Has been a while since AI were introduced into the daily basis of the users around all the internet. When it firstly came I was curious yeah like everyone and tried some prompts to see “what this thing can do”, then, I never, ever, used AI again, because I really never saw it like something necesary, we had automatic systems already, so, the time keep moving to me until this day, when I realized something: how people is dependent of this shit. I mean, REALLY is dependent, and then they go like “I only used it for school 😢” like, are you serious dude? Do you leave your future to an algorithm? Coming back with my question, years have passed, I do think we all have an opinion more developed about AI, what do you think? Fuck it and use it anyways? If that is the case, why blame companys to make more accessible it’s use? Like microsoft putting copilot even in notepad. “Microsoft just wants to compile your data.” Isn’t LLM about that? Why blame them if you are going to use the same problem with different flavor? Not defending Microsoft here, I’m only using it like an example, change it for the company of your own preference.
Fuck off and die. That’s addressed to AI and AI companies, not you.
Like every new technology that is hailed as changing everything it is settling into a small handful of niches.
I use a service called Consensus which will unearth relevant academic papers to a specific clinical question, in the past this could be incredibly time consuming.
I also sometimes use a service called Heidi that uses voice recognition to document patient encounters, its quite good for a specific type of visit that suits a rigid template but 90% of my consults i have no idea why they are coming in and for those i find it not much better than writing notes myself.
Obviously for creative work it is near useless.
I’m tired of people’s shit getting stolen, and I’m tired of all the AI bullshit being thrown in my face.
It was fun for a time when their API access was free so some game developers put llms into their games. I liked being able to communicate with my ships computer, but quickly saw how flawed it was.
“Computer, can you tell me what system we’re in?”
“Sure, we’re in the Goober system.”
“But my map says we’re in Tweedledum.”
“Well it appears that your map is wrong.” Lol
I’m much more concerned about the future when “AGI” is actually useful and implemented into society. “We” (the ownership class) cannot accept anything other than the standard form of ownership. Those that created the AGI own the AGI and “rent” it to those that will “employ” the AGI. Pair that with more capable robotics being currently developed and there will be very little need for people to work most jobs. Because of the concept of ownership we will not let go of, if you can afford to live then you just die. There will be no “redistribution” to help those who cannot find work. We will start hearing more and more about “we don’t need so many people, X billion is too many. There isn’t enough work for them to support themselves.” Not a fun future…
I have less to say about the tech side than I do about this whole forced mass adoption of LLMs and how I’ve seen people react to it doing things.
I agree that they’re unethically made by stealing data. That’s indisputable. What I fail to grasp is what the purpose of hating a technology is. Blame and responsibility are weird concepts. I’m not knowledgeable in philosophy or anything related to this. What I can tell, however, is that hating on the tech itself distracts people from blaming those actually responsible, the humans doing the enshittification. The billionaires, dictators…
(tangent) and I’d go as far as to say anyone who politically represents more people than they know personally is not the type of politician that should be allowed. Same if they have enough power to violence a lot of people. But this is just my inner anarchist speculating how an ethical society with limited hierarchy might work.
AI all the things? Bad
AI for specific use cases? Good
I use AI probably a dozen times a week for work tasks, saving myself about 2-4 hours of work time on tasks that I know it can do easily in seconds. Simple e-mail draft? Done. Write a complex formula for excel? Easy. Generate a summary of some longer text? Yup.
It’s easy to argue that we may become dependant upon it, but that’s already true for lots of things. Would you have any idea on how to preserve food if you didn’t have a fridge? Would you have any idea on even how to get food if you didn’t have a grocery store nearby? How would you organize a party with your friends without a phone? If a computer wasn’t tracking your bank balance, how would you keep track of your money? Can you multiply 423 by 365 without using a calculator?
You’re actually making a good point that I don’t wholesale disagree with.
But the last paragraph really set me off I guess.
Personally I believe it’s important to have a somewhat granular understanding of the things we use every day, otherwise we risk becoming a slave to them.
None of us can go through life believing that it’s okay to have no skills and no ability to do anything because there’s an easier solution there for us
Because something is going to happen at some point that will take that easy solution away and then you’re fucked. What happens when all you have is a paper map, but all you’ve done is rely on these cool glowing boxes to tell you which direction to walk? You’re out in the bush with a wet phone and you sit down to cry… Because you’ve made yourself a slave and you have no idea what to do now.
I’m 50 now, and I don’t want to talk like an old man, but I can see that young people have no ability to manage their lives or do anything. There’s always a free ad supported app to do it, and then when the internet goes down they are doomed.
If you drive a car, you need to know how to change a tire and put gas in it. If you have a fridge to preserve food, yeah, you probably should understand how and why it preserves food and what to do if power goes down for a day. You should probably further understand how to preserve and ferment things because at many points in your life you’re going to get a lot of ingredients that are going to go to waste and you can eat them if you know what you’re doing.
Overall I cannot go for your advocacy of self-imposed helplessness. Every time you take an easy answer, you actually screw yourself. Most of the time it’s better to take the long road and do the hard work and figure out how to be a capable human being. Once you know how to do it without the easy solution, then you can use the easy solution. In a short metaphor, use the calculator once you know math.
Would you have any idea on how to preserve food if you didn’t have a fridge?
I could use a freezer:) Jk, not entirely no, but I’m aware of other methods, given a bit of time I could probably learn how to pickle or salt and jar food properly provided I could visit the library. I understand the key problem is harmful bacteria so refrigeration extends the lifespan of food by slowing down bacterial reproduction and airtight containers prevent new bacteria coming in.
Then depending on specifics there’s always vacuum-sealing and shrink-wrapping machines. If in this hypothetical collapse we still have knowledge and some way to generate electricity, and I wasn’t in a crazy rush, I’d probably build a fridge. I understand the basic principle behind refrigeration.
Would you have any idea on even how to get food if you didn’t have a grocery store nearby?
Yeah? If there’s like societal collapse or something and there’s not just food banks set up by the military or some such I’d go look for warehouses, I know I have the nation’s biggest Amazon warehouse just a few blocks down from me. If not an option, generally I’d hunt animals because on my own I don’t really stand a chance at agriculture, the large lead time won’t help, I don’t know how to hunt, but I’m sure by visiting the library I could learn how to craft a primitive spear with a knife and a sharp stick. Then long-term I’d move towards a saltwater body of water and fish.
How would you organize a party with your friends without a phone?
I’d use a computer ))))
Jk, I could write them a letter, or visit them in person. I don’t know all their addresses by heart, but I could ask others who do, or simply wander about the general area and knock on doors until I find them.
If a computer wasn’t tracking your bank balance, how would you keep track of your money?
I would write down my income and outgoings on a piece of paper and just do the math.
Can you multiply 423 by 365 without using a calculator?
Of course. I’m awful at math so I’ll probably mess it up, but you write down the nominator over the denominator and you multiply each of the top digits by each of the bottom digits, carry any extra to the next more significant digit and sum the results.
If I did it a few times, I could probably nail the correct result.
If all else fails and this is absolutely needed I could go get spare parts and build a full-adder circuit. Heck tbqh in the long term if all my basic needs were met, I could probably deep dive into a book and build a computer, especially if we’re basically talking only programmatic calculation, given 7-8 months it’s not hard, maybe much less if I can use logic gates instead of ICs. If I can use OCs and have plastic and some metal bits lying around making a breadboard shouldn’t be too hard. It won’t host the cloud or do your laundry, but it’ll do your math pretty accurately.
My point isn’t to show off, my point is that we (humanity) hedge our bets. There’s one thing we haven’t outsourced and it’s our thinking. I used to be vehemently pro-AI, but it worries me that people are outsourcing their very thought to AI.
The brain is very expensive evolutionary, and I for one, love having one, you use it or you lose it is the motto for the body, brain included, and I take great care to force myself to think on my own and understand things in as much depth as is reasonable.
Once you forget how to think and solve problems because another faux-brain does it for you, it’s all over, and there’s no going back. Don’t do that y’all.
In domain-specific applications (chemical / pharmaceutical / etc research) I can concede it has its uses, but in everyday life where it’s shoved into every nook and cranny: don’t need it, don’t want it, don’t respect the people who use it.
For things like bringing dead actors back into things: let the dead stay dead.
