Discuss HN: Nearly all apps of generative AI are a net negative for society

I think there should be explicit penalties for passing off movies with special effects as movies. There are externalities to society when you create something that isn’t real! There should be a “MadeWith” stack for all special effects you use – no more undisclosed animatronics, makeup, or miniatures! Soon, all our trust in film will be destroyed from everyone making stop-motion movies!

> I’d mandate a “BuiltWith” thing all the way down to the compilers you used for code, graphics editors for images, and what you used for sounds etc. Like Ingredients that FDA demands be listed on locally produced food in USA, but for a different reason.

I’m not sure how that would work for plaintext or generally copying pixels.

What, though, about generative content being used in a supplementary manner? There’s a gamut of uses. Some artists using it as the basis for subsequent editing, some tracing (I know artists who do this now, in a sense laundering the work and to have proof of progress), others just for parts of a composition, etc.

Is someone who is using a drum machine cheating at music?

Buy yourself “Drum machines have no soul” and “Support local music” t-shirts and I’ll see you at the next all-ages punk show!

It goes so much deeper, one could claim:

– Real coders use assembly language. Compilers are for people who can talk to the machine directly.

– But wait, actually calculating machines are a crutch. real programmers just work out everything on paper.

– Wait paper is a crutch, external memory, so yeah you need to figure everything out in your head.

Tools continue to evolve. We can not fall in love with the current set of tools such that we exclude anything new that comes along.

> having a human in the loop to spot-check accuracy and be responsible for accuracy can earn a specific certification

This is not merely a “specific certification” or a quick “spot-check”. The work to do that is not trivial and so the human that reviews the output before distribution is effectively the creator.

> Nearly all applications of Generative AI APIs by their very design and value proposition externalize cost to society

But they promise to maximize value for the individual. Which works in what is called an individualistic society.

That is why we need laws.

When an individual or company takes advantage of a negative externality at the expense of wider society, it builds up. When everyone can’t afford not to take advantage of the same thing, the problem just grows – often the problems start to compound superlinearly.

They could for example maximize value by dump garbage in other people’s back yards or nuclear waste in other people’s lakes etc. At the very least, it should be disclosed publicly and honestly.

It is often the case that A and B voluntarily make a deal together (eg Snapple shifts to plastic bottles) but it may cost C a lot downstream. And as these negative externalities accumulate, they come back to haunt A and B, and all of society.

People acting in their own individual self interest, at the expense of others, can often lead to a tragedy of the unmanaged commons.