[oidar]

You could write this from the perspective of a historical luddite [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite] and the points would be identical.

[hn_acc1]

And they had a valid point.

[JuniperMesos]

I am glad I don't live in a world where clothing costs as much of my income as it would have if I lived in the early 19th century.

[archievillain]

This person is a Luddite. I just don't think that implies what most people on HN wish it would imply, though, as reading thea actual article shows. You don't even need to ask your LLM of choice to summarize it for you, as the salient point is contained within the first two paragraphs: paragraph one, the Luddites were workers protesting their terrible living conditions. Paragraph two, these workers were jailed and killed by the government.

Then, further down the article, it elaborates:

> The Luddite movement emerged during the harsh economic climate of the Napoleonic Wars, which saw a rise in difficult working conditions in the new textile factories paired with decreasing birth rates and a rise in education standards in England and Wales.

> Luddites were not opposed to the use of machines per se (many were skilled operators in the textile industry); they attacked manufacturers who were trying to circumvent standard labour practices of the time.

>The crisis led to widespread protest and violence, but the middle classes and upper classes strongly supported the government, which used the army to suppress all working-class unrest, especially the Luddite movement.

[danny_codes]

This is a tired, weak, and pathetic argument. Opposition to technology is very reasonable if that technology is doing more harm than good.

In the case of present-day LLMs, the vast majority of the public finds them to be more harmful than beneficial.

Why accept a decreasing quality of live instead of sensible regulation?

[GaryBluto]

> the vast majority of the public finds them to be more harmful than beneficial.

Examples of ridiculous and incorrect beliefs once held by majorities:

- Spontaneous generation

- "Miasma" causes disease

- Earth is at the centre of the universe

- The heart is the seat of thought and the brain is useless

- Cold weather causes colds

Don't trust "the vast majority" to get anything right, ever.

[danny_codes]

Examples of reasonable beliefs held by the public:

Killing is bad. Kids should be protected.

I mean you have a point it’s just not particularly useful or helpful for the conversation

[JuniperMesos]

"Won't somebody think of the children" is constantly used sarcastically in order to dismiss the concerns of people who want to ban something they claim is harmful to children. This is often a completely justified rejoinder - many regulatory policies that thoughtless people argue for in the name of children's safety are counterproductive, disproportional, or otherwise harmful.

[xtracto]

I understand your point and clearly see that LLMs cannot be compared to audio ... but ...

Back when I was a kid, music, audio and sound systems had high quality as a standard.

Nowadays people listen to music mostly with bluetooth headphones which basically recompress an already compressed audio signal to send them in low quality. Also, it is more and more difficult to find OK stereos that play music in good quality. Either, you have to pay very high prices for overpriced "audiophile" equipment, or you are stuck with cheap chinese MP3 players.

Yet, society and markets have spoken. Sometimes society is happy to accept marginally worse products in exchange of price and convenience.

[ciupicri]

What would that sensible regulation look like?

[tines]

This line again.

[GaryBluto]

If you believe in an ideology almost identical to another ideology you can't expect people not to draw comparisons.