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Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by quonn on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @09:46AM (#35628071)
We need to admit that we don‘t know what‘s happening. Nobody can reasonably predict the future.

For the next two years nothing is worthless. That‘s for sure. Probably for longer. Nobody knows.

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by TheOtherHobbes on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @10:23AM (#35628562)
1-2 years sounds about right for ChatGPT 5.

Nobody can predict the future. But I think we have enough experience with AI trends now to see where this is going.

Current LLMs are like the mainframes of the 1960s.

When the technology gets speeded up, streamlined, and wrist-watched we're going to be in completely unknown territory - culturally, politically, economically, and socially. Never mind technically.

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by Hedepig on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @11:54AM (#35629748)
Maybe, but really we don't know what the shape of the curve until we actually find the limit.

I think you're right, but history has plenty of technological dead-ends, particularly in the AI/ML world

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by ska on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @01:28PM (#35630874)
Alternatively, we're approaching the limits of what can be done with current approaches, and get mostly stuck there for 20 years like happened to AI in the 80's.

Future prediction is always dodgy.

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by pixl97 on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @03:44PM (#35632457)
This would really be the best case scenario...

I hope you don't plan for best case scenarios when doing your database backups, much less the future of society on earth.

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by anthlax on Thursday April 20, 2023 @09:57AM (#35639985)
FTFY: Worst case scenario.

Change will come eventually and it will be painful. But I don’t want my kids to deal with it - I’d rather take it head on and deal with the consequences then praying that we push it to the next generation.

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by heurist on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @04:07PM (#35632670)
Even if nothing changes from here, we have already just crossed a civilization-transforming threshold in machine intelligence.
Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by croes on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @04:38PM (#35633021)
Intelligence? More a chinese room.
Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by croes on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @04:37PM (#35633006)
>When the technology gets speeded up

If not when. At a certain point OpenAI and others could need more and more training data for less quality increase.

VR and AR were also a hype. The headsets just need to become as small as normal glasses, could be impossible without sacrificing crucial features like color space or resolution. Meta invested billions but their best headset is still bulky with smartphone quality graphics.

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by toastmaster11 on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @06:22PM (#35634076)
Another perspective, wouldn’t it be reasonable to believe that the faster a technology is developed, the faster it will reach its theoretical upper limit of improvement (assuming there is one)?

To use your comparison as an example, mainframes took 40ish years to be replaced by personal computing and distributed systems. Whereas smartphones reached modern parity in 8-10 years since the original iPhone and have made more or less incremental changes since.

Granted those are hardware changes and this is software but I believe the point still stands.

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by 13years on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @10:16AM (#35628462)
> For the next two years nothing is worthless.

More like many things will become obsolete, but becoming worthless is a longer slower process as existing methods are phased out.

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by booleandilemma on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @10:06AM (#35628311)
So do I take out the 30-year mortgage or...?
Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by quonn on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @10:28AM (#35628624)
This is a valid point. I‘m in a similar position and try to pay it off faster.

However my point stands. We don‘t know. This kind of uncertainty is uncomfortable but it‘s best to ignore it. Forget about ChatGPT until you have seen the industry change.

edit: I would also argue to keep investing in yourself. What else is there to do? If AI gets to the point to will equally affect most office jobs. If sou want to be a builder you can becomes that later. Everyone else would and the economy would likely collapse. We‘ll see when we get there.

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by bdcravens on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @10:31AM (#35628655)
I did, at age 45. Will I be around when I'm 75? Will I be working in 10 years? No idea.
Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by coldpie on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @01:14PM (#35630708)
Sure. The advice is the same as it ever was: spend well below your means, build up a savings buffer (>= 6 months of expenses), eliminate debt ASAP. The advice is what it is, exactly for situations like the ones you're imagining. No need to put your life on hold.
Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by SirMaster on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @02:23PM (#35631544)
"eliminate debt ASAP"

This doesn't seem like the best advice IMO.

Debt is like one of the best tools that exists to grow your wealth.

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by coldpie on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @02:53PM (#35631871)
That's fair. I'm viewing it from the perspective of how to protect one's self from sudden & possibly long-term job loss, where I think there's a lot of value in having one less thing hanging over your head during a stressful time. But building an even bigger buffer to further weather that period is a fine strategy, too.
Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by ducharmdev on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @09:34PM (#35635343)
This is the only sane reply, IMO.

When we can't admit this, either fear or a reflexive optimistism takes over our thinking as we try to guess at the future. And articles like this simply stoke these emotions further, benefitting the author with clicks while leaving people more anxious about their lack of knowledge about the future.