This is written from the perspective of artists. But most people who care aren't artists- they are consumers.

Hardcore music fans and hipsters may be interested in "micro communities" where they buy a bunch of merch from a band you probably haven't heard of, but most people just want to be able to play whatever random music suits their fancy at the moment. They aren't going to engage with private discord servers to curate a special playlist from their micro community just to put some tunes on in the car.

Music streaming services deliver almost any song you can think of anytime and anywhere (so long as you have internet service). Until something else can do that, music streaming services are not "obsolete." Perhaps an independent streaming service won't be a viable business model and Amazon/Google/Apple will own the market, but that's a separate conversation from the one TFA is trying to have.

That's exactly what the U.S. did in the 1960s to get to the moon. There were only 12 crewed Apollo missions. One ended with the death of the whole crew (Apollo I), and another very nearly did (Apollo 13).

I'm calling it: The Chinese will land on the moon before the U.S. does again. Their program is much less ambitious (single launch and capsule/lander more like Apollo). It requires a lot less reinventing the wheel than NASA's convoluted Artemis/Starship combo.

Perhaps that will be the "Sputnik moment" that jolts NASA/congress.

Well, there is no Uber for regular helicopters.

"Misanthropic" has a nice ring.

Maybe YOU didn't say it would be done in 18 months, but that's what Microsoft's AI chief (who is the subject of the article) said.

People spend all sorts of money to see beautiful things too. I'm not doubting the police have value, but the economic value is intangible.

So you are saying it requires human experts to do lots of pre-work. And this is all going to be done in 18 months for every single profession?

Who vets and creates this "discrete information" dataset? Don't say AI, because it doesn't yet have vetted discrete information.

But then you need AI to make sure the AI is doing what AI is supposed to do. And then AI to mind the AI minder that minds the AI. I guess it's AI all the way down!

Even if all this capability were available today (AI doing most white collar jobs with no need for input or babysitting), most companies can't even do things like a simple ERP upgrade in 12-18 months. The idea that we could actually implement all of that AI capability in that amount of time is patently absurd.

Knees too. Really all joints. It turns out that things like cartilage tears and other "abnormalities" are not great indications of dysfunction or pain. I can understand how we got here. It seems obvious when tissue looks damaged in an image that something must be wrong- especially when surgeons can go back and "fix' the tear so it looks right again in an MRI. Procedures are also cash cows (especially ones that can be done en masse by outpatient surgery centers), so there is a huge built-in incentive to deal with these problems via surgery. Physical therapy and other exercise-based approaches are time intensive and far less lucrative.

That said, there are some soft tissue joint issues that absolutely do need surgery to fix. Your ACL isn't growing back on its own. I think the medical establishment is still working to understand which therapies really help for which dysfunctions.

Buttons are best for core vehicle functions, but touch screens are better for music/nav.

Have you actually used their infotainment? It is not good at making sure you keep your eyes on the road.

Not really. The benefit of catching criminals is intangible, and a lot of it is non-economic (people feeling safe). An artist making a painting creates something tangible, but the benefit is intangible. How much cumulative human pleasure was created from the Mona Lisa, and how does that weigh against the pain of a crime stopped? These are questions that can't really be answered.

I don't think it's appropriate to reduce all human activity to pure economics. There are plenty of things that I won't pay for but still have value. I'm not going to pay a friend to give me a hug, but that doesn't mean I won't appreciate it.