Let me be very very clear about something.
I'm not "afraid" of the set of products & services which has been labeled "Artificial Intelligence" by the tech community.
I have *never* said I'm afraid of it.
I point this out because the CEO of Superhuman, whose Grammarly product recently hallucinated advice by Nilay Patel, use a trigger word for me referencing people who are "afraid" of the slop machines.
No. I don't think people feel afraid. I think we feel exploited, and we are pissed as hell.
Fear implies a sort of agreement. I fear a giant wild bear in the forest mauling me to death because I *agree* with the bear's ability to maul me. I am not in any dispute with the bear as to its ability to harm me. I am disputing the idea it's a nice thing to have happen to me.
When it comes to the slop machines, the reason I don't fear them is because I dispute their abilities. They are not what is claimed. It is an elaborate smokescreen, and the worst place to begin debate is on their terms.
I'm increasingly convinced that there is more propaganda than tech in AI. And I know how much tech is involved. Even worse, those companies have limitless money for it, and no scruples at all.
It's not a surprise, then, that two of the main forces behind AI are not only ad driven: they are the two biggest propaganda machines in human history. And growing.
@jaredwhite I fear the results of depending on AI: some expertise is lost, fragile systems are created, creativity lacks incentives, misinformation and DISinformation spread, society's ability to confirm truth is damaged.
I fear our *reversal* on climate change.
These are not fears of AI itself. The con men aren't scary, its the results of investing our resources and future that are scary.
Just this morning I was pondering a world where this tech was developed responsibly. It was nice.
@jaredwhite Such fairly small changes. Train the models while obeying copyrights. Dont hype and overpromise. Be honest with pricing and external costs.
A mostly accurate, more expensive natural language autocomplete system wouldn't be tilting the P/E ratios of the S&P 500, but it would still represent a world changing development. There would be plenty of interest and continued development, though a lot fewer slop generators would be interested in paying the fees. (No downside in my mind)
@jaredwhite I am not afraid of AI, I am afraid of those pushing it as without exception they are using their wealth to make the world worse for the rest of the people they share it with.
In the 90s a lot of dipsh*ts like Elon Musk earned insulting levels of money selling companies that turned out to be worthless and decided this made them experts on everything and positioned to tell the world how it should be run. It took them a long time to gather the power and influence they now wield... AI bros are as bad, if not worse, and they already know where to spend their money to get their way. I fear we're only just beginning to see the amorality the likes of Altman are capable of.
Jared White (ResistanceNet ✊)
Curioso 🍉 🇺🇦 (jgg)
Brett R
Michael Porter
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