101–110 of 167 posts
This line hits really close to home. :-/
I love computers too, but it doesn't resonate with me when people call AI "snake oil." The comparison suggests that the thing doesn't do what it's marketed to do. AI does more or less what it's marketed to do, sometimes badly. I still write code by hand. But LLMs have been a legitimately useful tool when I've wanted to dig into a new field like computer graphics, theoretical physics, or numerical analysis. Or even ju…
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As long as we're clear that the sentiment here is analogous to people being protective of Star Wars, like you said, I'm good.
I think a better analogy should be: should you take a job writing a Star Wars movie if you're not a fan of Star Wars? (or sub in: Star Trek, or Dr. Who, or any other recent nerd property that's been kind of ruined by people who don't understand the source material screwing it up by thinking they know better than the fans). In that context at least, the proof is in the pudding: Star Wars is a mess because it's been wr…
Tony Gilroy is not!
I love computers too, but it doesn't resonate with me when people call AI "snake oil." The comparison suggests that the thing doesn't do what it's marketed to do. AI does more or less what it's marketed to do, sometimes badly. I still write code by hand. But LLMs have been a legitimately useful tool when I've wanted to dig into a new field like computer graphics, theoretical physics, or numerical analysis. Or even ju…
Not to worry, a fool and his money will soon be parted.
I think the main problem is that there is no definition for "AI".
And from your use case, I don't see any difference between that and a search engine.
I love computers too, but it doesn't resonate with me when people call AI "snake oil." The comparison suggests that the thing doesn't do what it's marketed to do. AI does more or less what it's marketed to do, sometimes badly. I still write code by hand. But LLMs have been a legitimately useful tool when I've wanted to dig into a new field like computer graphics, theoretical physics, or numerical analysis. Or even ju…
LLMs remind me of being a kid again being in wonder of all the possible things that could be done with a computer that haven't been figured out yet. The internet was relatively new and everyone had their own ideas of what that would enable. Fast forward to a few years ago and it was easy to believe that a lot of the low-hanging fruit of things an individual could do with the internet, apps, 3d graphics, etc, had been…
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You know what? Gate keeping can be a good thing. Some gates exist for a good reason. I think "are you actually interested in doing this?" is a very reasonable gate. I'm not saying all coding needs to be a passion project, obviously, but I think it's very hard to be good at a thing if you don't care about it. Software continues to get worse and worse, and software developers know less and less about the machines they'…
You know what's a good gate? employement. Like great comedians of old who could make actually funny jokes, lets pull up the ladder like dave chappel and cut the kids out. I want a job and i want to stay employed in IT. I don't know what's coming but the best interest for myself is to reduce the amount of technical people and increase my rarity.
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> The comparison suggests that the thing doesn't do what it's marketed to do. Because it doesn't. What AI is being sold as is incredibly different than what it actually does. I love AI. I spent years in grad school researching it because I loved it so much (it was never about the money to me). But what it is and what it can do is so different from what it is being sold as. Snake Oil is an apt comparison because it is…
And why was AI seen as a red flag?
Nowadays people just say “AI” when they mean “LLM,” which is an unrelated thing entirely, but people want people who use it.
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AI is snake oil. It sells you a slot machine in the guise of a colleague. Oh, not using it right? Not the right model? Insert coin to continue. Snake oil, total snake oil.
This doesn't even make sense. Maybe if you fleshed it out?
If you don’t like the answer, don’t worry, they’re building more data centers in poor neighborhoods so you can keep submitting the prompt until you get a better one.
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LLMs remind me of being a kid again being in wonder of all the possible things that could be done with a computer that haven't been figured out yet. The internet was relatively new and everyone had their own ideas of what that would enable. Fast forward to a few years ago and it was easy to believe that a lot of the low-hanging fruit of things an individual could do with the internet, apps, 3d graphics, etc, had been…
I have a pretty good idea of what computing will look like in 5 years and it's pretty depressing.
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The machine is still fun. It's the five layers of product growth between you and the machine that get tiring.
check the ping time between your nodes, whatever they are, in the same datacenter. I bet it will be at least 10-20ms. 15 years ago it was 0.1-0.2 ms.