Just as the GUI made computer software available to billions LLMs will be the next revolution.
I'm just as excited as you! The only downside is that it now make me feel bad that I'm not doing anything with it yet.
If that's the only downside that you see... I guess enhanced phishing/impersonation and all the blackhat stuff that come with it don't count.
I for one already miss the time where companies had support teams made of actual people.
The last four chats with ChatGPT (not GPT4) where a constant flow of non existent API functions with new hallucinations after each correction until we reached full circle.
Years ago I had a business DSL customer with a router and static IP. From everything in my testing it appeared that traffic broke somewhere at the local telco, not with my modem. It took 8 straight hours of arguing with L1 that no, it is not my windows. No, we have a router and it's not a computer issue. No, it's not the router (we could put the router in DHCP mode and it would work), it was an issue with static IP.
The next day we finally broke out of the stupid loop and got to IP services, who where just as confused. Eventually they were on the phone with people on the floor of the local office. A card of some type had been pulled and put in the wrong slot. Ooof.
I can read the website, I don't need a fake person to give me the information available on the website. When I contact support, it's because I need to talk to a human.
And yes, in 20 years you can tell your kids that 'back in my day' support consisted of real people. But truthfully, as someone who worked on a ISP helpdesk it's much better for society if these people move on to more productive areas.
But is it, though? I started my career in customer support for a server hosting company, and eventually worked my way up to sysadmin-type work. I would not have been qualified for the position I eventually moved to at the start, I learned on the job. Is it really better for society if all these entry level jobs get automated, leaving only those with higher barriers to entry?
Considering that the democratic backsliding across the globe is coincidentally happening at the same time as the rise of social media and echo chambers, are we sure about that? LLM have the opportunity to create a handcrafted echo chamber for every person on this planet, which is quite risky in an environment where almost every democracy of the planet is fighting against radical forces trying to abolish it.
People like to just suppose that these will help discover drugs and design buildings and what not, but what we actually know they’re capable of doing is littering our information environment at massive scale.
But you don't see the positive, you just have faith. That's beautiful in a way, but dangerous too. Just like the common idea that "I have faith that somebody will find a technological solution to climate change". When the risk is that high, I think we should take a step back and don't bet our survival on faith.
