Graham Snyder
Jeff 
“What next, should I have a computer that eats my dinner and fucks my wife?” is one of those perfect sentences that just sticks in your head
Saagar Jha@jnadeau You could have the computer remember it for you
CheapPontoon@jnadeau
I totally agreed with the whole thing until I saw that I might get AI to watch TV for me and that sounds pretty good .
I totally agreed with the whole thing until I saw that I might get AI to watch TV for me and that sounds pretty good .
Ben Evans@CheapPontoon @jnadeau Your daily reminder that Sam Bankman-Fried and his chums unironically believe that books are stupid & that anything worth saying can be put into a blog post, or auto-summarized by AI.
And us plebs are supposed to revere these chucklefucks as geniuses rather than have them committed.
@jnadeau
I couldn't find a sub-thread to say how much I love to create. I spent an hour last night trying to figure the right strum pattern and chord changes for what should be a simple chorus, and it gave me endorphins like a sudoku. Can't wait to try again tonight.
I couldn't find a sub-thread to say how much I love to create. I spent an hour last night trying to figure the right strum pattern and chord changes for what should be a simple chorus, and it gave me endorphins like a sudoku. Can't wait to try again tonight.
Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC@CheapPontoon @jnadeau Well, depends on the TV programme. Having an AI watch the news or some political talkshow for me and then give me a summary and deliver me the video clips I ask it for would be nice. Having an AI watch Doctor Who or Star Trek would be absolutely useless.
@CheapPontoon @jnadeau Although the latest Doctor Who episodes are so bad that I wonder whether the scripts were written by ChatGPT.
Martijn Vos@LordCaramac @CheapPontoon @jnadeau
AI can watch the commercials for me so it can skip through them and wait for me when they're over.
Dave Spector@jnadeau someone — wish I could remember to give proper credit — a few months ago said re: AI generated books,
“why would I read a book no one bothered to write?”
Benoît Jones
🐙ptoothfish🐙@huxley @Dhmspector @jnadeau well, to be fair, i wouldn’t watch two PEOPLE play chess against each other, unless they jazzed up the plot with drugs or sexual tension or something
Handler Skyler
Darwin WoodkaI just fucking cringe every time my kindle pushes that shit at me. it makes me want to throw the kindle across the room
mav 
@jnadeau i can never get over the idea - and I wish I'd made a note of where I heard it - that the current generative iterations of 'AI' are essentially the exact reverse of what computers should be doing for us. They should be working the tedious tasks and leaving us time for enjoyment and creation, but instead they're doing all the creation and only leaving behind the tedious tasks.
John Panzer@mav @jnadeau @pluralistic I believe this is called a “reverse centaur”: Exactly the opposite of what would make sense.
Isocat@mav Are you thinking of "I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do laundry and dishes"? I don't know who said it, but it's been circulating. I agree with the general intent, but even here: no. I want the laundry and dishes done the way I want them done, not the way 'AI' "thinks" is best.
Adrian Egger@jnadeau File under: things people who don't actually make anything will never understand.
Kay Ohtie 🔜 FWA@jnadeau God, I already disliked AI, but as someone who loves baking that analogy really hit it harder for me. That and the comment of the creation process being enjoyable; I've found I really enjoy some of the tedious facets of another art form I do -- adding plush stitching seams carefully after evaluating where they'd be on a real plush when I'm doing 3D model textures, or other assembly marks. It's often the difference between something looking good in VR and looking real, that extra time spent.
But the baking analogy I'll hold onto tight for future use for sure. My wallet doesn't mean as much as taking my own time to make something delicious everyone, even my GF friends, can enjoy.
@colon_three
jmjm@jnadeau awesome!
This is what a post scarcity utopia would look like. It's not that nobody would ever work at Starbucks again, it's that specific people would show up at the coffee shop because they love making lattes and enjoy the community a good coffee shop creates.
I feel the same way about programming. It's okay if Copilot wants to do the kubernetes configuration, but the algorithms are mine.
Abby ☃@jnadeau "Robot! Experience this tragic irony for me!"
https://youtu.be/LCPhbN1l024?si=uOQFbsKJdChh4xjA
https://youtu.be/LCPhbN1l024?si=uOQFbsKJdChh4xjA
Futurama - Benderama
Murf@jnadeau Brilliant
Longwing@jnadeau This facinates me. I'm reminded of the (very popular) AI-voiced (and probably AI-scripted) recap videos on youtube. There's whole channels dedicated to summarizing movies and TV shows with badly done computer-generated voiceovers.
I've watched a couple myself, and while I find them grating, I also found them pretty useful for getting the gist of a movie or show that I wasn't heavily invested in watching.
@jnadeau Those videos are immensely popular, and an obvious source of passive income for whoever is churning them out. The channels show up, get copyright struck, disappear, show up again... probably programmatically generated.
In short, there ARE some people who want AI to watch TV for them.
@jnadeau The joke about AI eating your dinner also has weird resonance with some people. Consider all the liquid meal replacements, clearly meant to bypass all that boring eating so the person drinking them can speedrun getting their calories and stabilizing their blood sugar.
I'm not going to mock that, as I myself have relied on them more than once, and there's a definite element of assistive-technology to them for certain types of neurodivergence.
@jnadeau I guess the point I'm making is that human beings love shortcuts. In some ways that's most of what our brain does. Most engineering is about making a hard thing easier.
We also, as a species, have an obsession with Ideas and mistakenly believe that Ideas have value. Ideas are practically worthless, we all have hundreds of them, but we treat concepts as if they're worth more than the execution of said concepts.
@jnadeau Thus the incredible rise of "AI". It's a shortcut machine. Have an idea? Here's a janky implementation of your idea that skips all that hard "training" and "work" that you don't want to perform.
@jnadeau I think AI generated art is doing incredible harm, largely because of the extensive use of plagiarism in it's creation, but the argument that it's somehow counter to human nature? I'm not so sure.
There are lots of people who enjoy hard work, or at least enjoy specific kinds of hard work that they're good at, but there's tons of real actual humans who want the result without any of the effort of getting there.
@isocat @jnadeau To be clear, I do not think this instinct is a good thing.
This is not a defense of AI, or of people's love of shortcuts. Rather, I'm pointing out that people will do things that are net-detrimental to themselves and others, and that's not contrary to human nature.
We're not a species of noble philosopher saints. Most of us are kind of dumb and kind of lazy.
Mystery Babylon 
@erosdiscordia @jnadeau Huel is one of the few designed by an actual Dietitian... and it uses pea protean, which makes it nearly undrinkable for me.
Most are made by techbros who read some blogs on nutrition and think they're now experts in the field.
Despite all that, I leaned on them pretty heavily for a while. They were a great way to make sure I was on an even caloric keel.
The comparison I'm drawing here isn't to AI's horrible accuracy, but instead to it's use as a shortcut engine.
The initial post argues that it'd be ridiculous to ask AI to "eat your dinner for you", but honestly... there's a lot of people who'd do exactly that if they could.
This isn't meant as a defense of AI. AI is horrible, but the argument that leaning on AI is contrary to human nature? That's the bit I'm calling out.
Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary@Longwing @jnadeau
When I read about the "Soylent" movement (yes, they really call it that, and think they're being "ironic" by doing so), it really stuck out to me that the people trying to push eating as a chemistry problem they've solved and insisting that real eating should become "recreational food" were really only thinking of themselves, not about the broader societal consequences of what would happen if their "perfect" meal shakes were to catch on in a capitalist hellscape.
1/2
@Longwing @jnadeau
Sure, to *you*, the coder who finds it maddeningly disruptive to stop following your train of thought for half an hour in order to not pass out from hunger, a meal shake that literally covers everything is a great convenience. Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, billionaires would use the existence of such things to eliminate the only break people on assembly lines or in farm fields are allowed?
"Lunch? Take a swig of this instead, you lazy peasant."
2/2
Robin Adams
Wayne WernerMy particular brand of nerd are basically _the bad guys_. The modern era is filled to the brim with things that help me. I can't picture living in a different era (or I CAN, but it's not a great picture).
In some ways it feels like we've taken our collective revenge for being bullied in school out on society at large.
Most of the things that are great for me are a net drain on all that is good in the world.
Earthshine --> moved@jnadeau The problem is, as always, capitalism.
Business people want to use AI as a shortcut to creating art so they can use or sell it for profit, without investing the time to learn and use skills to create it themselves or the money to pay someone who did. They see no problem with this because they do not value the art or the artists. Artists have a problem with this because they live in a capitalist hellscape where they need to sell their work to survive instead of just being able to create for creation's sake, and now the capitalists are trying to cut them out of the loop. "Let them paint cake."
@jnadeau I've seen some _really_ _really_ bad tattoos that people are stuck with forever. I get the point here, but I just have to point out that many people would be better off with a soulless AI generated tattoo design. Of course, the actual execution would still be done by a person currently, so there's still plenty of room for the worst of both worlds.
Luka Rubinjoni@jnadeau I already hear an overly enthusiastic elevator pitch about new tech that eats wives and fucks dinners.
@jnadeau and the company that will be that to you? AIT&T.
@jnadeau the definitive theme song:
You Will
eestileib (she/hers)I agree about the eating dinner part, but a computer fucking my wife would be hot.
Doug Baker - Elbows Up! 🇨🇦@jnadeau the artist just described what most artists say: they’re not as concerned with the result as they are with the journey.
Pseudo NymThe distinction between valuing the journey (process) or the product, is key here.
The talented baker who enjoys baking doesn't care if the store bought cupcakes are better than hers or not
The person who wants to eat tasty cupcakes and doesn't know the baker personally, just wants the tastiest product at the cheapest cost.
I see a lot of this friction in "AI" discussions. Different folks value the process or the output differently.
What is the point, or purpose of the activity?
nicolas ⁂@jnadeau Unrelated to the point, but the bit about AI watching TV reminds me of this quote from Douglas Adams:
“A labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of washing them yourself, video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving you the bother of looking at it yourself.”
(from Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency)
Bobbi Towers@jnadeau Even apart from the pleasure involved in creation is the skill gained through feedback and iteration. Actually, these are intimately linked. The joy felt is a result of, as well as the source of motivation to improve.
Ronan Limon Duparcmeur@jnadeau @MoskitoHero as it happens, “I’m not participating and gain nothing from it” is also how my wife describes fucking with me.
Mᴀʀᴋ VᴀɴᴅᴇWᴇᴛᴛᴇʀɪɴɢ@jnadeau "Why do you do X instead of just buying Y?" is one of the most depressing conversation-ending questions I can imagine.
John Willis 🔰The Devil’s Hands👹
My 2 favorite Futurama stories are one when Fry ends up the Devil’s hands, and one where tapeworms make him articulate -both times he uses his new abilities to express his love to Leela in a way he couldn’t before.
My hands are terrible at drawing, though I took years of art.
People talking about AI art are often artists who posses amazing skills (better than AI). These AI tools are the devil’ hands, allowing people to express their creativity in ways they couldn’t before.
@hotdogsladies I think you making video snippets of your dreams is a great example of “The Devils Hands” (see replied-to toot) - the upside of AI art tools. The people complaining are not wrong, but Fry was so happy to be able express himself, just as I am with my photography.
Quinn Norton@jnadeau This is really close to what's been in my head since all this noise started.
delta 
@jnadeau really, using AI for everything is like only ever eating refined nutrient paste because its more efficient, you might be able to get the same result at the end but is it really the same
ERRORSMITH@jnadeau I mean it's just an extension of the disbelief that people would actually work for anything but money.
Bart Wronski 🇺🇦🇵🇸@jnadeau when I worked with an amazing tattoo artist who did half-sleeves for me, I sent her a "mood board" that included reference pictures and some I generated with DALL-E. I explained it was just a mood board and left her full freedom (a great tattoo artist will refuse to copy any design anyway; they are *artists*). She designed "in the vibe" (which evolved over sessions), but her style/art/designs. Neither me nor she saw a problem with that. "Mood boards" are often just stock photos anyway.
@jnadeau for my own "art" (music), I would never use AI, as I agree that art is about the process, creativity, and enjoyment. I will never be a pro musician, but it's not about the outcome - it's a magical hobby. But for communicating a bunch of rough ideas in an art domain in which I don't have the skills to express, why not?
Dave@jnadeau “I thought it was a terrible idea, but my wife signed up right away!”