How the AI apocolypse starts

[Isaac]

I think you're ahead of the game, because you have the fundamentals of programming while utilizing the tool known as AI. That's a killer combo.

I hope

 

[Isaac]

AI to me is just a glorified search tool that gathers relevant info from the web and formats it into pretty answers. It can't be totally relied on for making autonomous decisions if it hallucinates once in a while

Yeah, at first I thought ChatGPT's answer was wrong, as I got zero results but I knew I had some. Then I realized the SYS tables were tied to a database, not a server (like idiot me, I should have known that right!?) - so sometimes it's a matter of giving it context

 

[AccessBlaster]

The door isn't being shut, it's flung open.

 

[AccessBlaster]

If I was still in the game, I'd be looking for new solutions to old nagging problems. Utilizing endless prompting to achieve my goals.

 

[Isaac]

If I was still in the game, I'd be looking for new solutions to old nagging problems. Utilizing endless prompting to achieve my goals.

I feel so far behind some times that I'm not even coherent enough to organize old, current, new - people are using so many cloud solutions and even good ole' sql server has so many new options (or options that aren't really new, but new to me), I feel sometimes like a strong imposter syndrome. Then I talk to my son, who feels the same way despite a MS in robotics engineering but because they only 'scratched the surface' of many things he feels the same feeling - it's a real problem in IT, some of these job descriptions are outlandish in scope and you wonder "Are they really going to find a person who knows all those things in detail?"

I don't even know Grouping Sets in sql , some people use it like it's going out of style. My problem is there are so many new things I could learn IF I had an example project to use them on. But time flies and work flies and you sometimes feel like there isn't enough dough in the recipe to learn the new stuff. My new company is all about AWS, Snowflake, Kafka. Thankfully I work in the "company that was bought", which is still 100% sql server based, so there is plenty of work to do, but I always get this nagging feeling I better learn as much new as I can or at least be a Successful Pretender lol

 

[AccessBlaster]

I feel so far behind some times that I'm not even coherent enough to organize old, current, new - people are using so many cloud solutions and even good ole' sql server has so many new options (or options that aren't really new, but new to me), I feel sometimes like a strong imposter syndrome. Then I talk to my son, who feels the same way despite a MS in robotics engineering but because they only 'scratched the surface' of many things he feels the same feeling - it's a real problem in IT, some of these job descriptions are outlandish in scope and you wonder "Are they really going to find a person who knows all those things in detail?"

I don't even know Grouping Sets in sql , some people use it like it's going out of style. My problem is there are so many new things I could learn IF I had an example project to use them on. But time flies and work flies and you sometimes feel like there isn't enough dough in the recipe to learn the new stuff. My new company is all about AWS, Snowflake, Kafka. Thankfully I work in the "company that was bought", which is still 100% sql server based, so there is plenty of work to do, but I always get this nagging feeling I better learn as much new as I can or at least be a Successful Pretender lol

Sounds to me like you have a great foundation but your confidence has been shaken a bit. Build on what you have and try and stay positive.

 

[GPGeorge]

AI to me is just a glorified search tool that gathers relevant info from the web and formats it into pretty answers. It can't be totally relied on for making autonomous decisions if it hallucinates once in a while

At some point, one of you has to assume the role of "adult in the room". If you defer to AI to fill that role, yeah, you lose.

 

[GPGeorge]

Isn't the whole idea that children will learn so they don't commit the same mistakes again?

True. And the reason we put teachers in charge of classes in school is that SOMEONE has to be the adult in the teaching/learning process.

In parallel to that, parents are the adults in a family relationship.

 

[Isaac]

I suspect some AI engines are deep fakes piloted by monkeys riding on greyhound dogs

that's probably true, as there are imposters in every game. I just stick with the first thing that worked for me - chatGPT. I highly value its memory that transcends individual chats and I tend to keep doing what works, learning new things very slowly - meaning learning one new thing well, but not learning many new things

 

[Isaac]

AI to me is just a glorified search tool that gathers relevant info from the web and formats it into pretty answers

That was about all I thought chatGPT was at first - and maybe indeed it was lesser in its early iterations when it was first released.
Since then I've revised my opinion of AI, since in the interim I've had more specific uses for it and it can be pretty impressive in remembering things and relaying relevant information based on what it remembers. I have it even formatting my sql with incredibly specific instructions, it never forgets

 

[AccessBlaster]

Are we training AI, or is AI training us?

 

[KitaYama]

AI was built to work for us. Now it’s working instead of us.

Who told this? And why do you think Ai was built to work for us, not replacing us?
My understanding is that AI was designed and made simply to replace human. Am I wrong?
Here's a part of my research (several months ago)

The Original Proposal: Dartmouth Conference (1956)
Source: Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence Proposal
Authors: John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, Claude Shannon

“Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves.”

Marvin Minsky (AI pioneer) – on human replacement
Source: Society of Mind (1986), and interviews

The human brain is just a computer that happens to be made out of meat.
We’re not trying to build intelligent computers to be smart for their own sake. We want machines that do what humans do — but better.

OpenAI Mission Statements
Source: OpenAI Charter (2018)

We commit to use any influence we have over AGI to ensure it is used for the benefit of all, and to avoid enabling uses of AI or AGI that harm people or unduly concentrate power. We expect AI technologies to have broad societal impact, so we are committed to providing public goods that help society navigate the path to AGI. Our mission is to ensure that AGI—by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work—benefits all of humanity.

Elon Musk (Co-founder of OpenAI)
World Government Summit, 2017

There will come a point where no job is needed — you can have a job if you want one, for personal satisfaction, but AI will be able to do everything.

 

[KitaYama]

Every day many workers are packing their desks into cardboard boxes, not because they weren't prodcutive, or broke a rule.

Why are you afraid of jobs being lost? With every evolution in technology, there were a dozen jobs that vanished. Do you regret that?

Switchboard Operator Replaced by Automated telephone switching systems (1980s)
Film Projectionist (in small theaters) Replaced by: Digital projectors and automation (2000s–2010s)
Toll Booth Operator Replaced by: Electronic toll collection (ETC), e.g., E-ZPass, ETC (2010s)
Video Store Clerk Replaced by: Streaming services (Netflix, YouTube, etc.)
File Clerk / Archivist (manual) Replaced by: Digital databases and document scanning (1990s)
Bank Teller Reduced by: ATMs, online banking, mobile apps (2000s)
Door-to-Door Encyclopedia Salesperson Replaced by: Wikipedia, Google, and eBooks (1990s)
Photo Developer / Lab Technician Replaced by: Digital cameras, smartphones (2010s)
Mail Sorter Replaced by: Optical character recognition (OCR) and automation (1990s)
( I can give a hundred more if you wish)

Jobs come and get vanished. It's a part of our evolution. Why are you afraid of it?

Edit: And for your info, Computers were black females that were hired to calculate very hard and sophisticated math problems in NASA when US was in a war with Russia for owning the space.
Later IBM made a machine to replace computers and do their job faster. It was called computer after those ladies. (watch Hidden Figures)

 

[KitaYama]

So if no humans work, where are they going to get money to buy anything? Or are countries going to subsidize everything, like a comunist system? Working also gives people purpose. People rule and we should destroy anything that threatens to replace us.

I'm not a fortune teller nor a prophet to know how the future works. But according to human history, I proved that every year a lot of jobs are vanishing because of the improvement in technology. There were lamplighters to light candles in street lamps. With the invention of electricity, that job is gone and instead new jobs for managing generators etc are needed.
So your fear about loosing jobs was strange to me.

I can't tell you what happens if what Elon Musk said comes true and all jobs vanishes. But if at present, working gives you life purpose, in future something else may do the same.

And apparently you don't know how a communist system works if you think China and Russia subsidizing everything for their people.

 

[Jon]

Some believe the cost of everything will plummet, with AI and robots doing all the productivity. We will be on a universal income and with everything so inexpensive, we can have everything we want, including eternal life. Well, that is the vision. AI solves work, death, politics etc.

Technology has always led to people needing to retrain into other work. However, this time it is different. The pace of this revolution is astonishingly fast and you cannot retrain into other work at which AI and robots are already better, faster, cheaper. The cognitive jobs go first, and then the manual work. They are finiding robots a little harder than AI. Having said that, AI will solve robotics and the progress in robotics over the last couple of years has been outstanding.

 

[moke123]

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/ai-jobs-white-collar-unemployment-anthropic

Dario Amodei — CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful creators of artificial intelligence — has a blunt, scary warning for the U.S. government and all of us:

• AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years, Amodei told us in an interview from his San Francisco office.
• Amodei said AI companies and government need to stop "sugar-coating" what's coming: the possible mass elimination of jobs across technology, finance, law, consulting and other white-collar professions, especially entry-level gigs.

 

[GPGeorge]

Agreed, and going to school early mornings is meant to train you to consistently show up on time to work.

Perhaps I'm missing something, being a senior citizen and all, but isn't showing up on time generally a good idea for pretty much anything we do as humans?

 

[moke123]

Perhaps I'm missing something, being a senior citizen and all, but isn't showing up on time generally a good idea for pretty much anything we do as humans?

I was kind of planning on being really late to my funeral

 

[GPGeorge]

Yes, but the primary purpose for arriving at school on time is to train you to consistently arrive on time for work. But thanks to AI, no one will have a job to show up for.

I hope it doesn't come as a shock to anyone that arriving on time is something worth learning. I can cite some colleagues who have to hire entry level workers on the topic of how well that lesson has been assimilated among the youths of today. That along with showing up every single day. And not leaving work whenever you get tired or bored. And a bunch of other attitudinal stuff.

Given all that, though, I would argue that the primary purpose for arriving on time at school is the same as the one for arriving at work on time, or arriving at Church on time, or arriving for a wedding on time, or arriving for a medical appointment on time, or arriving at your daughter's dance recital on time, or joining an Access User Group meeting on time. Not doing so is disrespectful, at the very least, and usually highly disruptive. Of course, you can sneak in late and stand in the back of the room, if that's your thing.

 

[Isaac]

Why are you afraid of jobs being lost? With every evolution in technology, there were a dozen jobs that vanished. Do you regret that?

Switchboard Operator Replaced by Automated telephone switching systems (1980s)
Film Projectionist (in small theaters) Replaced by: Digital projectors and automation (2000s–2010s)
Toll Booth Operator Replaced by: Electronic toll collection (ETC), e.g., E-ZPass, ETC (2010s)
Video Store Clerk Replaced by: Streaming services (Netflix, YouTube, etc.)
File Clerk / Archivist (manual) Replaced by: Digital databases and document scanning (1990s)
Bank Teller Reduced by: ATMs, online banking, mobile apps (2000s)
Door-to-Door Encyclopedia Salesperson Replaced by: Wikipedia, Google, and eBooks (1990s)
Photo Developer / Lab Technician Replaced by: Digital cameras, smartphones (2010s)
Mail Sorter Replaced by: Optical character recognition (OCR) and automation (1990s)
( I can give a hundred more if you wish)

Jobs come and get vanished. It's a part of our evolution. Why are you afraid of it?

Edit: And for your info, Computers were black females that were hired to calculate very hard and sophisticated math problems in NASA when US was in a war with Russia for owning the space.
Later IBM made a machine to replace computers and do their job faster. It was called computer after those ladies. (watch Hidden Figures)

Not all replacement technologies (which pushed jobs away) are equal. Some will eliminate more jobs all at once than others.