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Comment by kylecazar

6 days ago

I like the historical part of this article, but the current problem is the reverse.

Everyone is jumping on the AI train and forgetting the fundamentals.

AI will plausibly disrupt everything

  • We have a system to which I can upload a generic video, and which captures eveeeeeerything in it, from audio, to subtitles onscreen, to skewed text on a mug, to what is going on in a scene. It can reproduce it, reason about it, and produce average-quality essays about it (and good-quality essays if prompted properly), and, still, there are so many people who seem to believe that this won't revolutionize most fields?

    The only vaguely plausible and credible argument I can entertain is the one about AI being too expensive or detrimental to the environment, something which I have not looked sufficiently into to know about. Other than that, we are living so far off in the future, much more than I ever imagined in my lifetime! Wherever I go I see processes which can be augmented and improved though the use of these technologies, the surface of which we've only barely scratched!

    Billions are being poured trying to use LLMs and GenAI to solve problems, trying to create the appropriate tools that wrap "AI", much like we had to do with all the other fantastic technology we've developed throughout the years. The untapped potential of current-gen models (let alone next-gen) is huge. Sure, a lot of this will result in companies with overpriced, over-engineered, doom-to-fail products, but that does not mean that the technology isn't revolutionary.

    From producing music, to (in my mind) being absolutely instrumental in a new generation of education or mental health, or general support for the lonely (elderly and perhaps young?), to the service industry!...the list goes on and on and on. So much of my life is better just with what little we have available now, I can't fathom what it's going to be like in 5 years!

    I'm sorry I highjacked your comment, but it boggles the mind how so many people so adamantly refuse to see this, to the point that I often wonder if I've just gone insane?!

    • People dislike the unreliability and not being able to reason about potential failure scenarios.

      Then there's the question whether a highly advanced AI is better at hiding unwanted "features" in your products than you are at finding them.

      And lastly, you've went to great lengths of completely air gapping the systems holding your customers' IP. Do you really want some Junior dev vibing that data into the Alibaba cloud? How about aging your CFO by 20 years with a quote on an inference cluster?

      1 reply →

  • So would a universal cancer vaccine, but no one is acting like it's just around the corner.

    I'm old enough to remember when "big data" and later "deep data" was going to enable us to find insane multi-variable correlations in data and unlock entire new levels of knowledge and efficiency.

    AI as currently marketed is just that with an LLM chatbot.

I definitely don't think so. You're seeing companies who have a lot of publicity on the internet. There are tons of very successful SMBs who have no real idea of what to do with AI, and they're not jumping on it at all. They're at risk.

  • > They're at risk.

    They're at risk of what? It's easy to hand-wave about disruption, but where's the beef?

    • Seriously. What should my local roofing company's AI strategy be, and what are they risking by not having one?

      I can tell you for sure they did not have a Blockchain strategy, and they turned out just fine.

    • at risk of getting all my business because the big companies think I want to talk to a bot instead of a person lol