Last summer the Boxelder Bugs around our farm got absolutely massively out of control - there were huge mats of them hanging off the siding outside, and inside the bathrooms were crawling with them. They were all over the ceiling, dropping into the tub as you bathed... it was BLUGH.
So we looked up "non toxic boxelder bug control" on Google.
The first two suggestions were okay (spray 'em with dilute Dawn dish washing liquid, use boric acid...) but the third was EPIC. It said, "Paint your neighbor's house jet black to discourage bugs."
There’s this guy at work that immediately runs everything through Al and shows us all the results, leading to lots of Slack comments like “none of this makes any sense” and “it’s faster to just write this than to fix what the AI produced,” I think a lot of that is happening, but without the “someone fixing it” part.
Cory Doctorow has a good recent blog about why AI coding is so bad and ultimately results in things that break and fail spectacularly. Which is amusing when it’s a dumb phone app. Less so when it’s managing the power grid.
“AI as search engine” is actually the one thing I find useful about it, which has much to do with how terrible search engines have become. You have to check either way but AI at least starts with results that actually make some sense.
The trouble isn't so much with the AI program or algorithms, so much as it is with the programmers themselves. They have too little real-world experience, too little imagination, and too narrow of a focus to produce an AI system that can function very well in a multi-layered, broad and far-reaching world.
Ta, Robyn. No LLM could do my job, which requires face to face interaction, lots of quick thinking, and both intuition and empathy, apart from the ability to take complex medical terminology and translate it into middle school (at best) English, comprehensible to people whose lives may depend on their understanding. I've seen too many eyes glaze over when the primary care provider gives our population lab results, for example. In any case, we're retiring this year. I'm looking forward to us working at what we love instead of doing jobs for paychecks. Both our jobs are gratifying quite often, but we both loathe getting up at 6 a.m. five days a week.
LLMs can't even handle phone trees. I wanted to book Medicaid transportation for a client, and the robot who answered the phone made it impossible, after half an hour of serving up loads of BS.
Oh, and stealing creative output from humans should be verboten, period.
Large corporations are intent on replacing humans with machines. Because machines are more profitable. Because they are faster, more accurate, don't take breaks, lunches, get sick, injured or need time off for vacations. But they're programed by people. Which means they can still make mistakes.
For example, couple of years ago Walmart was forced into a class-action settlement. Because their self-checkout machines were overcharging people. Having been a cashier many moons ago I have never used a self-check stand and never will. I don't care how many items I have I'm never in a hurry. And I prefer the personal connection I make with people. And they need jobs.
To realize just how far we are from inventing a superintelligent machine, consider that the human brain runs on a tiny amount of electricity (I think it's around 20 watts daily), while a "machine" that can still embarrassingly flub even the most basic answers or tasks requires massive, environment-damaging energy capacity just to perform the flub. Come on! I think the AI bubble basically consists of making energy-intensive "chips" and power stations to run these very imperfect machines. That's the essence of a bubble: people are spending gazillions not on doing something immediately useful, but instead on the fantasy of someday turning huge profits and cornering a market that doesn't actually exist.
FYA: The Luddites were NOT against technology and change per se. Rather, machine-breaking was one of the very few tactics that workers could use to increase pressure on employers, undermine lower-paid competing workers, and create solidarity among workers. These attacks on machinery was just a conveniently exposed target against which an attack could be made.
Historian Eric Hobsbawm has called their machine wrecking "collective bargaining by riot", which had been a tactic used in Britain since the Restoration because manufactories were scattered throughout the country, and that made it impractical to hold large-scale strikes.
The whole point of this shit is the same as this administration's whole scheme: telling people who actually know something that they're obsolete, and these new people who have The Vibes are actually going to make decisions.
Because then no billionaire has to be told he's dumb as shit. And no president has to be told that he's just a grifting felon trying to steal everything his stupid tiny fingers can touch. Anyone who actually knows something is a threat to everyone who got where they are by simply kissing ass, I am specifically talking about you, Bari Weiss, you soulless smear of idiocy.
once again elon is showing his whole ass - he is scared of people who learn and are curious and inventive so he's going to discourage that and claim his ai slop is better
...except that's ALL they talk about on LinkedIn. All these Stepford Wives and their Stepford Husbands tap-dancing as hard as they can, touting their AI skills. I only go there to check out the dystopian hellscape and occasionally reach out to people I'm connected with in hopes of finding 'concepts of a job'. Recruiters hit me up; I get one interview, occasionally two, and then I'm ghosted. There are even AI interviewers--I hang up if I get those.
PERSONAL ANECDOTE WARNING;
Last summer the Boxelder Bugs around our farm got absolutely massively out of control - there were huge mats of them hanging off the siding outside, and inside the bathrooms were crawling with them. They were all over the ceiling, dropping into the tub as you bathed... it was BLUGH.
So we looked up "non toxic boxelder bug control" on Google.
The first two suggestions were okay (spray 'em with dilute Dawn dish washing liquid, use boric acid...) but the third was EPIC. It said, "Paint your neighbor's house jet black to discourage bugs."
A) It's a farm. We have no "neighbors."
B) What the actual living fuck? LOL LOL LOL
Yeah, I'm not scared of this shit. Yet.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8SJxkD40O3U
@CarsieBlanton
Elon Musk...
The Luddites were right
There’s this guy at work that immediately runs everything through Al and shows us all the results, leading to lots of Slack comments like “none of this makes any sense” and “it’s faster to just write this than to fix what the AI produced,” I think a lot of that is happening, but without the “someone fixing it” part.
Cory Doctorow has a good recent blog about why AI coding is so bad and ultimately results in things that break and fail spectacularly. Which is amusing when it’s a dumb phone app. Less so when it’s managing the power grid.
“AI as search engine” is actually the one thing I find useful about it, which has much to do with how terrible search engines have become. You have to check either way but AI at least starts with results that actually make some sense.
The trouble isn't so much with the AI program or algorithms, so much as it is with the programmers themselves. They have too little real-world experience, too little imagination, and too narrow of a focus to produce an AI system that can function very well in a multi-layered, broad and far-reaching world.
Ta, Robyn. No LLM could do my job, which requires face to face interaction, lots of quick thinking, and both intuition and empathy, apart from the ability to take complex medical terminology and translate it into middle school (at best) English, comprehensible to people whose lives may depend on their understanding. I've seen too many eyes glaze over when the primary care provider gives our population lab results, for example. In any case, we're retiring this year. I'm looking forward to us working at what we love instead of doing jobs for paychecks. Both our jobs are gratifying quite often, but we both loathe getting up at 6 a.m. five days a week.
LLMs can't even handle phone trees. I wanted to book Medicaid transportation for a client, and the robot who answered the phone made it impossible, after half an hour of serving up loads of BS.
Oh, and stealing creative output from humans should be verboten, period.
Large corporations are intent on replacing humans with machines. Because machines are more profitable. Because they are faster, more accurate, don't take breaks, lunches, get sick, injured or need time off for vacations. But they're programed by people. Which means they can still make mistakes.
For example, couple of years ago Walmart was forced into a class-action settlement. Because their self-checkout machines were overcharging people. Having been a cashier many moons ago I have never used a self-check stand and never will. I don't care how many items I have I'm never in a hurry. And I prefer the personal connection I make with people. And they need jobs.
"I need your clothes your boots and your pruning shears."
~ Scene from Gardenator II Cultivating Day.
"um... This is a community nudist garden. But you can borrow my shears sure. Are you new? I like your muscles.' *Giggles*
🤣
It's hard to tell who hallucinates more, AI or the people promoting AI.
Or who is undressing children.
"AI is our assistant, not our master."
--Ms. O
I read the book AND saw the movie, way back when... "Open the pod-bay doors, Hal." "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that right now."
To realize just how far we are from inventing a superintelligent machine, consider that the human brain runs on a tiny amount of electricity (I think it's around 20 watts daily), while a "machine" that can still embarrassingly flub even the most basic answers or tasks requires massive, environment-damaging energy capacity just to perform the flub. Come on! I think the AI bubble basically consists of making energy-intensive "chips" and power stations to run these very imperfect machines. That's the essence of a bubble: people are spending gazillions not on doing something immediately useful, but instead on the fantasy of someday turning huge profits and cornering a market that doesn't actually exist.
FYA: The Luddites were NOT against technology and change per se. Rather, machine-breaking was one of the very few tactics that workers could use to increase pressure on employers, undermine lower-paid competing workers, and create solidarity among workers. These attacks on machinery was just a conveniently exposed target against which an attack could be made.
Historian Eric Hobsbawm has called their machine wrecking "collective bargaining by riot", which had been a tactic used in Britain since the Restoration because manufactories were scattered throughout the country, and that made it impractical to hold large-scale strikes.
The whole point of this shit is the same as this administration's whole scheme: telling people who actually know something that they're obsolete, and these new people who have The Vibes are actually going to make decisions.
Because then no billionaire has to be told he's dumb as shit. And no president has to be told that he's just a grifting felon trying to steal everything his stupid tiny fingers can touch. Anyone who actually knows something is a threat to everyone who got where they are by simply kissing ass, I am specifically talking about you, Bari Weiss, you soulless smear of idiocy.
once again elon is showing his whole ass - he is scared of people who learn and are curious and inventive so he's going to discourage that and claim his ai slop is better
...except that's ALL they talk about on LinkedIn. All these Stepford Wives and their Stepford Husbands tap-dancing as hard as they can, touting their AI skills. I only go there to check out the dystopian hellscape and occasionally reach out to people I'm connected with in hopes of finding 'concepts of a job'. Recruiters hit me up; I get one interview, occasionally two, and then I'm ghosted. There are even AI interviewers--I hang up if I get those.