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Is there really something of value to be had by fighting a war against the coming tide of AI that can spit out whatever you ask for? To me it looks like old wo

Is there really something of value to be had by fighting a war against the coming tide of AI that can spit out whatever you ask for? To me it looks like old world professors calling the council because the abacus is under threat by the calculator, and we need to ensure the students are absolutely not using the calculator for their abacus studies. This all being despite the fact that society at large is moving as fast as it can to leave the abacus for calculators. I can't help that but feel that people have lost the forest for the trees. So transfixed on the small steps that they have completely lost track of why we take all those small steps, and the utility that they ultimately provide. If you want to study whatever subject and become an expert, history or chemical engineering, cool, go ahead. I'm still gonna chose my AI consultant over you in 5-10 years.

gitfan86 4y ago
It is valuable for SPAM filters, and other fraudulent activity. If you get an e-mail from someone you know and it says "I need itunes gift cards right away!" most people know that is a scam. But if you get an e-mail that appears to be following up on a previous conversation, you are much more likely to click on a link in that e-mail.
- rosywoozlechan 4y ago
  I doubt spammers will be the only ones leveraging AI generated text. I'm sure legit marketing people and even administrators and support staff will benefit from using AI written responses. So you're going to filter out valuable emails as well.
  - mehlmao 4y ago
    There are no valuable emails from 'legit marketing people', especially so if they're using AI-generated messages to hit you with a firehose.
    - rosywoozlechan 4y ago
      Maybe not for you, I subscribe to brands I like.
sublinear 4y ago
> I'm still gonna chose my AI consultant over you in 5-10 years. AI will never replace experts. Someone still has to curate the firehose of information returned. What's the point then? AI can only interpolate a response from internet sources, and claims of plagiarism are already coming hard. The internet was never a good source of expertise.
- chrisshroba 4y ago
  If an AI can be trained on the internet, it can be trained on a textbook or lecture notes. I think it’s shortsighted to insist that AI won’t replace experts based on the training sets that AIs are currently being trained on.
  - sublinear 4y ago
    Who writes the books and lectures? This is literally chicken and egg. Can't have eggs without chickens. Can't have chickens without eggs. This is not an oversimplification.
    - Teever 4y ago
      Yes, now you're getting it. What happens when the AI can write itself? What happens when it can design its own hardware? And assemble it? What have we created when it is fully capable of self replication?
      - sublinear 4y ago
        Stagnant crap nobody wants?
        panarky 4y ago
        AI can detect pancreatic cancer better than the best radiologists. The belief that machine learning cannot surpass human intelligence is contrary to the evidence.
mistymountains 4y ago
Typically, outside experts are useful for out of distribution inference about a particular situation. Fine-tuned generative AI is self evidently not good at generalizing outside the scope of its training data, and becoming reliant on it for this task is foolish. Signed, AI researcher.
- lostoldsession 4y ago
  I mean, is the very situation you stated not a situation you are trying to solve? Would you stumble upon such a solution and bury it because AI isn't supposed to be more informed than experts?
skor 4y ago
these kind of comments “I will hire an AI instead of a human” are all quite ironic. the only things you will find out from asking an AI consultant is what occurred to _you_ to ask it. Interacting with a human will always give you more ideas, opinions and .. more questions. And you both can use the AI consultant, and get that important thing done.
- lostoldsession 4y ago
  This generation of AI? Sure. Five or ten generations of AI from now? I'd place my full bet firmly on "Humans aren't nearly as special as they tell themselves they are"
cm2187 4y ago
I value being able to spot a T-1000 in disguise!
gdubs 4y ago
I feel you — but there's another possible reason, which would be to (optionally) separate out the AI generated content from future model training.

gitfan86 4y ago

It is valuable for SPAM filters, and other fraudulent activity. If you get an e-mail from someone you know and it says "I need itunes gift cards right away!" most people know that is a scam. But if you get an e-mail that appears to be following up on a previous conversation, you are much more likely to click on a link in that e-mail.

rosywoozlechan 4y ago
I doubt spammers will be the only ones leveraging AI generated text. I'm sure legit marketing people and even administrators and support staff will benefit from using AI written responses. So you're going to filter out valuable emails as well.
- mehlmao 4y ago
  There are no valuable emails from 'legit marketing people', especially so if they're using AI-generated messages to hit you with a firehose.
  - rosywoozlechan 4y ago
    Maybe not for you, I subscribe to brands I like.

sublinear 4y ago

> I'm still gonna chose my AI consultant over you in 5-10 years. AI will never replace experts. Someone still has to curate the firehose of information returned. What's the point then? AI can only interpolate a response from internet sources, and claims of plagiarism are already coming hard. The internet was never a good source of expertise.

chrisshroba 4y ago
If an AI can be trained on the internet, it can be trained on a textbook or lecture notes. I think it’s shortsighted to insist that AI won’t replace experts based on the training sets that AIs are currently being trained on.
- sublinear 4y ago
  Who writes the books and lectures? This is literally chicken and egg. Can't have eggs without chickens. Can't have chickens without eggs. This is not an oversimplification.
  - Teever 4y ago
    Yes, now you're getting it. What happens when the AI can write itself? What happens when it can design its own hardware? And assemble it? What have we created when it is fully capable of self replication?
    - sublinear 4y ago
      Stagnant crap nobody wants?
      - panarky 4y ago
        AI can detect pancreatic cancer better than the best radiologists. The belief that machine learning cannot surpass human intelligence is contrary to the evidence.

mistymountains 4y ago

Typically, outside experts are useful for out of distribution inference about a particular situation. Fine-tuned generative AI is self evidently not good at generalizing outside the scope of its training data, and becoming reliant on it for this task is foolish. Signed, AI researcher.

lostoldsession 4y ago
I mean, is the very situation you stated not a situation you are trying to solve? Would you stumble upon such a solution and bury it because AI isn't supposed to be more informed than experts?

skor 4y ago

these kind of comments “I will hire an AI instead of a human” are all quite ironic. the only things you will find out from asking an AI consultant is what occurred to _you_ to ask it. Interacting with a human will always give you more ideas, opinions and .. more questions. And you both can use the AI consultant, and get that important thing done.

lostoldsession 4y ago
This generation of AI? Sure. Five or ten generations of AI from now? I'd place my full bet firmly on "Humans aren't nearly as special as they tell themselves they are"

cm2187 4y ago

I value being able to spot a T-1000 in disguise!

gdubs 4y ago

I feel you — but there's another possible reason, which would be to (optionally) separate out the AI generated content from future model training.