AI in Puna

[kalianna]

Mods??????

[BlackAkita]

 Any day now...

"Will these new AI farmers

But, who knows what the future holds.

[MyManao]

are blocking lawyer bots et al from taking over the legal profession...

That's not as easy as you suggest...

Recently there was an investment firm poured millions..

Probably not in Puna though?

[Durian Fiend]

NYT Ben Casselman neatly sums up the economic concerns associated with AI:

“If A.I. succeeds, then it may kill all of our jobs. If it fails, then the whole economy falls apart, and your 401(k) blows up, and maybe you still lose your job. You can kind of understand why maybe people aren’t super enthusiastic about the state of things…”

[randomq]

If you have AI to do the work, you don't need to keep the poors alive. Puna has a lot of poors. We're already headed for economic catastrophe with fuel costs rising and EBT/medquest requirements getting stricter, along with various other cuts.

AI is the Genie that will not go back in the bottle, but at least we can ensure (at a state and county level) that we get something out of it, rather than get completely screwed by it. We need to help people transition to new employment or community service, rather than a shock to the system. At least on the mainland people can commute or move to deal with loss of a job, but what will we do here when entire classes of jobs are phased out? Did we handle the loss of the plantations well?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

you have AI to do the work, you don't need to keep the poors alive

Then, why should the keiki of poor Puna residents go to school?  No jobs, no need for education.  Their parents were told by people who predict things that resources will be abundant and FREE! so they should stop saving for retirement.  They wanted to believe someone who promised work will become unnecessary so now have less than nothing.  They steal guns from those who thought they could protect their property, because weapons are an unlimited and legal resource.  

Armed roaming tribes form around whatever social media conspiracy appeals to their malleable uneducated minds.  You think people believe nonsense now, just wait.  There will be the small screen, portable tribal factions with old iPhones (7G users are the enemy, they receive messages in evil brainwaves!) the big screen homeowner factions who subscribe and stream 5 guys in a box shrieking about the “takers”, who are of course the old iPhone carriers outside their fence, and the stock owning acolytes of AI purveyors who keep a large or small army of robots protecting their walled perimeters, depending on how many shares they bought in the early IPO era. 

But in Puna, the weather will be warm so it could be worse.

[ironyak]

randomq - but what will we do here when entire classes of jobs are phased out?
What jobs in Hawai'i do you see "AI" as completely phasing out? Retail? Why would we need robots to sell stuff if people can't buy any of it due to a lack of income? Hospitality? How many Optimus robots are actually needed to change the hotel bedsheets when most people can't afford to travel? Healthcare? Without widespread insurance coverage, how is Dr. Robby going to have enough patients to pay for his substantial HECO recharging fees?

Then again, the fact that "AI" can't do any of these things currently, and may not be able to do any of them affordably ("AI" companies can only lose investor money for so long), the "AI" apocalypse might not be economically feasible or sustainable and we'll still be stuck picking our own papayas and educating our own kids for the foreseeable future - oh, the horror! ;)

[randomq]

Middle management, low to mid level accountants, clerks, data entry, tech support, programmers, tax preparers, some fast food chain jobs, customer service. Tourism may take longer, but as you say there will be less that can afford it. Warehouse and transport jobs starting with the bigger companies.

We don't have as many high level tech/thinking jobs here on BI, most are outsourced to Oahu or the mainland anyway.

Medical jobs may last longer, even if some of the technician and diagnostic jobs can be done by AI. Powerful medical lobby, boomers that don't want robots taking care of them. I still think pivoting to medical tourism / retirement homes makes sense for Hawaii.

If the AI stuff is going to happen whether we like it or not, maybe we can guarantee some of that money goes to relevant education, food security, and infrastructure improvements for us locally, instead of *everything* being outsourced to mainland hyperscalers.

I don't know what our local billionaires are thinking, but many nationwide subscribe to an almost cult-like wish to replace democracy with oligarchic rule and in some cases theocratic rule. Literally, in their own words*, for decades now. It probably behooves us to get some of our own local billionaires (Benioff?) on the side of democracy and civil rights before this stuff really ramps up. Maybe Hawaii can be an enclave of actual beneficial, co-existant AI. A "paradise", if you will...

* Podcast with background: https://bleav.com/shows/secrets-and-spie...gil-duran/

[Rob Tucker]

It would appear that corporate interests are taking our whole society in a direction we have not collectively decided we want to go.

[Obie]

Robotic surgery has been around for quite a few years and there have already been AI robotic surgery simulations.