AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
ludic.mataroa.blog
AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
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Re: AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
#2Small discussion yesterday (43 points, 7 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48956153
Re: AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
#3> All of the AI projects we have observed as a team are failing. Every single one – we have seen 0% success in a year and a half,
What is an "AI project"? The post doesn't define it.
Is it writing some software from scratch? Using an LLM chatbot by non-coders, either internally or externally? Or something else entirely?
Some examples would really help.
Re: AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
#4> All of the AI projects we have observed as a team are failing. Every single one – we have seen 0% success in a year and a half, What is an "AI project"? The post doesn't define it. Is it writing some software from scratch? Using an LLM chatbot by non-coders, either internally or externally? Or something else entirely? Some examples would really help.
i feel like the useful applications of AI get silently integrated into workflows.
the ill-conceived moonshots by and for a non-technical audience get labelled as "AI projects/initiatives" and they fail.
Re: AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
#5> All of the AI projects we have observed as a team are failing. Every single one – we have seen 0% success in a year and a half, What is an "AI project"? The post doesn't define it. Is it writing some software from scratch? Using an LLM chatbot by non-coders, either internally or externally? Or something else entirely? Some examples would really help.
i feel like the useful applications of AI get silently integrated into workflows. the ill-conceived moonshots by and for a non-technical audience get labelled as "AI projects/initiatives" and they fail.
That has ever been the case. As soon as it works reliably, it's not "AI" any more. Take spellcheckers or collaborative filtering as examples, but there are lots more. Hofstadter in G.E.B. said it well:
> There is a related “Theorem” about progress in AI: once some mental function is programmed, people soon cease to consider it as an essential ingredient of “real thinking”. The ineluctable core of intelligence is always in that next thing which hasn’t yet been programmed. This “Theorem” was first proposed to me by Larry Tesler, so I call it Tesler’s Theorem: “AI is whatever hasn’t been done yet.”
Re: AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
#6> All of the AI projects we have observed as a team are failing. Every single one – we have seen 0% success in a year and a half, What is an "AI project"? The post doesn't define it. Is it writing some software from scratch? Using an LLM chatbot by non-coders, either internally or externally? Or something else entirely? Some examples would really help.
Their company does data projects. That plus context makes me think they’re talking about internal work process automation type of work, although it also seems like they’re talking about conversational interfaces (chatbots).
I completely buy the “emperor’s new clothes” argument for work process automation. I’m surprised they don’t address AI-assisted engineering, which seems to be going positively for a lot of folks (although I have doubts about its sustainability). I disagree about the success of chatbots, if the problem is narrowly-defined and chosen properly. My previous company built a conversational interface to a vector database and saw good results. (Although, arguably, the vector database was the real magic, and a traditional UI would have been faster and more accurate.)
In general, I think OP is more right than wrong, though, particularly about the AI mania and unrealistic expectations sweeping the C-suite.
Re: AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
#7The AI mania has been really fascinating to witness because on the surface it’s surprising that so many otherwise intelligent people have fallen into it. But I suppose intelligence as a concept is multifaceted and doesn’t include wisdom. I also wonder if it has to do with personality, where the people whose personality best suits leadership roles are more susceptible to this psychosis. I think there is also an archetype of “nerd” who believes they are smarter than they are and has all sorts of surface beliefs about AI from sci-fi that makes them susceptible.
Re: AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
i feel like the useful applications of AI get silently integrated into workflows. the ill-conceived moonshots by and for a non-technical audience get labelled as "AI projects/initiatives" and they fail.
That has ever been the case. As soon as it works reliably, it's not "AI" any more. Take spellcheckers or collaborative filtering as examples, but there are lots more. Hofstadter in G.E.B. said it well: > There is a related “Theorem” about progress in AI: once some mental function is programmed, people soon cease to consider it as an essential ingredient of “real thinking”. The ineluctable core of intelligence is alwa…
Sure, or maybe the actual applications of “AI” are small and unobtrusive, like the dictation of doctor’s notes example, and it’s not actually the massive revolution it’s claimed to be.
Re: AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
#9> All of the AI projects we have observed as a team are failing. Every single one – we have seen 0% success in a year and a half, What is an "AI project"? The post doesn't define it. Is it writing some software from scratch? Using an LLM chatbot by non-coders, either internally or externally? Or something else entirely? Some examples would really help.
Their company does data projects. That plus context makes me think they’re talking about internal work process automation type of work, although it also seems like they’re talking about conversational interfaces (chatbots). I completely buy the “emperor’s new clothes” argument for work process automation. I’m surprised they don’t address AI-assisted engineering, which seems to be going positively for a lot of folks (…
> I disagree about the success of chatbots, if the problem is narrowly-defined and chosen properly.
If you can narrow the problem down, then you could design a much better interface for it than a text box and free form text (unless that's the better solution).
As for as AI assisted engineering goes, the thing is that after some time with a project, you already have much of the workflows and routines nailed down as scripts and other various combinations of tooling. And unless it's spaghetti code, you will have various snippets you can copy from for new code. The one thing I've observed about AI projects is that there's often little technical design coherence about them. It's always a kitchen sink of technologies and practices.
Re: AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
#10The AI mania has been really fascinating to witness because on the surface it’s surprising that so many otherwise intelligent people have fallen into it. But I suppose intelligence as a concept is multifaceted and doesn’t include wisdom. I also wonder if it has to do with personality, where the people whose personality best suits leadership roles are more susceptible to this psychosis. I think there is also an archet…
It’s also a bit of a dilemma; if your boss has AI mania, and you buying into it or not is the difference between being promoted, keeping your job, passed up or even fired, the rational course of action for self-preservation is to also buy into the mania.