AI is not a useful tool, it’s a lock-in subscription that chains you to those billionaires. Fighting against AI is fighting against control by billionaires.
I mean…looms actually seem useful. My experience with large language models is that they’re only useful when the output doesn’t really matter. Like…they’re fine if you’re “searching” for things that aren’t really defined and you don’t really care about the answer (i.e. “what are the five trendiest coffeeshops in Barcelona that are likely to have english speaking staff?” it can’t actually know any of that…what’s “trendy” even mean? Whatever, who cares, go to a coffee shop on your vacation, have a nice time).
But when it matters you just cannot rely on them…They can’t be relied on to use the correct words when precision of language matters, they can’t do “research” or “analysis” in any meaningful sense…like maybe better than a sharp middle-schooler? But not as well as a dumb undergrad.
And I don’t see any reason, understanding what the technology is to think they’ll get better at those things. It’s predictive in nature. You know…like maybe it’ll go from 60% reliable to 90% reliable over the next hundred years because they’ll find some way to focus on high-quality and relevant training data, while still using gigantic training data to get the model up and running…? But since it’s fundamentally a predictive model (trying to predict what a good answer would look like), it’s never going to be able to actually be relied upon for answers to questions when it matters.
And idk what the cost would be when factoring in all the externalities…environmental destruction, energy consumption…hell, even the infrasound from data centers fucking up everyone’s brain…like…there’s just no way this makes any economic sense. Right now it’s all mega-subsidized, but when that comes to an end…is it gonna cost $10 per prompt on average? $50? Idk, but I know everyone using it now will not want to pay for it.
What about that “forcing” thing you’re talking about? Look around. You’re being forced with everything by corporations. Why would this new cool technology should be an exception? You’re forced to watch sport events, listen to modern music, wear some vogue clothes, kiss your beloved leader’s ass, hate those evil Cubans or Ukrainians (depending on who your owner is).
No, I do none of those things. You just sound like a resentful conformist. Maybe try thinking and doing for yourself, instead of thinking and doing as you’re told.
Better question is, when did you lose basic keyword-based searching skills? I know you may want your answers on a platter but realize that there’s value in manual searches. Searching for something with LLMs on the page that you’re on is questionable on so many levels.
There’s really not value in doing something harder, and if it was a one page thing that wouldn’t be an issue.
Using their example you could get an LLM to return you the correct page in some documentation, searching through an entire site based only on a concept of what feature set you’re looking for. Ctrl-F cannot do that.
It’s not harder, though, it’s actually quite instant if you know what you’re doing. A lot of documentation is literally one single web page, and the majority that is not can be navigated with the regular search and ctrl+F just fine.
There’s no substitute to taking 40 minutes to get acquainted with the documentation to know what you need rather than trial & error your way through a problem blindly.
you could get an LLM to return you the correct page in some documentation
It’s unreliable and prone to errors, and I say that after using LLM-based searches for months at work. Too many times it confuses areas, makes stuff up, or cites some irrelevant page just to give any answer at all.
YouTube storing shitillions of dickabytes of cat videos “costs” much more while being completely useless. But those are funny cat videos. Hands off of those videos. Yes?
You may think you’re being clever, but that is hardly a reasonable comparison while also ignoring the glaring corporate irresponsibility underlying both.
You’re screaming into the echo chamber, mate. Unless you’re so rabidly anti-AI you believe and spread one of a few comforting, imaginary narratives, you’ll be dog piled.
I’m staunchly critical of AI, but won’t pretend that it only consists of generative AI, that it still operates as poorly as it did years ago, nor that a disturbing percentage of the population either doesn’t care about or actually supports that shit, so I get my share of insults. Being pro-AI won’t get you much civility so set your expectations low. Unless you’re trolling. Then you’ve nailed it.
So maybe you should fight against dick-shoving billionaires, not against useful tools?
AI is not a useful tool, it’s a lock-in subscription that chains you to those billionaires. Fighting against AI is fighting against control by billionaires.
AI is the Loom.
You are the Luddite.
Big tech is the Workhouse Owner.
I mean…looms actually seem useful. My experience with large language models is that they’re only useful when the output doesn’t really matter. Like…they’re fine if you’re “searching” for things that aren’t really defined and you don’t really care about the answer (i.e. “what are the five trendiest coffeeshops in Barcelona that are likely to have english speaking staff?” it can’t actually know any of that…what’s “trendy” even mean? Whatever, who cares, go to a coffee shop on your vacation, have a nice time).
But when it matters you just cannot rely on them…They can’t be relied on to use the correct words when precision of language matters, they can’t do “research” or “analysis” in any meaningful sense…like maybe better than a sharp middle-schooler? But not as well as a dumb undergrad.
And I don’t see any reason, understanding what the technology is to think they’ll get better at those things. It’s predictive in nature. You know…like maybe it’ll go from 60% reliable to 90% reliable over the next hundred years because they’ll find some way to focus on high-quality and relevant training data, while still using gigantic training data to get the model up and running…? But since it’s fundamentally a predictive model (trying to predict what a good answer would look like), it’s never going to be able to actually be relied upon for answers to questions when it matters.
And idk what the cost would be when factoring in all the externalities…environmental destruction, energy consumption…hell, even the infrasound from data centers fucking up everyone’s brain…like…there’s just no way this makes any economic sense. Right now it’s all mega-subsidized, but when that comes to an end…is it gonna cost $10 per prompt on average? $50? Idk, but I know everyone using it now will not want to pay for it.
How about allowing AI to be rolled out and adopted organically instead of trying to gavage it down everyone’s throats?
That’s the question to corporations, not to LLMs.
That would be true of any technology. Technology doesn’t have agency; my comment is clearly directed at corpos that are pushing it.
If they’re so useful, why are they being forced on everyone, including by making them part of performance reviews?
If they’re useful people will naturally use them.
And people do use them. Naturally.
What about that “forcing” thing you’re talking about? Look around. You’re being forced with everything by corporations. Why would this new cool technology should be an exception? You’re forced to watch sport events, listen to modern music, wear some vogue clothes, kiss your beloved leader’s ass, hate those evil Cubans or Ukrainians (depending on who your owner is).
Wow, you must be the weakest and the easiest to manipulate and brainwash human being on the planet.
I very often do push back against things that they try to force down everyone’s throat. AI is not exceptional in this regard.
No, I do none of those things. You just sound like a resentful conformist. Maybe try thinking and doing for yourself, instead of thinking and doing as you’re told.
So cool…
Nobody’s fighting against you guys. Why do sloperators have to take everything personally? Smh my head.
“AI Tools” describes both the product and the people who use them.
What “usefulness” do you get out of them?
They save my time tremendously while searching for something in documentation. Especially if I don’t know if it is actually there.
Are you not familiar with “ctrl+f”?
Didn’t know ctrl-f could parse natural language and not only rely on knowing the correct keyword. When did it gain that functionality?
Better question is, when did you lose basic keyword-based searching skills? I know you may want your answers on a platter but realize that there’s value in manual searches. Searching for something with LLMs on the page that you’re on is questionable on so many levels.
There’s really not value in doing something harder, and if it was a one page thing that wouldn’t be an issue.
Using their example you could get an LLM to return you the correct page in some documentation, searching through an entire site based only on a concept of what feature set you’re looking for. Ctrl-F cannot do that.
It’s not harder, though, it’s actually quite instant if you know what you’re doing. A lot of documentation is literally one single web page, and the majority that is not can be navigated with the regular search and ctrl+F just fine.
There’s no substitute to taking 40 minutes to get acquainted with the documentation to know what you need rather than trial & error your way through a problem blindly.
It’s unreliable and prone to errors, and I say that after using LLM-based searches for months at work. Too many times it confuses areas, makes stuff up, or cites some irrelevant page just to give any answer at all.
Than you’re doing it wrong, I use it for similar things and find it far better than previous methods and I’ve been doing this shit for 20 years now.
There’s a reason why so many people are using it, it’s an extremely useful tool in some applications. It’s not perfect, but it saves a lot of time.
I’d that tool didn’t come at the destructive costs involved, AI would be a lot more palatable.
YouTube storing shitillions of dickabytes of cat videos “costs” much more while being completely useless. But those are funny cat videos. Hands off of those videos. Yes?
You may think you’re being clever, but that is hardly a reasonable comparison while also ignoring the glaring corporate irresponsibility underlying both.
If that’s what it takes to stop the excessive destruction caused by unregulated data center construction and operation, yes.
What “yes”?
Do you need to reread my comment instead of reacting to a single word of it?
You need to reread my comment.
I answered you. But you still seem confused. What don’t you understand about my reply?
They’re ai and their context window ran out of space lol
I don’t care what you do but keep your hands off those videos. I need them for things.
They’re not useful tools.
You’re screaming into the echo chamber, mate. Unless you’re so rabidly anti-AI you believe and spread one of a few comforting, imaginary narratives, you’ll be dog piled.
I’m staunchly critical of AI, but won’t pretend that it only consists of generative AI, that it still operates as poorly as it did years ago, nor that a disturbing percentage of the population either doesn’t care about or actually supports that shit, so I get my share of insults. Being pro-AI won’t get you much civility so set your expectations low. Unless you’re trolling. Then you’ve nailed it.