I think the unpopularity of generative AI outside of the tech bubble is overstated.
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@botwiki/116555961642959580
I think the unpopularity of generative AI outside of the tech bubble is overstated. Take my brother Andrew, who's about as far outside of the tech bubble as a middle-class white American man can be. He willingly uses generative AI at work. He at least somewhat understands its weaknesses, but he treats it as a tool like any other.
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@botwiki/116555961642959580
I think the unpopularity of generative AI outside of the tech bubble is overstated. Take my brother Andrew, who's about as far outside of the tech bubble as a middle-class white American man can be. He willingly uses generative AI at work. He at least somewhat understands its weaknesses, but he treats it as a tool like any other.
@matt I'd be curious if there are any good surveys of people outside of tech.
OTOH, the non-tech folks in my family and friend circle seem to be uniformly anti-AI without having much input on my part. A few have asked me what I thought of it, but mostly I've been told unprompted that they dislike it.
But, I also see articles about AI in education where teachers are struggling with students who want to use it in classes, even for fiction writing! (Why??)
I suspect it's a lot like politics--the people you are most often in contact with tend to hold the same values. So it seems like *everybody* does, or that the other opinions are outliers.
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@botwiki/116555961642959580
I think the unpopularity of generative AI outside of the tech bubble is overstated. Take my brother Andrew, who's about as far outside of the tech bubble as a middle-class white American man can be. He willingly uses generative AI at work. He at least somewhat understands its weaknesses, but he treats it as a tool like any other.
On the other hand, my sister, who also works outside of big tech (as a graphic designer), is, last I checked, broadly anti-AI, for the usual reasons that progressive non-tech folks are against AI (environmental cost especially from what she's said).
Maybe the difference is that, last I checked, my brother is politically right-leaning at least, while my sister is progressive.
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@matt I'd be curious if there are any good surveys of people outside of tech.
OTOH, the non-tech folks in my family and friend circle seem to be uniformly anti-AI without having much input on my part. A few have asked me what I thought of it, but mostly I've been told unprompted that they dislike it.
But, I also see articles about AI in education where teachers are struggling with students who want to use it in classes, even for fiction writing! (Why??)
I suspect it's a lot like politics--the people you are most often in contact with tend to hold the same values. So it seems like *everybody* does, or that the other opinions are outliers.
"any good surveys of people outside of tech"
Yes, see the link from the original post.
"Take my brother Andrew"
That's just anecdotal evidence, though. Did you look through the actual studies I linked to?
"politically right-leaning"
Yep, that checks out.
https://newsocialist.org.uk/transmissions/ai-the-new-aesthetics-of-fascism/
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On the other hand, my sister, who also works outside of big tech (as a graphic designer), is, last I checked, broadly anti-AI, for the usual reasons that progressive non-tech folks are against AI (environmental cost especially from what she's said).
Maybe the difference is that, last I checked, my brother is politically right-leaning at least, while my sister is progressive.
I was too quick to jump in with my one anecdote, which is insignificant compared to actual studies which, as the author of the quoted post pointed out, do exist.
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@FreakyFwoof How do you feel about music-generating AI these days? You seemed to be OK with it some months ago. Not wanting to argue, just curious.
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On the other hand, my sister, who also works outside of big tech (as a graphic designer), is, last I checked, broadly anti-AI, for the usual reasons that progressive non-tech folks are against AI (environmental cost especially from what she's said).
Maybe the difference is that, last I checked, my brother is politically right-leaning at least, while my sister is progressive.
@matt This doesn’t have much to do with your post, but I find it a bit ironic that being progressive seems to be associated with being against AI. To be clear, I’m not saying whether people should or shouldn’t be; I just find some of our labels of things to be interesting, and I’m not sure I always know what they mean. Being opposed to AI or cautious about it feels like a (small-c) conservative position to me. I find it similarly weird that the Trump coalition seems to include blue-collar white people who are anxious about social change as well as tech CEOs and investors who thought that the Biden administration was overly regulating crypto and AI.
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