Talk:AI era

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Merge Proposal AI era to AI boom[edit]

At a glance, AI era appears to cover the same topic as AI boom - an ongoing time period characterized by rapid progress in AI, especially transformer models, Large language models, and associated Technological unemployment.

Is "AI era" a more appropriate name for the same topic?

On the one hand: Of the first 6 citations in AI era, two of them do not use the term "AI era", and of the four that do, two are WP:SELFPUB blog posts, one is a reputable-looking trade publication, and the last is a blog post by Bill Gates. Furthermore, to claim that a new era is beginning in the current year risks WP:CRYSTALBALL.

On the other hand: "AI boom" appears to be even less supported- the citations in that article mostly refer to a "boom in Generative AI" or similar phrasing. Google Trends indicates that "AI era" is a more common search term than "AI boom" (though this might be influenced by [1]).

I would propose that the content from AI era be merged into AI boom (after editing for MOS:FLOWERY and MOS:AWW), and that further discussion be held to decide whether "AI era", "AI boom", or "AI Spring" (a more common search term than either of the others) be the name of the article.

Does anyone have any other thoughts? Lwneal (talk) 02:54, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Keep as separate Weak Merge Article writer here, @Lwneal I think it makes sense to potentially merge these. However I strongly believe that the term "AI Era" or "AI revolution" is more accurate and relevant than AI boom since I believe this technology marks the beginning of a new era of history that will have significant impacts on society comparable to the industrial revolution.
Regarding your points mentioning the start of a new era, the most common year I've found cited was 2022-2023 (eg: EuroNews, zdnet,cmswire, newscientist) since that was the year that AI adoption became most widespread with consumers (ChatGPT) and also when AI risk and AI ethics started to become a serious concern in the media - I don't expect this figure to change, and even though AI will probably have an even bigger impact in 2024 and beyond, I think it's accurate to say that it started in the 2020s but even more accurately with the adoption of ChatGPT as a widespread consumer product in 2022-23 Mr Vili talk 03:30, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
After thinking a little bit more about it, I think that AI boom seems to be a subset of this article's purpose, which is to highlight particularly the post-labor/post-work future that will arise due to the AI boom, as more and more jobs become fully automated. Mr Vili talk 03:43, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Well, there was already consensus preferring “AI boom” to “AI spring” in a move request a few weeks ago, following an undiscussed page move. –Gluonz talk contribs 03:31, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
AI boom had an earlier history of notable use during the 1980s [2] and has been revived. AI era became more popular around 2014. I agree that the sources for this article are not in the best shape. Bernard Marr and David Shapiro, for example, do not appear to be technical or industry experts in AI. Senorangel (talk) 03:20, 31 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I consider David Shapiro as a reliable source since he's one of the few people in AI seriously philosophically pondering a post-AGI/post-labor economics society - but the other sources are much better, a lot use the term AI Era Mr Vili talk 03:46, 8 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I am not sure at this time whether the merge should occur, but I can understand a distinction between the shorter-term AI boom and the long-term transition to the AI era. –Gluonz talk contribs 17:18, 8 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I kind of agree here. I think they are certainly related, but as you mentioned this article is more about the long-term implications of this new era of life. Mr Vili talk 03:53, 11 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. These are clearly two separate concepts, with the short-term AI boom being an aspect of the larger long-term AI era, and it's sensible to differentiate between them. Both topics justify an own article in my opinion, as there are plenty of reliable sources.-- Maxeto0910 (talk) 12:38, 16 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Don't merge. I think this article is actually about something different than the AI winter/AI summer cycles -- these are boom-and-bust cycles in funding for AI. I think this article talking about something more akin to the term "space age" -- it's talking about a certain period in the history of civilization, that some people might argue has just begun. ---- CharlesTGillingham (talk) 23:34, 18 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Some analogies:
Industrial Revolution and Industrial Age (separate)
Information Revolution and Information Age (merged)
Consensus here seems to be Don't merge Lwneal (talk) 19:20, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The term "AI era"[edit]

I question if this term is notable enough for Wikipedia -- it doesn't seem to be very widely used, at least not as recognizable proper noun like this article's title suggests. The cited sources seem to be using the term in less formal way -- they just mean this new era of AI, starting in 2020.

Having said that, I think we could use an article about the tremendous explosion in funding and interest in AI after the debut LLMs in 2020, but the title should use the date, and be a history article, not a speculation article. It should be short and it should redirect the reader the other articles about technological unemployment, etc. ---- CharlesTGillingham (talk) 01:51, 19 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I get what you're saying, but I think there is many sources calling it the AI Era in a formal way, eg:
From a future perspective, I believe we can mostly agree that this moment of time will be understood as the beginning of the AI era or a term along those lines, However I also understand that Wikipedia is not a WP:CRYSTALBALL. The speculative parts of this article are referenced, but the tone could be improved.
Clearly AI has already had major societal effects ranging from technological unemployment (where practically all major AI companies are claiming will continue significantly more in the near future), and to deep fakes, politics, etc. Sam Altman is raising 7 trillion dollars to build AI chips, which is 10% of the world's GDP.
I think overall it would be very difficult to claim that AI adoption will not continue to increase, leading to almost guaranteed shift in society, jobs, law, politics - I think this applies even if AI progress suddenly stops and we are left with current AIs
Obviously it's out of scope of the article to make any such predictions, but I think that it would be valuable to have a section on the predictions or speculations of notable people and entities involved in AI - not because any entity is particularly right, but because readers may be interested in the opinions of various entities.
But I think it is clear that it started with the technological advancements listed in the article, and the mass adoption of AIs with consumers (ChatGPT - 100,000,000 million users within 2 months) - that has lead to a huge boom in interest and further funding, research and development leading us up to where we are now, with no signs of slowing down (Meta working on Llama3 & AGI, OpenAI working on Sora, GPT5 & AGI, Mistral models almost catching up to GPT4) Mr Vili talk 04:42, 19 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It is kind of an interesting edge case though, because I don't think Wikipedia has really been around to document an ongoing historical event at this level of importance (if Wikipedia was around during the industrial revolution, would we be documenting it like this?) Mr Vili talk 04:50, 19 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
AI era does sound more like a historical article. For which we do not have the time to "look back" on and evaluate holistically yet. New developments should probably go into AI boom (the latest one right now). Senorangel (talk) 03:41, 23 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education assignment: Research Process and Methodology - SP24 - Sect 201 - Thu[edit]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 4 March 2024 and 4 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ef2467 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Ef2467 (talk) 23:28, 7 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Article stating speculation as fact[edit]

There is no "ongoing" global transition of society towards "post-scarcity economics" or a "post-labor society" through automation. This is entirely suppositional. The comparison of AI to the Cambrian explosion is also completely ridiculous. At any point throughout history when there was a new breakthrough in technology, you'd get these sorts of exaggerated news articles (such as in 2013, when 3D printing was supposed to change every facet of life as we knew it). An article based solely on the most dramatic contemporary speculation does not belong on an encyclopedia. Swinub (talk) 01:38, 22 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is indeed a transition towards a society with less and less work for humans and more and more work done by machines, and it's arguably ongoing since the Industrial Revolution.
It's true that for now, technological progress, with a few exceptions, has mostly only led to other work (e.g., working in a factory and later in an office, as opposed to hard physical work) instead of less work in general (though both gross and net working time has on average indeed significantly reduced since the Industrial Revolution). However, since the early 2020s, more and more work has been replaced by AI-based automation, often without a substitute for former workers in that field, which is why the media is increasingly writing about an "AI era".
It is completely irrelevant how long this transition will last until we are in a real post-work society with only very few people still being employed, and guessing even a rough time frame would indeed be purely speculative. It could indeed still take many decades. However, it definitely can't be denied that this transition is well underway and the media is writing about it, and that's exactly what this article is about.-- Maxeto0910 (talk) 12:30, 28 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
If the subject is about AI-based automation replacing workers in certain fields, the article should be rewritten to specify that. As of 2024, 99% of the world has been completely unaffected by these developments, and there's no indication that AI will become proficient and cost-effective enough to replace most people's occupations, whether it be in 5 years or 20 years, especially outside of urban areas in the West where most people are manual laborers. The fact that some people in some sectors are out of a job is not indicative of a transition towards post-scarcity economics or a post-labor society, as the lead claims is ongoing. Swinub (talk) 13:21, 28 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It doesn't matter how fast the development of AI being able to replace human jobs is progressing.
Even if it would take many hundreds of years or we would go extinct before we reach a post-work society, we're still in a transition taking place, even if the current rate of just a few thousand instead of many hundred million jobs a year being replaced is maintained, with many AI researchers, futurists, politicians and workers worrying about and discussing its implications and the media covering it, which justifies the article.-- Maxeto0910 (talk) 14:36, 28 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It is a proposed transition. The article is not saying that as a fact. But the lead can be improved. There are several future scenarios, not all of which are necessarily post-labor or post-scarcity. These kinds of transition due to technology have also been happening before the latest AI boom. Senorangel (talk) 03:44, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I've since changed it, so this thread is no longer relevant, but I agree with your suggestion. Swinub (talk) 03:50, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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