New Rant Thread

Zorro

Zorro

Forum GOD!
R181 said:
Automation, of which robots and AI are part of, has not created new jobs paying wages equal to the jobs lost. As a result, the middle class has shrunk with the majority being pushed into the lower class and a few into the upper class. This has created a lot of unrest in various countries.

Bob
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There is a quite serious school of thought, certainly in some countries, that Governments should tax automation and tech, to directly provide increased benefit payments which would be large enough to pay bills - basically properly pay people to give up work and have a reduced amount of money, but coupled with a better standard of life and leisure.

It might work for some people - kind of like very, very early retirement i suppose
 
MntnMan62

MntnMan62

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Zorro said:
There is a quite serious school of thought, certainly in some countries, that Governments should tax automation and tech, to directly provide increased benefit payments which would be large enough to pay bills - basically properly pay people to give up work and have a reduced amount of money, but coupled with a better standard of life and leisure.

It might work for some people - kind of like very, very early retirement i suppose
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How would that work if those people end up with less money in their pockets than if they had kept working? I realize that continuing to work may not be an option if automation replaces that worker. But I would assume that the vast majority of jobs that are eliminated due to automation are relatively low paying jobs so even a small decrease in pay is undoable. Just posing a devil's advocate position for discussion.
 
R

R181

Grumpy old man
MntnMan62 said:
How would that work if those people end up with less money in their pockets than if they had kept working? I realize that continuing to work may not be an option if automation replaces that worker. But I would assume that the vast majority of jobs that are eliminated due to automation are relatively low paying jobs so even a small decrease in pay is undoable. Just posing a devil's advocate position for discussion.
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Don't ever kid yourself about menial low wage jobs being the only ones affected by automation. Well-paying blue-collar middle-class jobs and middle management positions in manufacturing have disappeared due to automation too. There is no easy practical fix to the situation automation has currently brought us to. I saw that happening during my 30+ years working in a Pulp and Paper mill. It's not pleasant to watch and very stressful for those that are let go.

Bob
 
R

R181

Grumpy old man
Zorro said:
There is a quite serious school of thought, certainly in some countries, that Governments should tax automation and tech, to directly provide increased benefit payments which would be large enough to pay bills - basically properly pay people to give up work and have a reduced amount of money, but coupled with a better standard of life and leisure.

It might work for some people - kind of like very, very early retirement i suppose
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Yes, I have seen that brought up here in Canada and trialled iirc.

Bob
 
Twelvefret

Twelvefret

Forum GOD!
Speaking of technology, there is nothing more dehumanizing as the volunteered attention given to media whose strategy is to keep you glued to a screen, teaching you how you should think and making you upset. This is being discussed often in the US where a adult child talks about their male parent who has become angry and "radicalized" so to speak. These people become unfree and predictable. It's an unfortunate way to spend the later years of life.
 
Chris

Chris

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Staff member
Smiffy said:
I am enjoying AI in its capability for producing entertainment that is fresh and different, such as this music vid.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PLerxEKOUM
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As much as I enjoyed the video, and as impressive as it is, AI image generation still seems to have a real blind-spot when it comes to hands. I've seen this myself when I've played with image generation but even in the video there were a few extra fingers and a thumb on the wrong side.
 
Smiffy

Smiffy

Forum GOD!
Very true, the lips also move in an odd way sometimes. I have seen these vids for a while but they are getting much better.
 
p.b

p.b

Forum GOD!
Just received some mandatory training on AI. It seems the EU AI Act forbids companies to use any AI systems “deploying subliminal, manipulative, or deceptive techniques to distort behaviour and impair informed decision making causing significant harm.”

As Deepseek won’t give an honest answer about Tiananmen Square it could be called deceptive and EU companies banned from using it.
 
Chris

Chris

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Staff member
Paper Plane said:
I’m probably being somewhat dense here, but why would I, ordinary retired bloke, no business or similar enterprise to run, want with an AI app?

steve
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I'm a ways off retirement and I work in IT, I don't want an AI app either. Playing around with the image generation was fun for a while, but results vary wildly. I did use an AI query thingy the other day to see if my local weather was closest to that of Belfast or Edinburgh, the answer was correct but I didn't trust it and just opened MetOffice on a couple of tabs and compared them myself.
 
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