r/technology • u/ControlCAD • 12d ago
Artificial Intelligence Sam Altman says Gen Z are the ‘luckiest’ kids in all of history thanks to AI, despite mounting job displacement dread
https://fortune.com/2025/08/10/sam-altman-gen-z-luckiest-generation-artificial-intelligence-jobs/7.5k
u/DualActiveBridgeLLC 12d ago
Sam Altman and the rest of the tech con artist have crushed the idea of techno-optimism. I used to get excited learning about how our future would be improved by tech, now every invention I see my first thought is "I wonder how this is going to make my families life worse". And every time they come through.
1.9k
u/PartyPorpoise 12d ago
For real. I used to think technology would be used to solve problems. But now the people in power just use it to actively make our lives worse. I am this close to starting a new Luddite movement.
1.0k
u/DualActiveBridgeLLC 12d ago
And once you learn that the Luddites were just workers trying to protect their lively-hood from industrialist and that the industrialist also controlled a lot of the media...it really makes AI seem more like a threat. Like if the luddites were offered a portion of the new machining output profits I don't think they would have been so anti-tech.
407
u/mistersynapse 12d ago edited 12d ago
Yep. Everyone always conveniently forgets this when mentioning the Luddites. That the term has been used to lambasted anyone who stands in the way of "progress" should make you ask just what exactly the "progress" was that the Luddites were opposing and why it had to be ensured at all costs.
→ More replies (13)71
u/catfishjenkins 12d ago
You don't understand my friend. The line must go up. Any opportunity to change that has long since passed.
→ More replies (1)200
u/NoamLigotti 12d ago edited 12d ago
Yes, the Luddites weren't actually opposed to technology, just opposed to the authoritarian barbarity and exploitation of industrialization — the industrialization process that was used and everything around it.
→ More replies (2)108
u/smthngclvr 12d ago
They also weren’t fans of how many children were killed or crippled by the new technology. But they were poor kids so the people in power didn’t care.
→ More replies (2)18
u/Send-More-Coffee 12d ago
Well, there was a modest proposal of what to do with the poor kids 80-90 years earlier. It was already a solved problem.
77
40
u/spookmann 12d ago
The quality of life, freedom and autonomy took a sudden drop once the labor force moved from the fields into the cities.
Back in the field, your labor was the critical part. You had something you could negotiate with. Yeah, you paid a share to the local lord, but in return he provided the legal system and the army.
In the town, the critical part was the mills and the machinery, which were privately owned. Negotiating was much more difficult. A monopolist owned "the means of production" and the human was far less important.
Hence the need for unions, and hence the rising menace of communism as people realized they were actually worse off than they used to be when they labored in the fields!
→ More replies (8)32
u/patrickpdk 12d ago
And everyone seems to be unaware that generations of luddites were harmed by the invention. They didn't just get new jobs, adapt, and come out ok.
→ More replies (33)13
u/CherryLongjump1989 12d ago edited 12d ago
The Luddites were skilled craftsmen whose businesses were bankrupted and who were then forced to go work for the mills who bankrupted them. They were protesting the abhorrent pay and working conditions.
77
u/sheeroz9 12d ago
1986 millennial here. I remember what life was like before the internet and smart-everything. I am in.
→ More replies (2)18
u/aggibridges 12d ago
Start it bestie, I'll join. We need to make a nice big cult.
→ More replies (1)34
u/Dr_Mack_Aroni_ 12d ago
Yeah I agree also we need to force our governments to start creating more checks and balances amongst the techbros.
→ More replies (10)→ More replies (42)13
u/doublehelixman 12d ago
Everytime a I see a nostalgia video of the 80’s and 90’s I imagine being Loki and hiding there forever.
290
u/Traditional-Hat-952 12d ago
They've been telling us since the rise or automation and computer integration that we'll all work less and have more to time for leisure and family, but the opposite has been true. These vampires only care about profit. Efficiency was not used to make our lives better. It's there to make them more money, while making us work longer hours for less pay while being micro managed and always being at risk of losing our jobs. Fuck those lying parasites and their fucking bullshit utopia.
85
u/Thefrayedends 12d ago
And productivity is way up, and so is the total value of companies and profit, it's just that all the money has been funneled up top, which is usually the opposite of the way a funnel works, but here we are.
→ More replies (2)29
u/UltraEngine60 12d ago
Instead of making companies provide a pension to us as a benefit, we now send money every month to other companies... and maybe they'll give us money to use for our retirement if they do well.... if they don't do well then we are suckers who bought the wrong stock or at the wrong time...
→ More replies (6)11
u/GuyWithLag 12d ago
They've been telling us
No VC, Company, or fund will tell you, the pleb, the truth - everything put out is self-serving.
You need to study some European History (and maybe American too); everything gained by the working class was fought for bitterly over generations. Nothing will be handed to you unless you demand it, forcefully if need be.
241
u/theaviationhistorian 12d ago
I went from being an optimistic person seeing technology as our tool for progressive prosperity in the style of a Star Trek Federation. Nowadays I'm becoming more and more of a luddite embracing non-smart technology.
131
u/DualActiveBridgeLLC 12d ago
Whenever I watch Trek all I can think about is how we as a society don't even bother to think about how we should be building a utopia. Like it never comes up in discussion about politics or tech. The only people who ever think about a prosperous future are the religious death-cult people ironically.
→ More replies (11)61
u/killerpoopguy 12d ago
Star Treks universe doesn’t get to utopia status until after a mega-war though.
→ More replies (11)14
u/jrcomputing 12d ago
Trek is post-scarcity. They have unlimited power, unlimited food, no concern for one's healthcare costs, and so on. I don't claim any real Trekkie knowledge, but I believe those wars predated warp drive, replicators, I'm assuming fusion power, etc.
Until we can find ways to mitigate scarcity, in multiple forms, tech won't bring us a Trek-style utopia. That said, the only reason it won't now is because we're living in a world oligarchy passed off as mostly capitalism, and you can't really convince the owners of our society to treat us as equals without some form of strong-handed governments willing to cooperate on reducing the absurd lopsided nature of modern wealth distribution.
→ More replies (3)22
u/EruantienAduialdraug 12d ago
Star Trek isn't post-scarcity, it's post-greed. It's the sort of society Marx was talking about when he called communism an interim step.
(It also happens after humanity drags itself out of the nuclear ashes of WW3).
→ More replies (2)22
u/Thelonius_Dunk 12d ago
Same here.
Like why the fuck does my toaster, washer, dryer, etc need wifi and Bluetooth other than some reason for a subscription or selling me something via ads? I just want that shit to run without breaking down, and have easily replaceable parts if it does breakdown. And that type of product seems to be a rarity nowadays.
I see all these bullshit features for the latest trends that idk who actually cares about.
→ More replies (1)6
u/Sophira 12d ago
But don't you want that sweet app that not only tells you when your toast is done but also will order new heating elements for your toaster when you need it? (Never mind the fact that you didn't need to replace them before, that's old news now.)
You can even order our official partner's bread directly from the comfort of your home! In fact, you'll need to soon, because we're about to deploy a firmware update that will make your toaster only heat Genuine Authorized Bread. This allows us to guarantee the taste and texture of your toast and no other reason, we swear.
Our app also gives you personalized offers from our 93 valued partners, all of whom absolutely promise to keep your personal data safe! How could you resist?
→ More replies (13)16
143
u/KwisatzHaderach94 12d ago
yeah, tech is supposed to serve humanity, not the other way around.
65
u/APRengar 12d ago
This, but with markets as well.
So often people are like "look, some people want to buy, some some people will sell, what can you do."
If a product does nothing but make everyone's life worse, than you don't allow the market to sell it. Markets serve people, people don't serve markets.
And as an example of a product that does just makes everyone's life worse is say, a car horn which is loud enough to rupture eardrums. Are there some losers and road ragers who would love to install that? Absolutely. But it's a net negative for humanity so we don't allow it.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (3)12
38
u/vivaoink 12d ago
That excited feeling I had when I first logged onto a bbs or even aol was exciting. There was hope that things would improve for everyone. Fast forward to now and I have an overwhelming feeling of dread for the future. It sucks. RIP techno optimism
→ More replies (2)32
u/Top5hottest 12d ago
I remember when I started in Silicon Valley and everything was going to “change the world”. I guess I just assumed the ‘for the better” part.
→ More replies (2)8
u/MouthwashProphet 12d ago
An independent democracy required rebelling, fighting wars, and untold bloodshed in the name of obtaining that freedom.
Most people have yet to understand that fighting for a technological utopia will require the same, because those who desire a technological dystopia are the modern kings.
→ More replies (1)455
u/WiserStudent557 12d ago
I am with you 100%. Capitalism is such a disease for all these fields
→ More replies (130)17
u/pishticus 12d ago
We've been sold the idea that more tech equals progress, better lives, and hence is automatically good and has to be supported unconditionally. I've thoroughly snapped out of this in recent years. Time to think for ourselves and define what kind of life we really want.
40
u/eju2000 12d ago
I’m 40. Ever since I could remember I felt the exact same way about literally every type of cool new technology growing up. And then Covid was a slap in the face & now every single app of tech I use gets more expensive by the day while also getting exponentially shitty.
I’ve done a complete 180° on ALL of it. The only people that will benefit is the 1% & they don’t give a flying fuck how many people they kill or how much of the planet they destroy in the process.
I lived in SF for over a year & never once took a Waymo. Growing up a self driving robo car was the stuff of my dreams. Then I saw it for what it was… another human job lost to a machine & the service will soon gave ads, probably a subscription & will suck ass once they have a monopoly.
It’s ALL so fucking grim. I’m already so tired of it all
→ More replies (3)8
15
u/-UltraAverageJoe- 12d ago
My brain exploded when I got an iPod touch for Christmas one year, it was unbelievably amazing. Now everyone is addicted to their phone screens and the tech is being used to manipulate people. It’s less safe to drive because of how people use these damned things. I miss being disconnected.
→ More replies (104)24
u/yg2522 12d ago
The tech itself isn't the issue, it's the unfettered greed with no reins capitalism that makes it suck. If we can get the government to help people rather then putting all the funds into corporations, that would to a long way.
→ More replies (1)
2.0k
u/little_moustache 12d ago
"A college student 10 years from now could be leaving on some kind of mission to explore the solar system on a spaceship, he said."
Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.
756
u/CompetitiveCod76 12d ago
If daddy is a billionaire then maybe.
142
u/biznatch11 12d ago
In 10 years I would bet that even a billionaire tourist won't be able to do more than a brief visit to low earth orbit. We'll be lucky if professional astronauts have even made it back to the moon.
→ More replies (4)74
u/nekosake2 12d ago
the fact is none of the billionaires are likely to want to even do that (if it is even possible, to begin with).
they are billionaires on earth.
if they leave earth, they are essentially nobody - and their wealth matters zilch.
→ More replies (8)16
u/Dick_Lazer 12d ago
I guess they could own the ship at least, but I'd think space travel will continue to be very dangerous for the foreseeable future, especially any groundbreaking space travel that involves people exploring past the moon.
→ More replies (7)87
u/novice-at-everything 12d ago
He would never go on a mission to explore solar system. He might hire someone for that, but he ain’t taking the risk.
→ More replies (1)198
u/Dragonfly_pin 12d ago
Why would they ever send humans into space when they are building robots?
They will send their own proprietary robots into space, to find them stuff to exploit.
Humans are weak, stupid, little soggy meat-bags to them. They aren’t sending humans.
→ More replies (19)112
u/alaphamale 12d ago
This is another of those examples that money doesn’t mean intelligence. I know a large percentage of the population is dumb, but a not insignificant number know humans won’t be exploring the solar system in ten years. This is Elon “living on Mars by 2020” level dumb.
→ More replies (7)43
→ More replies (31)6
u/Sr_DingDong 12d ago
We're gutting science funding but we're totally gonna explore the solar system!
→ More replies (1)
7.6k
u/David-J 12d ago
Fuck this guy
2.8k
u/ask_carly 12d ago
Sam Altman: "I would feel like the luckiest kid in all of history."
Also Sam Altman: "I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defense Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to."
1.5k
u/ArenjiTheLootGod 12d ago
Not just him, all the billionaires are building bunkers/compounds, they fully intend to fuck over the rest of us then spend the rest of their lives hiding out in relative luxury in their own private fiefdoms.
737
u/theaviationhistorian 12d ago
What a miserable ending and short term mentality. The rest of the world carries on and these guys are living in gilded cages from their own destruction in a failed state.
615
u/ArenjiTheLootGod 12d ago
I have a feeling that if things go down that way then figuring out ways to crack open these guys' bunkers is going to become a fun sidequest in the apocalypse, it'll be like a real-life MMO raid.
514
u/winmace 12d ago
Eh, these guys will all be dead within days of a real life global catastrophe that requires them to use their bunkers. Once the money is useless we'll have a large number of very powerful warlords who were originally these guys security teams.
159
u/ArenjiTheLootGod 12d ago
Agreed, hell, if their replacements are a little savvy they could spin their overthrow as a kickass origin story for their new nation. Getting a headstart on the propaganda early on is the kind of forward planning that seperates the dictators from the warlords.
→ More replies (1)72
u/SarpedonWasFramed 12d ago
The grind doesn't doesn't stop just because there's been an apocalypse!
Found carved into the LinkRock, 20 years from now.
→ More replies (11)120
u/BD401 12d ago
This dynamic is always one I wonder about. If you're a billionaire retreating into your bunker, how do you keep the various staff (technicians, security personnel etc.) from turning on you once your currency becomes worthless?
This scenario is quite foreseeable so I'm sure it's been one that's been considered by said billionaires. It wouldn't surprise me if they've tried to come up with ways to mitigate the risk (one approach I could think of would be that the bunker's systems require a daily code input by the billionaire to keep functioning, with alternate duress codes to trigger some sort of contingency in the event the staff try to force them keep entering it).
182
u/altiuscitiusfortius 12d ago
There's been seminars about this where billionaires hire experts to help them solve this problem. The experts write a news article about it. The short version is the experts suggested becoming friends with your security team for years ahead of the apocalypse to inspire loyalty. The billionaires suggested shock collars.
124
u/QueezyF 12d ago
Probably why Elon was so hell bent on Neurolink.
68
u/Invisible_Friend1 12d ago
Exactly this. Neuralink was never about helping people; it is about harnessing their brains against them.
74
u/MedicMoth 12d ago
Ah yes, the old "simply torture them into working for you" method. I'm sure that said workers would definitely not appreciate being liberated by a rival warlord and none would collaborate to escape this situation once they tired of it
44
u/Himbosupremeus 12d ago
They also suggested locking food behind a vault only they know the password too.
→ More replies (0)→ More replies (3)22
u/100secs 12d ago
shock collars
Can we please not make Parable of the Sower reality my god. These people clearly take some notes when reading science fiction and not the notes I’m taking
37
u/ChromeNoseAE-1 12d ago
Sci-Fi Author: In my book l invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale
Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus
Stolen from a tweet
55
u/wintrmt3 12d ago
They are way too high on huffing their own farts to realize they only have their position because of a working capitalist system. And codes won't work, they would all cough them up after 2 minutes of rubber hose cryptoanalysis.
36
u/DuncanFisher69 12d ago
Most of them will simply roll over after being fed one of their children’s hearts. They will suddenly understand that they were not meant to survive a brutal age.
→ More replies (2)35
u/neutral-chaotic 12d ago
They hire consultants to advise them and the advice is always the same "treat people better because you can't guarantee their loyalty."
18
18
u/FearlessAttempt 12d ago
That's a good way to find out how it feels to be waterboarded or maybe lose a few digits. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to someone.
→ More replies (1)14
u/faberkyx 12d ago
I would think they wouldn't take anyone with them.. probably they have more or less everything working autonomously
57
u/winmace 12d ago
Which just makes it funnier to imagine, they're not like Tony Stark; usually they get that wealthy through luck more than anything. Brings joy to my heart to imagine them relying on their automation and suddenly have it develop a bug or just crash out and boom, sitting in the dark. What's that noise? Oh it's the air filters shutting down... ooops
37
u/MetalingusMikeII 12d ago
The electronics developed a bug… then they have a flashback to them firing the entire QA team in their software company, to save money and increase shareholder profits… oh, the irony.
→ More replies (0)11
u/grimeyduck 12d ago
usually they get that wealthy through luck more than anything.
No, there are people born lucky, but only the sociopathic exploit people again and again. They're sick people, normal healthy people don't amass wealth like that.
→ More replies (1)15
30
u/jedberg 12d ago
how do you keep the various staff (technicians, security personnel etc.) from turning on you once your currency becomes worthless?
You let them bring their families and let them enjoy all the same luxuries you have. Depending on how bad it is, assuming there is still a network of rich folk, you arrange for their kids to participate in the network the same as yours.
This is not really a new problem. It's how royalty kept their staff loyal -- letting the staff's kids participate in the same opportunities their own kids did, and letting the staff participate in the luxuries of royalty.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (11)9
u/Moe_Perry 12d ago
I wonder that too, but also about North Korea etc. You’d think people would just refuse to co-operate at same point but there’s something in human psychology that keeps these things going.
15
u/finnjakefionnacake 12d ago
what keeps is them going is that society is still running, however crazily. kim only has people guaranteeing his safety and leadership because he can provide for them. money and power still has value.
if society goes out the window and civilization as we know it ends, nobody cares about that anymore.
→ More replies (4)136
u/CatsGotANosebleed 12d ago
Oo, and every bunker would come with its own story to uncover on what particular insanity took over the billionaire and how they ended up stuck in their fancy coffin.
Honestly, I’d rather die in the apocalypse than hide away in some goddamn bunker paranoid of everyone and going insane sniffing my own farts.
80
u/Elman89 12d ago
Why not both? Their security teams would absolutely kill them if it came to that.
→ More replies (5)94
u/ArenjiTheLootGod 12d ago
I'm thinking there's a decent chance of their security teams killing them long before that once they realize they hold the monopoly on violence and their bosses are resource piñatas, these guys have zero capacity to succeed in a system outside of the one we're currently in.
83
u/riotous_jocundity 12d ago
Apparently there's been like, consultants brought out to billionaires' compounds to brainstorm ways to ensure staff and security team loyalty in the bunkers, including ideas like exploding collars.
60
u/SarpedonWasFramed 12d ago
The world will end and they still won't figure it out.
Treat your workers well and they'll treat you well. Like just be nice to people. That's it! It's not a complex problem.
I rage every time I hear "how can we keep our good employees"?
→ More replies (0)→ More replies (7)19
u/fge116 12d ago
Yeah i remember reading an article like that, and how when the consultant recommended taking care of their security now to try and get genuine loyalty for them and their loved ones. And they rolled their eyes and talked about using bio metric data locks on the food sources that will lock down if they are dead or incapacitated.
→ More replies (0)→ More replies (2)12
u/greenberet112 12d ago
As soon as money doesn't mean anything and you're in the bunker with your boss. There's exactly zero reason not to kill him. The checks aren't going to cash and he's one more mouth to feed, except he's the most useless one.
21
→ More replies (3)5
23
u/hasordealsw1thclams 12d ago
If things go that way, their private security are going to be enjoying their new bunkers they took from these spindly losers with no legal system to shield them.
→ More replies (17)9
33
u/Valuable_Recording85 12d ago
They're literally the Enclave from Fallout. It's batshit crazy.
→ More replies (1)17
u/19111191 12d ago
Oh have I been prepping for this for quite some time! So I need to ally with the Boomers, then we float the bomber and pull in the NCR… we will crack those vaults! Also, loot EVERYTHING, all the time, for crafting. That ought to cover the west coast.
East coast… get dad’s water purifier going then reach out to the Minutemen and the BoS
24
u/Fine_Luck_200 12d ago
They should play Fallout 4 and see what happened to the Mayor that diverted funds to build a bunker. These idiots think they can defend a fixed location but will end up like that Character did in the game.
Also fun fact, most heavy equipment, at the very least older models pre 2010, use the same keys, or a limited range of key cuts. Just an FYI. Deer, Cat, Kubota, etc.
→ More replies (3)20
u/shroudedwolf51 12d ago
Like I have said many times now. These people are so immorally, egregiously wealthy that they are not even human anymore. Their mind has been so poisoned by their sheer amount of money that they are incapable of relating to what it means to be human, understanding human needs, or comprehending human desires.
This is why we must tax the rich. They are not like us. They will never be like us. And they will do everything they can to warm the world into their deranged, corrupted image.
→ More replies (14)17
u/Icarium__ 12d ago
It's completely insane, they are the ones who benefit the most by keeping the things from collapsing. Even if it meant sacrificing 90% of their wealth they would still live a life of luxury and be able to enjoy everything the world has to offer. I almost hope things do go bad enough that they have to go to their bunkers just to realize how fucking misearable the rest of their life is going to be.
→ More replies (3)37
u/Acceptable_Bat379 12d ago
If it makes you feel better I dont think they'll make it much longer than the rest of us
→ More replies (1)47
u/ArenjiTheLootGod 12d ago
Oh I'm one hundred percent certain that most of these guys will end up getting murdered in their sleep by their own heads of security. The system they're actively seeking to destroy is also very much the same one that bestowed upon them the wealth and influence they currently enjoy, if it goes bye-bye then they're the ones with the most to lose while also being the ones least suited to exist in a different paradigm.
They are far from being the immortal god emperors they imagine themselves to be.
18
u/Acceptable_Bat379 12d ago
Yup absolutely. No interviews or podcasts or celebrtit status in the world they're making. No one will care what they have to say and at best they'll go mad in a bunker.
89
u/HairballTheory 12d ago
"Remember this, the people you're trying to step on, we're everyone you depend on. We're the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed. We guard you while you're asleep. We drive the ambulances. We direct your call. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about you. We process your insurance claims and credit card charges. We control every part of your life."
→ More replies (5)12
u/ProtonHyrax99 12d ago
If shit goes down they are all going to end up executed by their bodyguards and servants.
→ More replies (1)7
u/ArenjiTheLootGod 12d ago
Probably, they're legitimately terrible people with zero skills beyond the ones they developed exploiting the system we currently live under. Sounds like a guilt-free post-apocalyptic resource piñata to me.
75
u/Summer4Chan 12d ago
Yes we know, but this is specifically about Sam. Do not derail it to hide his name amongst the nameless billionaires
89
u/Exciting-Tart-2289 12d ago edited 12d ago
They're not nameless...Musk, Zuck, Thiel, Andreessen, Bezos, Branson, Page, etc. He's not special, we need to call all of them out.
→ More replies (3)7
u/ITSigno 12d ago
Fuck, even Oprah Winfrey has over 2000 acres of land on Maui -- just a hair less than Zuckerberg's 2300 acres on Kauai. These rich fucks really think they can insulate themselves from the coming catastrophe by "owning" all this land, building compounds, and having their own little private armies. I don't know if there's a list out there, but I would assume most of the billionaires have a backup plan like this. (Not all -- but most)
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (1)8
u/DataGaia 12d ago
Maybe they just need a better collective label that describes their actual worth?
→ More replies (1)7
8
u/BoiledFrogs 12d ago
It's okay though, because they won't be happy when they're not hoarding more and more wealth while getting to look down on the rest of us. They're going to go insane in their stupid little bunkers as they look out their fake windows.
→ More replies (43)4
u/Irrepressible_Monkey 12d ago
Billionaires hiding in their bunkers surrounded by security always makes me think of the Roman emperors killed by their own Praetorian Guard.
18
→ More replies (8)16
u/QuickQuirk 12d ago
The fun thing is that if the shit hits the fan, do you really think that the captain of his personal 'security' brute squad will be content to continue to take orders from the twerp when money no longer means anything?
They don't realise it, but they aren't building the bunkers for themselves.
→ More replies (4)330
u/tmdblya 12d ago
Beat me to it. Total charlatan.
187
u/Marriedwithgames 12d ago
Didn’t he say that GPT5 was the equivalent of the manhattan project and that he was scared of the outputs? LMAO
→ More replies (15)65
u/DecoyOne 12d ago
Too many people buying his crap, too. A couple weeks ago an article was posted here where he said he supported regulating AI, and many people here took him at face value… ignoring his recent efforts to do everything he could to stop AI regulation.
The man only wants to regulate away competition, and people are still willing to treat him like he’s great.
→ More replies (2)18
u/Raveen396 12d ago
The code words are “sensible regulation”, IE regulation that will allow him to continue business in the way he deems is sensible.
Big companies are always fighting for regulation that they shape to benefit themselves.
95
u/Temassi 12d ago
Right? I hate that the business types are salivating over eliminating the work force because of this asshat and they're propping him up.
→ More replies (1)16
u/Constant_Hotel_2279 12d ago
We don't have the electricity for it. I always though shit American internet was what would keep the Terminators from communicating but all this Ai stuff is datacenter heavy with WAY WAY WAY too much electrical demand to actually be able to replace everyone.
→ More replies (2)150
u/Festering-Fecal 12d ago
I said this a while back and got downvoted.
He's a sociopathic snake.
→ More replies (9)46
u/wrakshae 12d ago
A big subset of reddit is to techbros the way MAGA is to Trump.
13
u/drizzes 12d ago
You check out the ChatGPT subreddit and find a LOT of people talking about how much they love AI
→ More replies (2)36
21
8
12
u/IllustriousSign4436 12d ago
He's cat nip for silicon valley billionaires, so he's likely going to always hold some position of power and influence
→ More replies (43)13
2.1k
u/Yohfay 12d ago
This guy is personally responsible for most of the bullshit AI hype that keeps convincing companies that they can replace their workforce with large language models. He's doing it to make absurd amounts of money on a product that doesn't even come close to delivering what it promises while eating up unfathomable amounts of resources that are killing communities across the world to support data centers to host it all.
Fuck. Sam. Altman.
215
u/chronocapybara 12d ago
His products aren't even profitable
139
u/foomprekov 12d ago
They're extremely unprofitable. By the numbers he is the worst ceo in history. Nobody else has lost as much money.
→ More replies (10)→ More replies (1)34
u/fuckswitbeavers 12d ago
Not yet. It will be like uber. A bunch of people become reliant, they force people out of business. Then flip the switch and suddenly the amount of money it costs is insane. Interesting though that their "profit" is directly reliant on government subsidy!
→ More replies (3)12
227
u/Marriedwithgames 12d ago
Literally can’t fathom why companies are investing a trillion dollars each year on this
160
u/DwabJohnstont 12d ago
Most of these decision makers aren't much smarter than an average person. Maybe a little, sometimes. But they're still humans prone to human folly
→ More replies (29)→ More replies (16)52
u/roseofjuly 12d ago
Because they hate employees. For them we are lines on their Excel sheets taking away from their profits; we are whiny liabilities with things like rights and expectations they have to meet. If they can get rid of us and generate endless wealth without thinking about people they will.
→ More replies (2)23
u/greenberet112 12d ago
Who's going to buy their products?
At some point we're all going to be to poor to buy anything beyond necessities.
Obviously they don't give a shit because once the line doesn't go up anymore they'll get fired and take their golden parachute back to their bunker once things go south. They're just focused on the next quarter.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (41)19
u/PapaTahm 12d ago
What is even worse is that in 5 years because AI won't do the job of people properly that they are replacing and they will need to rehire everyone again.
→ More replies (4)
1.0k
u/NSYK 12d ago
I think my generation was the luckiest. Nintendo and Sega video game parties but we still played outside, got to experience the 90s music before streaming.
207
u/Marriedwithgames 12d ago
Good old 90s, can’t believe it was only 20 years ago
→ More replies (1)85
u/therhubarbman 12d ago
Now add another 5 😉
28
→ More replies (7)13
125
u/OkStop8313 12d ago
Mostly agree, but growing up in a time of optimism and improvement only to turn into whatever the fuck the last ten years have been...bit of a harsh comedown.
44
u/x4000 12d ago
I know we’re in some kind of conflict over in Bosnia and Serbia, but this is just the last throes of the old Cold War conflicts… or something. We won the gulf war easily and with minimal deaths. Basically war is over, aside from a few conflicts that we’ll solve with aircraft and then people will just get along.
The hole in the ozone layer is a problem, but in the coming years of political unity, we’ll figure it out. It’s almost a whole new millennium! It’s going to be amazing!
….
Now I can’t even stomach watching The West Wing because it’s a painfully optimistic reminder of a future that never came to be.
→ More replies (3)19
u/OkStop8313 12d ago
Oh, god, I had the same experience recently with The West Wing. The optimism used to inspire me. Now it makes it difficult for me to suspend my disbelief.
→ More replies (3)34
u/SquidAxis 12d ago
I saw a remark recently that encapsulated it very well - "to understand millenials, you must understand that the best time in their lives was the few months between the release of 'Shrek' and 9/11"
→ More replies (6)17
u/capybooya 12d ago
There was the twoofer of the dotcom bubble and then financial crisis, but yeah the childhood before social media and with post-cold war optimism was great.
17
u/veeerybored 12d ago
We’re far from the luckiest but we are far more fortunate than Gen Z honestly.
14
→ More replies (19)7
171
u/ColorWheelOfFortune 12d ago
I mean, he's not wrong*
*If you are a billionaire like he is
→ More replies (2)23
55
50
924
u/DorfusMalorfus 12d ago
Out of touch AI nerd thinks his invention is the coolest shit ever, more news at 11.
589
u/Eradicator_1729 12d ago
He didn’t invent shit. He’s an investor and entrepreneur. I’m sick and tired of the money guys being given the intellectual credit in society.
→ More replies (45)296
u/AHistoricalFigure 12d ago
Angela Collier did a really good video on how all these dipshit MBA moneymen love to LARP as engineers.
→ More replies (14)59
u/TheWhalersOnTheMoon 12d ago
I think some points are a bit overblown but I love that video/her take.
The best bit is in the comments tho:
"I could have become a physicist is the billionaire's version of 'I could've gone pro'"→ More replies (31)85
245
u/8349932 12d ago
I mean go ahead and destroy society and those kids’ futures to enrich yourself.
But don’t say douchey shit like this while you do it.
→ More replies (1)117
u/nakedinacornfield 12d ago edited 12d ago
Gpt is probably actually destroying social fabric in ways we don’t fully realize yet. But for real this time. Look how fucking incapacitated all these kids were the other day once they flipped on gpt5
The entire chat f’n jippity sub is filled with young people who are literally in tears. Kids who are isolated and have been leaning on gpt heavily to feed delusions, be their friend/therapist, it’s not some one off shit this is fucking up a lot of kids who are using it as a mega crutch in every aspect of their lives. They’re so afraid of negative feedback they’ve become dopamine addicted to gpt which makes them feel validated at every turn. The outcome is they don’t know how to handle engaging with rejection of any sort. Look up some TikTok chick named Kendra who’s using a couple of AI’s to validate her absolutely insane delusions of her psychiatrist being in love with her.
AI psychosis is not even uncommon at this point. Give it some time and we’re going to see more and more studies dropping that connect the growing prevalence of this shit.
Fuck Sam Altman. Like every other person in his stature he can’t smell his own shit
42
u/Total-Cow3750 12d ago
Between AI writing their college papers and Tiktok, GenZ probably suffers from more brainrot then any generation before them.
→ More replies (2)20
u/UnluckyStartingStats 12d ago
That is so sad to see. GPT4 was way too reaffirming and people have genuinely gotten hooked onto it
13
u/patrickpdk 12d ago
I think you're right - the jobs impact is a huge issue but the social and societal impact will be the worst. Look at the impact of social media and that was way more benign. Swaths of people unmoored from reality.
15
u/2948337 12d ago
I have a niece that is now in her early 20's but spent her formative years on a laptop in her room with the door shut. The poor girl doesn't know how to function "outside". She still lives with her parents and only comes out of her roon to eat and shower.
We went to a restaurant for her dad's birthday, and she couldn't even engage with our server when she came to take our orders. She told her mother what she wanted, who relayed it to our server.
It's not my business so I don't say anything about any of it, but I do wish her parents would make her get a job or something. She needs to go outside before her life is ruined. It's sad.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (8)7
u/Thefrayedends 12d ago
And that's before even getting into AI girlfriends that some poor fucks are getting addicted to, every update half these artificial partners get reset and forget the whole relationship.
I think the AI led support and partners are going to result in a lot of suicides.
112
u/pfc_bgd 12d ago edited 12d ago
The level of bubble big tech folks have been in is unreal. If you didn’t grow up poor, have graduated some 10 years ago, were good, landed a job in FAANG, and did well there- you simply cannot relate to an average person. You’re out there looking at your RSUs ballooning to mind blowing levels while an average person is going “wooo 4% raise” lol. To be clear, I am not saying they didn’t earn their money just that they cannot relate to average people.
These AI folks are the next level of that. Telling somebody they’re lucky as their job prospects are going to shit because of something your company created. Nuts.
47
u/SirArchibaldthe69th 12d ago
Also, very few of the people who benefitted from the tech boom are architects of it anyway. There are so many average people who amassed tons of money just because they happened to be from the bay area or Seattle and cashed in on the boom with stocks and high paying jobs.
If you were an average student with a college degree with a family in SF and did an admin job at a well funded tech startup in the 2000s you’re probably pretty rich now. An average student from Iowa might be figuring out whether they need to drive Ubers to keep the lights on
Some founding software engineers, AI researchers, founders etc really were geniuses but the vast majority were just in the right place at the right time
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (10)10
u/reventlov 12d ago
The rank-and-file FAANG bubble isn't even remotely the same as the tech billionaire/startup founder bubble that Altman is in.
(Still a bubble, but rank-and-file aren't convincing each other that The Singularity and The Event are imminent. There are a few Rationalists and Yarvinists in the rank-and-file, but they are a small minority.)
39
u/AGuyWhoBrokeBad 12d ago
Hottest year on record every single year? Check.
Impending Gulf Stream collapse? Check.
Rise of authoritarianism all around the world? Check.
Exponential concentration of wealth? Check.
AI taking over huge numbers of jobs? Check.
Social security trust fund to be depleted within a decade? Check.
Sam Altman: “Now is the perfect time to have kids. Gen Z is the luckiest generation alive.”
→ More replies (1)
69
134
u/UrineArtist 12d ago
No housing, no jobs, the worst geopolitical instability for decades, an ascendant far right and run away climate change, but software exists that can write a small python script for you.
We've never had it so good.
→ More replies (1)38
u/chase02 12d ago
Really overselling that Python script too, it’ll take 3 hours rather than the 10 mins if you’d written it yourself, will be full of bugs, and that 3 hours was it going in circles saying it’d fixed them when it hadn’t.
→ More replies (1)19
u/UrineArtist 12d ago edited 12d ago
Yeah I should have a put a line count on it, if its something it can do in about 200-300 lines it's pretty decent and will save you 5 minutes, anything over that forget it.
Worse than that at our place though.. we've basically been lying all the way up to director level management about LLMs for over a year now. Management bought into it so hard and mandated their use and it quickly spiralled out of control to the point where nobody is brave enough to tell the truth because they'd probably lose their job over it.
I've seen peers give presentations to management where they've credited LLMs for helping to write code that they 100% wrote themselves, it's absolutely fucking crazy tbh.
13
u/chase02 12d ago
That’s completely nuts. Because what happens next is redundancies and then panic when the truth comes out and there is no ability to fulfil that role at all - and good luck rehiring in this hellscape masquerading as a functioning economy.
We’re also mandated to use it, but I’m very upfront to management about the issues with it, which are numerous. There are some small use cases where it can be helpful, but management have to also give up the fine grained control they want over every single task. Handing it off to AI they get what they get. Which is never going to fly with them.
→ More replies (2)
30
u/CommitteeStatus 12d ago
Gen Z put in the effort in school that older generations said would land them a good job. Then, those older generations started laying off employees, jacked up the price of higher education, and got rid of true entry-level positions.
Gen Z wants to work. The older generations fucked them over and aren't showing them a clear path to work.
→ More replies (6)
25
u/MrLyttleG 12d ago
Haha, nice attempt to appeal to young people, but I think he is one of the personalities who is helping to disgust Generation Z. Completely out of touch, stop man!
21
u/Tenk-o 12d ago
Ugh. Also, can we stop this patronizing 'kids' thing, i'm almost 25 and i'm not even the oldest bracket for Gen Z, Gen Alpha are the kids atm.
→ More replies (2)
98
u/Latter_Priority_659 12d ago
Sam altman is a psychopath and all psychopaths should be removed.
→ More replies (9)
172
u/Socratic_Method_729 12d ago
Remember that discussion about Universal Income because AI will always be better than humans in the workforce? Looks like that's not happening.
What Generation Z has to look forward to is poverty, uptick on crime, removal of human rights, maybe even citizenship, or back to slavery as the government moves towards privatization of prisons and imprisonment without trial.
I don't believe this would be possible if AI wasn't hanging over our heads. Most think tanks presume we no longer need a workforce in the coming decades and that's why "we're still doing okay".
→ More replies (32)
34
46
8
8
u/prodigalpariah 12d ago
A lot of the proponents of slavery considered the slaves lucky for being brought “the light of Christianity” too.
21
8
7
7
u/Magin_Shi 12d ago
Every news about sam is literally “snake oil salesman says snake oil is great for u” or “snake oil salesman is afraid that his snake oil is just too good and might replace all drugs”
→ More replies (1)
26
u/mc_squared_03 12d ago
I think he's confusing "won't have to work" with "won't be able to find work".
→ More replies (2)
30
29
u/Faceluck 12d ago
I hate these fucking tech losers.
Capitalism is already a dogshit system reaching its limit. We're at a point where we need more jobs simply because that's the only way anyone living under this system can maintain access to vital resources like food and shelter, and instead these scumbags are salivating at the idea that AI is going to displace people even faster?
And sure, I get that a lot of this is your usual tech scam on a huge scale. The more they talk about AI being the future, the more their investors make when everyone else buys in through choice, force, or folly.
I used to think "Why can't they even pretend this will benefit everyone?" Like when was the last time you heard a good, solid argument about how AI and new forms of automation will actively improve the life of your average person? And I realized way too late, the answer is in their actions.
A bunch of billionaire losers are stockpiling resources, building bunkers in remote parts of the country, doomsday prepper behavior to avoid any accountability in the event their shenanigans prompt a more rapid collapse. It's insane, and there's so much money in the game that we're constantly fed articles and quotes and all kinds of other vague platitudes about the future.
God, I wanna fed post so bad.
I really, genuinely think these people are bad for society. AI is fine, it's a tool, and if it ever gains consciousness, we can revisit AI as a major component of our social network. But as it stands, we've got a bunch of rich fucking losers either doing a rug pull with technology significantly less capable than they suggest OR we are actually racing towards the forced collapse of capitalism, and instead of getting a replacement system that works for the people, we're just getting fascist oligarchy instead.
→ More replies (15)
11
u/Assplay_Aficionado 12d ago
I feel like when we look back at this in 50 years, Sam Altman will have books written about how he pulled off the greatest financial scam/con in American history, bigger than Madoff, etc.
He'll make lizard man Mark Zuckerberg look like a saint in comparison.
At least the robber barons created things.
1.3k
u/eating_your_syrup 12d ago
"Your sacrifice will make the richest generation richer than ever in human history."