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0 pointsandybak1y ago0 comments

"This is why when you hear people talk about how terrible it is at producing X, our takeaway should be "this person either hasn't tried to use it in good faith, and their opinions can be disregarded"

I'm playing devil's advocate somewhat here but it often seem like that there's a bunch of people on both sides using hella motivated reasoning because they have very strong feelings that developed early on in their exposure to AI.

AI is both terrible and wonderful. It's useless and some things and impressive at others. It will ruin whole sectors of the economy and upturn lives. It will get better and it is getting better so any limitations you currently observe are probably termporary. The net benefit for humanity may turn out to be positive or negative - it's too early to tell.

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6 comments · 2 top-level

bluefirebrand1y ago· 3 in thread

> AI is both terrible and wonderful. It's useless and some things and impressive at others

That's kind of my problem. I am saying that it mostly only appears impressive to people who don't know better

When people do know better it comes up short consistently

Most of the pro AI people I see are bullish about it on things they have no idea about, like non-technical CEOs insisting that it can create good code

andybakOP1y ago

> When people do know better it comes up short consistently

I disagree with that part and I don't think this opinion can be sustained by anyone using it with any regularity in good faith

People can argue whether it's 70/30 or 30/70 or what domains it's more useful in than others but you are overstating the negative.

int_19h1y ago

Have you considered that it's actually impressive in some areas that are outside of your interest or concern?

bluefirebrand1y ago

Could be, but why would I trust that when it's clearly so bad at the things I am good at?

1 more reply

ang_cire1y ago· 1 in thread

> The net benefit for humanity may turn out to be positive or negative - it's too early to tell.

It's just a tool, but it is unfortunately a tool that is currently dominated by large-sized corporations, to serve Capitalism. So it's definitely going to be a net-negative.

Contrast that to something like 3D printing, which has most visibly benefited small companies and individual users.

andybakOP1y ago

Like many things (general purpose computing, the internet) we can carve out our own space once something is released into the public sphere so I don't think Capitalism has the iron grip on this that you're hypothesising. In recent memory I think it's mainly social media where the corporations have mostly succeeded in keeping a firm hold on things and where it remains hard for users to subvert their aims. And that's largely because of the failure of decentralized social media to grow to a mass audience.

I think AI is different. "Good enough" models are already available under generous licenses, fine-tuning and even training is within the reach of groups of volunteers etc etc

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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6 comments · 2 top-level

bluefirebrand1y ago· 3 in thread

> AI is both terrible and wonderful. It's useless and some things and impressive at others

That's kind of my problem. I am saying that it mostly only appears impressive to people who don't know better

When people do know better it comes up short consistently

Most of the pro AI people I see are bullish about it on things they have no idea about, like non-technical CEOs insisting that it can create good code

andybakOP1y ago

> When people do know better it comes up short consistently

I disagree with that part and I don't think this opinion can be sustained by anyone using it with any regularity in good faith

People can argue whether it's 70/30 or 30/70 or what domains it's more useful in than others but you are overstating the negative.

int_19h1y ago

Have you considered that it's actually impressive in some areas that are outside of your interest or concern?

bluefirebrand1y ago

Could be, but why would I trust that when it's clearly so bad at the things I am good at?

1 more reply

ang_cire1y ago· 1 in thread

> The net benefit for humanity may turn out to be positive or negative - it's too early to tell.

It's just a tool, but it is unfortunately a tool that is currently dominated by large-sized corporations, to serve Capitalism. So it's definitely going to be a net-negative.

Contrast that to something like 3D printing, which has most visibly benefited small companies and individual users.

andybakOP1y ago

I think AI is different. "Good enough" models are already available under generous licenses, fine-tuning and even training is within the reach of groups of volunteers etc etc

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse