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AI is about to change how you use computers

gatesnotes.com

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Re: AI is about to change how you use computers

#41

Post by sontendo »

JohnFen wrote: post #23

If that's the future of using computers, he can keep it. I want none of that, personally. Most of what he lists is stuff that comes with such serious downsides as to be actively objectionable.

There's no choice. They collect and serve whether you want it or not. Whether it's regulated or not. Whether it's banned or not.

You can use alternatives but you have to maintain them meticulously. If any of their websites or services can get a bit in, you're fucked.

Welcome to the world of quantum computers, pseudo-AGI and corporate interests.

Re: AI is about to change how you use computers

#42

Post by itishappy »

kulahan wrote: post #37
notpachet wrote: post #13

> And even the best sites have an incomplete understanding of your work, personal life, interests, and relationships and a limited ability to use this information to do things for you. Good, that's how I would like it to be!

This is how I would like it to be only because I can't trust it to treat my information well. If it was a trustworthy system, this would be an incredible capability.

Worth noting that that's probably how most people will look at things, and I'm not sure if most people have the background to be able to understand the privacy issues.

I guess I'm suggesting that Mr. Gates is probably right, even if it makes us here on HN uncomfortable.

Re: AI is about to change how you use computers

#43

Post by knowledge-clay »

Animats wrote: post #31

> And depending on how much information you choose to share with it, the software will be able to respond personally because it will have a rich understanding of your life. That understanding will belong to some company whose interests and goals are not yours. This will not bother most people. Most people are willing to use GMail, even though it snoops on their private emails and uses that info for advertising purpos…

> This will not bother most people. Most people are willing to use GMail, even though it snoops on their private emails and uses that info for advertising purposes.

While I agree with your larger point and am no fan of Google's privacy practices, they stopped this specific behavior in 2017

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/26/534451513...

Re: AI is about to change how you use computers

#44

Post by manmal »

kulahan wrote: post #37
notpachet wrote: post #13

> And even the best sites have an incomplete understanding of your work, personal life, interests, and relationships and a limited ability to use this information to do things for you. Good, that's how I would like it to be!

This is how I would like it to be only because I can't trust it to treat my information well. If it was a trustworthy system, this would be an incredible capability.

Ideally, that would be an entirely self hosted system.

Re: AI is about to change how you use computers

#45

Post by ahofmann »

landedgentry wrote: post #27

I desperately need a personal assistant because it has become impossible to get anything done now that companies have automated everything and made mistakes and edge cases impossible to resolve. I hope this new wave of automation won't make things even more difficult to manage.

You can bet that it will be much more difficult. Look at Google, how impossible it is to resolve anything with them and how successful they still are. This will be the new normal for everything.

Another take on this topic: It is reality right now, but only for poor people, so we can't see it. This will change, we will all suffer from automation.

Re: AI is about to change how you use computers

#46

Post by famouswaffles »

compacct27 wrote: post #4

The writing is on the wall. It's not right now, but it will be in my lifetime. What are some AI-proof(ish) industries we can jump into after software engineering is drastically reduced?

Blue Collar Physical work will fall last. Basically anything that requires expert physical handling.

Doesn't really matter though. By the time a LLM can replace all programmers, all white collar work will be gone. That's a lot of workers.

Even if we have something competent enough to replace say half of programmers, still a lot of people.

Re: AI is about to change how you use computers

#47

Post by guhidalg »

neogodless wrote: post #25
ape4 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that barista is AI proof. Because customers want a person to say "good morning".

In Fifth Element , the bartender is a robot. (Works of fiction may or may not reflect our future!) Whether customers prefer that or not may or may not matter to the business decisions that are made (given that it's not a perfect customer-driven market.) Have you been to McDonald's? They really want you to use a touch screen in-person, or an app even though you're in your car, talking to a person. Perhaps an undergrou…

A bar is not McDonald’s. Robot bartenders have existed for some time but people go to bars for the human connection not simply to consume alcohol. Even here, a human bartender could probably benefit from a robot doing the work of cleaning glassware and restocking ingredients for them.

Re: AI is about to change how you use computers

#48

Post by ben_w »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #6
compacct27 wrote: post #4

The writing is on the wall. It's not right now, but it will be in my lifetime. What are some AI-proof(ish) industries we can jump into after software engineering is drastically reduced?

Ditch digging should be safe for quite some time.

I'm frequently surprised by what people think can't be mechanised and by extension automated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excavator

Re: AI is about to change how you use computers

#49

Post by throwitaway222 »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #34

An agent is an amazing idea, and it would add enormous convenience - if implemented well. But we're a long, long, long, long, long way away from agents. What we have now aren't even precursors to agents, more like very distant cousins to an ancestor. In order to make what he's talking about, you'd need true general artificial intelligence operating at a human's level or above. And if we have that, the entire world is…

Work may change significantly soon.

Slack lets your conversation kinda go.

What happens when slack starts remembering tasks someone asked you to do... follows up with you to make sure you did it? And the person that originally asked you?

Right now you arrive at work and you have a few things to do, but your brain only remembers 1 of them, and barely at that. With AI it will have a few iterations on emails ready for you.

This is all possible right now with an LLM of today's caliber. He's not talking about general AI.

Re: AI is about to change how you use computers

#50

Post by enonimal »

kulahan wrote: post #37
notpachet wrote: post #13

> And even the best sites have an incomplete understanding of your work, personal life, interests, and relationships and a limited ability to use this information to do things for you. Good, that's how I would like it to be!

This is how I would like it to be only because I can't trust it to treat my information well. If it was a trustworthy system, this would be an incredible capability.

I'm anxiously watching two developing spaces for this reason:

1. Homomorphic Encryption

2. Self-Hosted AI Systems

Homomorphic encryption is the idea that you can perform ML operations on encrypted data -- so that the providers of powerful AI need not know precisely what data you have.

Self-Hosted AI is just what it sounds like -- what if your Alexa processed on-device, and never left your home? What if your mobile devices could "phone home" to it from wherever you were, using an encrypted tunnel?

The second point is possible today, but the issue is keeping your local model to pace with the cloud offerings.

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