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The turbulent AI era is here

The turbulent AI era is here

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Comments (216)

  • hn_submit
    If A.I. starts to replace jobs en masse I propose we tax the companies profiting from this at a rate of 95% so we can finance welfare and Universal Basic Income schemes.We need to be aware that said companies and the people behind them will do anything in their power, including bribing politicians, to prevent this and to keep the money they believe are they're entitled to.I even believe the Big Tech bigwigs have long foreseen this and are quietly prodding our society towards an authoritarian regime where people have no say so they can keep their moonies.
  • beloch
    "In terms of equity, AI will either be the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst source of injustice. The challenge is monumental. Even under the best circumstances, the transition to this new AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history. How will we use this technology to make the world a fairer place and keep it from widening the divide between rich and poor? "----------------One look at who is in the driver's seat should give you the answer to this question. The initial roll-out will, by very deliberate design, put dynamite in the divide and set it off. This has happened before.The industrial revolution was very similar. Initially, workers suffered. Conditions were unsafe. Pay was poor. Worker rights were non-existent. Things got worse for the majority before social change caught up and imposed a more equitable distribution of the dividends.We should be under no illusion that this time will be any different. The rich and powerful are no less selfish than they were a quarter millennium ago. It is possible to get ahead of the problem, but the people running AI companies won't be the ones to do it. Governments are inclined to do what the people paying for their election campaigns want, but should be aware that standing up for inequality will only make things worse for them when the tides of social change start rolling in on them.History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
  • tintor
    "... AI will avoid climate change."xAI's Colossus 1 and 2 data center mobile gas turbines beg to differ.AI data centers are driving electricity consumption in 100s of GW, and most of that energy is not clean renewable nor nuclear.
  • mcnichol
    I feel this is merely stating the obvious.It goes back to the industrial revolution and every revolution before and after. There was a point where they thought a majority of people would be working as switchboard operators and then telephone switching came along. Horses to cars, etc.Jobs transition, new space is created, people are caught in tbe crossfire of supply and demand curves. Incan agree the bullwhip of this one is going to be aggressive.I think it is a mistake to bet on AI as a driver of meaningful growth in a commercial capacity in the current state. When the data fed into an AI model is based on real data you can get predictability. When the AI inputs start coming from the AI outputs the wobble is introduced which results inevitably into delirium.I think the world at large is "learning on the job" what data scientists and others in ai have known for a long, several decades long, time have already known.
  • zkmon
    The observer (Mr Gates) is inside the tech ecosystem, so his observations would be colored by the pace of things happening around him, in the tech space.The world outside has much more friction and many other things going on. Tech had a wild run during his time because the American priorities at that time, favored it. There is no guarantee that tech would have same priority in a world that might get into more basic struggles.If AI could affect jobs, that itself would work against it as it would cause basic struggles. Ultimately the world has to oscillate towards an equilibrium, acknowledging all forces from all corners. World is not a tech lab.
  • hypfer
    > But the reliability problem is being fixed quickly, as researchers create models that can check their own work and improve themselves. Soon they will be substantially better than humans at many tasks.Yes, no.They don't. They just push probabilities higher. The tech is non-deterministic.
  • madhias
    > I believe we should tax AI tokens and robots.You had me here.
  • lukeschlather
    If AI is really that powerful, shouldn't someone like Gates be able to end hunger and homelessness with a one-time capital expenditure? Somehow "give people jobs" is the primary problem he wants to solve, not ending poverty. It borderline seems like he's most worried about maintaining the working poor as a valuable societal institution.
  • egonschiele
    Does anyone else feel incredibly nostalgic for the time when Bill Gates and Warren Buffet were the richest people on earth? I remember feeling pretty good about the fact that they were trying to do so much good, and about the giving pledge. Things feel so different now.
  • matltc
    Love how Gates and Nadella had nothing to say until this year, after they clearly lost any hope of building a moat around it
  • mbgerring
    If you’re one of the people wondering why there’s an enormous backlash to AI, here’s your answer: “this thing we’re building is going to he fucking terrible and ruin your life. Please give us all your money to build it.”
  • mcswell
  • dwoldrich
    Never let a good crisis go to waste, billg.
  • aaa_aaa
    I immediately closed the page after I saw who wrote the article. Sory Bill, I pass.
  • 0o_MrPatrick_o0
    I mean this respectfully:I am no longer and will never again be interested in Bill Gates’ opinion about anything. He needs to retire. He’s a sclerotic representative of what needs to be left behind.Thank you for your contributions, Bill. You’ve done enough.
  • terminal-bloom
    ah, finally, we can hear what the massive pedophile has to say again
  • pullshark91
    This is the person behind such products as Windows and Copilot. I honestly don't trust a single word he says.
  • ChrisArchitect
    Dunno what's going on with these urls;[dupe] Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49448137
  • gherkinnn
    All of this is truly bizarre, I hope that we can make sense of this craze in the future.Maybe it will be seen similarly to the dancing crazes of the Middle Ages.
  • treebeard901
    Every person says this even in notes
  • whythismatters
  • datakan
    I've tried to type this up a couple times, each time backing out because at the end of the day, I really don't give a rats fart about anything Gates has to say. I just wish he would disappear.
  • krona
    billg: "kaczynski was right afterall"
  • smrtinsert
    640k ought be enough for this AI. I'm not sure takes like these are helpful. It's widely acknowledged that this is a technological shift, like electricity, like industrialization, etc. It could be (good or bad) but most likely (good AND bad). Does anyone really believe, sincerely, that AI will be the great equalizer? It's a hilarious proposition. They are working their hardest to make sure that its not imo.
  • Krei-se
  • cheptsov
    Is it me or does it read like pure satire?An AI ministry, “human-reserved” jobs, and taxes on AI tokens.
  • threethirtytwo
    >The transition to the AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history. Right now, we are not preparing adequately for that transition. If the world takes the right steps, AI will be a force for good and leave everyone better off.It will be a force for good. But like all evolutionary steps the path to good will be paved with darkness.The very existence of humanity and life itself rests on the foundation of natural selection. Humanity will be better, it will get better but before we get there... there will be a culling.It's an unfortunate truth. We all might be culled.
  • deadbabe
    Taxing AI tokens will only lead to the acceleration of local LLMs, to produce tax-free tokens.We must tax lines of code. Like property tax, but for code. Every year, companies (and individuals) must declare all repos. Have them appraised.
  • anon
    undefined
  • 7e
    Bill Gates, convicted monopolist and friend to Epstein, is always looking to burnish his legacy, but he’s too unimaginative. He needs to spend his fortune ending aging, not duplicating government efforts and trying to be a pundit.
  • Boss0565
    epstein
  • AlexandrB
    I'm sorry. I absolutely do not trust Bill Gates. His history of ruthless, cutthroat tactics in the 90s is not easily forgotten and when he proposes things like international organizations to audit everyone's AI[1] I can't help but question his motives.I also don't understand what gives him the moral standing to propose a solution at all. He's not the fucking pope but a ruthless tech businessman with vested financial interest in the technology involved. He should stick to his lane.[1] > But even a country that gets its own house in order will still be exposed to risks that cross borders. This is why an international organization will need to be built in parallel.> It will be unlike any other institution we have ever created, though it can follow the model of some existing systems. There’s an inspections regime for nuclear weapons, regulations for international aviation, and agreements that protect the ozone layer. A new global organization for AI will need elements of all three and more.
  • blueaquilae
    One of the most unethical man in history, from software to family conduct is here to explain how AI can help humanity
  • miltonlost
    All his good things (possibly help medicine! agriculture! government!) involve a belief in ever-increasing superintelligence and so much "hope" and optimimusm and may not ever exist.All his negative things (increase of fraud, skill atrophy, cyberattacks, removing employment, consolidation of capital and wealth) exist currently now with AI as it is.How long will negatives outweigh the positives? And will those positives ever actually come to fruition? How anyone (who is not a sociopath and expects to be one of those pyramid tops) can see a bright future is beyond my pessimism and sense of reality as it is now.
  • digitalsurgeonz
    [flagged]
  • slowin
    We should not be listening to a man who drugged his wife with Epstein supplied antibiotics after getting an STD (among many, many other bad things he's done).https://www.btimesonline.com/articles/176578/20260201/epstei...
  • delduca
    Yes, let's put copilot in every app on Windows, Azure & Office :-)
  • brikym
    "Agriculture is where I see the fastest impact of AI in low-income countries."As we've seen with Haber-Bosch (synthetic fertilizer) it will just allow the population to expand until we're up against the resource limit ceiling.
  • wiz21c
    "In my second one, which I started full time in 2008, I am giving back the wealth I made at Microsoft with the goal of making the world a healthier, better educated, and more equitable place."Like inventing waterless toilets when people just need access to clean water ?The sad story is that we don't need innovation, we need better politics.Oh and he could open source windows, that would make us more equitable for sure.