There is this collective hatred that has emerged towards LLMs in the United States. Its market value is fundamentally based on its ability to replace white-collar labor in mass so AI boosters and CEOs feel obligated to provide ghoulish predictions of 20% unemployment rates and annihilation of entry level work. Shockingly, this has not made white collar workers bullish about AI.
Except in China? Where, apparently, "than 85% of Chinese respondents see AI as more beneficial than harmful, compared to less than 45% of respondents in the United States." This difference is so stark that magazines such as The Economist imply its a nat-security risk.
"Boarding China’s Last Bus" attempts to explain why. It describes a society terrified of missing the benefits of modernity, missing the last bus to the future. Where those who are left behind are treated with contempt and blamed for their own unemployment and poverty. Zilan Qian goes over the formation of this attitude in in the economic collapse of the North-East and the strange individualism that the Communist party of China has fomented. It has led to a strikingly anxious society where technological change is hailed as improvements to life and a disruption, an attitude encapsulated in the song New Boy by Pu Shu.
Thoughts
This article resonated a lot with me. I'm receiving a university education in a field some claim will soon be eclipsed. I see these opportunities to join the glitzy AI future, friends going to join AI startups, some forming their own. Meanwhile, I have decided to wait at the bus stop until hopefully I can see further down the road of these opportunities. But what if, by the time I can see that end, these buses stop coming? It's never clear, except in hindsight, which opportunity will be the last.
[OP] DudleyFluffles | a day ago
Synopsis
There is this collective hatred that has emerged towards LLMs in the United States. Its market value is fundamentally based on its ability to replace white-collar labor in mass so AI boosters and CEOs feel obligated to provide ghoulish predictions of 20% unemployment rates and annihilation of entry level work. Shockingly, this has not made white collar workers bullish about AI.
Except in China? Where, apparently, "than 85% of Chinese respondents see AI as more beneficial than harmful, compared to less than 45% of respondents in the United States." This difference is so stark that magazines such as The Economist imply its a nat-security risk.
"Boarding China’s Last Bus" attempts to explain why. It describes a society terrified of missing the benefits of modernity, missing the last bus to the future. Where those who are left behind are treated with contempt and blamed for their own unemployment and poverty. Zilan Qian goes over the formation of this attitude in in the economic collapse of the North-East and the strange individualism that the Communist party of China has fomented. It has led to a strikingly anxious society where technological change is hailed as improvements to life and a disruption, an attitude encapsulated in the song New Boy by Pu Shu.
Thoughts
This article resonated a lot with me. I'm receiving a university education in a field some claim will soon be eclipsed. I see these opportunities to join the glitzy AI future, friends going to join AI startups, some forming their own. Meanwhile, I have decided to wait at the bus stop until hopefully I can see further down the road of these opportunities. But what if, by the time I can see that end, these buses stop coming? It's never clear, except in hindsight, which opportunity will be the last.
tintin_in_tibet | 23 hours ago
Really fantastic read, thanks for posting!
killdred666 | a day ago
the great leap forward is a hell of a drug