It’s been very good at a couple of things
Like showing how fucking stupid most CEOs are, and how many people blindly kiss their asses
And how little having breathable air and drinkable water matters to those same idiots
I hate it with a burning passion. It causes irreparable climate harm, including self-hosted models (consider where they’re trained); it infringes copyright (and they’re destroying rare books to feed it‽‽‽); it’s causing psychosis in some people, leading them to harm themselves and others; and it’s destroying a lot of people’s critical thinking skills (which I think is the goal: commodify intelligence, though maybe it’s to replace the working-class itself).
Sorry for the massive block of text lol, I just really, really don’t like it.
Oh, also (very anectdotal), it seems that on the Venn diagram of anti-fascist and anti-“AI”, the anti-“AI” circle is almost entirely contained within the anti-fascist circle. Just an observation.
Disclaimer: machine learning is not the same as “AI” (LLMs, presented as beings capable of thought). I think ML has a lot of interesting applications, and I’m actually rather fascinated by it.
machine learning is not the same as “AI” (LLMs, presented as beings capable of thought)
(insert nerd face) LLMs are a kind of machine learning algorithm. AI is actually a superset of ML, in fact pretty much all computer programs count as AI. (a lot of old computer science departments were once called AI research departments in stead)
The phrase “AI”, as promoted by tech bros, however, should be considered seperately to the correct definition: I agree that software is generally harmful when presented this way by its creators.
This kind seems like it’s basically what I said? I think there’s too much ambiguity around the term “artifical intelligence”. When I said “AI” (with quotation marks), I was referring to the tech bros’ “gen-AI”.
I disagree, however, with the idea that artificial intelligence is superset of machine-learning. While all computers were once considered a form of artificial intelligence, the same cannot be said now.
The idea of artificial intelligence is quite nebulous. I can’t recall the source, but I’ve heard that even the loom was once considered to be akin to the human brain. Honestly, I think humans just like comparing new technology to our brains, and we’ll eventually move past referring to machine-learning as artificial intelligence.
*adjusts glasses*
This kind seems like it’s basically what I said?
My mistake, I associated what you said as
(machine learning) is not the same as (“AI” (LLMs, presented as beings capable of thought))
(aka LLMs aren’t ML) rather than
machine learning is not the same as “AI” e.g. (LLMs, presented as beings capable of thought)
(aka LLMs are ML, and when presented as a replacement for humans they are AI)
Either way, I believe there is some value in comparing even simple decision making technology to the human brain. After all, we are capable of making those sorts of decisions as well. Tbf I may be biased by my internal mental model of coding, where I imagine describing a set of steps, relations, abstractions, etc to an entity with an extremely direct manner of interpretation.
My personal moral of (seemingly malicious) language ambiguity is to avoid the term AI altogether.
Thanks for the discussion!
My personal moral of (seemingly malicious) language ambiguity is to avoid the term AI altogether.
Oh, it’s definitely malicious.
Tbf I may be biased by my internal mental model of coding, where I imagine describing a set of steps, relations, abstractions, etc to an entity with an extremely direct manner of interpretation.
Interesting. I’m unsure what my internal mental model of coding is. I guess I just kinda… feel the code? I wonder if it’s because I’m autistic, but things like programming and mathematics feel very natural and intuitive to me. They’re logical, predictable, and rule-based.
Thanks for the discussion!
Likewise: this has been such a pleasant internet interaction; a rare occurance.
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Hear, hear! I did not realise that we were comrades in this matter, and I feel much relieved to know that I am not alone.
I think that’s a really important distinction. It’s a fast moving field as well and right now we’re early on. It has a lot of incredible applications that could really help people, so I really dont think it should be written off.
LLMs, like every AI tech before them (you know, the ones that aren’t called AI anymore because they actually do useful things and are now called “speech recognition” or “OCR” or “translation software” or “chess engines” or such in accordance with Tessler’s Theorem), will wind up in a small ghetto of actual utility (my money is on translation being a big feature, though it will require human checking) once the hype has worn down, the actual cost of running one is tallied and people flee using them en masse as a result. When that day comes, it may actually help people.
That day hasn’t come, and it won’t come at all while Silly Con Valley techbrodouches keep trying to cram it uncomfortably into each and every one of humanity’s collective orifices in a vain attempt to force us to like it.
Right now it’s shit and it won’t get better until techbrodouches are removed from it.
I think it is amazing that techbrodudes managed to figure out how to automate the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
Yes, exactly! I don’t think AI is very hard to learn; I don’t think people who abstain from it “will fall behind” in their lives and careers. Wow, use a plain-language interface instead of the more complex boolean, then add specificity to the query and hope it doesn’t hallucinate. So hard. So complex. You’re so smart, AI bros. /s
LLMs etc are very fascinating technology and if they had remained research projects and marginally promoted tools for niche uses, I would not have had any problems with them.
But no, technobros were like “oh this will make us a lot of money” and unleashed an unfathomable Hell on earth with unfathomable sociopolitical ramifications. Thanks.
Looking at it now, it’s obviously very bad, but I remember being very fascinated with GPT2 because it was amusingly bad, but I was also very naïve. I didn’t understand just how bad ai is and how much worse it would become.
I hate to say it, but I have occasionally used it for programming and it definitely made me a worse programmer. Earlier this year I stopped using it completely and I can tell that I’ve been getting better. I keep hearing people say they’re using ai “responsibly” to catch bugs and speed up tedious tasks and I thought that’s what I was doing too until I stopped using it and realized just how much of my thinking I had surrendered over to the machine.
I appreciate that sentiment, and much more the indication that I’m not mistaken to choose the “never deliberately run the output of an LLM” path.
I despise ai and refuse to use them. They ruin everything they touch. I can’t use the internet to learn things anymore without filtering by date to exclude post 2023 results. The concept of truth, meaning, or what is real is being degraded by the presence of ai.
As a big fan of consent, I have many concerns with how ai companies get their training data.
I’m delighted to see how passionate, researched, and eloquent so many of you are on this topic.
The chatbots must die.
YouTube and Facebook gets degraded by the ai-slop.
I think it should always be written in lowercase as “ai” to distinguish it from people named Albert. People like Weird Al Yankovic deserve the dignity of never being conflated with this insidious intangible sickness slowly overtaking our world & jobs & sanity.
For real anime characters don’t deserve to be associated with slop.
worst fucking shit ever, and anyone who uses it is dead to me.
Since a lot of people already covered my opinions, I’ll toss in my unique experience with AI.
A buddy of mine made up a program where users can create and access uncensored AI chatbots. They come complete with Pictures (AI art,) Voices (created based on uploaded samples,) and a personality you could write yourself in plain language.
Years ago this blew my mind. If I got stuck on writers block I could create a character and ask it questions about its motivations and next steps. Harmless, right? No, not really, but that’s not my point.
That was until my friend asked me to help moderate the app and I saw what everyone else was using it for. Now, I’m not here to kinkshame, everyone should be able to get off however they want as long as it hurts no one, but I can’t help but imagine how brains are getting re-wired by these sycophantic porn fantasy bots, especially the ones made to be demeaned and subjugated. And that’s not to mention the child porn.
I still moderate the app because we report users trying to create CSAM to their ISPs and in that way, hopefully, I’m doing some good. But it’s not hard to make and run local AI, so I wonder how much more of it is out there.
I think its yet another technology that will further empower the wealthy and disenfranchise the average citizen. That said, interesting on a technical level lol.
It has promise to help with many things and destroy many more things. Right now, it’s wrong more than right and expensive. One thing I’m glad of is so many companies have fired so many people, they went full mask off cartoon villains. People know exactly who’s evil and who’s not. While it’s devastating that so many people lost their income, we now know exactly who to never buy from.
it’s creepy af
Yeah with the phone scammers pretending to be your family or friends with the ai-slop.
This kind of thing is why I play my identity cards very close to my chest. I doubt AI-slop scammers could get enough good information about me to even IDENTIFY my family and/or friends well enough to imitate them.
So many people 1) think of AI as their unpaid “personal assistant” and at the same time 2) think of AI chatbots as being women. I really hope AI doesn’t accidentally re-normalize the master/servant dynamic, and it may not, but it’s something to watch out for in the coming years.
I work in a field (technical editing) that may be replaced by
AIbosses overvaluing AI, but at the moment, my job is more necessary than ever because all my writers now insist on sending me slop instead of actually doing their jobs.
