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0 pointszozbot23427d ago0 comments

> Yes, but the AI that is metaphor is comparing to does not create more food.

Mostly because food is incredibly cheap, so it's not the main focus of present-day economies. AI does however help provide many basic services that improve quality of life. The most natural and most cost-effective use of AI is arguably in helping answer simple questions, not really in cranking out tokens to somehow help write complex software. And other service work is perhaps in the middle of this range.

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pdonis27d ago· 3 in thread

> AI does however help provide many basic services that improve quality of life.

Such as? AI can't do my laundry, wash my dishes, clean my house, do my food shopping for me. AI can't care for me if I'm sick.

> The most natural and most cost-effective use of AI is arguably in helping answer simple questions

But the answers it gives are not reliable. They sound plausible if you don't know anything about the subject, but they're not reliable.

How is this a benefit?

TuringTest27d ago

> But the answers it gives are not reliable. They sound plausible if you don't know anything about the subject, but they're not reliable.

Do not underestimate the utility of having a starting point overview on a topic you know absolutely nothing about. It may be immensely valuable even if some details are off. That's what made the XVIII's Encyclopedia such a valuable tool for civil society.

By the time you get to the point where those wrong details become relevant, you have gotten a basic understanding of what the overall topic is about, so you're prepared to get a second opinion from a different source - and this time you may know enough to start asking relevant questions, rather than starting from full ignorance.

Terr_27d ago

> Do not underestimate the utility of having a starting point overview on a topic you know absolutely nothing about.

Perhaps, but we already had that in the form of search-engines and primers and how-to guides and Wikipedia. The actionable questions already had answers.

Adding an obsequious device that dynamically hallucinate half of a conversation with not-necessarily-true dialog is (if not a detriment) only a marginal improvement.

pdonis27d ago

> a starting point overview

Which an unreliable answer is not.

> even if some details are off

Hallucinations are not a matter of some "details" being off. They are a matter of plausible, confident-sounding claims that are just plain wrong. They don't help anyone to get a "basic understanding". All they "help" with is getting a wrong understanding, that the poor person who's asking can't tell is wrong, because it sounds plausible and is stated with such confidence.

When humans do this, we call them "bullshit artists", and we don't view them favorably. Why should AIs get a pass?

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watwut27d ago

> AI does however help provide many basic services that improve quality of life.

Not yet. Like, not at all and there is a constantly expressed threat we will all become poorer and unemployable because of it. I dont believe it, but AI did not made life better ... and its creators claim it will make life worst for most of us. That is their literal sales pitch.

singpolyma327d ago

Food isn't "incredibly cheap" to a lot of people

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