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Ask HN: What Needs to Be Automated?

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Ask HN: What Needs to Be Automated?

#1

Post by jbot27 »

Chat GPT and Stable Diffusion are really cool, but outside of Alpha Fold, AI hasn't, to me, yet brought a ton of value to humanity.

I have been thinking about what would really be a game changer to people's lives to have automated processes.

Would it be food production, medical care, or education? Insulin production, maybe?

Putting aside if the tools are ready or not, what would be a high-leverage area that, if there were automation at some level, would have a huge positive impact on people's lives?

Re: Ask HN: What Needs to Be Automated?

#4

Post by inphovore »

We should stop going on about this sham of “AI”, and discuss Behavioral Intelligence.

The question you might ask is “what intelligent behaviors do we need?”

I think modern ML is suitable for building a tricorder like devices. Color test paint, check wear through resonance, interpret x-rays or infra-red patterns.

A self balancing hammer?

Novelty in application is endless. Knowing what you want before seeing it is hard.

Re: Ask HN: What Needs to Be Automated?

#5

Post by jbot27 »

inphovore wrote: post #4

We should stop going on about this sham of “AI”, and discuss Behavioral Intelligence. The question you might ask is “what intelligent behaviors do we need?” I think modern ML is suitable for building a tricorder like devices. Color test paint, check wear through resonance, interpret x-rays or infra-red patterns. A self balancing hammer? Novelty in application is endless. Knowing what you want before seeing it is hard…

Exactly. That is my point. AGI would be great but there could be things we could apply ML or AI that would be a really helpful to people.

Re: Ask HN: What Needs to Be Automated?

#6

Post by dave4420 »

Financial products. Start with cheaper advice (which mortgage/insurance/pension product should I get given all this context about my life?)

But then give an AI access to your bank statements to get personalised suggestions on how to make your money go further.

Maybe eventually something like recommending home improvements — if I want to get my kitchen and bathroom redone, what’s the best order to tackle them in? Does the answer change if we’re going away for two weeks in July? And can it organise builders to come in and get the work done?

Re: Ask HN: What Needs to Be Automated?

#7

Post by jbot27 »

dave4420 wrote: post #6

Financial products. Start with cheaper advice (which mortgage/insurance/pension product should I get given all this context about my life?) But then give an AI access to your bank statements to get personalised suggestions on how to make your money go further. Maybe eventually something like recommending home improvements — if I want to get my kitchen and bathroom redone, what’s the best order to tackle them in? Does…

That is a good one. I think it is hard to make long term financial decisions. Should I buy a house or keep renting for a bit longer. What impact would this purchase have on my financial health.

Re: Ask HN: What Needs to Be Automated?

#10

Post by karmakaze »

Up until recently it was software production with ever increasing demands for developers. I don't expect this to stop, software is eating the world (for better and/or worse). This parallels the adoption of telephones where there was so much demand for operators to connected calls that "everyone would have to become a switchboard operator"--then phones got dialers.

Software should be customizable by its users to a much greater degree than we produce today.

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