riley333

Haven't heard much from my family in Japan. Layoffs are rare in Japan in general and unemployment is generally always in the 2% range there. I'm sure startups are struggling there though as that seems to be the global trend, but the software engineers I know there at bigger companies haven't mentioned anything about layoffs and seem to be doing fine.

This is some cartoon villain type of stuff.

That's true, and Apple has the capital to do pretty much whatever they want. I just think as we've seen with Google/Gemini it doesn't seem that easy to beat what OpenAI has going even with a lot of money to throw behind it. And I don't think Tim Cook is that much of a visionary but that's just my personal opinion.

I hope Apple does succeed though because I love their hardware and their silicon is great for AI applications.

Apple just needs to do SOMETHING exciting with AI. Vision Pro looks great, but it's only a small piece of a much larger puzzle. I'm not sure if they're just too big to move at the speed they need to move or if it's something more damning about their internal culture but they need to do something in this space faster than I think most people realize.

Not sure. I'm kind of surprised at the reaction myself haha

HN still feels like the old internet for the most part, at least. :)

But... but... What happens after I put my robe and wizard hat on?!

That's a completely fair point and it's why I don't really think UBI is the answer. But, what is the answer? I don't think anyone has this figured out yet. Capitalism is by far the best system we've come up with but I just don't know what happens when/if AGI happens. And maybe it won't ever happen but I'd rather be brainstorming about what to do if it does happen now than wait until it's too late.

There are so many reasons why this is happening and I personally think it's only tangentially related to AI. The internet has now become the home of "hustle culture" and is no longer serving the purpose of why it was first created.

Covid only accelerated this trend as people began to look for other ways to generate income online. Just look at the Gamestop and AMC amateur stock trading craze or the explosion of flipping sneakers or Pokemon cards for income.

A huge percentage of the internet consists solely of people looking to make a quick buck and/or establish some channel of passive income. The internet itself has been redefined as this weird vehicle for capitalism because we're careening towards a weird transitionary period in history as the rise of AI takes hold.

The only thing that can solve this is UBI or some kind of shared equity system where huge megacorps primarily operated by AI generate trillions and trillions of dollars in wealth that needs to be distributed to the populace somehow.

Godspeed as we enter this new age.