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Back To Atoms: Why we can stop building SaaS and build the future instead.

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Re: Back To Atoms: Why we can stop building SaaS and build the future instead.

#31

Post by devnull3 »

re-thc wrote: post #16
danpalmer wrote: post #4

Let's assume that AI is human level (it's not, but humour me). Let's assume that businesses can buy an off-the-shelf black box of AI that will run whatever business IT process they want to run. Customer data goes in, actions for humans to perform come out. It's basically an automated call centre full of humans. Now something goes wrong. A customer isn't getting what they ordered. What do you do about it? Do you just…

> Do you just drop the customer? Well that's lost revenue, or an easy win for another company Works for Google. Lots of their stuff has non-existent support even today. At the end of the day it might cost more to acquire the customer than not.

That is the reason AWS & Azure are much more successful when it comes to enterprise customers. This is where the real money is.

Re: Back To Atoms: Why we can stop building SaaS and build the future instead.

#32

Post by billforsternz »

danpalmer wrote: post #4

Let's assume that AI is human level (it's not, but humour me). Let's assume that businesses can buy an off-the-shelf black box of AI that will run whatever business IT process they want to run. Customer data goes in, actions for humans to perform come out. It's basically an automated call centre full of humans. Now something goes wrong. A customer isn't getting what they ordered. What do you do about it? Do you just…

> Do you just drop the customer? Well that's lost revenue, or an easy win for another company, you don't want to do that.

Are those the only or even main reasons you don't want to "just drop the customer"?

I hope not. Is offering a good service at an attractive price, one that delivers on its promises not even a thing any more?

Re: Back To Atoms: Why we can stop building SaaS and build the future instead.

#33

Post by paulddraper »

danpalmer wrote: post #18
_wire_ wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let's assume that AI is human level (it's not, but humour me) OK > Now something goes wrong. A customer isn't getting what they ordered. What do you do about it? What do you do when something goes wrong with a human? Do that. End of story.

This is my point, you can't. You can't hold an AI accountable in the way you can with a human, whether that's accountable to a contract or accountable to the law, and the only ways in which you can hold an AI accountable involve escalating to a human, at which point we're back to where we are now without AI and requiring essentially the same software and business processes.

If it's human level, you can.

You train it, you replace it with a more suitable worker, whatever.

You've answered your own dilemma with the premise.

Re: Back To Atoms: Why we can stop building SaaS and build the future instead.

#34

Post by croes »

>Humans are good at fixing problems mostly because we are good at making them.

Are we? Just look at climate change.

>We are fighting climate change with science and industry.

We are also fighting fighting climate change with pseudo science and industry money.

We aren't good at fixing things, we are good at surviving even if we don't fix things. Maybe lots of people die, maybe we repeat the same mistakes over and over again but at least some will survive to start all over again. Every high culture went down the hill and a new emerged from the rubbles of the previous one. But that's not fixing, that surviving.

Re: Back To Atoms: Why we can stop building SaaS and build the future instead.

#35

Post by danpalmer »

android521 wrote: post #20
danpalmer wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As with all disruptive technologies. Uber was 10x better than taxis when it was being pumped full of VC cash, now it's better enough that it's my go-to choice, but not by a 2x margin. AirBnB was 10x better than hotels when it was being pumped full of cash, hadn't realised that people might trash places, and chancers hadn't filled the platform with crap properties, now it's a wash and only another option alongside hot…

This won’t age well. Let’s come back in a few years.

AI may take over the world, but we probably need 2 orders of magnitude of cost reduction, plus a significant improvement in intelligence, plus significant global legislative support, for AI to meet the promises being made right now. To be clear, I do think it'll be transformative, I just think it's "internet" level transformative over a career-long time horizon.

Re: Back To Atoms: Why we can stop building SaaS and build the future instead.

#36

Post by danpalmer »

bruce511 wrote: post #25
re-thc wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you just drop the customer? Well that's lost revenue, or an easy win for another company Works for Google. Lots of their stuff has non-existent support even today. At the end of the day it might cost more to acquire the customer than not.

Google drops users not customers. It's an important distinction. Ok, they drop customers too, and even as a customer its gard to talk to a human. And that in itself is a huge barrier to entry to some possible customers. Personally we use Google for ads. We pay them money, but don't get to talk to a human. They'd drop us if we behave in a way the algorithm doesn't like. They get away with this because there are very f…

FWIW, I used to use GCP and Workspace, used to talk to someone once or twice a year, had no problems with the support. I've also seen AWS drop the ball on security disclosures, so I think experiences between all of them can be pretty mixed.

Re: Back To Atoms: Why we can stop building SaaS and build the future instead.

#38

Post by ornornor »

_wire_ wrote: post #14
danpalmer wrote: post #4

Let's assume that AI is human level (it's not, but humour me). Let's assume that businesses can buy an off-the-shelf black box of AI that will run whatever business IT process they want to run. Customer data goes in, actions for humans to perform come out. It's basically an automated call centre full of humans. Now something goes wrong. A customer isn't getting what they ordered. What do you do about it? Do you just…

> Let's assume that AI is human level (it's not, but humour me) OK > Now something goes wrong. A customer isn't getting what they ordered. What do you do about it? What do you do when something goes wrong with a human? Do that. End of story.

You can reason with a human. You can’t with an AI.

And if you got rid of all your human tools because AI, how do you put a human back in the loop?

Re: Back To Atoms: Why we can stop building SaaS and build the future instead.

#39

Post by torginus »

The world of atoms is being disrupted as well. Spurned by the anxiety of AI replacing my codemonkeying skills, I decided to get knJust recently I bought a 3d printer, and after spending a couple weeks learning CAD, it's insane how much of the act of physically making things has turned into just modelling stuff on the computer and hitting print.

I've designed 'complex' (for me haha) mechanisms with levers, gears and springs, the manufacturing of which would've required a machine shop, multiple trips to the hardware store, tons of hands-on experience and lots of careful measuring and swearing, if not for the miracle of CAD software and my printer.

I just modelled the thing, hit print, and after 2-3 iterations of fixing dumb mistakes, I had a product that worked, and fit to tighter tolerances than what I could've realistically made by hand.

Of course not everything can be made out of cheap thermoplastic, but the jump to higher grade materials is available even today for the everyman.

Re: Back To Atoms: Why we can stop building SaaS and build the future instead.

#40

Post by matchagaucho »

danpalmer wrote: post #4

Let's assume that AI is human level (it's not, but humour me). Let's assume that businesses can buy an off-the-shelf black box of AI that will run whatever business IT process they want to run. Customer data goes in, actions for humans to perform come out. It's basically an automated call centre full of humans. Now something goes wrong. A customer isn't getting what they ordered. What do you do about it? Do you just…

It's turtles all the way down. C++ compiles to C which compiles to Assembly...

AI will own the next layer... dynamically generating SQL and code to access existing systems.

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