The other day, one person told me on the internet that AI to photography is like photography to painting, and that after photography, painting did not go away. In arguments that I’ve had about AI, people invariably respond that AI is just like any other technological innovation and that we’ll cope with it.
This is why I hate reasoning by analogy. This type of analogy is pure intellectual laziness. There are two crucial differences between AI and other automations that people never take into account:
- AI is designed to replace creative decisions and creativity, whereas other automations are designed to replace manual work.
- AI is an automation that will take over human work much faster than any other sort of work
These two factors make AI fundamentally different than any sort of other automation that exists. Therefore, we cannot use the past to predict what will happen in the future. Moreover, there are many clear reasons why AI will simply destroy us and make society significantly worse. Even if we cannot know that for certain, even a moderate likelihood of such consequences make it worth destroying AI.
Some people might argue that I’ve not even defined AI. That’s another tiresome response. To this I say, let’s start with generative AI like ChatGPT, LLMs, and other models. And, if we have to sit in a discussion about what is AI and what isn’t, then fine. But, there are already clear examples of technologies that should be eliminated from society, so let’s start with them.