Lots of people have compared today's shitty AI to radium, and asbestos, and lead. Those are fair comparisons, but hear me out...
What if LLMs are more like homeopathy? We've known that homeopathy doesn't work any better than a placebo for decades, and yet here we are.
People still study to become homeopathic practitioners. People still choose it over treatments which have been validated by rigorous scientific studies.
People still get rich selling sugar pills, and spend a portion of those profits to prevent their sugar pill industry from being effectively regulated.
I'm not saying the technology is inevitable. At the same time I think it's important to acknowledge how common it is for discredited practices to retreat to the fringes rather than fade away entirely.
#AI