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Meta’s live demo fails; “AI” recording plays before the actor takes the steps

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Re: Meta’s live demo fails; “AI” recording plays before the actor takes the steps

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Even if the demo worked perfectly, it's hopelessly contrived. Just get text-to-speech to slowly read you the recipe.

> Just get text-to-speech to slowly read you the recipe. Even this feels like overkill, when a person can just glance down at a piece of paper. I don’t know about others, but I like to double check what I’m doing. Simply having a reference I can look at would be infinitely better than something taking to me, which would need to repeat itself.

A hardened epaper display I could wash under a sink tap for the kitchen, with a simple page forward/back voice interface would actually be pretty handy now that I think about it.

Re: Meta’s live demo fails; “AI” recording plays before the actor takes the steps

#152
post #142
post #135

So much negativity. I’m just excited that our industry is lead by optimists and our culture enables our corporations to invest huge sums into taking us forward technologically. Meta could have just done a stock buyback but instead they made a computer that can talk, see, solve problems and paint virtual things into the real world in front of your eyes! I commend them on attempting a live demo.

Yes, the mocking, gleeful negativity really does make me concerned that this place is becoming Reddit. The fact that the highest upvoted post on this thread is just a link to Reddit isn't doing much to help me feel better. And I've been here for at least a decade, so I don't think this is the noob illusion.

Bots bots bots... tearing down our stars is good business for a variety of vested interests. Don't let the bastards grind you down.

Re: Meta’s live demo fails; “AI” recording plays before the actor takes the steps

#153
The mocking, gleeful negativity here concerns me. I am worried that with some of these more polarized topics that the discussions on HN are becoming closer to those on Reddit. The fact that the highest upvoted post on this thread is just a link to Reddit isn't doing much to help me feel better. And I've been here for at least a decade, so I don't think this is the noob illusion.

I have no illusions about Zuckerberg. He's done some pretty bad stuff for humanity. But I think AI is pretty cool, and I'm glad he's pushing it forward, despite mishaps. People don't have to be black or white, and just because they did something bad in one domain doesn't make everything they touch permanently awful.

Re: Meta’s live demo fails; “AI” recording plays before the actor takes the steps

#154
post #138
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that’s the thing… it’s not a live demo…

I see no evidence of that. It seems like they tried to put the AI “on rails” with predefined steps and things went wrong.

So there was no AI. I know there’s a lot of confusion regarding the exact definition of AI these days, but I’m pretty sure we can this one time all agree that an “on rails” scenario ain’t it. Therefore, whatever it is that they were doing out there, they weren’t demoing their AI product. You could even say it wasn’t a live demo of the product.

Re: Meta’s live demo fails; “AI” recording plays before the actor takes the steps

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangent: if you like cringey social awkwardness comedy (not my usual cup of tea, but in this case it's extraordinary, and hilarious), try "I Think You Should Leave". "Brian's Hat" is the 1st one I saw and maybe the best: https://youtu.be/LO2k-BNySLI?si=qEX7STkSOeCVZtK- Also "Hot Dog Car" https://youtu.be/WLfAf8oHrMo?si=jz5EKwjJZm1UMZau

Nathan for You is almost physically painful to watch, the cringe is so intense I can only take a few seconds at a time.

Nathan Fielder is a genius.

The Rehearsal is less in-the-moment cringe and more soul-soaking cringe. Amazing stuff.

Re: Meta’s live demo fails; “AI” recording plays before the actor takes the steps

#156
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see no evidence of that. It seems like they tried to put the AI “on rails” with predefined steps and things went wrong.

So there was no AI. I know there’s a lot of confusion regarding the exact definition of AI these days, but I’m pretty sure we can this one time all agree that an “on rails” scenario ain’t it. Therefore, whatever it is that they were doing out there, they weren’t demoing their AI product. You could even say it wasn’t a live demo of the product.

You can put the AI on rails by just prompting by it. The latest models are very steerable.

System prompt: “stick to steps 1-n. Step 1 is…”

I can say confidently because our company does this. And we have F500 customers in production.

Re: Meta’s live demo fails; “AI” recording plays before the actor takes the steps

#157
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big tech has spent $155bn on AI this year. It’s about to spend hundreds of billions more https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/02/big-tech-...

They classify a lot of it as R&D and write it off taxes. Taxpayers foot the bill.

"That's not a write off!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCP27_vquxQ

Re: Meta’s live demo fails; “AI” recording plays before the actor takes the steps

#158

It's an ad network with an attached optional pair of glasses. It's the platform Zuck always wanted to own but never had the vision beyond 'it's an ad platform with some consumer stuff in it'. I am super impressed with the hardware (especially the neural band) but it just so happens that a very pricey car is being directly sold by an oil company as a trojan horse. We all know what the car is for unfortunately. I can't…

Someone would have to be dumb to give facebook access to collect data from everything they see and hear in their life combined with the ability to plaster ads over every available surface in their field of view. They'd have to be beyond stupid to pay for it.

Don’t look up how many users Meta has if you wish to maintain your sanity

Re: Meta’s live demo fails; “AI” recording plays before the actor takes the steps

#159

I don't think it was rigged. Having claude run the browser and then take a screenshot to debug gives similar results. It's why doing so is useless even though it would be so very nice if it worked. Somewhere in the pipeline, they get lazy or ahead of themselves and just interpret what they want to in the picture they see. They want to interpet something working and complete. I can imagine it's related the same issue…

For tiny stuff, they are incredible auto-complete tools. But they are basically cover bands. They can do things that have been done to death already. They're good for what they're good for. I wouldn't have bet the farm on them.

Re: Meta’s live demo fails; “AI” recording plays before the actor takes the steps

#160
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because their main business (ads, tracking) makes infinite money so it doesn't matter what all the other parts of the business do, are, or if they work or not.

That's Google's main business too, they have infinite money plus 50% relative to meta, and they are still in the top two for AI

Haven't Google also famously faked a phone call with an AI some years ago for an event?

https://www.axios.com/2018/05/17/google-ai-demo-questions

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