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.

@jaredwhite

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)