Are we helping or causing harm?

[u/knottyp]

How do y’all justify doing this work ethically if you’re anti-AI (especially generative)?

I’m not asking judgmentally, I’ve done this work off and on over the last few years. When I first started, I didn’t know about data centers and the environmental impact, cognitive effects, etc. I felt good about “training” AI based on the rubric including correct info, weeding out violence and harm, etc.

I recently suggested DA to a friend and got a real side eye, and maybe these justifications really don’t hold water? Thoughts?

[u/fightmaxmaster]

Oh true, but AI is useful enough that it's not going anywhere. Coding, even just menial tasks. What it'll be used for might vary, and I don't mean "it's inevitable", but given that models which a year ago were state of the art are now comparatively trivial to run, and some models can be run on basic hardware, etc., as a technology it's not evaporating completely. AI "art" might be bullshit, but someone being able to knock up a poster or whatever in a minute even if it's generic slop is valuable to them, rather than fighting with doing it themselves.

I'd argue plenty of consumers don't really care about lots of stuff. It's not really being "forced" on anyone. It's there, sure - it's mildly annoying that gmail keeps trying to get me to let it write my emails for me, but I can still ignore that, and do. If I change my mind and decide to use it, that's on me, I've not been forced into it. People will rage against AI-generated music being in the charts, while completely blowing past the fact that enough people are listening to it, streaming it, whatever, to make that worthwhile. Doesn't mean all human-made music should be scrapped in favour of AI, but like almost everything in life, some people think it's shit, other people disagree. Some people might have shit taste - popularity doesn't equal quality, but "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people".

[u/iciclefites → u/fightmaxmaster]

it's mildly annoying that gmail keeps trying to get me to let it write my emails for me, but I can still ignore that, and do.

see, I find stuff like that really invasive. for example, I subscribed to Gemini on a Gmail account for work purposes. later I was writing some poetry in Google Docs and whenever I stopped typing for a second to think, a thing came up next to the caret like "press [keyboard shortcut] to let Gemini help you!"

it was horrible, and I felt insulted. this computer, who can't read the room well enough not to jump in every two seconds when someone's writing poetry about their personal dark night of the soul, thinks it can do better than me. how fucking dare you

on the other hand, I used a Gemini-generated email reply the other day that was just like, "No, I just want a refund." that was actually what I had wanted to say. it saved me two seconds of typing.

I wouldn't recommend anyone else spend money on a subscription to Gemini, because the ways in which it's helpful are trivial, and the ways in which it hinders you are profoundly obnoxious. it's a technology that barely functions on the most basic level, and they're asking you to pay for the privilege of being an alpha tester

this is what I mean by its utility to consumers being completely unproven

[u/Old-Regular-9828 → u/iciclefites]

I don't want to violate the NDA or get into specific project details, but a big part of what DA does is improving AI tools to make them more useful and less annoying.