Hironobu Sakaguchi explains he thinks gen-AI has potential as he defends his positive remarks about an AI-generated Final Fantasy 6 remake trailer.
Hironobu Sakaguchi explains he thinks gen-AI has potential as he defends his positive remarks about an AI-generated Final Fantasy 6 remake trailer.
It‘s easy to dismiss this as a reaction from an older dev who‘s simply out of touch. However, from what I‘ve been picking up people in Japan are very split on AI. For every artist, developer or writer that hates it there‘s another artist, developer or writer who says it‘s a tool like any other. But it does feel like it‘s mostly older guys who are already retired or close to it that don‘t have a problem with it sometimes.
I think older people still have this optimistic view of technology, bordering on rose tinted. For the majority of their lives, they’ve seen technology evolve and expand, so they don’t understand the “new” negativity towards it. Enshittification is a new term to them, if they’ve heard it at all, but for many younger people it’s all they’ve ever known. For some, technology has always been inexplicably getting shittier. For others, technology that was once great has become a tool of oppression, entrapment, and misery in their lifetimes.
All these different groups, anecdotally, react very differently when you ask them about their thoughts on AI.
I wish there was more technology I could be excited about.
The fediverse is pretty cool, for one. I can’t wait to spin up my own Reddit :P
I’m not a nostalgic person by nature. I’m not out here pedaling a story about “back in my day” because I know the '80s and '90s were awful in a lot of ways for a ton of people. But I do believe that the internet peaked by the mid-aughts. I got a good 15-20 years of this one thing getting cooler, more diverse, more accessible. But once corps started figuring out how to actually monetize the internet and create their walled gardens, it was all downhill.
My father literally taught me how to use the Internet when the best search engine was Ask fucking Jeeves.
The most important thing to remember, he said, was to never give your real name, address, or phone number on the internet. Once you do, it is there forever because anyone can copy it down.
And then Facebook happened, and tons of high school classmates were asking me when I would make an account. I told them all the same thing, that putting your real name, let alone your whole fucking face, on the internet was a bad idea. Eventually I had to make one to coordinate different club activities but I never liked the whole idea of Facebook. I couldn’t even watch The Social Network because it was everything I already knew.
We’re so, so, far down the hole from back then that looking back feels quaint.
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To be honest, I’m my experience those of us that are staunchly anti gen AI are a vocal minority.
Not at all. We had a company wide town hall at my office recently and there was a huge debate about AI in the chat during a talk from one of the execs about AI strategy. Most people in the debate were staunchly anti-AI, with only a few developers in favour.
I’ve gotten the opposite impression, especially with all those recent AI advocates getting booed and laughed at by students during university commencement speeches. It feels like the usual ‘powerful elites with huge platforms’ - including legacy and independent media - versus almost everyone else.
I hope you’re right. But in my anecdotal real life experience, the vast majority don’t care or are into it.
I’ve unfortunately had the same experience as you, I’d say at least 2/3 of my office is pro-AI.