I think it's fantastic. This way I can still be there for my kids after I'm gone.

Consider that the only reason those old things even have value is because someone appreciates that unique quality enough to put their money where their mouth is. Those people will always exist, and will always pay enough to justify hand-crafted items.

There's a reason why every photo in my office is hand-painted or hand-drawn by artists I've met in person. They ain't cheap, but those options do exist.

I think most people just don't care for originality though. Heck, if you look at some of the social movements today, a lot of people can't even think for themselves, and need a politician or a social guru to hand-feed them every thought and idea.

I do think AI and tech will help enable creatives to express themselves even more though. And that it'll be a good thing.

I don’t think it will completely replace the need to learn languages. Case and point, if you are in a relationship with someone who speaks another language, your magic device won’t always be charged at home and will always leave something to be desired in the communication. It will be great for many things, but I think the only way to eliminate the need to learn other languages is if everyone is using the same language, not necessarily using ai to translate the other ones.

I can imagine humans capitulating to the intelligence of AGI. To a lot of the world, thinking is just too hard.

As someone who majored in English (non-native) and is a native speaker of a Slavic language and knows several other languages to varying levels...

VERY far off. Currently available translation tools make mistakes in basic texts, even when translating to/from English which has the largest corpus (="body of linguistic data") of all languages. Trying to translate to or from any of the inflectional languages (like Estonian or many Slavic languages) will only result in laughs.

However, I see two niches for AI to step up. One is wordbooks/dictionaries for foreign scripts, esp. CJK (Chinese/Japanese/Korean) - heck, I know electronic dictionaries already exist for Japanese AND are in use by native speakers since outside of joyo kanji, there are hundreds of rare/almost obsolete characters even a native speaker won't know. Second niche is some helper apps, e.g. annotating the text you are reading, or remembering how you translated this phrase (NOT word!).

For as long as there is language, there will be "language learning". We are not just born with full fluency in a language and AI, as OP has described it, will not change that. Furthermore, for as long as people of different cultures make non-language-knowing babies with each other, at least some of them will be multi-lingual.

Final prediction: a few thousand years at best (if humanity makes it) (but in the event we don't make it, that may be the only scenario in which language learning is no longer necessary. Because there won't be language at all)

I swear all these rants against AI are written by AI and posted as a joke. It's kind of funny for a bit. I would argue with the above premise but it's stupid to argue with AI and whatever happens is, in hindsight, inevitable. AI is not the problem. I would not mind seeing a constant stream of big budget Marvel movies made cheaply with AI. Plus, it's time we face the fact that most of these plaintive singer song writers sound alike.

The problem is climate change, wealth inequality, and racism. AI can not replace hanging out with friends/family, and playing with animals, which is what we have always done.

If AI can eleminate clickait thread titles and long rambling aimless posts, that would be of great value. But we can only dream,

> sex

In a way, it is the most logical thing to do. Reproduction. But we're sentient, and sometimes it's not.

What are the underlying mechanisms? How would the potential to 'learn cultural context and see things differently' by learning a language compare to the potential to learn about other cultures and encounter different ways of seeing things by communicating with people from other cultures through a universal translator?

Madlibs produced?

Loss of individuality is not due to AI. It will worsen of course. Most people are already pretty bland because they let themselves get domesticated to the fear of criticisms from other people. The school system rings a bell as if you're Pavlov's dog and then don't get me started on the media. People did this to themselves. Most dogs stopped hunting a while ago. Now are shocked they're waking up too late. Apparently rich people wishing they had "personality" is a thing. All wealthy people have to do to fit in is buy brand items. Okay, so before algorithms and the social graph it was schools and the 3 main media channels programming you. We are in a paradigm shift. The generation that bore the worst abuse of that is still around. They got computers in their houses at 35 when their kids were absolutely 5 years old. The algorithms were put on the children so young it's as if they never had a chance. Now they are questioning things because the algorithms feel fake. They are not perfected. Also the gap between the generations is showing the differences in programming. So people who have had a fighting spirit and were different actually get rewarded in this day and age more than the conforming ones. The more unique the content the better right?

If you didn't know yourself in this physical realm you're going to get assigned one in the meta verse or one from an AI that thinks for you because deep down we know people are too lazy to even want to find themselves. Most would have done it by now if it was as easy as ordering amazon products to your doorstep.

You also learn how to think differently. Each language has its own way of describing the world. Hard to explain without being bilingual.

Makes no sense to built homes from wood in climate change affected areas that deal with floodings, hurricanes or wildfires.

I think the point I’m making is how would you know? Dalle2 at least has a marker in the corner but anyone could take a picture of several building they like and input them to an algorithm that would give them something unique that they can even modify to the finest of details. How would you know if that level of interaction/back and forth happened or not? Are you just going to say “bah, just another AI invention”. In fact, how do you even know something is AI in the first place never mind all the possibilities to have a human made it.

Your provided examples are pretty basic. The kind of crap we see shared on social media. But the actual possibilities are endless. To continue my own example, just imagine the ability to take that picture of a building you refined with AI and now have the structural schematics including all the load values and other architectural requirements generated for you to meet building codes. This could even go so far as to create an IKEA style instruction guide on how to build along with truck full of parts delivered by machine and, well even have machines put it together for you.

Have we really lost out creatively with this or gained infinitely from it?

This reminds me of the origin of the word sabotage in that the cottage industry workers, who feared losing their jobs to machines threw their wooden shoes called sabots into the machinery. But mass production has made all our lives so much easier. AI had the ability to turn our world into Eden and unlock the stars and even the secrets to space and time itself.

The title seems very pretentious.

Who were all these anonymous original craftsman of the 20th century?

No, the rapture of the nerds is as remote as ever it was. From the article I linked-

>How are we drawing these conclusions? I'm right here doing this work, and we have no clue how to build systems that solve the problems that they say are imminent, that are right around the corner.” – Erik Larson

I probably spend too much time at r/SneerClub to buy into the hype.

Human beings are the best example of AGI that we know. In fact if someone could replicate human level AGI, they would be the worlds first trillionaire overnight. Most human beings cannot tell the difference between the information they “know” and their consciousness (themselves), so unless someone solves that problem, we are a while away.

Agreed; advancements in photography, for example, from pin-hole cameras to digital cameras lowered barriers with every technological improvement and made photography accessible to millions/billions, but the cream still floats to the top and people can discern what they like and don’t like- deciding what is and isn’t art is human. Digital photography can be almost entirely automated in its function- the aperture, shutter speed, iso - all chosen based on math and computers. It’s the human elements of context, experience, personality, taste and interests that will separate “good” and “bad” photos.

I think AI will be wielded in a similar way- it will radically shift the speed and cost of content creation, as did the advancements of digital photography, but the curation, context and experiences they create will be shaped, interpreted and judge by humans as art or not art.

Tons of Reddit users can't write in what I assume is their native language. I only use this in English. So even the native language needs more study from most users. Myself included.

For connecting with others, yes and no.

Yes, peoples want to connect with others. But the scale at which modern media connect us is overkill, and peoples actually seek to be part of smaller bubbles.

For examples, instead of an individual customizing their own show, imagine a streamer/youtuber doing it. Or even, imagine of group of friends doing it together, they now have a shared experience that is "unique".

As for preserving the message, yes, I agree that this is a core reason why generated content will not fully replaced the initial content. However, in the same way peoples have fun replaying a videogame with absurd mods (like a randomisers that shuffle every character), there will be a place for generated variants of shows.

Everyone in the world should know English, Mandarin, French and Spanish, but we don't... we should.

Side note, please pardon the digression. This groups comments are one of the most intelligent, insightful and articulate that I've read in years of Reddit.

One thing that is common among all your examples is that in each one, there were people discussing, debating, critiquing, influencing, and petitioning. We need vigorous discussion from many viewpoints. We need stimulating arguments to help inform not only other's, but our own ideas and opinions. Perspective - use it or lose it as a wise old book once taught me.

You do realize you still need to understand at least one language to understand what the AI is communicating right?