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AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products

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Re: AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products

#131

Post by honestjohn »

necroforest wrote: post #49
ryandrake wrote: post #34

Companies keep going at it the wrong way. Instead of saying "We have AI, let's find products we can make out of AI!" they should be saying, "What products do people want, let's use whatever tools we have (including maybe AI) to make them." The idea that a company is an AI company should be as ridiculous as a company being a Python company. "We are Python-first, have Python experts, and all of our products are made wi…

I don't entirely disagree with you, but "what products do people want" is overly conservative. Pre-ChatGPT, very few people wanted a (more or less) general purpose chatbot.

I don't think so, people have been wanting a general chatbot for a long time. It's useful for plenty of things, just not useful when embedded in random places.

Re: AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products

#132

Post by honestjohn »

FpUser wrote: post #41

ChatGPT is very useful for me to the point that I pay subscription fee. To me it IS the product.

Yeah, ChatGPT itself is amazing. What I don't understand is, why are other companies paying so much for training hardware now? Trying to make more specialized LLMs now that ChatGPT has proven the technology?

Re: AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products

#133

Post by kohbo »

lallysingh wrote: post #127
ryandrake wrote: post #34

Companies keep going at it the wrong way. Instead of saying "We have AI, let's find products we can make out of AI!" they should be saying, "What products do people want, let's use whatever tools we have (including maybe AI) to make them." The idea that a company is an AI company should be as ridiculous as a company being a Python company. "We are Python-first, have Python experts, and all of our products are made wi…

That requires they you understand the capabilities and limitations of the tech way better than anyone does. So instead "let's see what we can do with this" is the underlying approach.

Might be a good philosophy for a hobbyist, not (usually so) for a business.

Re: AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products

#134

Post by GeneralMayhem »

slavboj wrote: post #97
ryandrake wrote: post #34

Companies keep going at it the wrong way. Instead of saying "We have AI, let's find products we can make out of AI!" they should be saying, "What products do people want, let's use whatever tools we have (including maybe AI) to make them." The idea that a company is an AI company should be as ridiculous as a company being a Python company. "We are Python-first, have Python experts, and all of our products are made wi…

A ton of the industrial revolution was actually motivated by that input-driven thinking. You don't decide you want an Eiffel Tower from first principles, you consider "what is the coolest thing I can make out of wrought iron".

But the Eiffel Tower is an art project, not something of actual utility...

Re: AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products

#135

Post by lallysingh »

kohbo wrote: post #133
lallysingh wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That requires they you understand the capabilities and limitations of the tech way better than anyone does. So instead "let's see what we can do with this" is the underlying approach.

Might be a good philosophy for a hobbyist, not (usually so) for a business.

For VC funded startups, this is exactly the business model. Each company is a different lottery ticket for them.

Re: AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products

#136

Post by ei8htyfi5e »

While I don't like the blog title, many things said in there rang true for my company (MoveAI.com). We are building an AI-powered moving concierge that can orchestrate your relocation experience end-to-end.

We initially were developing a system that we had hoped could handle everything and eject any workflow issues to a human so the operations team could kick the machine. We were hoping to avoid an interface all together on the customer side.

After a few versions and attempts at building this system, we moved towards a traditional app where we focused on building a product people wanted and automate parts of it over time. But even the parts we automated needed an interface for customers to spot check our work. So we found a great designer.

...Before we knew it, we were building a traditional company, with some AI. The company is doing well and people love what we're building, but it's different than we imagined.

We still believe in the long term vision and promise of the technology, but the article is right, this isn't going to be an overnight process unless some new architecture emerges.

In the mean time, we're focused on helping people get from A to B easily using whatever means necessary, because moving f**ing sucks. If you're moving soon or know anybody who is, we'd be happy to help them. -P

Re: AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products

#137

Post by [deleted] »

GeneralMayhem wrote: post #134
slavboj wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A ton of the industrial revolution was actually motivated by that input-driven thinking. You don't decide you want an Eiffel Tower from first principles, you consider "what is the coolest thing I can make out of wrought iron".

But the Eiffel Tower is an art project, not something of actual utility...

[deleted]

Re: AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products

#138

Post by sham1 »

_heimdall wrote: post #115
javiramos wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had already forgotten about the blockchain

git still works pretty well, I just wouldn't try to use it as a bank account.

Well, Git's also not a blockchain at least in the way commonly meant by the term. But yeah, it'd be a pretty bad bank account (and an even worse way of doing money transfers.)

Re: AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products

#139

Post by daveguy »

dyauspitr wrote: post #88
dragontamer wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my local car dealerships is using an chat system of some kind (probably an LLM?). It's awful and a complete waste of time. I'm not sure if LLMs are getting good use yet / general chatbots are good or ready for business use.

Who cares. I literally use ChatGPT 30 times a day. It answers incredibly complex queries along with citations I can verify. Isn’t “this not good enough yet” line getting old? There nothing else that can estimate the number of cinder blocks I need to use for a project and account for the volume of concrete required for it (while taking into consideration the actual available volume available in a cinder block and sett…

Please don't take this as a glib, low effort answer, but... I am glad you're not an engineer. Taking advice from an LLM on things like outlets, ingredient safety, and construction measurements seems like a mistake.

Re: AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products

#140

Post by lagniappe »

sham1 wrote: post #138
_heimdall wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

git still works pretty well, I just wouldn't try to use it as a bank account.

Well, Git's also not a blockchain at least in the way commonly meant by the term. But yeah, it'd be a pretty bad bank account (and an even worse way of doing money transfers.)

Git is by the literal definition a blockchain.
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