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Joseph Michaels's avatar

Yes, robots don't go on vacation nor do they ask for raises. They also don't spend money. And there's no guarantee that we will get UBI.

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Jul 1
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Joseph Michaels's avatar

Yep. That's why UBI ain't happening.

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Kaladin's avatar

I don't know about that. Like the article said, if people don't have money, then your ai is working for nobody since no one is buying your product or paying for your service. I'm more worried that the ultra rich try and give us just enough to survive and buy a few luxuries here and there without much room for improvement.

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Alias Cummins's avatar

Isn't that what's happening already?

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Mary R's avatar

There will be no universal basic income. There will be massive poverty. Enjoy your Armageddon, tech bros. Oh, and good luck with that nurse shortage.

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Mark Shields's avatar

Suspect what is inevitable is mass poverty and violence in former middle class societies.

UBI would be a constructive and foresightful intervention to the coming crisis, but no oligarchy relinquishes power voluntarily- and guess who will own and direct the AI bots during the coming conflict?

If we ever hope to depose the wealthy autocracy, the time is ripe.

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John_Manyjars's avatar

Yeah not seeing why billionaires will voluntarily part with their cash. It will have to be pried from them as it was in FDR's time. But we have no modern FDR or enough intelligent voters to make it happen

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Christian Tviberg's avatar

Bit optimistic, call me when the Robespierre AI is here, and his friend the auto-guillotine arrives.

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Kevin Rose's avatar

We already live in a post-capitalist society.

Economic oligopoly is the current global model, with the 200 largest global corporations producing 80% of all worldwide GDP. The other 99.9% of people working outside these huge oligopolistic corporations (i.e. in the dying laissez-faire capital economy), you and 99.9% of the rest of the world population chasing that tiny 20% of world GDP.

If your work isn’t in the supply chain or distribution chain of one of these large titans, you are screwed. Think Saudi AramCo, Exxon, Apple, NVidea and Google.

Oh. And just when you thought oligarchs and AI were going to leave you powerless economically, just watch what Quantum Computing is going to do. The countries with Quantum Supremacy will absolutely control the world economy.

Lassiez Faire Capitalism is already dead.

Oligopoly + AI + Quantum Computing is the winner.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopoly

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Isabel Lugo Jarboe's avatar

Have I lived 74 years to see us be replaced by robots? This is not good!

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Kathleen Connor's avatar

And the Republicans are forcing women to have lots of babies. They’re stupid asses who think they’ve solved a problem for the oligarchic masters.

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Paul McStay's avatar

AI is already revolutionizing the visual arts…software like Midjourney can “create” images that are virtually indistinguishable from camera-made…

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Alias Cummins's avatar

People can distinguish them just fine once the hype wears off. Uncanny valley just got a facelift.

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BARRY GANDER's avatar

Absolutely great article! I've been saying this for decades. Current AI is weak, but new tech is coming soon to complete the revolution. A Guaranteed Annual Income is a necessity if capitalism is to continue. Well done!

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Mark Shields's avatar

Why on earth would anyone want a continuation of the exponentially increasing wealth divide?

Humanity is already not the consumer-beneficiary. We are the substrate from which AI is made.

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BARRY GANDER's avatar

Yes, the wealthy need to provide the funds for the Annual Income. You are right - this can't continue.

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Mark Shields's avatar

“Sutton’s Law” 😏

But the problem is that banks don’t give away anything unless you commit to and can prove that you can and will pay them back with usury.

UGI is desirable and consistent with being a Christian nation, or a fair one, but inconsistent with capitalism.

Or, in brief, “them as has, gets”, will prevail with AI rise, in spades.

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BARRY GANDER's avatar

I hear you, and as you say, this will not be capitalism as we currently know it. This will be another revolution.

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Oliver Markus Malloy's avatar

Thanks Barry! I'm glad you like it!

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RPat's avatar

Yeh, and we ain’t seen nut’n yet!

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roadwarrior's avatar

Good one I enjoyed that very much!

I guess we’ll get to sleep longer and the state will pay us for that!

Good grief!

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Oliver Markus Malloy's avatar

Thanks Roadwarrior! I'm glad you liked it!

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Alias Cummins's avatar

That's a fantasy.

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Christine Krueger's avatar

HAL9000 is coming. Too bad Commander Data isn’t.

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David W. Friedman's avatar

My friend from way back, Doug Lain, wrote a book about The Singularity. You may enjoy reading it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34144713-bash-bash-revolution

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Fabs Joel Ellis's avatar

How tf is AI gonna make meaningful art if it has no emotions???? AI is just a pile of algorithms, code & reflection of humanity that can do Labour faster than us.

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Bad Choices's avatar

Art is in the eye of the beholder. A lot of artists refuse to give a definitive explanation of what their artwork means, because they want the viewer to have his own thoughts and find his own meaning in the artwork.

One piece of art can mean many different things to different people. That is no different for AI created art. An AI picture can be very meaningful to a particular viewer, even if the AI didn't intend the image to have that meaning.

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Fabs Joel Ellis's avatar

The AI doesn’t intend anything tho, it’s a machine created by humans

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Oliver Markus Malloy's avatar

When an artist uses AI to create art, is it still art? Yes, of course it is.

https://badchoicesmakegoodstories.substack.com/p/when-an-artist-uses-ai-to-create

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Robert Spottswood, M.A.'s avatar

Well… It reminds me of someone having a conversation through a translator or a code machine that they didn’t really need to use.

Thanks for that image.

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Natalia Lincoln's avatar

It won’t make meaningful art. It will be a blender of all human artistic endeavour, spewing out obedient content that will be mistaken for art.

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Fabs Joel Ellis's avatar

Even if you do like AI art, it’s terrible for the environment & is actually the opposite of the ‘innovation’ that capitalism is supposedly bringing because it just meaninglessly remixes the past rather than analyse the past to discover something new in our material lives which is what humans are capable of.

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Bad Choices's avatar

Ask any artist who their influences are, and they will give you a list of earlier artists who inspired them.

Whenever there is a new style of art, like expressionism or dadaism, there was always someone who came up with it, and others who copied his style.

AI does the same thing. It's very human in that regard. Just like a human, AI can create a brand new work of art, based on someone else's style. Or create an entirely new style.

Most people don't understand that creativity is always based on earlier works from someone else. Any artist who went to art school is influenced by earlier work, just like AI is. The way AI creates art is a lot more human than most people realize.

But even if that were not the case, it is still the artist who uses the AI as a tool, who creates art the same every other artist has done in the past, just with a more modern tool:

When an artist uses AI to create art, is it still art? Yes, of course it is.

https://badchoicesmakegoodstories.substack.com/p/when-an-artist-uses-ai-to-create

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