JenniferplusplusFeb 26

I wrote about AI again. On some level I don't now why I do this to myself

https://jenniferplusplus.com/what-is-a-token/

Actually, I wrote most of it months ago, for work. But, it was well received, so I put it on my blog. This is the more generic version.

The short version is that AI is not magic. It's a real phenomenon with real behavior and tradeoffs. I'm deeply tired of *****ALL***** the tradeoffs being handwaved away. And so much imagination fills in for the actual behavior. So I tried to describe how it's built, because that informs how it works, which informs what it actually does. And to be clear, it does things. It's not useless. But that's not the same as being useful, or worthwhile.

Anyway, I already put ~4k words on this in the article, so I'll shut up and let it speak for itself.

What is a token

AI is meant to seem like magic. But there's no such thing as magic. It's all illusion. So, allow me to spoil that illusion for you.

Jennifer++
Show threadJ Paul GibsonFeb 26
@jenniferplusplus thanks for sharing this. i have added it to the reading list for software engineering students that i teach. there are many things i like in the article - 2 of the highlights (for me) were your observations about (i paraphrase and apologise if i misrepresent what you wrote) « making easy things easier and hard things harder», and « verification can be more difficult than doing the work yourself »… as a teacher, generative AI is a major challenge to the way i teach.
Show threadJenniferplusplus
@jpaulgibson that's awesome! I hope they get something out of it
Feb 26 at 7:01amWeb
Show threadJ Paul GibsonFeb 26
@jenniferplusplus im sure they will…
Show threadJenniferplusplusFeb 26
@jpaulgibson actually if you liked the passing comment on making hard things harder, then you'll probably like this one even more
https://jenniferplusplus.com/losing-the-imitation-game/
Losing the imitation game

AI cannot develop software for you, but that's not going to stop people from trying to make it happen anyway. And that is going to turn all of the easy software development problems into hard problems.

Jennifer++
Show threadJ Paul GibsonFeb 26
@jenniferplusplus thanks - some nice reading for my coffee break between meetings this morning