If a tech company forced me to move to NYC, I would object for a combination of two separate reasons: 1--any change in my life is going to be hard—it may take me away from people I know, I need to learn the geography again, I live in Lothlórien right now and if I move to NYC nobody speaks Quenya, etc. And 2--things that are specific about NYC above and beyond the fact that change is going to be a problem by itself; for instance, I might hate subways, and I might hate subways whether I’m exposed to lots of them or not.
#2 can be a personal problem for me, but I notice that people in NYC aren’t, on the average, in general less happy than people who live elsewhere, so it seems like #2 isn’t a real issue when averaged over the whole population. #1 can be an issue even averaged over the whole population, of course, but #1 isn’t unique to moving to NYC, and applies to a whole bunch of other changes to the point where it’s most of the way to being a fully general argument against any change.
I’d expect the same to be true in the case of AI: The “change is a problem” component is negative, but it’s no worse than any other sort of change, and the “AI specifically is a problem” component would include some people who are harmed and some people who benefit and overall it’s going to be a wash.
Or to put it another way, just because I wouldn’t want a tech company to move me to NYC, that doesn’t imply that NYC is a worse place to live than where I am now.
If a tech company forced me to move to NYC, I would object for a combination of two separate reasons: 1--any change in my life is going to be hard—it may take me away from people I know, I need to learn the geography again, I live in Lothlórien right now and if I move to NYC nobody speaks Quenya, etc. And 2--things that are specific about NYC above and beyond the fact that change is going to be a problem by itself; for instance, I might hate subways, and I might hate subways whether I’m exposed to lots of them or not.
#2 can be a personal problem for me, but I notice that people in NYC aren’t, on the average, in general less happy than people who live elsewhere, so it seems like #2 isn’t a real issue when averaged over the whole population. #1 can be an issue even averaged over the whole population, of course, but #1 isn’t unique to moving to NYC, and applies to a whole bunch of other changes to the point where it’s most of the way to being a fully general argument against any change.
I’d expect the same to be true in the case of AI: The “change is a problem” component is negative, but it’s no worse than any other sort of change, and the “AI specifically is a problem” component would include some people who are harmed and some people who benefit and overall it’s going to be a wash.
Or to put it another way, just because I wouldn’t want a tech company to move me to NYC, that doesn’t imply that NYC is a worse place to live than where I am now.