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I Love the Computer

michaelenger.com

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Re: I Love the Computer

#111

Post by tptacek »

totallymike wrote: post #108
tptacek wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't even make sense. Maybe if you fleshed it out?

It makes perfect sense to me. Type in a prompt like “how can I make the cheese on my pizza stringier” and maybe it’ll tell you to use different cheeses, but maybe it’ll tell you to add glue. 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.

What year is it, that you're getting frontier model responses saying to put glue in your pizza?

Re: I Love the Computer

#112

Post by pmarreck »

I, too, love the computer.

Nothing will take that away. I have plenty of evidence for it, too.

I think those of us who truly love the mechanism will not only survive the AI wave but will surf that motherfucker because WE KNOW, AT A VERY DEEP LEVEL, THE THING FROM WHENCE IT CAME.

(and honestly, I’ve been waiting for something like this to help filter out all the fucking posers diluting my market value)

Re: I Love the Computer

#113

Post by patates »

I love the fact that if you speak German and English, it's possible to understand a lot of Dutch text.

I also love the Computer AND the Internet, allowing me to interact with and experience the world like this.

Re: I Love the Computer

#114

Post by patates »

drchickensalad wrote: post #3
fasterik wrote: post #2

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…

> The comparison suggests that the thing doesn't do what it's marketed to do In my opinion you should interpret the usage of "AI" here to mean "the entire business/management/financial/bubble ecosystem surrounding LLMs". The snake oil is much more how LLMs are being weaponized and utilized rather than a specific technical assessment (although that often is an issue too)

I think then the AI-hype should be disregarded as snake-oil, not the tech itself. I know it sounds pretentious, but I need to say that words do matter.

Re: I Love the Computer

#115

Post by Cockbrand »

patates wrote: post #113

I love the fact that if you speak German and English, it's possible to understand a lot of Dutch text. I also love the Computer AND the Internet , allowing me to interact with and experience the world like this.

If you're referring to the mag covers, they're Norwegian in fact. (Bokmål or Nynorsk, you ask? Idk)

Re: I Love the Computer

#116

Post by fl4regun »

tptacek wrote: post #20

I think the author doesn't realize how gatekeepy this sentiment is; that they earned their love of "the computer", that it was formative to them, that they put all this uncomfortable effort into learning how to program, and thus (subtextually) they should have a say in how other people use "the computer".

I think we do get to have a say when a large amount of the way people use computers has basically just turned into companies trying to get people addicted to their social media platforms so they can sell them ads.

Re: I Love the Computer

#117

Post by patates »

Cockbrand wrote: post #115
patates wrote: post #113

I love the fact that if you speak German and English, it's possible to understand a lot of Dutch text. I also love the Computer AND the Internet , allowing me to interact with and experience the world like this.

If you're referring to the mag covers, they're Norwegian in fact. (Bokmål or Nynorsk, you ask? Idk)

Yeah, so Norwegian it is :)

Re: I Love the Computer

#118

Post by teo_zero »

thewebguyd wrote: post #26
Shellban wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming that we recover from the damage being done now. As one example, a friend of mine has remarked that large corporations will benefit from the current AI-induced reality of no one being able to afford their own hardware, and keep prices that way to enforce a renters model on computers.

That's my fear, and unfortunately I think its likely to happen. I feel like we will settle down a little bit, but into a new higher "normal" baseline that still largely makes it unaffordable for most. There's also still the risk of the creation of a new economic underclass, if both a) hardware remains too expensive for local inference and b) subscription or pay-per-token based inference also remains expensive or incr…

> People will only get to use and experience these tools through their employer

Like in the era of mainframes, before the personal computer was a thing. I wonder if universities will play the same role, though.

Re: I Love the Computer

#119

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

echelon wrote: post #30
anon7725 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I choose A. I know that many others choose A as well. A wonderful service known as the web has connected people who choose A with others who choose A and of course with a great many who don’t need to make a choice and benefit from the work of others. I mourn a world in which few will choose A, because for many to choose B seems to lock us all, tragedy of the commons style, into a worse world.

[flagged]

> AI is better at this than you. You just won't admit it.

No, you're just really, really shit at programming. You just won't admit it.

(AI, in general, is only impressive when you have no clue about the subject domain.)

Re: I Love the Computer

#120

Post by keybored »

fasterik wrote: post #2

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…

And we’re back to the pitch.
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