Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by baby 14 days ago
I've been very curious about these, because of course these are measures that are anti-tech in a number of ways (or at least unpopular in the tech circle).

I have trouble understanding why Sanders has decided to be vocal about these, especially as he's been on the right side of the societal debate fence since forever. My guess is that he cares more about what AI is going to do for the common people, and he knows that we need to have this debate early (obviously, technology seems to increase disparity in places like the US). But still I'm not sure he's taking a stab at it in the right way.

For New York state (not city, no Mamdani), it seems like it's a much more pragmatic view: it increases people's costs (energy, water, etc.) and there's too much tax exemption(/evasion) for data centers currently.

3 comments

Ny also for as long as I've been here, does not try to have first mover advantage. The state really does usually show up second or third to the party. So to speak.
Too often people forget to mention all the first mover disadvantages. It’s often perfectly fine to wait for things to evolve and join when they are better understood and stabilized. Let the others spend money, political capital, and figure out what works, then eventually join the party, without all the baggage the first movers have accumulated.

Same with AI stuff. No you don’t need to be at the forefront of whatever is happening. No you won’t be left behind if that actually completely revolutionize the world, you can let the others try and fail to integrate LLMs in their systems. When it is eventually proven to boost ROI in a reliable way and AI vendors have actually figured out a reliable business model, it’s actually pretty simple to learn the technology and integrate in your existing infra

why are we talking about bernie sanders in the context of new york state? he's a US senator from vermont. this is state-level politics, not federal, in the state of new york, not vermont. and he's not mentioned once in this article?
> I have trouble understanding why Sanders has decided to be vocal about these

Perhaps the majority of people in Vermont want him to be vocal about it and he is simply doing his actual job.

AI is wildly unpopular outside of our little tech bubble.

This is a thing about Sanders that gets lost in the discourse. He’s famously soft on guns for a Democrat, for example, because that’s what his voters want from him.

This isn’t to suggest he’s some kind of empty mouthpiece for Vermont — they’re obviously electing him for his beliefs — but he’s also very cognizant of whom he answers to.

> AI is wildly unpopular outside of our little tech bubble.

That goes against my personal experience. It's only people in this small tech bubble that hate it.

In the broader space people love it. I know plenty of people 50+ who use it as their search engine now, people who use it for relationship advice, my wife works with someone who claims to be dating an AI boyfriend (don't ask me how that works). And that's to say nothing of everyone who uses it to write their mundane emails and spreadsheets.

It only seems to be people heavily involved in tech as part of their day job who have any serious concerns about it.

> That goes against my personal experience.

Anecdotal experience doesn't matter. Mine contradicts yours, but my anecdotal experience also isn't strong evidence.

There are countless polls showing that the American public's sentiment towards AI is both negative and falling.

If the polls properly separated concerns out, I'd wager the real sentiment is something like:

BAD:

  - AI companies
  - AI datacenters (in my neighborhood)
  - AI art
  - AI marketing being everywhere
GOOD:

  - AI as a search engine
  - AI that does my work for me