As I said in a project call where someone was pumping up AI, this is just the latest bubble ready to pop. Everyone is dumping $$ into AI, a couple decent ones will survive but the bulk is either barely functional or just vaporware.
I think there's more AI hate because it's being pushed onto users that didn't ask for it and don't want it from the likes of Microsoft, Google and Amazon. And I think it's warranted!
Google added it to their search by default, I had to change my default search to exclude it. Same with my Android phone, I got prompted to switch from Google Assistant to Bard and declined. Really glad I did since I later read about how awful it is. Yesterday I saw a copilot icon in Teams that I have to use for work. I clicked it out of curiosity and it showed an error and then wouldn't let me use Teams for 5 minutes. When I finally got in the copilot button was gone lol.
Yea I guess for me Google already sucks without AI and beyond that I don't have issues or bugs anymore than usual. But I also use chatgpt for things to do I find it useful. Even right now I'm asking if to give me some prompts to code while I learn different design patterns. Like asking it what is a good decorator use case.
It sure feels like we're at the peak of the Gartner hype cycle. If so, the bubble will pop, and we'll end up with AI used where it actually works, not shoved into everything. In the long run, that pop could be a small blip in overall development, like the dot-com bust was to the growth of the internet, but it's difficult to predict that while still in the middle of the hype cycle.
What I don't get is the snobby attitude towards it though. I've commented else where that it has all the earmarks of being a manufactured outrage. It has all the same earmarks of any other media driven hate fest.
Think of the logic where you are both angry that it's useless, hateful of tech bros and still mad that they're wasting money on it.
To me it's just fun new thing I can play with and potentially might be something bigger might not be. But when I talk to people online it's like I'm talking immigration or gender with Republicans. It's all the and talking points, vitriolic statements and hate
Allow me to offer reasons why: just like the blockchain before, the usage of resources is absurd (which is infuriating) for something that barely works (which is laughable), and the tech is being pushed by the same loathable and arrogant grifters that lead us into a wall at full throttle with crypto.
I'm not just snobbing the naive optimists: I'm actually mad at them for what they're doing to the environment.
I'd rather have all the AI and crypto than any streaming service or social media that everyone who complains about resources seems to use freely.
To me the crypto and AI is innovation which is where I want resources to go. The other crap is recreating things we already have just with extra waste and that goes ignored and makes me feel the outrage is fake or manufactured if the logic steps over a bunch of other things to focus on the new kid on the block.
I do despise billionaires with their private jets, or owners of gigantic pickup trucks that use them to shop for groceries, and I'm not unique in that regard. I can be mad at multiple things at the same time. It's not mutually exclusive. And it's definitely not manufactured.
I'm not saying that you're not. I am saying collectively these points about wasting resources is a bit much considering all the other wastes in relation to the anger those other things generate. It's not proportional. That isn't me saying people love it. But I am saying they do use a lot of other things that generate tremendous wastes in similar ways without care.
Im pretty confident it is manufactured. Manufactured in the same way the right despise LGQTB and immigrants. If you were too ask them if their hate was driven by other sources they say the same thing. Nobody is immune to it especially if we agree with thing. We all just go with it.
Doesn't change that we know fox news plays a big part of some people's opinions and views. Doesn't mean those people are not racist or bigots to begin with. But there's a stoking of the flames. Same here.
The 2023 AI hype train caused Google's emissions to dramatically increase †, delaying their efforts to become carbon neutral. This is no small increase, and humans on this planet can't afford the energy bill, especially if other criminals start emulating Google and consuming TWhs like there's no tomorrow. All this for tech that doesn't work and, in the wrong hands, can lead us to a dystopian future.
There are genuine reasons to be mad. And, unlike, say, Big Oil, which has a status quo to uphold, these cynical bastards started their evil businesses after the climate doom era. They have no excuse.
You don't find it weird that CNN frames it in an argument about greenhouse gas?
To me it's such an obvious appeal to certain groups. We're way past caring about wasting resources. We get rid of AI right now where are we left with? Nothing, nothing changes as far as wasting resources go. We don't fix anything removing it.
AI is practical and probably one of the most interesting developments with the potential to be a pretty big leveler if developed correctly.
But I think the problem is that because it can level playing field it's harmful to people who want to horde their power. So they have to use media to generate a lot of hate and angry towards it so we all reject it. Look at every AI headlines and replace AI with "immigrants" or "LGQTB" it's practically cut and paste. It's harassing women and children. It's taking our jobs. They're a waste of resources. They threaten your way of life.
I don't find it weird, no, because it's backed with factual bits of information, and it's true that, despite being interesting as far as the science goes, the tech failed to find its place (much like crypto whose only legit use case is crime).
You say a 58% decrease in energy consumption at Google is nothing, I'd say this is already a huge chunk of Google's emissions that would be gone, which at that scale isn't insignificant. And Google is not the only tech titan in the world.
If you don't care about GHG emissions, some (a lot) of us do. And we'll keep holding criminals accountable for their actions. Be it in Big Oil or in Big Tech.
Another thing: when talking about climate change, nobody blames immigrants because blaming immigrants for things is something rightoids do and they don't care much about climate.
On the other hand, guess where migrants will come once their place of origin ends up under the ocean, or when it becomes so hot you can no longer live there? And guess who's going to be the most affected by the massive influx of climate migrants?
Tell that to a bronze age engineer, and they will probably respond that those two are closer to each other than they are to his best efforts. And he would probably be right.
My new job said this aswell. When I got into the position I found out it was actually a machine learning model and they were trying to use it but didn't have the time to create a clean dataset for the learning so it has never worked. This hasn't stopped them from advertising that they are using AI.