Artificial Intelligence
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According to AI, this is what I look like:
It aged me a little, but the ears are spot on.
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Happy to be accused of being old and grumpy and even happier if you call me a Luddite. But I refuse to actively engage with AI. If I accidentally use it, I can't be arsed to un-use it. It scares me for what it will do us, society and the future of civilisation. I think if we started down this route again, we would put in some pretty large "holy fuck we need to pull the plug" buttons in place.....
And the fucking shit images I get sent by friends, it's not clever and it's not funny..........
And I hate that I can't trust a photo, or actually anything any longer....
But apart from that, it's great.....
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Well, I am still torn between being underwhelmed and absolutely horrified by AI.
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AI is poised to be the death of all of us, one way or another. And what it does isn’t even that great. If you feel like a deep dive, Dario Amodei who is one of the founders of Anthropic has a blog where he outlines his biggest fears for the tech. Seems like only a matter of time until a bad actor uses it for a mass killing. The new agentic AI that acts autonomously is scary as fuck: https://darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology?media_id=3851650953330117483_63409923771&media_author_id=63409923771&ranking_info_token=GCA5NTVhNjA0ZTM5MTQ0OTc1ODhjNjdiNzEzZTQzYjZkMyWGs2UVmK4HFqiin5sNGBMzODUxNjUwNzI3OTM2NjEyNTU4KANuY2cA&utm_source=ig_text_post_permalink
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My company is developing AI. I can say that AI is very far away from doing all the bad things. It’s mostly a Language Learning Model (LLM) and not a sentient being. I like to tell people that AI can only be as smart as the total of all humans, which speaking within the entire cosmos, isn’t that smart. Humans are flawed, which means what we create as a non-human species will be flawed. While the idea of shutting off power, resources, and so on is feasible, it’s not that big of a reality to me because once the humans die, AI has nothing to do. AI is being designed to do stuff. Any sentient species who has higher intelligence than humans will see that Earth may not be the best place for it. I believe that it would rather leave Earth, than destroy it.
On another note, the only people I see pushing AI are two kinds of people: complete idiots and snake oil salesmen. The highest users are not the most competent people around. The average thinker can, more often than not, tell the difference between a human interaction, art, or piece of media than a generated one. Most folks hold authenticity and genuine interaction higher than a quick fix. I can see my own generation starting to reject technology, the younger generations are openly sabotaging, denouncing, and ignoring AI and “advanced” technology.
I use it for fun mostly, making silly images and seeing how I can push its limits. I also know that my own creativity is more powerful than a computer. AI and computers are tools. They will be used as such.
To me the Big AI scare is just another way mass media tries to influence people to be fearful, doubtful, and emotionally unbalanced in their lives and interactions with others. The universal truths of kindness, compassion, love, and openness are being targeted by opposition to keep people from connecting and appreciating the things in life that cannot be monetized. AI and tech are just another drop in that bucket.
Weapons themselves are not to be feared. The one who wields the weapon is to be the one in question. I would say the fear that most have are what the people with the highest levels of AI are going to do with it. From experience, it’s probably to make money and keep people paying bills and subscriptions to continue financing greed and war. Haha. Just one dudes opinion
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Definitely scared of the future of AI, all these companies with no sort of rules/restrictions aiming to be number 1. Collecting and selling info, which I guess is already happening anyway on our phones . It could be very helpful if regulated, or it could be the end of a lot of people’s jobs if remains unchecked . Living In SF all I see is AI billboards and hear about it almost daily. Granted there is an “AI boom” driving up rent/housing for SF residents again but I don’t think it will be as bad as the “tech boom” years ago. Or atleast hope not but we’re extremely lucklu with our apt. But I did cave last month or so and use chat gpt for a few things. I manage a property on haight st and the building owner recommended I use it for legal emails/texts. Currently Dealing with evicting a tenant and anything I say wrong can lead to future rental board hearings or possible lawsuit. So it is really helpful in this situation. I’ve also used few times with my real estate course taking rn, break down some difficult worded questions understand little easier. But mostly getting through the dry/vast information on the course and then listening to YouTube vocab/test videos/webinars. Im almost done with my course and will jus be taking lots of practice tests before my state exam. Catch 22 but for the most part will not be using AI, unless in a pinch and it’s work related/legal stuff.
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We are heading towards a dark dystopian future and the people charged with the enabling technology don’t have the moral or intellectual chops, much less the intent, to manage the technology for the betterment of all.
Think it, be it.
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I was looking into handelbar alternatives for my bike. Google AI was such an eye-opener...
You're it.
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I just recently tried to use ChatGPT with a photo of my wrist to show me what different GAH model 10 sizes would look like on it, but did not turned out very well.
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Don’t get me wrong, I’m not naive enough to think there aren’t real issues or potential problems with AI especially with bad actors involved. But a lot of this also feels like when people thought computers or the internet were gonna destroy everything and take all the jobs.
There’s definitely a media aspect to it too because fear sells.
For me in residential construction it’s been a great tool because I already know the industry and can usually tell when something is BS, wrong, or not feasible in the real world. Mostly it just saves me a crazy amount of time researching products, materials, techniques, emails, scopes, contracts, etc.
@selveldgesteps
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I use Claude Code quite a bit in my day to day now, mostly for things I hate doing like analyzing data and creating reports, or creating slide decks for meetings with clients, it isnt automated so isnt really working on its own on my behalf, I have to tell it what to do, but at the moment I mostly see it as a way to make myself more efficient. Going to our HQ in Croatia next week though to do a week long workshop on creating other ways to use it for my role. In my personal life its been helpful for planning logistics on travel or consulting it for things like budgets or how to improve my finances, not that it gives advice I use for investments but more so understanding my finances better and some weak spots.
So far the AI people/"influencers" who dont stop talking about it and all that kind of reminds me of crypto people to be honest, they are annoying and no one cares except each other.
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@RobeOfTheMagi These google ai overviews are such garbage but always get a good laugh. I do worry that your average casual googler goes no further than this though.
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@mclaincausey said in Artificial Intelligence:
We are heading towards a dark dystopian future and the people charged with the enabling technology don’t have the moral or intellectual chops, much less the intent, to manage the technology for the betterment of all.
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@GraemeE #nailedit
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@northsouthdenimguy Speaking of construction… my brother is a welder and is working on erecting a data center. Here’s some inside info. 1. They’re chronically behind schedule and what they expect to be done in one year will take at least two or more. 2. By the time the centers are up and running, they’ve got about 2 years before they need upgrades due to obsolete technology 3. There are worker shortages and corners being cut everywhere so the quality of the facilities is not on par with the demands of the equipment.
All of this to say, the big grand ideas of it all happening aren’t realistic in the actual execution. The building of the initial network will be extremely flawed and require constant maintenance and upkeep.
I certainly recognize all the potential risk involved. There are outcomes that are less than ideal for human life. I also believe that by the time that is actually able to happen, the public and companies funding this will realize it’s not as worth it as they initially thought. I’ve seen quite a few articles recently saying that AI work is becoming more expensive than human work. It really just makes me chuckle at this point. Maybe I’m an optimist, but I think this whole thing is going to flop in 10 years and we’ll see a huge shift in culture to less technology across the board. Again, just one dudes opinion.
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The rollout of this tech has also been downright rapey. The “you can’t resist and may as well submit” schtick is so tired. It has worked really well for the imperialist-colonialist-capitalist tech bros so far, though so I suppose they’re just doubling down.
I’m really worried about the rollout that’s happening in schools. If kids never develop thinking skills or critical thinking or cultivate relationships with other humans they’re going to be stunted in all the worst possible ways.
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I still think there’s a middle ground with AI, especially in industries like mine. I’m a residential GC/home builder and recently had a project where we changed the entire layout strategy of the house. Originally it was a 3-story intown rowhouse on a very tight lot, then the client decided they wanted to shift the structure lower on the site and essentially turn it into a 4-story configuration while deleting a detached 2-car garage with living space above.
In the past, I would’ve either had to spend hours manually crunching numbers or start calling subs and trying to extrapolate costs. Instead, I uploaded the original plans, my internal job cost budget from the first version of the house, and fed AI the changes along with some specifications about finishes, flooring, etc. What came back was honestly very close to where I believed the project needed to land from a budget standpoint.
Now obviously I wasn’t using this to create a final contract price or something I’d stake my business on. I already had a strong understanding of what these things should cost, so if AI spit out some insane number I would’ve known immediately. But as a fast conceptual estimating tool? It was incredibly useful.
Honestly the best way I can describe it is like having a very fast junior estimator/project assistant sitting beside you. It saved me hours of preliminary number crunching and helped me get to a realistic ballpark quickly so I could have an intelligent conversation with the client about the revised layout and direction of the project.
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Absent of the environmental issues it causes, AI works fine if the person using it thinks critically and understands the limitation of the tool. Unfortunately an awful lot of people don't understand that and you end up with unintelligible misleading shite.
