People like to say that "AI" is different from crypto in that there are actual useful applications, and that's true. But the vast majority of people you're expecting to come up with those applications are the same people who were just trying to build products on the blockchain.
I kind of understood this, but it's getting clearer to me. The kind of people who build good thoughtful products are going to be disproportionately put off by AI and the surrounding culture, leaving the field largely to scammers and magical thinkers. And the ensuing flood of shit isn't neutral. Actual good stuff gets lost. I really think this kind of hype is bad for real innovation.
This is beautifully said. I have been thinking similarly about writing since AI came on to the scene, but you have put it more succinctly.
To borrow from your quote, “The kind of people who are good writers are going to be disproportionately put off by AI and the surrounding culture, leaving the field largely to scammers and magical thinkers.”
@LewisHarrington I'm curious what tools you're using... I don't know much about 3D modeling. Do you mean like using image generators for inspiration, or are there purpose built features in your modeling tools, analogous to something like Gitlab Copilot?
@misc oh yeah this is a point I made at the end of my recent paper -- "working in AI" has a field-specific culture itself and that culture has big problems. This isn't a new point of course re: diversity and exclusion in the field but the way it permeates into newly-formed societal field-specific ability beliefs is an area worth of study and scrutiny imo. We keep DOING this (same evolution in many parts of data science) with reliable bad outcomes
@misc Totally agree. As if the web wasn't completely kaputt before, now we're being swamped with generated zero-effort, zero-use nonsense all the time.
I'm really thinking hard about the consequences and one of them is that I think the web as we know it really will dwindle in the coming years.
Many knowledgeable people have suggested that blogging will come back, and I kind of hope so, but I think we really don't know what human nature will prefer in terms of actual authenticity.
@ftranschel I'm more optimistic given how much people seem to want to return to a more small but genuine internet of the early 00s. The internet as we know it might not survive but that aspect, the need for people to share themselves to the world, that won't go away.
@misc The prevailing wisdom on crypto always seemed backward to me: Many people said that yes Bitcoin et al. were silly but the “real” and “serious” applications were in the underlying blockchain tech. In reality, Bitcoin is as useful as the blockchain gets (not very lol), way more practical than using a blockchain for logistics or whatever. “AI” could be similar—maybe ChatGPT is as good as it gets.
I've said before on this federated microbloggy network thingy
I'm maaaad that the most fun application of LLMs — zany weird lateral thinking tools like a tarot deck or Oblique Strategies on steroids — has been torn from my hands and replaced with something that carefully generates banal spongecake content guaranteed not to surprise anyone
I do feel like that use case for the artistic process, making weird stuff to inspire yourself with, does still seem possible with the current gen of image generators, more so than with the text stuff.
@trochee@eARCwelder Yeah no I get that but also I think it can be plausibly acceptable to use it as part of an internal process. Like, a longtime fantasy of mine is just having a big personal database of film stills. It feels a little like an elaboration on that. To be able to zero in on a look or a vibe. I wish the provenance was traceable though (massive understatement)
@misc@jcrabapple eh, i’m not a fan of criticizing people instead of ideas. that’s a big red flag for me. also, in my experience, i rub shoulders with a lot of people working on AI applications, and none of them (that i’m aware of) worked on blockchain tech 🤷♂️
@kellogh@jcrabapple I'm not sure I follow what the red flag is? Not criticizing anyone in particular, just generalizing from what I've observed. I'm sure your colleagues are great and doing cool work.
@misc when an argument moves past the merits alone and instead focuses on people and who they are, it’s a good sign the productive parts of the conversation are over. i can’t think of many exceptions to that. generalizing about people is never good, as a rule. it certainly doesn’t make things better
@trochee@misc Areas of AI use are functionally doing similar things. A few examples I can think of off the cuff are folks on TikTok using AI beauty filters - each run uses around 16oz of water. Another is using AI to try to curb AI generated spam. Again, each time we run 1-20 prompts, we use a significant amount of water and energy. On the energy side, a MidJourney prompt uses around one iPhone full charge worth of power.
@misc The trend chasers do exist, this is true, but mostly on the business side.
On the technical side, however, there are tons of developers who never touched crypto, because they saw it for the scam it was, who are now excited about the possibilities of AI.
This is normal, though. The idiots with the money will always flit around chasing the buzzwords while the rest of us slowly grind the gears to turn it into something useful.
@misc Pretty easy to disprove your message. None of the established tech companies got into the crypto, blockchain hype. They had the resources, but they didn't. They are investing like crazy on AI. I have heard a lot of respected technical people get on board. Scams and hypes are an everyday thing for Wall Street. Just because someone is scamming, doesn't mean there isn't an actual good product elsewhere.
@misc AI is like a pitbull. While some owners might do a better job than others with training, there is a potential for catastrophe unique to the species.
@misc sure hope that the next buzzword they used to defraud venture capitalists isn't one that fucks up the environment or fucks over the lives of workers
@misc Idk, there's a number of next gen AI products that I think are genuinely useful and quietly succeeding: GitHub Copilot works great for me. There's a lot of creative professional software that's incorporating modern ML models in ways that seem genuinely useful (my partner works on audio editing tools and their AI stuff seems along similar lines of usefulness to autotune).
Of course, I'm talking purely about usefulness here, ethical questions about training notwithstanding.
@harris I don't disagree - but there is so much shit. I keep thinking about the iOS App Store, which I followed obsessively for years. (undiagnosed OCD, yay!) I saw so many really cool apps fail to get traction, and so many flappy bird clones (just to name one example). The gold rush hype inhibited the emergence and success of good products.
@harris And the underlying atmosphere is even worse here, especially given the reserve army of blockchain hucksters who are already flooding in. I'm not surprised that real innovations would be more likely to come from established organizations with their own cultures and varying degrees of insulation. (Apple being the obvious example)
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