No, there's plenty of criticism or skepticism of AI models from within the techie sphere.
An echo chamber would mean everyone having the same opinions, and that's not the case here, at least speaking to tech people broadly.
Ask HN: Are people in tech inside an AI echo chamber?
241–250 of 755 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are people in tech inside an AI echo chamber?
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
Increased efficiency doesn't translate to increased time off, just increased expectations from our bosses :)
There are ways to get way faster at completing tasks without increasing the expectations with no change in pay.
Right, but none of those are likely to get you said five weeks off, unless you're planning on pretending to be remote working while actually on vacation. Which is... risky.
Re: Ask HN: Are people in tech inside an AI echo chamber?
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just as companies use layoffs at other companies as a smokescreen to do their own layoffs, "we're using AI" has become an excuse to cut back on expensive writers. In fact, I'd bet that the opposite will happen WRT AI-generated content: individual writers with personality will become even more in-demand. ChatGPT isn't going to fake a "personality" anytime soon.
Yeah, as a professional writer that is somewhat acclaimed (my domain has a lot of karma here) I'm not worried about ChatGPT. It's going to be a rough transition, but I feel that my genuinely having the skills not only means I can use the tools better (ex: I have a conversation snippet character that is a container for LLM generated stuff), but also use them for the really important things: LinkedIn post writing. It w…
The expectation on what you produce will change though, there will be pressure to create more for less. Not saying all content creators will lose their jobs, but many will and the remaining will have to do more work. Oh well, with the provided tools, but still…
Re: Ask HN: Are people in tech inside an AI echo chamber?
#244I don't think it's people in tech specifically - I think that "fire your workers because they're going to be replaced by AI" is a great excuse for firing workers without looking bad. Thus, anyone who might use that excuse has a strong incentive to play up the potential of AI (and thus the plausibility of their excuse), regardless of the actual value of AI. Also, we're all calling it "AI" for some dumbass reason. That…
We (some of us at least) have been calling simple logic in computer games AI. And an artificial plant means some plastic shaped like a plant, it can't do photosynthesis, it can't grow, it can't reproduce. Meanwhile current AIs can code, explain a joke, etc. After all an artifice: (the use of) a clever trick or something intended to deceive
they can't "code", they can't "explain a joke", they can output cached human data in such a way that it seems like they're generating these things themselves.
Re: Ask HN: Are people in tech inside an AI echo chamber?
#245When it comes to content generation I think chatGpt is a gamechanger, more and more publications will convert most of their stuff into LLMs. It’s quite terrible for the consumer in the long term. For example I was reading news a few days about National Geographic gutting their writer staff. Get ready for a lot of mindless content sometimes vetted by humans, sometimes not.. This will affect us all, in tech or outside…
Just as companies use layoffs at other companies as a smokescreen to do their own layoffs, "we're using AI" has become an excuse to cut back on expensive writers. In fact, I'd bet that the opposite will happen WRT AI-generated content: individual writers with personality will become even more in-demand. ChatGPT isn't going to fake a "personality" anytime soon.
> individual writers with personality will become even more in-demand.
The demand may be there, but discoverability will be very difficult with so many people already in that arena. The Awl and Splinter News was an online publication made up of ex-Gawker people, exactly the kind of independent voice you'd think people would want to read. And they did, just not in enough volume for those sites to ever make money. And now they're both dead.
Re: Ask HN: Are people in tech inside an AI echo chamber?
#246I was at a house party full of non-tech YUPPies (economics, politics, etc.) over the weekend. Every single group was talking about ChatGPT. I couldn't get away from it.
In January, I texted everyone I knew about chatGPT. I don't usually text 100 people, but I thought this was worthwhile.
In Feb, at a birthday party, I talked to people about it, people knew about it but didn't use it yet.
In March, at a different birthday party, everyone wanted to talk to me about it.
Today, its old news. Although whenever I meet someone who says its a fad, I consider them a luddite.
Re: Ask HN: Are people in tech inside an AI echo chamber?
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
> “So it tells you wrong answers? Sounds utterly pointless”. I was flabbergasted. Could you tell a bit more about why this objection surprised you so much? I am often seeing this in the same tech circles that rejected the web3 craze; and I have to confess, it does sound reasonable to me. There is a recent PR opened in the MDN docs repository after MDN added the "AI explain" button, pointing out how utterly useless a…
I explained all it could do, and I felt I was doing great. But the moment I mentioned that it can get things wrong and sound totally confident, pretty much the conversation was me trying to justify why it’s still useful and I didn’t get anywhere beyond that. I was shocked because I felt that being occasionally wrong would be a foot note, but to the person I was talking to its entire usefulness hinged on it being full…
Yes, the goal post seems to move quickly with LLMs. Search engines provide relevant documents, not truthful ones, and I don’t know a single person who isn’t occasionally wrong, often confidently. I suppose it’s good to set a high bar with these models though, since it gives some incentive to improve them.
Re: Ask HN: Are people in tech inside an AI echo chamber?
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
> “So it tells you wrong answers? Sounds utterly pointless”. I was flabbergasted. Could you tell a bit more about why this objection surprised you so much? I am often seeing this in the same tech circles that rejected the web3 craze; and I have to confess, it does sound reasonable to me. There is a recent PR opened in the MDN docs repository after MDN added the "AI explain" button, pointing out how utterly useless a…
I explained all it could do, and I felt I was doing great. But the moment I mentioned that it can get things wrong and sound totally confident, pretty much the conversation was me trying to justify why it’s still useful and I didn’t get anywhere beyond that. I was shocked because I felt that being occasionally wrong would be a foot note, but to the person I was talking to its entire usefulness hinged on it being full…
Computers are not supposed to get stuff wrong. Being right some of the time just isn't good enough for people who expect their calculator to always give them the right answers.
I think we can all agree that LLMs, as they stand today, are useless for anything apart from "creative tasks" where accuracy and facts simply don't matter. So things like writing fan fiction it is great at, but for anything meaningful it is utter tripe. No one can deny this.
Re: Ask HN: Are people in tech inside an AI echo chamber?
#249For sure, I've had discussions from "using it every day" (techies) to "never heard of it" (non-techies).
For my own experience I use it every day, but the only thing it really solves is saving me time. I've seen lots of neat demos, hacks, agents etc and still haven't figured out what business problem LLMs solve besides time-saving.
Re: Ask HN: Are people in tech inside an AI echo chamber?
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
Typically "use case" means not just something a technology can do, but something it's better at than the common alternatives, in some way that matters. Not so with blockchain and financial transactions. Everything it treats like a bug is in fact a valuable, critical feature (i.e. reversibility and tracking). So if grandpa overcomes his tropey Luddite ways and goes from cash to card, he's arrived at the best technolog…
People love to claim that NFTs can only be used for signed pictures of gorillas, but imo they are probably one of the most interesting utilities on a blockchain. Have you ever tried to buy a ticket through ticket master? It's not a wonderful experience. Digital event tickets could be sold directly from the venue to the attendee without any of the hassle of TM. Tickets that are non-fungible (ie an assigned seat at an…
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