alt Hacker NewsTo be honest, I think it depends on the environment. In the past, if you didn't come out of a good university, your access to knowledge was limited. But these days, in terms of access to knowledge, I think things have clearly improved, whether or not AI is illegally sharing knowledge.
Looking back now, was it really happier before AI existed? I'm not sure. In the past, when I wanted to find out whether I was right or wrong about some piece of knowledge or information, I'd contact several people and, far from getting an answer, I'd often be told not to bother them. But AI, in that respect, is the best teacher I can think of.
I think the times are continuously getting better. It's just that there's a problem of power concentration among the people who handle it. Still, if AI is a tool of that nature, then I suppose that can happen.
But considering what access to knowledge was like before AI came along, I think having AI is better.
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The internet pre-AI did far more to make knowledge accessible than AI has done. Its useful, but its not the critical thing.
Knowledge was already extremely accessible in the age of the Internet, but it required time to read and learn. AI is making that same knowledge applicable without the prerequisite of learning.
Most people are not interesting in learning for learning's sake, they are motivated to learn something they can apply (see: kids complaining about how learning Math in school doesn't transfer to useful skills). Why learn about architecture and technical debt, if you can tell the machine to make it faster?