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Personal Computer by Perplexity

perplexity.ai

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Re: Personal Computer by Perplexity

#81

Post by anonzzzies »

nine_k wrote: post #74
Avicebron wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What does it mean? Does clicking on a link counts as labor. I think we might be seeing what happens when people are being paid too much to spend all day emailing each other and jockeying excel/gantt charts/org charts. Yeah for some definition of "work" I guarantee that a LLM could perform 3.25 years worth in four weeks.

>> Harvard, MIT > people are being paid too much to spend all day emailing each other Hmm, this does not sound exactly right. Also, does anybody seriously think that communication is not work, or is not important? A number of really impactful things started from people emailing each other. (Hell, Linux kernel development is still much about people emailing patches each other.)

Some type of emailing is important, what most people do, however, is not. Same with meetings, calls etc. Most of it is filling the day so they don't get fired.

Re: Personal Computer by Perplexity

#82

Post by tekno45 »

deepfriedbits wrote: post #73
_pdp_ wrote: post #36

> In a study of over 16,000 queries, measured against institutional benchmarks from McKinsey, Harvard, MIT, BCG, and others, we determined Perplexity Computer saved our internal teams $1.6M in labor costs and performed 3.25 years of work in only four weeks. And now we’re extending those same capabilities to other teams. This is a wild statement that does not seem to be supported by any actual data. What does it mean?…

I'm perpetually cautious about wild tech claims myself, but if you watch the launch video, there are examples of how they could claim labor/cost savings. For example, one task takes a document with data, charts, and metrics, and Perplexity Computer was tasked with creating a 10-page slide deck for a presentation. Prior to AI, that took human capital and labor costs. I can't say whether the $1.6M in labor costs is leg…

Why would you make a presentation?

send me the data and ill ask my own AI to do it in my favorite silly voice.

Re: Personal Computer by Perplexity

#84

Post by georgemcbay »

dakial1 wrote: post #2

So Perplexity's openclaw? Hopefully more secure?

> So Perplexity's openclaw? Hopefully more secure?

Given the inherent unpredictability of LLMs, I'm not convinced that an openclaw-like system but with more security features bolted on top is really a positive in the sense that the false sense of absolute security probably outweighs whatever actual security has been added.

It is easier to understand that openclaw is definitely insecure.

Re: Personal Computer by Perplexity

#85

Post by resonious »

nine_k wrote: post #74
Avicebron wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What does it mean? Does clicking on a link counts as labor. I think we might be seeing what happens when people are being paid too much to spend all day emailing each other and jockeying excel/gantt charts/org charts. Yeah for some definition of "work" I guarantee that a LLM could perform 3.25 years worth in four weeks.

>> Harvard, MIT > people are being paid too much to spend all day emailing each other Hmm, this does not sound exactly right. Also, does anybody seriously think that communication is not work, or is not important? A number of really impactful things started from people emailing each other. (Hell, Linux kernel development is still much about people emailing patches each other.)

Completely agreed. The thought that "people emailing each other" is a problem that should be "automated" away is delusional.

Re: Personal Computer by Perplexity

#86

Post by marcus_holmes »

treetalker wrote: post #66
mikewarot wrote: post #47

Who in their right mind is going to blindly trust an AI like that? There wasn't any review of the numbers, or even a hint of a "sniff test" on the output of the AI? Would a real person risk their reputation like that? -- With regard to the attempted redefinition of a commonly used term, I'm reminded of Gretchen, from the Mean Girls, trying to redefine "Fetch!"[1] It's just not going to happen. [1] https://www.imdb.co…

> Who in their right mind is going to blindly trust an AI like that? … particularly with acts that have legal implications like … well, almost everything, but particularly communication with investors or board members. If people can get slides or summaries by pushing a button, they don't need others to push the button for them.

This is that 2024 trope of "the AI is turning my 5 bullet points into a proper email to send." "And my AI is summarising all those long boring emails into bullet points!".

The slide deck won't be viewed by a human. It'll be read by the human's pet LLM and then summarised into 3 bullet points.

Re: Personal Computer by Perplexity

#87

Post by sanderjd »

gizajob wrote: post #64
jcims wrote: post #32

From the blog post ( https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/everything-is-computer ) >Personal Computer runs on a dedicated Mac mini that can run 24/7, connected to your local apps and Perplexity’s secure servers.

Ohhh so it’s just openclaw. Innovative.

Productizing openclaw. Seems pretty smart. (But probably going to be commoditized pretty quickly.)

Re: Personal Computer by Perplexity

#88

Post by _pdp_ »

pembrook wrote: post #80
nine_k wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Harvard, MIT > people are being paid too much to spend all day emailing each other Hmm, this does not sound exactly right. Also, does anybody seriously think that communication is not work, or is not important? A number of really impactful things started from people emailing each other. (Hell, Linux kernel development is still much about people emailing patches each other.)

The problem with human labor is that, as an organization scales, the amount of work any individual in the system can do shrinks due to the coordination problem. Coordination consumes a larger and larger amount of employee time to the point that, in the absolute largest organizations, the vast majority of employee time is internal coordination vs. actual improvement/selling of the customer offering. So if you go from…

Don't you think AI itself is something that adds coordination overhead? A 1000 strong team with AI agents will feel like 5000-person company where more than 30% are not even at exception level - i.e. they need to be pulled along.

This is why having less people and more agents actually makes sense but the coordination problem remains either way.

And you cannot escape it because it is simply mathematical.

Re: Personal Computer by Perplexity

#89

Post by pembrook »

_pdp_ wrote: post #88
pembrook wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with human labor is that, as an organization scales, the amount of work any individual in the system can do shrinks due to the coordination problem. Coordination consumes a larger and larger amount of employee time to the point that, in the absolute largest organizations, the vast majority of employee time is internal coordination vs. actual improvement/selling of the customer offering. So if you go from…

Don't you think AI itself is something that adds coordination overhead? A 1000 strong team with AI agents will feel like 5000-person company where more than 30% are not even at exception level - i.e. they need to be pulled along. This is why having less people and more agents actually makes sense but the coordination problem remains either way. And you cannot escape it because it is simply mathematical.

The coordination problem absolutely can be escaped with technology, hence why productivity gains exist and why the economy grows and isn't a fixed pie over time.

Here's an easy non-AI example:

In the past, a 'computer' was literally a person [1]. If you needed to synthesize large amounts of data, you needed to split the task among a team of people writing things down and then a team of people to check their work after the fact and then a team of people to combine all the work and then a team to double-check the combined work.

Tasks that in the past would have taken a room full of people coordinating with pencils are absolutely done by 1 machine today (what we know as computers) that no longer needs to split that task and coordinate, which is exactly what will happen with 'agents' who can take on vastly more work per unit of time.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_(occupation)

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