"If generative AI could REALLY make the next GTA in 6 months with 10 staff, or write the next bestseller, or produce 10 blockbusters a day? They wouldn't be trying to sell it to YOU. They would keep it for themselves and guard it from you ferociously."
I've seen this quote without attribution a couple of times. Whoever said it, they're spot on.
@JulietEMcKenna you know what's 10x worse? All the marginally-useful #AI we've seen so far - it only has some generally lackluster end results so far - might just be a massive scam to harvest free training labour from everyone who patiently corrects all the mistakes AI makes.
Once the AI actually crosses the dotted line from lackluster to awesome, it is *then* the doors to the public can be slammed down (to all free and easy usage) and the truly lucrative use cases, as in the OP, will be held private. Everyone will be played for suckers, who provided that free AI-training labour.
Scientists have been using AI for some time—to crunch massive number problems. But NOT to write their papers.
Those who have tried this have had their credibility permanently damaged.
Although the history of their fraud might be erased by the current FraudPlus government regime, and future students will need to take appeals to authority with a grain of salt . . .
@d1 wrote:
> ... harvest free training labour from everyone who patiently corrects all the mistakes AI makes
Right.
My intuition as well.
Today's LLMs are unpaid apprentices and their users are their unwitting "teachers".
I've said it before: it's the lottery system scam writ large
@paulboeck @JulietEMcKenna I'm in the *process* of quitting LinkedIn, not only do they platform such shysters, they're quietly un-protecting transfolk, and we all know what that's the first step towards...
But no. Big Tech's mentality is such that they can't not enshittify. Be it AI or social media or your bloody operating system. Time to deplatform them all. (We've already started, we're on Mastodon...)
@JulietEMcKenna they kept 3d printers behind close doors and a wall of pattents for 20 years
In capitalism we can t have nice things
@JulietEMcKenna @jay_peper Ah yes. The classic “Let me tell you the way to make your first $million” grift.
“First, sign up to my seminar for $$$$”….
@murdoc @Sarnau @JulietEMcKenna
And the How To Get Rich™ ebook contains a single page, for only 49.95, reproduced here in its entirety:
HOW TO GET RICH
Don't Waste Money On Useless Crap Like This Book.
Nope. That's a conspiracy theory. But hey! It might be a good plot for a Science Fiction story.
@JulietEMcKenna This is also why it’s so frustrating when you ask a question and someone goes “I asked ChatGPT this and-“
If I wanted slop, I can get it easily. Slop is readily available. I wanted an ANSWER. From PEOPLE.
To quote my biological father.
""If it was such a great deal I'd have to chase them down & beat it out of them."
@dneary @JulietEMcKenna This exactly. The world's greatest luthier isn't Jimi Hendrix. They're different skills.
Rarely - very rarely - you find someone who can bridge the gap. Think Les Paul or Tom Scholz. This is often where you'll see something miraculous occur.
@JulietEMcKenna I was wondering about the source, but the best I can find right now is this reference (July 23) that implies someone said it over on Bluesky. No luck tracking that down further, so far. Maybe someone else has better luck?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1404116417142065/posts/1791008445119525/
@JulietEMcKenna the version of this that I have heard for years now is:
> Nobody will ever rent you a money-printing-press for less money than they could print on it themselves.
I first came across this quote in the context of renting hashing power for pooled crypto mining, but it has relevance in a lot of contexts.
@anthony @JulietEMcKenna
This is pretty much what I had always told my dad whenever he talked about buying gold because fiat money is worthless.
"If that were true, why would they trade their precious gold for your worthless money? Are they running a charity?"
It got through to him in the moment, but he still kept getting suckered because he wasn't buying their logic, he was buying the narrative they built up around owning gold.
That's all these con men ever do. If crypto was really about disrupting the global financial system, they would talk about how people are actually using it for commerce, not some "get rich quick" bullshit. If LLMs were so great, they would talk about the results, not some fantasy about AGI.
This sounds like that quote about psychics.
If psychics were real, they wouldn't waste their time with readings or long hours in show business. They'd keep to themselves, kick back, and play the casinos, stock market, or venture capital instead. Far less work.
No such thing as psychics.
Like most get-rich schemes, the money is not in following the scheme, but in starting your own, to convince the bottom of the pyramid that they can be in the middle like you.
@krinkle @JulietEMcKenna @andydavies
For that matter, Nvidia would be insane to be selling all of it's output to other companies - when it could just build it's own Master Brain and rule the world.
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