Submitted by IndependenceRound453 t3_10y6ben in singularity
I've seen a lot of comments on this sub over the time that I've been a member of it saying how people who say things like truly transformative AI is decades, if not centuries away, and AI will never replace a certain job, etc. are just coping.
And that could possibly be the case. But the copium also goes the other way.
A huge reason why this sub is uber-optimisitic is because many people on this sub use the singularity (something which isn't even a guarantee to happen ever, or at least not in their lifetime) as cope for their lives, lives that they are not very happy with. Many people here do not lead content lives, so they turn to AI and other technologies as the thing that's going to save them (which I find quite sad, to be honest).
But of course, the singularity doesn't mean jack if it's not coming anytime soon, so that's why you see so many people claim that it's only a few years away, a decade at most, and those comments tend to get a lot of upvotes. On the other hand, comments that are more conservative get downvoted a lot (I wonder why?).
And this uber-optimism is the case despite the fact that most AI experts don't think we'll have a singularity-like event for at least a few decades, if not longer. And that's not even taking into account social, economic, and political factors that are almost a guarantee to delay the arrival of the singularity.
I'm just saying that maybe the "luddites" are coping, but so is this sub. Let's not pretend otherwise.
petermobeter t1_j7w9xgz wrote
i talked to an acquaintance of mine today whos a programmer and she said she doesnt think AGI is coming soon. she thinks giant corporations wont make proper progress toward AGI becuz theyre just in it for money. she said “the first ai i ever programmed was a chatbot. chatbots easily convince humans to believe theyre sentient cuz of socioevolutionary reasons. theyre not actually sentient just becuz we think they are”
i hope shes wrong but….. she is smarter than me 🤷🏻♀️