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It’s been incredibly annoying seeing so many new grifters pop up seemingly out of nowhere as “AI experts” and the like, promising (and even guaranteeing) random

It’s been incredibly annoying seeing so many new grifters pop up seemingly out of nowhere as “AI experts” and the like, promising (and even guaranteeing) random folks that they’ll make millions jumping on this bandwagon. It reminds me of how insufferable so much of the get-rich-quick crypto content was in 2017 and then in 2020/2021 (even as a crypto believer myself). Make no mistake, GPT-3, ChatGPT, etc. will, for sure, mint a new generation of millionaires, but it very likely won’t be the random folks sitting on their couch eating ice cream while watching some random grifter’s content on YouTube. At best, the grifters will make lots of money selling courses (as usual) while the folks buying the courses will maybe break even. The real money will be made by the creative entrepreneurs and out-of-the-box thinkers who can come up with innovative uses of these technologies.

waboremo 4y ago
A non-tech one that was consistently pushed for a very long time and made a huge re-debut on tiktok (when it was popularized in the US) was dropshipping. Just like you said, some people definitely got richer; Shopify, Amazon, and Alibaba to name some. Companies that built tools around dropshipping profited as well. The big names people throw around for why the idea is totally going to make them rich, those people got richer too. Everyone else was slapped in the face with the reality that a lot of the big numbers they were fooled by were revenue, and just made someone who doesn't even dropship anymore $349 richer.
- jay-barronville 4y ago
  Yup. I’m very familiar with the dropshipping shenanigans. Let’s just say I have some family members who were 1,000% convinced they’d be multimillionaires from that and are now back working their working-class jobs, mortgage and all, no millions . . .
- jay-barronville 4y ago
  I remember watching an exposé of one guy in particular (I honestly can’t remember his name — it’s been years). He couldn’t prove that he had ever successfully dropshipped anything at all, yet he had raked in hundreds of thousands of $ via courses teaching folks how to dropship. Hilarious. I couldn’t tell if he was just a genius or if everyone paying for his courses were idiots . . .
- im3w1l 4y ago
  I dunno dropshipping makes a lot of sense to me. Importing products from some cheap country and slapping your brand on it is what a lot of companies do quite successfully. I would rather categorize it with restaurants: Clearly and obviously a viable business model. But many fail.
  - zoover2020 4y ago
    That's not drop shipping though.
matisseverduyn 4y ago
Create the out-group: "it very likely won’t be the random folks sitting on their couch eating ice cream" Create an in-group: "The real money will be made by the creative entrepreneurs and out-of-the-box thinkers who can come up with innovative uses of these technologies." And that's the key to fueling this machine. Someone out there just read that setup, said "That's me! I work hard and think out-of-the-box... I'll be the chosen one" then bought that hustle-bro's "Thinking Rich with AI" course they bookmarked from a Twitter ad last week.
- jay-barronville 4y ago
  Good point. I didn’t think about it from that lens, but I was probably subconsciously underestimating our propensity for lying to ourselves.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- bawolff 4y ago
  Right, but that is true of everything. The real money will be made by the people who spot a business opportunity and exploit it. The desire to be one of those people will of course be ruthlessly exploited by unsavoury people, but nothing new there. If not for AI they'd be shilling about flipping houses, shorting stocks, etc.
- QuantumGood 4y ago
  I think many of the successes will be based around "inside the box" thinking now that AI is getting in the box. Speeding up tedious tasks, improving low-effort results, etc.
tbalsam 4y ago
I've felt very frustrated by it too because it adds this very parsimoniously-constructed veneer of skill, and then makes it hard to filter out the signal after that. I am a machine learning engineer. I'd like to consider myself a very good machine learning engineer for my age and experience, which is starting to get on in years as far as this version of the field is considered. I am not an "AI Guru" or someone helping "Deliver Insights" when in reality they're just delivering slick marketing and a polished presentation of some sort. I do my research, I work on what I like, and what I'm good at, and what I need as well. If I'm able to do all three at once then that is good. Then I publish it, and if people like it, they can use it. If it's good, the right people will find it after enough consistent word-of-mouth passing in the right places. I just find myself frustrated that people are just selling themselves and their identity instead of just selling their work or what they do from a very practical perspective, or putting it out there with appropriate advertising -- better yet. It feels like a kind of lying to me, and being on the autism spectrum, I'm more sensitive to that particular clash of values. I also feel sad because not only does it devalue my career and the field that I like to quietly work in (though I do like celebrating my success when it happens), it also changes the expectations of my friends and family on the occasions that I do try to relate to them about the aspects of work that I like. In a close vein to this, I saw an influencer this week whose primary line of work was optimizing gaming PCs for high-visibility figures in a viral way. That's it. That's all the influencer here was working on, practically. I'm sure there's a viable job path which includes setting up someone's gaming PC to perform optimally, but there is no way that this is a career. This is very silly to me, though I wish no major disrespect in my frustration. Thank you for reading my comment.
- mirror_neuron 4y ago
  I sympathize with you (the feeling of being threatened by charlatans). I don't think these feelings reflect reality, though. It can feel like your career will be threatened by the existence of this type of person, but unlike them, you have real technical skill to deploy on real problems. > it also changes the expectations of my friends and family on the occasions that I do try to relate to them about the aspects of work that I like While it can be grating that charlatans can have this kind of influence on the public's perception, realize that this is really the limit of their influence. They will never displace a person with real knowledge in settings where actually getting things done is the goal. Among your friends and family, it may even present an opportunity to practice your ability to translate your knowledge into something digestible to the layperson. You'll be doing them a service in the process.

waboremo 4y ago

A non-tech one that was consistently pushed for a very long time and made a huge re-debut on tiktok (when it was popularized in the US) was dropshipping. Just like you said, some people definitely got richer; Shopify, Amazon, and Alibaba to name some. Companies that built tools around dropshipping profited as well. The big names people throw around for why the idea is totally going to make them rich, those people got richer too. Everyone else was slapped in the face with the reality that a lot of the big numbers they were fooled by were revenue, and just made someone who doesn't even dropship anymore $349 richer.

jay-barronville 4y ago
Yup. I’m very familiar with the dropshipping shenanigans. Let’s just say I have some family members who were 1,000% convinced they’d be multimillionaires from that and are now back working their working-class jobs, mortgage and all, no millions . . .
jay-barronville 4y ago
I remember watching an exposé of one guy in particular (I honestly can’t remember his name — it’s been years). He couldn’t prove that he had ever successfully dropshipped anything at all, yet he had raked in hundreds of thousands of $ via courses teaching folks how to dropship. Hilarious. I couldn’t tell if he was just a genius or if everyone paying for his courses were idiots . . .
im3w1l 4y ago
I dunno dropshipping makes a lot of sense to me. Importing products from some cheap country and slapping your brand on it is what a lot of companies do quite successfully. I would rather categorize it with restaurants: Clearly and obviously a viable business model. But many fail.
- zoover2020 4y ago
  That's not drop shipping though.

matisseverduyn 4y ago

Create the out-group: "it very likely won’t be the random folks sitting on their couch eating ice cream" Create an in-group: "The real money will be made by the creative entrepreneurs and out-of-the-box thinkers who can come up with innovative uses of these technologies." And that's the key to fueling this machine. Someone out there just read that setup, said "That's me! I work hard and think out-of-the-box... I'll be the chosen one" then bought that hustle-bro's "Thinking Rich with AI" course they bookmarked from a Twitter ad last week.

jay-barronville 4y ago
Good point. I didn’t think about it from that lens, but I was probably subconsciously underestimating our propensity for lying to ourselves.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
bawolff 4y ago
Right, but that is true of everything. The real money will be made by the people who spot a business opportunity and exploit it. The desire to be one of those people will of course be ruthlessly exploited by unsavoury people, but nothing new there. If not for AI they'd be shilling about flipping houses, shorting stocks, etc.
QuantumGood 4y ago
I think many of the successes will be based around "inside the box" thinking now that AI is getting in the box. Speeding up tedious tasks, improving low-effort results, etc.

tbalsam 4y ago

I've felt very frustrated by it too because it adds this very parsimoniously-constructed veneer of skill, and then makes it hard to filter out the signal after that. I am a machine learning engineer. I'd like to consider myself a very good machine learning engineer for my age and experience, which is starting to get on in years as far as this version of the field is considered. I am not an "AI Guru" or someone helping "Deliver Insights" when in reality they're just delivering slick marketing and a polished presentation of some sort. I do my research, I work on what I like, and what I'm good at, and what I need as well. If I'm able to do all three at once then that is good. Then I publish it, and if people like it, they can use it. If it's good, the right people will find it after enough consistent word-of-mouth passing in the right places. I just find myself frustrated that people are just selling themselves and their identity instead of just selling their work or what they do from a very practical perspective, or putting it out there with appropriate advertising -- better yet. It feels like a kind of lying to me, and being on the autism spectrum, I'm more sensitive to that particular clash of values. I also feel sad because not only does it devalue my career and the field that I like to quietly work in (though I do like celebrating my success when it happens), it also changes the expectations of my friends and family on the occasions that I do try to relate to them about the aspects of work that I like. In a close vein to this, I saw an influencer this week whose primary line of work was optimizing gaming PCs for high-visibility figures in a viral way. That's it. That's all the influencer here was working on, practically. I'm sure there's a viable job path which includes setting up someone's gaming PC to perform optimally, but there is no way that this is a career. This is very silly to me, though I wish no major disrespect in my frustration. Thank you for reading my comment.

mirror_neuron 4y ago
I sympathize with you (the feeling of being threatened by charlatans). I don't think these feelings reflect reality, though. It can feel like your career will be threatened by the existence of this type of person, but unlike them, you have real technical skill to deploy on real problems. > it also changes the expectations of my friends and family on the occasions that I do try to relate to them about the aspects of work that I like While it can be grating that charlatans can have this kind of influence on the public's perception, realize that this is really the limit of their influence. They will never displace a person with real knowledge in settings where actually getting things done is the goal. Among your friends and family, it may even present an opportunity to practice your ability to translate your knowledge into something digestible to the layperson. You'll be doing them a service in the process.