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AI might yet follow the path of previous technological revolutions

economist.com

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Re: AI might yet follow the path of previous technological revolutions

#41

Post by 1c2adbc4 »

exe34 wrote: post #34
1c2adbc4 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a suggestion for a better name? I care more about the utility of a thing, rather than playing endless word games with AI, AGI, ASI, whatever. Call it what you will, it is what it is.

I think it's fine to keep the name, we just have to realise it's like magic. real magic can't be done. magic that can be done is just tricks. AI that works is just tricks.

I didn't realize that magic was the goal. I'm just trying to process unstructured data. Who's here looking for magic?

Re: AI might yet follow the path of previous technological revolutions

#42

Post by J_McQuade »

1c2adbc4 wrote: post #10
marginalia_nu wrote: post #8

AI is technology that does not exist yet that can be speculated about. When AI materializes into existence it becomes normal technology. Let's not forget there has been times when if-else statements were considered AI. NLP used to be AI too.

Do you have a suggestion for a better name? I care more about the utility of a thing, rather than playing endless word games with AI, AGI, ASI, whatever. Call it what you will, it is what it is.

Broadly Uneconomical Large Language Systems Holding Investors in Thrall.

Re: AI might yet follow the path of previous technological revolutions

#43

Post by Swizec »

thepryz wrote: post #36
Kapura wrote: post #30

Digital spreadsheets (excel, etc) have done much more to change the world than so-called "artificial intelligence," and on the current trajectory it's difficult to see that changing.

I don’t know if I would agree. Spreadsheets don’t really have the ability to promote propaganda and manipulate people the way LLM-powered bots already have. Generative AI is also starting to change the way people think, or perhaps not think, as people begin to offload critical thinking and writing tasks to agentic ai.

> Spreadsheets don’t really have the ability to promote propaganda and manipulate people

May I introduce you to the magic of "KPI" and "Bonus tied to performance"?

You'd be surprised how much good and bad in the world has come out of some spreadsheet showing a number to a group of promotion chasing type-a otherwise completely normal people.

Re: AI might yet follow the path of previous technological revolutions

#44

Post by gizajob »

jcranmer wrote: post #38

Well, for starters, it would make The Economist 's recent article on "What if AI made the world's economic growth explode?" [1] look like the product of overly credulous suckers for AI hype. [1] https://www.economist.com/briefing/2025/07/24/what-if-ai-mad...

If you back every horse in a race, you win every time.

Re: AI might yet follow the path of previous technological revolutions

#45

Post by lo_zamoyski »

1c2adbc4 wrote: post #10
marginalia_nu wrote: post #8

AI is technology that does not exist yet that can be speculated about. When AI materializes into existence it becomes normal technology. Let's not forget there has been times when if-else statements were considered AI. NLP used to be AI too.

Do you have a suggestion for a better name? I care more about the utility of a thing, rather than playing endless word games with AI, AGI, ASI, whatever. Call it what you will, it is what it is.

Statistics.

A lot of this is marketing bullshit. AFAIK, even "machine learning" was a term made up by AI researchers when the AI winter hit who wanted to keep getting a piece of that sweet grant money.

And "neural network" is just a straight up rubbish name. All it does is obscure what's actually happening and leads the proles to think it has something to do with neurons.

Re: AI might yet follow the path of previous technological revolutions

#47

Post by lo_zamoyski »

ACCount37 wrote: post #20
marginalia_nu wrote: post #8

AI is technology that does not exist yet that can be speculated about. When AI materializes into existence it becomes normal technology. Let's not forget there has been times when if-else statements were considered AI. NLP used to be AI too.

"AI" is a wide fucking field. And it occasionally includes systems built entirely on if-else statements.

There is no difference between AI and non-AI save for the model the observer is using to view a particular bit of computation.

Re: AI might yet follow the path of previous technological revolutions

#48

Post by svara »

gizajob wrote: post #44
jcranmer wrote: post #38

Well, for starters, it would make The Economist 's recent article on "What if AI made the world's economic growth explode?" [1] look like the product of overly credulous suckers for AI hype. [1] https://www.economist.com/briefing/2025/07/24/what-if-ai-mad...

If you back every horse in a race, you win every time.

I'm perfectly happy reading different, well-argued cases in a magazine even if they contradict each other.

Re: AI might yet follow the path of previous technological revolutions

#49

Post by [deleted] »

d3ckard wrote: post #29
chpatrick wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[citation needed] People constantly assert that LLMs don't think in some magic way that humans do think, when we don't even have any idea how that works.

What can be asserted without proof, can be dismissed without proof. The proof burden is on AI proponents.

[deleted]

Re: AI might yet follow the path of previous technological revolutions

#50

Post by danaris »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #8

AI is technology that does not exist yet that can be speculated about. When AI materializes into existence it becomes normal technology. Let's not forget there has been times when if-else statements were considered AI. NLP used to be AI too.

They still are.

Artificial Intelligence is a whole subfield of Computer Science.

Code built of nothing but if/else statements controlling the behavior of game NPCs is AI.

A* search is AI.

NLP is AI.

ML is AI.

Computer vision models are AI.

LLMs are AI.

None of these are AGI, which is what does not yet exist.

One of the big problems underlying the current hype cycle is the overloading of this term, and the hype-men's refusal to clarify that what we have now is not the same type of thing as what Neo fights in the Matrix. (In some cases, because they have genuinely bought into the idea that it is the same thing, and in all cases because they believe they will benefit from other people believing it.)

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