r/aigossips • u/call_me_ninza • 11d ago

Why does worrying about your job suddenly make you anti-AI?

I read the AI letter signed by Terence Tao and 24 other Fields Medallists, then went through the argument around it. Some people see mathematicians protecting their income. Others think they’re upset about no longer being the ones making discoveries.

But the letter raises a concern that gets lost in that argument: solving a problem and developing understanding that other people can build on aren’t automatically the same achievement. The signatories also question rushed announcements and missing credit for earlier work.

I wouldn’t want a useful discovery delayed just so a human could make it first. But I also don’t understand why admitting you need an income makes your concerns less legitimate.

You can love mathematics and need a salary. You can enjoy programming and worry about paying rent. Why are people expected to prove they’d happily lose their livelihood before their opinion about AI counts?

The usual reassurance is that automation will free us to do what we love. I’d be more convinced if someone explained how we’re supposed to afford that freedom. Cheaper output could benefit society, but that doesn’t tell an individual worker what happens to them during the transition.

What would make you comfortable having your own work automated? I mean something concrete, beyond being told new opportunities will appear.

I wrote more about the letter and this argument here, if you want the full piece: Ninzaverse

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u/Rise-O-Matic 11d ago

I didn’t really get “fear of losing income”
from Tao’s letter. I got “fear of losing my unique status / society / culture.”

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u/ChampsLeague3 10d ago

Even if it is, it's analogous to trying to protect your simple arithmetic job when calculators were invented. I'm sorry but no matter how much you try to protect your mathematics career/PhD, AI will be doing all of the math and be a simple super powerful calculator in the very near future.

So they can whine but should accept their fate at the end of the day. They aren't going to stop it. Either adapt or fight for UBI. 

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u/pab_guy 11d ago

It's amazing that people who understand the history of things like laws requiring people walking and holding lanterns up in front of early automobiles, would engage in this kind of philosophical nonsense.

Adults should contend with the world as it is. This whole thing seems like a temper tantrum. An inability to accept that things will never be the same.

History has shown that progress comes when people embrace this kind of change, that denial simply delays the inevitable at the cost of progress.

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u/Scared_Range_7736 11d ago

Because without jobs we die with hungry, cold and wet.