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Everybody's Weirded Out by AI–Except the People Who Foist It on Us

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Re: Everybody's Weirded Out by AI–Except the People Who Foist It on Us

#31

Post by golly_ned »

kenforthewin wrote: post #10

> A study by MIT found that students who use AI to write show far less brain activity than those who used classic Google searching (with AI off) or those who used neither. Other studies find that students who use AI retain far less of the information that ends up in their writing, possibly as a result of “cognitive offloading” and “cognitive surrender.” I'm unconvinced that AI will make us all dumber. In the public p…

I'd love to see the 'AI as personal tutor' approach. Even incorporating things like spaced repetition or the testing effect, or evaluating free-written responses.

A lot of potential that's currently unrealized. It takes a student to swim upstream to get there. The convenience of cognitive offloading is difficult to say no to. For evidence, I see it everywhere at work, including (at least in some cases) in my own work, for matters I don't care to invest effort in learning because it's a one-off.

The rates of AI use show it far exceeds the rate of good old-fashioned cheating, and not an equivalency between them.

So I am convinced AI will make the ~80% dumber, at least until there are excellent teaching products and changes to teaching practices that end up making that 'AI as a personal tutor' the norm. In the absence of the actual right answer -- actual people as personal tutors with qualified, well-paid teachers and right-sized classrooms -- an AI as personal tutor is extremely scalable and would allow productive 'struggle' learning.

Re: Everybody's Weirded Out by AI–Except the People Who Foist It on Us

#33

Post by layer8 »

AngryData wrote: post #30
arjie wrote: post #25

It's funny how this works. When Apple came out with the iPad Reddit absolutely hated it. No one would want it. It's a crappy product. Who even needs 4 iPhones glued together and so on and so forth. This all reads like that. It's just completely divorced from reality.

But I don't know anybody that uses iPads? To me it clearly out sold the market it is actually useful for.

I’m reading and writing this on an iPad.

I don’t think it makes sense as an analogy to AI, however.

Re: Everybody's Weirded Out by AI–Except the People Who Foist It on Us

#34

Post by AngryData »

Reason077 wrote: post #26

Elon Musk himself used to be quite anti-AI, often saying that it was an “existential risk to humanity” or more dangerous than nuclear weapons. He seems to have changed his mind now that he owns a major AI company.

Elon talks a lot of crap about topics he has barely a cursory knowledge of so I wouldn't take anything he says at value except for how to manipulate large financials and tax burdens.

Re: Everybody's Weirded Out by AI–Except the People Who Foist It on Us

#35

Post by frizlab »

layer8 wrote: post #33
AngryData wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I don't know anybody that uses iPads? To me it clearly out sold the market it is actually useful for.

I’m reading and writing this on an iPad. I don’t think it makes sense as an analogy to AI, however.

I am reading and writing this on my computer with my iPad next to me (side screen for alternate content). I plan on probably buying one for my wife who is not tech-savvy (to say the least).

I don’t think the analogy makes any sense whatsoever either.

Re: Everybody's Weirded Out by AI–Except the People Who Foist It on Us

#36

Post by karahime »

efficax wrote: post #20
vitalyan8184 wrote: post #12

[flagged]

can you actually justify this claim. many of these technological advances were met with genuine public fanfare

I think it's pretty justified. The internet was unfairly maligned as a place solely for weirdos, nerds, and the unhinged by a lot of media for a long time, and often still is, even as everyone is online. You're thinking of the fanfare, but the fanfare is what is being treated dismissively as "just hype" within this same comparison.

Re: Everybody's Weirded Out by AI–Except the People Who Foist It on Us

#37

Post by Reason077 »

AngryData wrote: post #30
arjie wrote: post #25

It's funny how this works. When Apple came out with the iPad Reddit absolutely hated it. No one would want it. It's a crappy product. Who even needs 4 iPhones glued together and so on and so forth. This all reads like that. It's just completely divorced from reality.

But I don't know anybody that uses iPads? To me it clearly out sold the market it is actually useful for.

I bought the original iPad 2 on the day it was released (which was just after the Fukushima earthquake in 2011). Still have it. Still use it occasionally to play retro iOS games. Still runs great on its original battery and iOS 6. Still connects to my WiFi and Bluetooth devices! (Although the Safari is so ancient it’s pretty useless for the modern web)

But I always swore I would never buy another iPad until Apple added one key feature: support for multiple user profiles.

Can’t understand why they’ve never done this. Even Apple TV has user profiles now. Perhaps they think they will sell less iPads if family members can share them.

Re: Everybody's Weirded Out by AI–Except the People Who Foist It on Us

#38

Post by layer8 »

golly_ned wrote: post #31
kenforthewin wrote: post #10

> A study by MIT found that students who use AI to write show far less brain activity than those who used classic Google searching (with AI off) or those who used neither. Other studies find that students who use AI retain far less of the information that ends up in their writing, possibly as a result of “cognitive offloading” and “cognitive surrender.” I'm unconvinced that AI will make us all dumber. In the public p…

I'd love to see the 'AI as personal tutor' approach. Even incorporating things like spaced repetition or the testing effect, or evaluating free-written responses. A lot of potential that's currently unrealized. It takes a student to swim upstream to get there. The convenience of cognitive offloading is difficult to say no to. For evidence, I see it everywhere at work, including (at least in some cases) in my own work…

I don’t think this is likely to happen in the foreseeable future, because learning still requires struggling even under the best of personal tutors. For most of the “80%” it requires some level of compulsion and submitting to authority that would be bad PR for a product, and that people won’t be very accepting of, coming from an automation.

Re: Everybody's Weirded Out by AI–Except the People Who Foist It on Us

#39

Post by squidbeak »

keane wrote: post #17
Legend2440 wrote: post #5

Everyone? Speak for yourself. I'm not weirded out by it.

“Everybody…except [those advocating for it]” –– rhetoric that borders on tautology but, regardless, the author cites the Gallup poll showing 7 in 10 Americans oppose constructing data centers and alludes to other widely-held sentiment. But it’s not about your feelings (or their feelings). This piece, by a defense analyst formerly at RAND, expands its concerns out from public sentiment and is mainly drawing attention…

What makes you think that opposition to data center construction in their local area is proof that locals are 'weirded out' by AI generally, rather than just opposed to eyesores that drain their water and put up power prices?
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