> Schmidt, who served in various capacities as CEO, Chairman, and technical advisor to Google and its parent company Alphabet across several decades, ...
AI Bros are spending too much good will being obnoxious about fancy approximation algorithms, when their purpose in real AI will be lizard brain/reflex type actions.
The next AI winter can't happen soon enough. (Note each past AI winter did give us new tools just like this one will, it's just a shame that it'll be an excuse to worsen customer support)
Correctly or not (probably to some degree correctly) new grads are hearing AI is a major reason why they're having trouble finding jobs which is simultaneously 1.) Probably mostly has always been the case--I no longer have the vast sheaf of rejection letters when I ever got one at all and 2.) Is anecdotally actually the case for a variety of reasons that also include pandemic overhiring and probably an out-sized AI effect on junior engineers, probably especially programmers.
> “There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics are fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create.”
The total lack of self-awareness that Schmidt and his cohort of tech billionaires has significantly contributed to all this is screaming even louder than the boos.
They just have not considered the massive shareholder value being captured, which under capitalism is certainly guaranteed to trickle down, as it had been historically proven time after time.
> Tennessee State University suggested AI was "rewriting production as we sit here" and told his audience to "deal with it" as they jeered him in response.
Guess it doesn't take much to see what's under the mask.
I’d be anxious, too, if I were just starting my career. Those kids just invested a lot of time and money in an education, and the payoff looks a lot like a gamble.
But AI is going to help, not hurt in the long run. Technology always makes things better and cheaper in the long run. Poverty diminishes, free time increases, things truly do get better over time. This’ll be a short term bump, but it’ll be a steep one.
I can fully understand some executives trying to hype up AI with the "It'll create more jobs!" mantra, but as it happens, the AI boom coincided with the post-COVID layoffs (from the hiring frenzy we saw back then) - so even though AI might directly not be responsible for less junior/grad hiring in the various industries, the vibe is that it is still responsible for the tough times college grads are facing.
Imagine bringing a new technology into the world, telling everyone it’s gonna take everything from them including possibly their literal lives, and then telling a bunch of kids to get on board or they’re gonna miss the billionaire rocket ship! lol these people are so out of touch.
"After my speech for the troops about how we are losing in Iran, my speech to children with cancer about how we've gutted research, sure I can then give a speech to people entering the job market about how AI is ruining the job market"
Perfect, that's exactly the message of despair we want to send! (How I imagine picking these speakers goes at every college campus)
AI is hitting junior positions way more than senior ones right now, and students with no professional experience are exactly who that affects most. They're walking into a job market where the kind of role they were supposed to start in is shrinking.
That said, booing a speaker mid-speech wouldn't be my move on my own graduation day. But I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be grinding my teeth in my seat.
Needs more booing. These so-called rich people have the gall to say, “You guys are going homeless, and there is nothing you can do about it. However, please use AI.”
"Your boos mean nothing, I've seen what makes you cheer."
There's an interesting duality. If you are someone people can target with relentless online harassment, you should be mortally scared to share your honest opinion.
If you are not, like Eric Schmidt's, there's absolutely no reason to care what other think.
Apart from being tonedeaf, this stuff just strikes me as very lazy. Who still needs to be told that AI is new and transformative? Getting the privilege of monologueing to a crowd of people on one of the biggest days of their lives, and then just throwing out a bunch of obvious cliches... pretty damning imo.
By rejecting AI, these students have a particularly bad future ahead. Rejecting reality doesn't make reality bend to you. Due to this rejection, they risk having few jobs, then no jobs. The Schmidts of the world have negative sympathy for such deniers.
Unfortunately, this is typical of the feral business overclass. It seems that the rampant Trump regime, the advent of AI, the long-term decline of the United States, coupled with the complete impunity the business class were granted during the 2008 crisis, has gone to their heads. The hate saddens, but doesn't surprise me.
GenAI is the first technology that I've ever seen that is actively rejected by young adults and fervently pushed by people over 55.
It seems Eric Schmids of the world think they (in their 70s) have more say about the future of these students than the students themselves. That is very unlikely.
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 54.2 ms ] threadIt is gratuitous to say “several,” no?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt
The next AI winter can't happen soon enough. (Note each past AI winter did give us new tools just like this one will, it's just a shame that it'll be an excuse to worsen customer support)
The total lack of self-awareness that Schmidt and his cohort of tech billionaires has significantly contributed to all this is screaming even louder than the boos.
Guess it doesn't take much to see what's under the mask.
But AI is going to help, not hurt in the long run. Technology always makes things better and cheaper in the long run. Poverty diminishes, free time increases, things truly do get better over time. This’ll be a short term bump, but it’ll be a steep one.
I can fully understand some executives trying to hype up AI with the "It'll create more jobs!" mantra, but as it happens, the AI boom coincided with the post-COVID layoffs (from the hiring frenzy we saw back then) - so even though AI might directly not be responsible for less junior/grad hiring in the various industries, the vibe is that it is still responsible for the tough times college grads are facing.
Perfect, that's exactly the message of despair we want to send! (How I imagine picking these speakers goes at every college campus)
That said, booing a speaker mid-speech wouldn't be my move on my own graduation day. But I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be grinding my teeth in my seat.
I hope everybody reflects on the fact that it's the same people.
There's an interesting duality. If you are someone people can target with relentless online harassment, you should be mortally scared to share your honest opinion.
If you are not, like Eric Schmidt's, there's absolutely no reason to care what other think.
It seems Eric Schmids of the world think they (in their 70s) have more say about the future of these students than the students themselves. That is very unlikely.
Most technologies offer new opportunities to young adults.