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Slop Terrifies Me

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Re: Slop Terrifies Me

#151

Post by kryogen1c »

djoldman wrote: post #108

Now that generative AI products are becoming more widely used, it's a little depressing how folks don't seem to view the world with a broad historical context. The "AI effect" on the world has many similarities to previous events and in many ways changes very little about how the world works. > I'm terrified of the good enough to ship—and I'm terrified of nobody else caring. For almost every product/service ever offe…

It should also be noted that most companies that make high quality (last decades) low volume goods go out of business; people vote with their dollars and dont want the capex.

Put another way, who here wants a car that costs more than their house? Or shoes that cost 2000$?

Re: Slop Terrifies Me

#152

Post by direwolf20 »

tartoran wrote: post #141
direwolf20 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaza is kept as a testing ground for domestic spying and domestic military technology intended to be used on other groups. Otherwise they'd have destroyed it by now. Stuff like Palantir is always tested in Gaza first.

Isn’t Gaza a mess in ruins already? I’d count that as destroyed aleeady

Not completely. I mean there would be zero living people left. They've been downscaling it.

Re: Slop Terrifies Me

#153

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

djoldman wrote: post #108

Now that generative AI products are becoming more widely used, it's a little depressing how folks don't seem to view the world with a broad historical context. The "AI effect" on the world has many similarities to previous events and in many ways changes very little about how the world works. > I'm terrified of the good enough to ship—and I'm terrified of nobody else caring. For almost every product/service ever offe…

> For example, it's possible to make hiking boots that last a lot longer than others. But if the requirement is to have it last for just 20 miles, it's better to pay less for one that won't last as long.

Sure, but the OP's concern is whether this chokes off innovation. Is there some better kind of hiking boot, longer-lasting and cheaper and maybe more comfortable, that we've never found because the shoemakers who'd be able to invent it are too busy optimizing Nike production lines?

Re: Slop Terrifies Me

#154

Post by direwolf20 »

zozbot234 wrote: post #124
coldtea wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Replacing this with AI is a welcome development. Not if you fed your kid doing it, and now you can't. > As for jobs like translator, graphic designer and journalist, it's only the extremely low-end work that can possibly be replaced with LLMs. Not an issue if they move upmarket. Yes, fuck the 90% of those working in that space, and let's hope the 10% gets an "upmarket" gig there. All this grand-visioning sounds dev…

> Not if you fed your kid doing it, and now you can't. Which happens all the time anyway. There just aren't that many people for whom being a call center worker is their long-term career, they'll just switch to some other job.

This works until we run out of sensible jobs, which may have already happened.

Re: Slop Terrifies Me

#155

Post by direwolf20 »

wavemode wrote: post #116

Slop existed before AI came along. It's often lamented that the World Wide Web used to be controlled by indie makers, but now belongs to a handful of megacorp websites and ad networks pushing addictive content. But, the indie maker era was just a temporary market inefficiency, from before businesses fully knew how to harness the technology. I think software development has gone through a similar change. At one point…

You might install PipePipe or YouTube ReVanced, but they'd sooner ban you as a customer than improve their app quality.

Re: Slop Terrifies Me

#156

Post by direwolf20 »

chung8123 wrote: post #47

AI slop is similar to the cheap tools at harbor freight. Before we used to have to buy really expensive tools that were designed to last forever and perform a ton of jobs. Now we can just go to harbor freight and get a tool that is good enough for most people. 80% of good maybe reframed as 100% ok for 80% of the people. It is when you are in the minority that cares about or needs that last 20% where it is a problem b…

And then you have to buy it again next time because it broke. I've never killed a power tool. I don't use them that much but neither do you. And when you have a library of power tools in your shed and don't have to go out and buy one, you can do more things more quickly.

Re: Slop Terrifies Me

#157

Post by direwolf20 »

hgs3 wrote: post #95

Why is slop assumed inevitable? These models are plagiarization and copyright laundering machines. We need a great AI model reset whereby all published works are assumed to opt-out of training and companies pay to train on your data. We've seen what AI can do, now fund the creators.

Who's going to enforce that, exactly?

Re: Slop Terrifies Me

#158

Post by direwolf20 »

xandrius wrote: post #86
mystraline wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its existential dread, of being useless and of not being able to thrive. Its being compared to that of a slop machine, and billionaires claiming that its better than you are in all ways. Its having integrity in your work, but the LLM slop-machines can lie and go "You're actually right (tells more lies)". It all comes down to that LLMs serve to 'fix' the trillion dollar problem: peoples wages. Especially those enginee…

I wonder how people like you would have fared even just 100y ago, if typing on a keyboard with your own fingers is so foundational to your identity.

Ask a horse buggy driver and find out.

Re: Slop Terrifies Me

#159

Post by direwolf20 »

bonoboTP wrote: post #78
frankie_t wrote: post #48

If slop doesn't get better, it would mean that at least I get to keep my job. In the areas where the remaining 10% don't matter, maybe I won't. I'm struggling to come up with an example of such software outside of one-off scripts and some home automation though. The job is going to be much less fun, yes, but I won't have to learn from scratch and compete with young people in a different area (and which I will enjoy l…

I find working with LLMs much more fun and frictionless comprated to the drudgery of boring glue code or tracking down nongeneralizable version-specific workarounds in github issues etc. Coding LLMs let you focus on the domain of you actual problem instead of the low level stumbling blocks that just create annoyance without real learning.

Focusing on your problem means focusing on minimizing that stuff.. with LLMs it will fester.

Re: Slop Terrifies Me

#160

Post by slfnflctd »

lbreakjai wrote: post #150
slfnflctd wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very well put, one of the more compelling insights I've seen about this whole situation. I feel like it gets at something I've been trying to say but couldn't find the right words for yet. Quality. Matters. It always has, and it always will. If you're telling yourself otherwise, you are part of a doomed way of thinking and will eventually be outcompeted by those who understand the implications of thinking further ahe…

If quality matters then why is everything crap? Price has a quality of its own.

As I said in my edit, "because people are irrational animals who too often prioritize our current feelings over everything else."

Marginal improvements in quality which result in a marginal increase of cost/price often provide much better overall returns than just using a series of cheap substitutes that fail quickly. In some areas, this doesn't work, but I think shortsightedness is blocking truly better solutions in a great many cases. Particularly when true costs are being externalized.

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