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alephnerdlast Friday at 2:33 AM1 replyview on HN

> I agree with you that consumers prioritize price over morality, but not when their livelihood is directly or indirectly negatively affected by AI...

No consumer complained 15 years ago when the VFX industry in LA was outsourced to Vancouver and London due to subsidizes [0], and no consumer complained when VFX in Vancouver or London was outsourced to India and China over the last 5 years. No one will complain when VFX studios leverage AI to create content and then maybe have around 20-30% of the remaining humans edit videos to be humanlike.

Ironically, the Trump admin proposed a tariff that would help bring VFX back to the US [1] but the same consumers who on here are complaining about AI and Offshoring are the same ones who opposed such a tariff. Of course, if the Biden or a hypothetical Harris admin did something similar, they would also be flamed severely.

And thus the cycle continues. You all will keep complaining, but will keep purchasing from Costco, Trader Joe's, Patagonia, etc, will keep consuming content from one of the handful of companies that have consolidated media, and will remain employed by tech companies that in some shape or form continue to help maintain this cycle.

Statistically speaking, the demographic on HN told blue collar workers in 2009-17 to "learn to code". Why should they have sympathy for you? And thus the cycle continues.

[0] - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-feb-01-la-fi-ct...

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/us-impose-100...


Replies

jack_tripperlast Friday at 12:01 PM

>Ironically, the Trump admin proposed a tariff that would help bring VFX back to the US [1]

Why ironically? Tarifs to protect some US Industries were part of his campaign promises. We're people living under a rock till now?

With the rest of your comment I agree 100%. Replacement of expensive US jobs will continue tarifs or not.

It's the downside of being the world reserve currency. Labor is too expensive to be globally competitive outside mega specialized and highly profitable niches like big tech and AI or protected industries like defense.

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