Average user here thinks AI is synonymous with LLMs and that it’s not only not intelligent but also bad for the environment, immoral to use because it’s trained on copyrighted content, a total job-killer that’s going to leave everyone unemployed, soulless slop that can’t create real art or writing, and basically just a lazy cheat for people who lack actual talent or skills.
It’s not just that that’s what the average person thinks, but that’s really the only kind of AI they’re likely to come in direct contact with or is the kind being applied to systems that are directly undermining their lives.
ML has been used for over a decade now in things like cyber security for behavioral analysis and EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) systems. I’ve helped a friend use SLEAP, which analyzes specifically formatted videos of animals to catalog interactions over dozens of hours of footage instead of needing to manually scrub it. In these ways, the serious scientist/engineer does not care what the average person thinks of AI, it has no bearing on the functioning of these systems or the work they perform. The only people that care about the sentiment of the average person are the people that need to keep the hype train going for their product valuations to which I have nothing to say but a full-throated, “Fuck 'em”
And they’re right about all of that except the AI equals LLMs thing, but that’s forgivable because the LLM hustlers have managed to make the terms synonymous in most people’s minds through a massive marketing effort.
I would say they are right in that what companies are currently selling as AI is mostly just LLM or machine learning. We don’t have true intelligence. The separation is between what AI did mean in the past before the hype train tried to sell the current snake oil.
Average user here thinks AI is synonymous with LLMs and that it’s not only not intelligent but also bad for the environment, immoral to use because it’s trained on copyrighted content, a total job-killer that’s going to leave everyone unemployed, soulless slop that can’t create real art or writing, and basically just a lazy cheat for people who lack actual talent or skills.
And that’s a good thing.
It’s not just that that’s what the average person thinks, but that’s really the only kind of AI they’re likely to come in direct contact with or is the kind being applied to systems that are directly undermining their lives.
ML has been used for over a decade now in things like cyber security for behavioral analysis and EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) systems. I’ve helped a friend use SLEAP, which analyzes specifically formatted videos of animals to catalog interactions over dozens of hours of footage instead of needing to manually scrub it. In these ways, the serious scientist/engineer does not care what the average person thinks of AI, it has no bearing on the functioning of these systems or the work they perform. The only people that care about the sentiment of the average person are the people that need to keep the hype train going for their product valuations to which I have nothing to say but a full-throated, “Fuck 'em”
And they’re right about all of that except the AI equals LLMs thing, but that’s forgivable because the LLM hustlers have managed to make the terms synonymous in most people’s minds through a massive marketing effort.
I would say they are right in that what companies are currently selling as AI is mostly just LLM or machine learning. We don’t have true intelligence. The separation is between what AI did mean in the past before the hype train tried to sell the current snake oil.
Don’t forget the psychosis and other mental impact.