Podcast: The AI Panic Is Overblown
Nathan: Yeah, my hope is that we kind of move past the sort of fear, uncertainty, doubt phase and era that we’ve been in with AI and towards, like, m- a more like, pragmatic, just kind of curiosity, like, could this help?
Nathan: You know? I’m like, yeah…It’s not gonna be this thing that eliminates all jobs immediately cause it’s just frankly not good enough for that yet.
Nathan: And like, you know, whatever. We never know what model’s gonna come out tomorrow, but like, I just kind of feel like …
Nathan: I- I don’t know, maybe- maybe I’m too like, whatever, not open-minded enough to how radically different the future could be from the past because of AI.
Nathan: But I just kind of feel like it’ll end up being what it almost always is in tech, which is genuinely really new and incredible, but also, like, you know, people’ll adapt.
Nathan: They’ll find the ways to make it useful, they’ll adopt it, and, um, you know, not adopt the things that actually aren’t useful to them. So, yeah.
Mike: Yeah, and you know, I mean, yes, like, with new technology comes out, like, jobs can change, like, the nature of how they’re done and who does them, and- and all of that can change.
Mike: And I think that’ll definitely happen here. But- but the idea that it suddenly, like, becomes a replacement for- for people, I think is a little bit overblown and…
Nathan: Yeah.
Mike: I think a- as society has shown, as new technologies come about, we do seem to have a way of adapting, and, you know, sometimes it’s trickier than- than in other cases and- and for certain people, certain professions.
Mike: But overall, society, I think does a pretty good job of adapting, and I- I hope that’s the case here too.
Nathan: Yeah.
Vocabulary
move past – to stop worrying or thinking about a past problem so you can make progress and move forward, “After their big argument, the two friends decided to move past it and stay close.”
pragmatic – dealing with things in a practical, realistic way rather than just following strict theories, “Instead of buying a luxury car, she made a pragmatic choice and bought a cheap, reliable one.”
eliminates all jobs – completely removes or destroys every single piece of employment, “People worry that automation eliminates all jobs, but it actually creates new types of work too.”
radically different – completely, totally, or drastically unlike something else, “Life in a tiny, quiet village is radically different from life in a crowded city.”
adopt it – to start using or accepting a new method, habit, or technology, “The school bought new tablet computers, and the students were eager to adopt it for their daily classwork.”
overblown – made to seem much bigger, worse, or more important than it actually is; exaggerated, “The rumors about a huge storm were overblown, as we only got a little bit of rain.”
come about – to happen, start, or take place over a period of time, “The peaceful agreement did not happen overnight; it took months of talking to come about.”