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BYU study: Why some people choose not to use artificial intelligence

news.byu.edu

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Re: BYU study: Why some people choose not to use artificial intelligence

#11

Post by pico303 »

I’m a dev working with AI to build tools for others, but I don’t use them personally. Why? Because they make your writing sound like everyone else, they produce shoddy and broken code (unless you’re doing something really commonplace), and they dull your own creativity. If you’re relying on someone else to do your work, you’re going to lose the ability to think for yourself.

AI is built essentially on averages. It’s the summary of the most common approach to everything. All the art, writing, podcasts, and code look the same. Is that the bland, unimaginative world we’re looking for?

I love the bit in the study about the “fear” of AI. I’m not “afraid” it’ll produce bad code. I know it will; I’ve seen it do it 100 times. AI is fine as one tool to help you learn and think about things, but don’t use it as a replacement for thinking and learning in the first place.

Re: BYU study: Why some people choose not to use artificial intelligence

#14

Post by bawolff »

The weirdest thing about AI is how shocked people that like AI are that some people don't use it.

While i'm sure its a useful tool in some situations, and i don't begrudge anyone who finds value in it, it simply doesn't fit into my life as something that would be useful on a regular basis.

Re: BYU study: Why some people choose not to use artificial intelligence

#15

Post by BoiledCabbage »

pico303 wrote: post #11

I’m a dev working with AI to build tools for others, but I don’t use them personally. Why? Because they make your writing sound like everyone else, they produce shoddy and broken code (unless you’re doing something really commonplace), and they dull your own creativity. If you’re relying on someone else to do your work, you’re going to lose the ability to think for yourself. AI is built essentially on averages. It’s…

> AI is built essentially on averages.

It is, but that also means if you prompt it correctly it will give you the answer of the average graduate student working on theoretical physics, or the average expert on the historical inter-cultural conflict of the country you are researching. Averages can be very powerful as well.

Re: BYU study: Why some people choose not to use artificial intelligence

#16

Post by ofjcihen »

pico303 wrote: post #11

I’m a dev working with AI to build tools for others, but I don’t use them personally. Why? Because they make your writing sound like everyone else, they produce shoddy and broken code (unless you’re doing something really commonplace), and they dull your own creativity. If you’re relying on someone else to do your work, you’re going to lose the ability to think for yourself. AI is built essentially on averages. It’s…

I need to second all of these points and add in the additional reason I don’t use it often: unless it’s a very common use case and I just need some boilerplate starting code I already know I’m going to spend more time fixing the issues it creates than if I just write it myself.

Re: BYU study: Why some people choose not to use artificial intelligence

#17

Post by Retr0id »

ksynwa wrote: post #4

> A photo illustration created by AI depicting someone skeptical of using AI. > Photo by Nate Edwards/BYU Photo So is it a photograph or AI generated?

Just looking at it, I don't think I've ever been more on-the-fence about whether an image is AI or not. It has AI vibes, but no especially obvious AI artefacts. Nate Edwards is definitely a real photographer, too.

Re: BYU study: Why some people choose not to use artificial intelligence

#18

Post by ofjcihen »

BoiledCabbage wrote: post #15
pico303 wrote: post #11

I’m a dev working with AI to build tools for others, but I don’t use them personally. Why? Because they make your writing sound like everyone else, they produce shoddy and broken code (unless you’re doing something really commonplace), and they dull your own creativity. If you’re relying on someone else to do your work, you’re going to lose the ability to think for yourself. AI is built essentially on averages. It’s…

> AI is built essentially on averages. It is, but that also means if you prompt it correctly it will give you the answer of the average graduate student working on theoretical physics, or the average expert on the historical inter-cultural conflict of the country you are researching. Averages can be very powerful as well.

I see this argument all the time. That the user must not be prompting correctly.

In my experience the way you prompt is less important than the “averageness” of the answer you’re looking for.

Re: BYU study: Why some people choose not to use artificial intelligence

#19

Post by analog31 »

bawolff wrote: post #14

The weirdest thing about AI is how shocked people that like AI are that some people don't use it. While i'm sure its a useful tool in some situations, and i don't begrudge anyone who finds value in it, it simply doesn't fit into my life as something that would be useful on a regular basis.

There's an element of political correctness here. It's hard to look your friend in the eye and tell them that the stuff they're writing isn't worth reading.

In a similar vein, when people find out that I ride a bicycle, their first question is why I don't ride an e-bike.

Re: BYU study: Why some people choose not to use artificial intelligence

#20

Post by Cornbilly »

For me, it's only really useful as an enhanced search engine and using it to do any real work usually just leads to more issues than if I just did it manually.

The vast majority of uses are your typical Silicon Valley hype, jargon filled bullshit that sells half-baked products to the tech illiterate folks in the C-suite.

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