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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

#171

Post by m4rtink »

yogthos wrote: post #110
jltsiren wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same probably holds without AI. China is still in the stage of development, where people reasonably expect that the future will be better. The West has not really been optimistic about the future since the 90s. There is always something around the corner threatening to make the future worse. Maybe it's the economy, maybe it's climate change, maybe immigration, or terrorism, or war, or whatever.

It's worth noting that China has seen decades of steady development, and has avoided the boom/bust cycles we see happening in the west. While we've lived through dotCom bubble, the 2008 crash, covid, and now the looming AI bubble, China has just seen steady progress without the working majority getting screwed every decade like clockwork. While future can always bring something unexpected, it is possible to have a re…

Um, I do kinda remember hills made from bikes, empty cities, people laying a siege on failing banks & protests in Honkong being suppressed...

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

#172

Post by singpolyma3 »

svachalek wrote: post #40
singpolyma3 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have yet to meet anyone outside the tech elite who hates AI.

I've hardly met anyone outside the tech elite who likes it. I can think of one doctor who's a counterexample.

Absence of like is quite far from hate. I expect most people feel about it the way they do about most tools: mostly they have better things to think about

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

#173

Post by s1artibartfast »

mawadev wrote: post #146
s1artibartfast wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious what bad experience is regular people have with AI. For me it basically makes everything better. I use it probably a hundred times a day and struggle to think about interaction where I walk away wishing it It wasn't involved. I listen to AI generated audiobooks on the way to work. It makes my job easier and find data or papers or emails for me. On the way home I can have a Back in forth conversation about…

We are all tech people here, but the regular people meet AI when they try to take a picture with their phone and Gemini pops up instead, because a button has been repurposed to do that. Or simply calling an energy provider to clarify something makes them talk to a robot voice until enough effort and words have passed so a human finally comes around. These are very shallow and small things where it already creeps in a…

Thanks for the candid response. Do you think that many of these examples were issues before, but now have become associated with AI?

I can relate to many of them, but they seem to predate AI for me.

I feel like Google search has been nearly useless for several years now, flooded with fake advertising results, even without AI. I'm happy that AI gives me an alternative to Google search, which is one of my top use cases.

I remember spending hours navigating annoying automated phone menus or on hold 10 years ago. Perhaps the same frustration exists, but includes AI is the face of the current embodiment.

I also agree AI can give bad advice, but the same was true for Reddit or a lazy Store employee or house contractor.

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

#174

Post by UncleMeat »

arecsu wrote: post #28
Octoth0rpe wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No saying you're wrong but how is it making their lives worse? Data centers and their side effects (higher electricity prices, etc) and job layoffs attributed to AI; plus a bunch of industry specific objections (like say, how it's currently destroying the educational system). > Most people know use AI for basic applications and seem to enjoy it Not sure what crowd you're running with. Myself and coworkers use AI an…

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 asked an expert in these areas to evaluate your knowledge? My experience is that people using ai to learn think they are learning but really aren’t.

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

#175

Post by FL33TW00D »

hresvelgr wrote: post #103
pier25 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you've got a really high bar to clear to prove that you're actually helping students learn better, and teachers teach better Absolutely. In fact the data from the past 10-15 years clearly shows the best education technology is still pen and paper, books, and good pedagogy.

I have tried memorisation systems like Anki, but nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing consolidates my knowledge better than writing the actual concept down with pen and paper.

Consolidation != memorization.

Memorising some examples is a prerequisite to deep understanding. Anki and pen+ paper reasoning are complementary.

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

#176

Post by VCFundedGenYer »

CSMastermind wrote: post #7
japhyr wrote: 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?)

I don't understand how you ask such a question without being sarcastic.

Look at PC prices. Look at electronics prices. You really think that's healthy right now?

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

#177

Post by iLoveOncall »

HexPhantom wrote: post #116

I agree with most of the diagnosis but I am less convinced that better UX around AI solves the underlying problem. Every product starts out saying "human in the loop" and "augment, don't replace" but the economic incentive is almost always to remove more of the human over time…

Add to this that so far I have only seen it augment mediocrity, and even this is a bad plan.

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

#178

Post by cindyllm »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #177
HexPhantom wrote: post #116

I agree with most of the diagnosis but I am less convinced that better UX around AI solves the underlying problem. Every product starts out saying "human in the loop" and "augment, don't replace" but the economic incentive is almost always to remove more of the human over time…

Add to this that so far I have only seen it augment mediocrity, and even this is a bad plan.

[dead]

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

#179

Post by layer8 »

nylonstrung wrote: post #156
mintplant wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner cried the other day because her long-planned PC upgrade is now an order of magnitude more expensive than she budgeted for pre-AI-boom.

Order of magnitude? It's 10x more expensive now?

At least base 2.

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

#180

Post by pixelsort »

AI will not begin to benefit student learning unless educators pivot into a strict bifurcation pattern around access.

For example, alternating weeks with and without the permission to use AI assistance. This is also the latent solution for corporate de-skilling that no one seems to be talking about yet.

However, it won't happen (in both cases) because we're too early. Domain experts like the OP are still relinquishing their expertise to unlock productivity gains. Once that bottoms out there will be no longer be demand for people like OP to betray their peer groups.

Learning with AI assistance be as frictionless and productive as I suppose it can, but de-skilling and job consolidation (role expansion) will continue.

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