The AI reporter that took my old job just got fired • Hacker News Board

Re: The AI reporter that took my old job just got fired

#281

Post by nerdponx » Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 1:40 AM UTC

foobarian wrote: post #167

bdndndndbve wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've been through this song and dance before. AI researchers make legitimately impressive breakthroughs in specific tasks, people extrapolate linear growth, the air comes out of the balloon after a couple years when it turns out we couldn't just throw progressively larger models at the problem to emulate human cognition. I'm surprised that tech workers who should be the most skeptical about this kind of stuff end up…

One problem is that people assume the end goal is to create a human-cognition-capable AI. I think it' pretty obvious by this point that that's not going to happen. But there is no need for that at all to still cause a huge disruption; let's say most current workers in roles that benefit from AI (copilot, writing, throwaway clipart, repetitive tasks, summarizing, looking up stuff, etc.) lead not even to job loss but f…

Right, but the breathless technobabble about the future of our AI-driven world crowds out actual consideration of these important topics.

Re: The AI reporter that took my old job just got fired

#282

Post by NemoNobody » Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 1:40 AM UTC

vunderba wrote: post #5

Slightly tangential, but this is the reason I'm baffled why people think that AI-driven podcasts would ever be worth listening to. If you can find an LLM+TTS generated podcast with even a FRACTION of the infectious energy as something like Good Job Brain, Radio Lab, or Ask Me Another, then I'll eat my hat. I don't even own one. I'll drive to the nearest hat store, purchase the tallest stovetop hat that I can afford a…

I've never found anyone telling me their opinions to be infectious - I can't even imagine using that word to describe a podcast tbh. Its a form of media I've never understood - they script the podcasts, they all kno the conversation ahead of time and just go thru the motions via voice with strangers that can either agree or disagree - only the extremes will ever interact with the podcasters, it's just so fake I can't even do it.

Infectious energy. Interesting.

Re: The AI reporter that took my old job just got fired

#283

Post by nerdponx » Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 1:40 AM UTC

mattnewton wrote: post #209

foobarian wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One problem is that people assume the end goal is to create a human-cognition-capable AI. I think it' pretty obvious by this point that that's not going to happen. But there is no need for that at all to still cause a huge disruption; let's say most current workers in roles that benefit from AI (copilot, writing, throwaway clipart, repetitive tasks, summarizing, looking up stuff, etc.) lead not even to job loss but f…

> human-cognition-capable AI. I think it' pretty obvious by this point that that's not going to happen It's obvious to some people but that's not what many investors and company operators are saying. I think the prevailing message in the valley is "AGI is going to happen" for different values of when, not if. So I think you'd be forgiven for taking them at face value.

Just like nuclear fusion, right? "When" will always be some time after the next fundraising round.

Re: The AI reporter that took my old job just got fired

#284

Post by nerdponx » Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 1:41 AM UTC

NemoNobody wrote: post #270

bangaroo wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

point 2 is the thing that i think is most important to point out: "architectures change" sure, that's a fact. let me apply this to other fields: "there could be a battery breakthrough that gives electric cars a 2,000 mile range." "researchers could discover a new way to build nanorobots that attacks cancer directly and effectively cures all versions of it." "we could invent a new sort of aviation engine that is 1,000…

There is another level to AI and how we fundamentally structure them that nobody is doing yet to my knowledge. This next round of innovation is fundamentally different than the innovation that is the focus now - nobody is looking to next stage bc this one hasn't achieved what we expected - bc it won't. I sus that future iterations of AI will do much better tho.

> There is another level to AI and how we fundamentally structure them that nobody is doing yet to my knowledge

And that is...?

Re: The AI reporter that took my old job just got fired

#285

Post by dopfk09320k » Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 1:42 AM UTC

mjr00 wrote: post #20

tokioyoyo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree, but I also think it's just not geared towards us because of our age and preexisting beliefs of "what podcasts/news/videos are supposed to be". Think of kids around age It's the same as short-video format for me. Sure, I can watch some TikToks from time to time, but making them, or continuously getting my news from them? Yeah, that's not gonna fly for me. However, for my niblings (age 8-17) that's bas…

The younger generation loves short-form, to-the-point stuff. Which is the exact opposite of what the current crop of GenAI makes. In a tiktok video, every sentence, every word counts because there's a time limit. If people don't engage with your content in the first 3 seconds, it's worthless. The video linked in another post starts off with 15 seconds of complete fluff. You'd have better engagement if you have a guy…

I don't think this is entirely true. Have you seen these "Internet Story told by TTS Voice-over a Minecraft parkour Video" ( which are what my niblings watching ) ? I noticed a lot of the story is dragged on for over minutes. These are the stories that I read in text in about 5 second.

Short form videos are often hyper focus and to the point, but there are a lot of vertical video contents that are just ( to use the GenZ term ) brain rot like these as well.

Re: The AI reporter that took my old job just got fired

#286

Post by NemoNobody » Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 1:43 AM UTC

mjr00 wrote: post #20

tokioyoyo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree, but I also think it's just not geared towards us because of our age and preexisting beliefs of "what podcasts/news/videos are supposed to be". Think of kids around age It's the same as short-video format for me. Sure, I can watch some TikToks from time to time, but making them, or continuously getting my news from them? Yeah, that's not gonna fly for me. However, for my niblings (age 8-17) that's bas…

The younger generation loves short-form, to-the-point stuff. Which is the exact opposite of what the current crop of GenAI makes. In a tiktok video, every sentence, every word counts because there's a time limit. If people don't engage with your content in the first 3 seconds, it's worthless. The video linked in another post starts off with 15 seconds of complete fluff. You'd have better engagement if you have a guy…

The younger generation has had their brain's development hacked by corporate advertising and can't help themselves but prefer the content they have been all but brainwashed to prefer - this was done deliberately and intentionally and obviously to much detriment to the young of today.

Nobody cares tho bc "they can't pay attention" like it's somehow an entire generation's individual faults they are like that...

Clearly a societal failure there.

Re: The AI reporter that took my old job just got fired

#287

Post by nerdponx » Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 1:43 AM UTC

vunderba wrote: post #137

93po wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is confusing. We've never had a ChatGPT-like innovation before to compare to. Yes, there have been AI hype cycles for decades, but the difference is that we now have permanent invaluable and society-changing tools out of the current AI cycle, combined with hundreds of billions of dollars being thrown at it in a level of investment we've never seen before. Unless you're on the bleeding edge of AI research yoursel…

I don't agree with this. There's a big difference between something that benefits productivity versus something that benefits humanity. I think a good test for if it genuinely has changed society is if all gen AI were to disappear overnight. I would argue that nothing would really fundamentally change. Contrast that with the sudden disappearance of the internet, or the combustion engine.

> I would argue that nothing would really fundamentally change.

I argue that there would be a huge collective sigh of relief from a large number of people. Not everybody, maybe not even a majority, but a large number nonetheless.

So I think it has changed society -- but perhaps not for the better overall.

Re: The AI reporter that took my old job just got fired

#288

Post by NemoNobody » Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 1:44 AM UTC

lupusreal wrote: post #257

simplyluke wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's funny is every GenAI "incredible email/essay" would be better communicated with the prompt used to generate it.

Write a comment explaining that the ostensibly simple task of writing a dozen or so thank you letters for those socks/etc you received for Christmas can, for some people, be an excruciating task that takes weeks to complete, but with the aid of LLMs can easily be done in an hour. On second thought, you're right. That was easy.

That's old world stuff - I've never sent a thank you card and have lost no sleep bc of it.

Re: The AI reporter that took my old job just got fired

#289

Post by NemoNobody » Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 1:50 AM UTC

ffsm8 wrote: post #94

ljsprague wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ... don't think there's a time limit on TikToks unless you mean that 60 minutes is a time limit. Are you thinking of Vine?

That's a pretty new thing though, in 2020 it was 1 min I believe, and most people skipped after 15-30s Then it got increased to 3 min and now 10/60 min

Seconds - that's all the time I give something. If it looks draggy I will skip ahead to like halfway thru the video and if the person isn't in the middle of explaining something that they have clearly spent half the time extrapolating, that's it. They get no more time.

I often turn on subtitles and watch at 2x speed.

I prefer the transcript 100% of the time to video.

Re: The AI reporter that took my old job just got fired

#290

Post by NemoNobody » Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 1:53 AM UTC

whtsthmttrmn wrote: post #135

jprete wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that "TikTok is for Gen Z" seems like a very stale meme, although I only have anecdata to back that up. Microtransactions are way older than 15 years. Wizards of the Coast was selling randomized MtG booster packs in 1993. I'm guessing that the earliest loot boxes for kids were baseball card packs, with very similar psychological purpose to today's game cosmetic collectibles.

I think the main difference is digital vs physical goods. I know it's minor since a card is just a cheap piece of cardboard, but it's still something tangible (unless the game cosmetics also include a physical item, in which case...I'm dumb).

If something isn't digital today it isn't as real.

A physical photo in my hand is sooo limited compared to the same photo in my hand via the screen on my smartphone. Same with a DVD or CD or Disc - all antiquated tech.