic.

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

I do as a software engineer. The fad will collapse. Software engineering hiring will increase but the pipeline of new engineers will is dry because no one wants to enter the career with companies hanging ai over everyone's heads. Basic supply and demand says my skillset will become more valuable.

Someone will need to clean up the ai slop. I've already had similar pistons where I was brought into clean up code bases that failed being outsourced.

Ai is simply the next iteration. The problem is always the same business doesn't know what they really want and need and have no ability to assess what has been delivered.

[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 hours ago

A complete random story but, I'm on the AI team at my company. However, I do infrastructure/application rather than the AI stuff. First off, I had to convince my company to move our data scientist to this team. They had him doing DevOps work (complete mismanagement of resources). Also, the work I was doing was SO unsatisfying with AI. We weren't tweaking any models. We were just shoving shit to ChatGPT. Now it was be interesting if you're doing RAG stuff maybe or other things. However, I was "crafting" my prompt and I could not give a shit less about writing a perfect prompt. I'm typically used to coding what I want but I had to find out how to write it properly: "please don't format it like X". Like I wasn't using AI to write code, it was a service endpoint.

During lunch with the AI team, they keep saying things like "we only have 10 years left at most". I was like, "but if you have AI spit out this code, if something goes wrong ... don't you need us to look into it?" they were like, "yeah but what if it can tell you exactly what the code is doing". I'm like, "but who's going to understand what it's saying ...?" "no, it can explain the type of problem to anyone".

I said, I feel like I'm talking to a libertarian right now. Every response seems to be some solution that doesn't exist.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 4 points 21 hours ago

AI can look at a bajillion examples of code and spit out its own derivative impersonation of that code.

AI isn't good at doing a lot of other things software engineers actually do. It isn't very good at attending meetings, gathering requirements, managing projects, writing documentation for highly-industry-specific products and features that have never existed before, working user tickets, etc.

[–] ImmersiveMatthew@sh.itjust.works 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I too am a developer and I am sure you will agree that while the overall intelligence of models continues to rise, without a concerted focus on enhancing logic, the promise of AGI likely will remain elusive.  AI cannot really develop without the logic being dramatically improved, yet logic is rather stagnant even in the latest reasoning models when it comes to coding at least.

I would argue that if we had much better logic with all other metrics being the same, we would have AGI now and developer jobs would be at risk. Given the lack of discussion about the logic gaps, I do not foresee AGI arriving anytime soon even with bigger a bigger models coming.

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 17 hours ago

If we had AGI, the number of jobs that would be at risk would be enormous. But these LLMs aren't it.

They are language models and until someone can replace that second L with Logic, no amount of layering is going to get us there.

Those layers are basically all the previous AI techniques laid over the top of an LLM but anyone that has a basic understanding of languages can tell you how illogical they are.

[–] SSNs4evr@leminal.space 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The problem could be that, with all the advancements in technology just since 1970, all the medical advancements, all the added efficiencies at home and in the workplace, the immediate knowledge-availability of the internet, all the modern conveniences, and the ability to maintain distant relationships through social media, most of our lives haven't really improved.

We are more rushed and harried than ever, life expectancy (in the US) has decreased, we've gone from 1 working adult in most families to 2 working adults (with more than 1 job each), income has gone down. Recreation has moved from wholesome outdoor activities to an obese population glued to various screens and gaming systems.

The "promise of the future" through technological advancement, has been a pretty big letdown. What's AI going to bring? More loss of meaningful work? When will technology bring fewer working hours and more income - at the same time? When will technology solve hunger, famine, homelessness, mental health issues, and when will it start cleaning my freaking house and making me dinner?

When all the jobs are gone, how beneficial will our overlords be, when it comes to universal basic income? Most of the time, it seems that more bad comes from out advancements than good. It's not that the advancements aren't good, it's that they're immediately turned to wartime use considerations and profiteering for a very few.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 3 points 23 hours ago

I see it lowering people's ability to focus and for analytical/critical thinking.

[–] sheetzoos@lemmy.world 13 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

New technologies are not the issue. The problem is billionaires will fuck it up because they can't control their insatiable fucking greed.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

exactly. we could very well work less hours with the same pay. we wouldnt be as depressed and angry as we are right now.

we just have to overthrow, what, like 2000 people in a given country?

[–] CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works 6 points 22 hours ago

Just about every major advance in technology like this enhanced the power of the capitalists who owned it and took power away from the workers who were displaced.

[–] kreskin@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Its just going to help industry provide inferior services and make more profit. Like AI doctors.

[–] briever@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

For once, most Americans are right.

[–] Naevermix@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

They're right. What happens to the workers when they're no longer required? The horses faced a similar issue at the advent of the combustion engine. The solution? Considerably fewer horses.

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[–] FriendBesto@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I agree. Albeit there are some advantages, of course, I am 100% certain that in the aggregate, it will make people more stupid and gullible.

It is sort of obvious when you engage with the thought, and seek it to its natural conclusion:

https://www.livescience.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/using-ai-reduces-your-critical-thinking-skills-microsoft-study-warns

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So far AI has only aggravated me by interrupting my own online activities.

[–] Trilobite@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

First thing I do is disable it

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wish it was optional. When I do a search, the AI response is right at the top. If I want AI advice, I'll go ask AI. I don't use a search engine to get answers from AI!

[–] JustARegularNerd@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I imagine you could filter it with uBlock right?

remember when tech companies did fun events with actual interesting things instead of spending three hours on some new stupid ai feature?

[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Most people in the early 90’s didn’t have or think they needed a computer.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How did those barbarians sit on the toilet without memes to scroll?

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

That was the job of reader's digest.

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[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

80's. 80's we had apple iis, commodores, tandys, ibm pcs, etc. 90's it was cell phones

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[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 68 points 1 day ago (16 children)

Maybe that's because every time a new AI feature rolls out, the product it's improving gets substantially worse.

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[–] rockettaco37@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

All it took was for us to destroy our economy using it to figure that out!

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