If I hear that "AI is just a tool" nonsense one more time...

Ok, so what is it then?

To me it's a tool. It helps me accomplish my goals with less effort. That's the definition of a tool right? What is AI to you then? Perhaps I'm being dumb, but not sarcastic.

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nemomarx 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

A large crop harvester is a tool, but if you used to work on a farm by hand it's not a tool you're going to get to use. It's a replacement for your labour and value, right? someone else will get to use the tool and earn money.

So the question is in what way ai is a tool to these kids.

	▲	48terry 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Let's add to this comparison a bit. Said farm workers have also been noticing headlines over the last years like: "Crop harvester CEO predicts crop harvesting machine will wipe out millions of jobs within months" "Crop harvester CEO: 'the crop harvester could destroy the world economy'." "Farm lays off half its employees, pivots to crop harvester" (repeat this one about 10 times a week for months) Then some idiot walks up to a crowd of farm hands talking about how awesome the crop harvester is. No shit he's going to get booed lmao. He's fucking lucky they're not beating his ass into a shallow grave.
	▲	2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
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IshKebab 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So, the people who are saying "it's just a tool" are trying to imply that it's just like an electric drill vs a hand drill, and all that will happen is that people will switch to the better tool and get much more productive and that's it!

Any maybe that's where we are today, but AI is rapidly improving and while we don't know what's going to happen there's very clearly a real possibility that instead of just people doing the same jobs but with a better tool, that tool will actually completely replace their jobs. Maybe a significant fraction of the jobs in society. That's no mere tool.

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48terry 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The direct and unambiguous purpose of AI as a tool has been to replace labor and treat workers badly. This is not some doomsaying thing. This is literally what CEOs and billionares creating and pushing this shit have openly discussed and shared with reporters (who proceed to publish the quotes 100% uncritically and with no investigative sense of curiosity to ask further questions about it). They are excited at the idea that AI means they can cull millions and millions of jobs.

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esafak 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If I use AI to automate swathes of your field out of a job AI isn't the only tool.