Comment by HumblyTossed
4 hours ago
It's a great tool, but right now it's only being used to feed the greed.
>> Again, I guess no one knew AI would be as big as it is today, and it is only just started.
People have been saying similar about self driving cars for years now. "AI" is another one of those expensive ideas that we'll get 85% of the way there and then to get the other 15% will be way more expensive than anyone will want to pay for. It's already happening - HW prices and electricity - people are starting to ask, "if I put more $ into this machine, when am I actually going to start getting money out?" The "true believers" are like, soon! But people are right to be hugely skeptical.
There are some things it's really great at. For example, handling a css layout. If we have to spend trillions of dollars and get nothing else out of it other than being able to vertically center a <div> without wrestling with css and wanting to smash the keyboard in the process, it will all have been worth it.
I agree -- skepticism is totally healthy. And there are so many great ways to poke holes in the true underlying narratives (not the headlines that people seem to pull from). E.g. evaluation science is a wasteland (not for wont of very smart people trying very hard to get them right). How do we tackle the power requirements in a way that is sustainable? Etc. etc.
But stuff like this im not sure I understand:
> It's a great tool, but right now it's only being used to feed the greed.
if its a great tool, then how is it _only_ being used to "feed the greed" and what do you mean by that?
Also I think folks are quick to make analogies to other points in history: "AI is like the dot com boom we're going to crash and burn" and "AI is like {self driving cars, crypto, etc} and the promises will all be broken, its all hype" but this removes the nuance: all of these things are extremely different with very specific dynamics that in _some_ ways may be similar but in many crucial and important ways are completely different.