[Misc] Are you pro or anti AI?

[Badger]

I'm largely in the anti camp. I cannot stand the way AI is being added to every app and service, usually to the detriment of it. The AI chatbots replacing customer support are particularly annoying. Now they have become more sophisticated, they give you a more sophisticated answer unrelated to your question and make it even more difficult to speak to a human.

It's also destroying creative industries. Why pay someone to come up with some creative designs and images for your project when you can ask an AI image generator to "Give me a picture of X"?

I work in the technology industry as a software developer. I mentioned this in another thread but I see some people in my job spending a lot of their time feeding input parameters into an AI tool, rather than writing code and being creative.

I do think AI can do a lot of good. It can be used in scientific research and help solve difficult problems a human wouldn't be able to. Unfortunately, that's not what the majority of AI is getting used for now. The biggest concern is AI being used to manipulate people and continuing us on this path of division.

 

[A mex eyecan]

If the majority of people don't have a job – and therefore no money – how do they survive? Even if they didn't have to work (in a weird world where nothing costs anything), what would they do all day?

what the robots tell them to …..
see the rise of our robotic masters
see the enslavement of humankind.
and we feared 1984 …….. tchh.

 

[A1X]

AI is the greatest threat humanity faces. We’re quite literally masterminding our own destruction.

 

[A mex eyecan]

AI is the greatest threat humanity faces. We’re quite literally masterminding our own destruction.

As my old Gran used to so often say ‘I’m glad I wont be alive in another 20 years time’

 

[jcdenton08]

Another boring balanced post coming right up.

Much like the capital “I” Internet generally, it could be a good thing. But will also be used with negative consequences.

But unlike the Internet, AI is being developed with profit in mind. Specifically, “how can this technology be used to maximise profits?”.

With this in mind, the potentially good applications of AI - such as assisting people with disabilities or medical uses in treatment and diagnosis, is being relatively ignored.

This is because the big corporations who can afford to research and develop AI aren’t interested in anything but using their technology for maximum profit.

So in a perfect world, AI would be a brilliant thing. In the real world, it’s another death knell to the immediate crises facing humanity.

 

[Van Cleef]

Meet Daisy the AI 'granny' who keeps phone scammers occupied

Virtual vigilante Jim Browning is using an AI granny to talk to scammers on the phone - and keep them away from the real victims.

news.sky.com

Here’s some snippets of Daisy at work

I watch him on youtube so I'm not surprised to see "Jim Browning" involved.
Thanks for posting.

 

[Crawley Dingo]

Pro.

 

[beorhthelm]

Another boring balanced post coming right up.

Much like the capital “I” Internet generally, it could be a good thing. But will also be used with negative consequences.

But unlike the Internet, AI is being developed with profit in mind. Specifically, “how can this technology be used to maximise profits?”.

With this in mind, the potentially good applications of AI - such as assisting people with disabilities or medical uses in treatment and diagnosis, is being relatively ignored.

This is because the big corporations who can afford to research and develop AI aren’t interested in anything but using their technology for maximum profit.

So in a perfect world, AI would be a brilliant thing. In the real world, it’s another death knell to the immediate crises facing humanity.

where are the large revenues and profits coming from then? from what i've read the big corps are spending an awful lot, without much to show for it. very much build it and they will come phase.

 

[UnhingedSeagull94]

Anti. The world of tech is progressing faster than the human race needs it to. Previously read that technology has advanced more in the last 10 years than the 100 that came before.

 

[chickens]

On the whole, AI will allow almost all work (when AI is combined with robotics) to be automated.

So, what happens next? And is it respectful to the billions of us who are no longer required for our labour?

I and a few billion others (plus our kids) would like to know.

 

[jcdenton08]

where are the large revenues and profits coming from then? from what i've read the big corps are spending an awful lot, without much to show for it. very much build it and they will come phase.

Taking you at face value, assuming you’re not trolling because you’re generally a good poster I respect, I’d have thought that was clear and perhaps you’ve just had a brain fart.

The biggest expense for big business is people. Employees. The starting salary of an average Google UK admin assistant, as an example, is £30k. That’s £30k saved. Indefinitely, forever. Now consider their job function (and their 1,000 colleagues in this country) is one tiny aspect of what AI can replicate.

Spend less = more profit.

Again sorry if I’ve been whooshed but I’ve replied to your post at face value.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

Isn’t it mostly all Hype? Someone please point me in the direction of some actually intelligent AI and not just an LLM that guesses right most of the time

 

[Hovegull]

What jobs can’t AI do?

Build a house?
Paint a hallway?
Cook?
Nurse?
Police?

 

[jcdenton08]

Isn’t it mostly all Hype? Someone please point me in the direction of some actually intelligent AI and not just an LLM that guesses right most of the time

Two things here;

The tech is in its infancy, yet a huge number of businesses (I’d wager most at this stage with 1000+ employees) are using Chatbot technology. This is a job which would previously have been filled by a human. Try phoning or speaking to a real person at X.

Your second point is about AI viability; let me ask you this, has a single huge company rolled back their use of AI so far for offering a poor standard?

Thirdly and as I said before, this is young technology, it’s only going to get more advanced the more billions the multinational corporations put into it.

Why do you think they are doing so? To make the world a better place out of the goodness of their hearts?

It’s for their business interests. Their business interests being to lower expenses and maximise efficiency and profit.

AI is being used to replace to jobs. It is being developed to replace more jobs.

 

[beorhthelm]

Taking you at face value, assuming you’re not trolling because you’re generally a good poster I respect, I’d have thought that was clear and perhaps you’ve just had a brain fart.

The biggest expense for big business is people. Employees. The starting salary of an average Google UK admin assistant, as an example, is £30k. That’s £30k saved. Indefinitely, forever. Now consider their job function (and their 1,000 colleagues in this country) is one tiny aspect of what AI can replicate.

Spend less = more profit.

Again sorry if I’ve been whooshed but I’ve replied to your post at face value.

ah some hypothetical use, i misread as something firmer. the major investors today are software companies. they want to sell software, which other companies buy in the hope of making something easier (or just possible), and may indeed use the tech for their profit. so far there's a bottomless pit of investment in this area and no really good economically usful use case. allowing me to create a passable draft book, or a hundred so-so quality images is not putting $ on their bottom line, it amounts to novelty use.
there are some positive outcomes in medical fields though, machine learning and neural networks are doing well in predicting diagnosis, image processing, some technical research areas.

 

[jcdenton08]

What jobs can’t AI do?

Build a house?
Paint a hallway?
Cook?
Nurse?
Police?

If one thinks about it, all are possible except moral understanding, which is the one and only thing AI can never have - humanity.

So you want to build a house, it’s a case of breaking that down into single jobs to be completed. Mixing cement - we have machinery for that. Laying bricks, there are robots who could place them. Initially it would all require human oversight but this is exactly what the development and advancement of AI technology is designed to eliminate. Cameras instead of eyes. Algorithms for construction instead of a bloke thinking how to proceed.

The only thing that can’t be outsourced AI in your list is policing, and even that is debatable with use of AI for photofits instead of drawings in some police services, AI facial recognition and so on.

 

[chickens]

I’m not anti-AI per se, I just wonder how you organise a society when the need for labour has been eliminated.

Perhaps it will free us, perhaps those owning the means of production will resent feeding hungry mouths.

To dismiss it as “no economically useful use case” is breathtakingly flippant.

Anyone whose job is to effectively take information from a computer screen and disseminate it and/or make judgment calls on it, is effectively replaceable by AI. Today. It’s just going to take some time before the companies running this stuff package it as such.

E.g. 0-999 customer service operatives £500pcm. 1000-2000 customer service operatives £900pcm.

 

[jcdenton08]

ah some hypothetical use, i misread as something firmer. the major investors today are software companies. they want to sell software, which other companies buy in the hope of making something easier (or just possible), and may indeed use the tech for their profit. so far there's a bottomless pit of investment in this area and no really good economically usful use case. allowing me to create a passable draft book, or a hundred so-so quality images is not putting $ on their bottom line, it amounts to novelty use.
there are some positive outcomes in medical fields though, machine learning and neural networks are doing well in predicting diagnosis, image processing, some technical research areas.

It’s not hypothetical though, it’s the stated intention to shareholders!

Edit: I’ll add to that you say there is no economically useful test case. Chatbots.

 

[beorhthelm]

Isn’t it mostly all Hype? Someone please point me in the direction of some actually intelligent AI and not just an LLM that guesses right most of the time

basically yes. there is AI (a meme not meaning anything at this stage) and Artificial General Intelligence. now if they crack AGI there will be some substantial shift in some areas, with invention, analysis, reasoning, critical thought, problem solving being offered by a machine. we are so far away from that, we'll have nuclear fusion and the paperless office first. the media think AI=AGI, some of the tech bros are happy to feed that, fueling a hype cycle.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Reverse engineered Alien technology like most of the highly technological advances over the past 70 years