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My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

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Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No saying you're wrong but how is it making their lives worse? Most people know use AI for basic applications and seem to enjoy it while the people I know who hate it all seem to be idelogically motivated (seemingly this is a cause de célèbre on the left right now?)

The AI slop that's everywhere is making it worse. Even if someone doesn't care about AI, their feeds (YT, Instagram, LinkedIn) is now filled with AI slop

Clearly there are people who enjoy the slop though, otherwise it would simply get no engagement and then get hidden by the algo like 99.99% of YT videos

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#162
post #2

Of course everyone hates AI. For most people, it's actively making their lives worse, not better. AI is a really effective technology when used with restraint, in appropriate places. But it's rarely being used with restraint, and it's being inserted just about everywhere. If you're trying to work in AI on a product related to education, you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping stude…

fwiw I enjoy AI. but it is extraordinarily dangerous and does not belong in the hands of most people, and definitely not in the hands of most companies. it is a munition.

Classifying dense matrix multiplication and autoregression as a munition is equally as dumb as when PGP was classified as one

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AI slop that's everywhere is making it worse. Even if someone doesn't care about AI, their feeds (YT, Instagram, LinkedIn) is now filled with AI slop

Clearly there are people who enjoy the slop though, otherwise it would simply get no engagement and then get hidden by the algo like 99.99% of YT videos

Much of the engagement for AI slop is generated by AI bots. Remember that actual human traffic on the web has become the minority.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#164
post #91
post #2

Of course everyone hates AI. For most people, it's actively making their lives worse, not better. AI is a really effective technology when used with restraint, in appropriate places. But it's rarely being used with restraint, and it's being inserted just about everywhere. If you're trying to work in AI on a product related to education, you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping stude…

It's made my life way better. I love it, it's incredible boost on my ability to learn and produce. Don't know anyone who's life was made worse by it, and I strongly doubt you do either. Remember when people said open-sourcing GPT2 would cause world destruction? They keep saying this with every new model release? And it keeps not happening? Hmm. This is all FUD. All evidence suggests more AI is better, and all claims…

Are you living with your head under a rock. AI has absolutely made my life worse, and is set to do so further. I know very few people who are seriously enthusiastic about it.

"All evidence suggests more AI is better" is ignoring an awful lot of the evidence, and the doom is already happening all around you and you just can't see it.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#165
post #2

Of course everyone hates AI. For most people, it's actively making their lives worse, not better. AI is a really effective technology when used with restraint, in appropriate places. But it's rarely being used with restraint, and it's being inserted just about everywhere. If you're trying to work in AI on a product related to education, you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping stude…

No saying you're wrong but how is it making their lives worse? Most people know use AI for basic applications and seem to enjoy it while the people I know who hate it all seem to be idelogically motivated (seemingly this is a cause de célèbre on the left right now?)

Yeah most normies I know who dislike it just generally are not interested in it or think it is dumb and are annoyed by hearing about it so much

And the people who actively hate it almost always relate it to a broader pre-existing worldview about the downfall of society, the climate being destroyed, financial markets being a ponzi, oligarchy having too much power etc

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#166
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Creating the card is half the work though.

Creating the card is half the learning

Typing out in an app window is not enjoyable.

Maintaining physical ones is not practical anymore - with travels and all.

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#167
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love using AI. Getting my crazy ideas turn into software has never been easier. I like to architect software, not the code itself. The code has always been the means to my ends. I also love learning complicated concepts, from academics, math, physics, to art, philosophy, religion. It's wonderful to translate knowledge that is already out there but hard to understand somehow, because you can ask about it over and ov…

Have you ever wondered how ridiculous it would be to say you love cars and then not have a clue about how it works? As in, "I've built a wonderful car", but have no idea how the engine or any of the components work. Replace "car" with "application" or "software", and that's what you're doing. Would you get in a car "built" by someone who knows nothing about cars?

This doesn't sound like someone who is uninterested in understanding software though, everything they said talks about how they like being able to learn from it. They didn't say anything about making slop or replacing the need for knowledge

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#168
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Electric motors empower you, and are available to almost anyone. AI is much more available to people than motors of any kind. Long-press your Android phone's power button: There's Gemini.

> AI is much more available to people than motors of any kind Vacuum cleaners, washing machines, refrigerators, air conditioners, automobiles of all shapes and sizes (private and shared), power tools are all examples of electric motors that you own and can do useful things with. What electric motors do is give you power over your environment. --- You don't own Gemini. You are allowed to use Gemini as long as your eco…

Gemini was a bad choice of example but how would open-weights model one can self-host on their local device be different than the electric motor in your line of thinking

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#169

Reasons why I currently dislike AI: - it is not as accurate and good as advertised - being forced to use and care about it - it is bad for the environment at the scale and competition that exists in this economy - it is a mirror, and augmentation and reveals really inhuman takes and thought processes from people who are on the longer lever in society - it is already in use for very unethical things (spying and war) -…

I don't disagree but I don't think this one is a reason we should ever restrict or condemn a technology

> it is a mirror, and augmentation and reveals really inhuman takes and thought processes from people who are on the longer lever in society

When someone uses their keyboard to search for CSAM or write hate speech we can't blame the keyboard instead of the individual

Re: My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

#170
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love using AI. Getting my crazy ideas turn into software has never been easier. I like to architect software, not the code itself. The code has always been the means to my ends. I also love learning complicated concepts, from academics, math, physics, to art, philosophy, religion. It's wonderful to translate knowledge that is already out there but hard to understand somehow, because you can ask about it over and ov…

Have you ever wondered how ridiculous it would be to say you love cars and then not have a clue about how it works? As in, "I've built a wonderful car", but have no idea how the engine or any of the components work. Replace "car" with "application" or "software", and that's what you're doing. Would you get in a car "built" by someone who knows nothing about cars?

The person you're responding to didn't say they loved software though. They said they saw it as a tool to get interesting stuff done.
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