We've already seen the Studio Ghibli image generation slop that went viral everywhere on social media, sure it exposed everyone to Studio Ghibli at the cost of cheapening the style.
Artists almost certainly lose here.
We can keep saying "Jevons Paradox" will save us as we use more AI cheaply and that "there will be new jobs" as a result. However:
1. We don't know these new jobs.
2. AI can take them anyway before we even conceive it being a job.
Is anyone hiring for prompt engineers, vibe coders, guess not.
Have we even thought ahead about what happens when most of the people who can't share in this abundance that we are all happily replacing cannot pay rent?
Are we going to pay these people in abundance tokens or the utopian UBI?
Those who are already b/millionaires, investors who don't want to lose their already attained wealth will massively benefit from this cheapening of labour and will continue to acrew these benefits.
Why should they pay $120K/yr for engineers, or $4K commission from an artist when we can just generate them close to free?
After all, it only has to be good enough.
Main point being is, while generating Studio Ghibli styles and vibe coding is a harmless plaything toy for the already rich, for those who are poor who have gambled their careers, it is the difference between their next rent payment or on the streets.
But abundance is great right?
I would love to be optimistic, but are going to have to do better than this if we want for everyone to share in your vision of abundance, especially if you're invested in the companies that are replacing people's jobs and not disclosing this.
Sure, The Age of abundance...
...But for who though?
We've already seen the Studio Ghibli image generation slop that went viral everywhere on social media, sure it exposed everyone to Studio Ghibli at the cost of cheapening the style.
Artists almost certainly lose here.
We can keep saying "Jevons Paradox" will save us as we use more AI cheaply and that "there will be new jobs" as a result. However:
1. We don't know these new jobs.
2. AI can take them anyway before we even conceive it being a job.
Is anyone hiring for prompt engineers, vibe coders, guess not.
Have we even thought ahead about what happens when most of the people who can't share in this abundance that we are all happily replacing cannot pay rent?
Are we going to pay these people in abundance tokens or the utopian UBI?
Those who are already b/millionaires, investors who don't want to lose their already attained wealth will massively benefit from this cheapening of labour and will continue to acrew these benefits.
Why should they pay $120K/yr for engineers, or $4K commission from an artist when we can just generate them close to free?
After all, it only has to be good enough.
Main point being is, while generating Studio Ghibli styles and vibe coding is a harmless plaything toy for the already rich, for those who are poor who have gambled their careers, it is the difference between their next rent payment or on the streets.
But abundance is great right?
I would love to be optimistic, but are going to have to do better than this if we want for everyone to share in your vision of abundance, especially if you're invested in the companies that are replacing people's jobs and not disclosing this.