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Why Would I Buy This Useless, Evil Thing?

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Re: Why Would I Buy This Useless, Evil Thing?

#31

It seems to me the author of this article is going to have a tough time in the coming brave new world. I do love the writing style and wit though and Im even inclined to agree. Still, AI-ALL-THE-THINGS is coming. Imagine a Siri/Alexa that actually DOES STUFF.

I suspect we all will have a tough time as I read about Duolingo layoffs while pivoting to AI, Amazon flooded with shitty AI books, autonomous drones, predictions of animators having three years left on the job market and so on. I can’t wait to unload on my AI therapist.

Re: Why Would I Buy This Useless, Evil Thing?

#33
post #2

My question is what happens when you veer off the happy path for a given task? Like if your hotel cancels, or thinks you didn't pay and you did? Seems like disasters waiting to happen.

I wouldn't even trust that it had booked the hotel on the correct date, or with my breakfast or room preferences. I'd need to go double check everything it did anyway, so what's the point.

AI can do anything (eventually) but it will never take responsibility for it. Irresponsible like a genie in the lamp.

Re: Why Would I Buy This Useless, Evil Thing?

#34
I dislike and object to the scope of this device as much as the author.

It's not a popular view, but I hope Teenage Engineering is acquired by a very large company soon so that they can be relegated to functioning somewhere as a harmless novelty devision.

This way they will get a big pay day and be treated like a prize, while their influence to create proprietary devices for the landfill is effectively quashed.

Re: Why Would I Buy This Useless, Evil Thing?

#36
I don't think this thing is any more evil than a hammer. It's a tool. If it's not useful to you, don't use it. If it's not useful to anyone, it will quickly cease to exist. I don't think it's going to do anything to erode the concept of morality. I don't have to trust it with my money any more I would trust anyone else about my money.

This kind of take, which is common with AI, always assumes this odd state of blind trust. As if I can't read and reason about the output like I would anything (or anyone) else's output. Are there people I trust more than AI? of course. Do I trust AI more than some people? also true. Would I blindly trust a person or AI without doing some of my own reasoning at some point in the process? no.

Re: Why Would I Buy This Useless, Evil Thing?

#37
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't even trust that it had booked the hotel on the correct date, or with my breakfast or room preferences. I'd need to go double check everything it did anyway, so what's the point.

AI can do anything (eventually) but it will never take responsibility for it. Irresponsible like a genie in the lamp.

To be fair - I work with humans who I feel the same way about. We will be able to use these devices when we've seen they work over and over. Trust is only ever earned.

Re: Why Would I Buy This Useless, Evil Thing?

#38
post #32

The idea is fine, but the inevitable outcome here is that Apple and Google do the same thing in their respective smartphones and this device (if it's even good at all) is obviated.

Good. It’s disappointing how bad Siri is. I don’t need it to be an LLM trained to know everything in the encyclopedia galactica… I just need Siri to understand basic sentence structure so i don’t have to reword something five times before giving up because i don’t know the magic word order.

Re: Why Would I Buy This Useless, Evil Thing?

#39
There really isn't anything of substance in this article. Just a low-quality complaint about AI and AI devices with such hot-takes as:

> You will notice that many of these tasks are just interacting with the lazy Silicon Valley dipshit treat ecosystem that already exists.

Honestly I'm hesitant about AI devices as well but dismissing it entirely is very Luddite-like. Will these smart AI devices succeed? Who knows... It's a risk but I can absolutely see areas where these devices will succeed - like bringing tech to the tech illiterate (or even just illiterate).

And Rabbit's price-point puts it in a very competitive position to be the iPhone of AI devices. Worth watching to see how these things continue to develop.

Re: Why Would I Buy This Useless, Evil Thing?

#40
post #34

I dislike and object to the scope of this device as much as the author. It's not a popular view, but I hope Teenage Engineering is acquired by a very large company soon so that they can be relegated to functioning somewhere as a harmless novelty devision. This way they will get a big pay day and be treated like a prize, while their influence to create proprietary devices for the landfill is effectively quashed.

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