I constantly wonder what is the societal benefits of AI

It’s really hard to build a coherent pro-AI argument

AI is great at producing low value content. That low value content replaces the high value but high cost one.

That is horrifying and destroys jobs, removes expertise from the world, and makes our lives worse.

I do not see how AI could be a net positive either.

> It’s really hard to build a coherent pro-AI argument

agree, given that we have a natural tendency to believe what we read - or only comprehend what we believe [1].

[1] https://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/brenner/mar7588/Papers/gilbe...

You can at the local level.

I thought this piece was realistic and hopeful:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/ai-open-ai-anthrop...

I can't control how the world uses AI, but my family and friends have been using it to start new businesses, finally resolve some long-term medical mysteries, and plan trips they wouldn't have otherwise.

I find it to be a useful tool for summarizing things, creating examples, and as a tutor for explaining a topic using analogies. Plus it can generate and iterate on code snippets.

Like, I personally find python pandas documentation unusable because they don't come with examples next to the function definition. (historically at least, maybe they have changed)

So I was left flailing, trying to cobble something together that was even capable of running without error, much less emitting the output I wanted.

Now that an LLM has badly-memorized 80% of the documentation and can generate 3 different attempts in 5 seconds, I'm free to focus on the actual problem I am working on rather than guessing at syntax for something I use less than once a week.

So I see at least the ability to have a on-demand tutor or sounding board, at any time of day, for pennies, to be a boon for anyone who wants to learn a bit or try reaching for something just outside of their current understanding.

I think if I had to find any defence for AI, it's that it provides an efficient way to create things that don't matter, but which society desperately tries to pretend are important somehow.

Meaningless corporate presentations, most documents used for hiring and job searching, content on business sites that probably doesn't need to be there, etc. AI at least speeds that up given society's reluctance to get rid of it altogether.

I guess it can also be used to speed up rote work that doesn't really feel engaging but needs to be anyway, or as a Google equivalent for people that don't know the terminology needed to find information about a topic.

But at the end of the day, AI is basically the very definition of the lowest common denominator. Or maybe the most average one.

So, if you're not particularly interested in something, know nothing about how it works or have no talent for it whatsoever, AI is almost like magic. If you do know how it works, then it's often laughably bad.

Products need to be sold

Ads needed to sell products

Social media sells lots of ads around content

Content is expensive because you need to revenue share with the people that make it

AI makes content for free

Ad sales margin goes up

Tech companies make most of their money selling ads around content and they needed a way to increase margin so they created a content making machine.

AI is like when some fella named Nobel synthesized dynamite. He sure did have good intentions as it relates to safety for workers doing dangerous jobs.

There is your “pro” argument.

The “con” argument would be all the other ways dynamite has been twisted and used since.

This AI stuff is neither good or bad, it is a tool. The people using it are either good or bad.

>what is the societal benefits of AI

it will hopefully eviscerate the petite bourgeoisie and the bohemians.

We have a demographic collapse looming in the horizon in most developed countries. If we find a way to use 1 human instead of 2 to produce the same amount of intellectual work in 10-20 years as we do today, that's a huge societal benefit.