SXSW festival crowd responds to AI promo video with chorus of boos

[midian182]

You can shove your AI: Companies make no secret of the fact that they are in love with generative AI, especially its ability to streamline processes, speed up tasks, and improve efficiency. It also allows firms to lay off workers they no longer need, of course, which is one of the reasons so many people dislike the technology, as illustrated by an angry crowd at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival.

Audiences at SXSW waiting to see movie premieres including The Fall Guy and Immaculate got an unwelcome surprise when a short promotional video played before the films began.

The sizzle reel, which you can see below, features a number of speakers and panelists from the earlier events at the conference extolling the virtues of AI. There's plenty of talk about businesses being disrupted and needing to leverage AI's power. There's also a lot of "it's here, whether you like it or not" claims.

oh fuck this: https://t.co/FghCroathS pic.twitter.com/evXSJF1BPA

– Marcelo is at SXSW (@MarceloJPico) March 12, 2024

While the tech moguls are certainly passionate about AI and what it can do for others' businesses, the crowd who viewed the clip at SXSW was far from enthused by it. There's a cacophony of boos and hisses as soon as AI is mentioned. Advice to stop resisting AI was met with more disapproving noises from those viewing the compilation video. There were other incidents, but the crescendo arrived when Peter Deng, head of ChatGPT and vice president of consumer product at OpenAI, said the toe-curling line, "I believe that AI fundamentally makes us more human." Yikes.

You love to hear it pic.twitter.com/46OXfiIk0r

– Marcelo is at SXSW (@MarceloJPico) March 13, 2024

While it's true that most people don't have the same love for AI as the companies pouring millions into the area, and some just downright hate every aspect of it, the reel was facing a tough crowd, admittedly. Variety reports that much of the audience consisted of professionals from within the film industry.

It was only recently that the SAG-AFTRA strike finished. The writers and actors were protesting against several issues, including the use of artificial intelligence. The strike ended after an agreement that ensured actors give consent and are fairly compensated when their AI replications are used, though not everyone was happy with the deal.

Generative AI was one of the three contemporary technologies that, according to a recent report, causes low well-being in the workplace.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/102278-sxsw-festival-crowd-responds-ai-promo-video-chorus.html

 

[wiyosaya]

There's that saying "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink". I think that applies perfectly here. I think it would be unwise for companies extolling AI to try to shove it down the throats of their customers (in response to the "Its here whether you like it or not" comments from these companies).

I do think AI has appropriate uses, however, its far from an ideal solution to some of the applications for which is is being used, and in some of these applications, it has only made things worse.

 

[gdavid65]

It is right to question everything.

 

[Endymio]

in some of these applications, [AI] has only made things worse.

I'd be curious to see you name some of these applications, and how they're "now worse" due to machine learning.

It also may be apropos to note that, when the internal combustion engine was first invented, that there was widespread opposition to its use among the Luddites of the era. Some nations -- France, among others -- even attempted to legally ban the invention outright, as 'too dangerous for the common man'.

I doubt if even those naysayers would believe that ICE-powered vehicles would soon be killing one million people per year. But yet, I think few of us today would prefer to return to the horse-and-buggy era.

 

[McMurdeR]

The nature of some of these promos is "AI is here, get on board or fall behind". That's about it.
The latest tech attracts a lot of con artists. Following hot on the heels of the Crypto boom/bust, people should be suspicious of wild claims being made by people who clearly don't fully understand what they're dealing with themselves.

 

[McMurdeR]

It also may be apropos to note that, when the internal combustion engine was first invented, that there was widespread opposition to its use among the Luddites of the era.

There still is and for very good reason.

 

[Endymio]

There still is and for very good reason.

So you walk or bicycle everywhere, and -- much more importantly -- only purchase goods which have never been transported by truck?

 

[erickmendes]

There's that saying "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink".

Also you can keep the horse stuck there so it drink or die... Just like big tech can narrow our options so we have to embrace AI.