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Eh, I think a lot of the reasons to be skeptical of crypto still apply to "AI". AI may have actual real world uses (unlike crypto), but it's also the subject o

Eh, I think a lot of the reasons to be skeptical of crypto still apply to "AI". AI may have actual real world uses (unlike crypto), but it's also the subject of a huge hype campaign (like crypto) largely consisting of the same people hyping crypto, with similar strategies of emphasizing FOMO (like crypto) and making wild and fantastical claims about unheard of growth and about the end of the existing world order through technology in a way that borders on eachatology (like crypto).

idopmstuff 4y ago
Except that you can't make money on hype with AI the same way that you could with crypto. If you could generate FOMO about a coin, people would buy that coin and you'd make money. Generating FOMO about AI just leads people to go try ChatGPT. Unless you've built some domain-specific product on top that's meaningfully better than ChatGPT or Bing at whatever it's supposed to do, you can't actually profit (and if you have built that, then good for you, you've done something useful). That is all to say that there is definitely a lot of crypto hype, but it seems to be generated much more by legitimate excitement than by financial incentives. And given how much progress we've seen with AI serving legitimately useful functions, the hype seems much more warranted than the crypto hype (some of it, at least).
- add-sub-mul-div 4y ago
  > Except that you can't make money on hype with AI the same way that you could with crypto. People seem to think so. Have you seen all the shovelware getting posted here lately?
- marginalia_nu 4y ago
  I think these people have been useful idiots for crypto, and crypto grifters have fanned their flames and encouraged this cult of technology, but at this point they're an independent entity that will gladly latch onto any narrative that resonates them in the vacuum left behind crypto. They were never making money off this. If anything, they were the ones going broke in bait-and-switches.
BoorishBears 4y ago
> AI may have actual real world uses (unlike crypto) You started with a sentence that captures the heart of why handwavy comments about "most mentions of AI are bullshit" even after someone narrowed it down to recent developments are silly. The vast majority of recent mentions of AI are from LLMs and Latent Diffusion, which again, has already proven real world usefulness in incredible ways
- marginalia_nu 4y ago
  Right, I think even including recent development AI is incredibly over-hyped, largely driven by the technology being somewhat new and difficult to reason about and its limitations thus more than a bit nebulous. Several technology bubbles have formed before under these exact circumstances. But this is like a whole new level of gullibility. Most of the reasoning seems to be of the line 1. LLMs have made impressive progress 2. basically https://xkcd.com/605/ https://xkcd.com/605/ 3. SOCIETY SHATTERING IMPACT!!! Especially noteworthy is that this is a point we've been at before with artificial intelligence in particular. This isn't even the second time, but at least the third wave of AI hype. Don't get me wrong, I can totally see why OpenAI is pitching a future where basically all of society operates as a SaaS client to their API, what I don't get is why someone who isn't an OpenAI shareholder would guzzle that particular kool aid.

idopmstuff 4y ago

Except that you can't make money on hype with AI the same way that you could with crypto. If you could generate FOMO about a coin, people would buy that coin and you'd make money. Generating FOMO about AI just leads people to go try ChatGPT. Unless you've built some domain-specific product on top that's meaningfully better than ChatGPT or Bing at whatever it's supposed to do, you can't actually profit (and if you have built that, then good for you, you've done something useful). That is all to say that there is definitely a lot of crypto hype, but it seems to be generated much more by legitimate excitement than by financial incentives. And given how much progress we've seen with AI serving legitimately useful functions, the hype seems much more warranted than the crypto hype (some of it, at least).

add-sub-mul-div 4y ago
> Except that you can't make money on hype with AI the same way that you could with crypto. People seem to think so. Have you seen all the shovelware getting posted here lately?
marginalia_nu 4y ago
I think these people have been useful idiots for crypto, and crypto grifters have fanned their flames and encouraged this cult of technology, but at this point they're an independent entity that will gladly latch onto any narrative that resonates them in the vacuum left behind crypto. They were never making money off this. If anything, they were the ones going broke in bait-and-switches.

BoorishBears 4y ago

> AI may have actual real world uses (unlike crypto) You started with a sentence that captures the heart of why handwavy comments about "most mentions of AI are bullshit" even after someone narrowed it down to recent developments are silly. The vast majority of recent mentions of AI are from LLMs and Latent Diffusion, which again, has already proven real world usefulness in incredible ways

marginalia_nu 4y ago
Right, I think even including recent development AI is incredibly over-hyped, largely driven by the technology being somewhat new and difficult to reason about and its limitations thus more than a bit nebulous. Several technology bubbles have formed before under these exact circumstances. But this is like a whole new level of gullibility. Most of the reasoning seems to be of the line 1. LLMs have made impressive progress 2. basically https://xkcd.com/605/ https://xkcd.com/605/ 3. SOCIETY SHATTERING IMPACT!!! Especially noteworthy is that this is a point we've been at before with artificial intelligence in particular. This isn't even the second time, but at least the third wave of AI hype. Don't get me wrong, I can totally see why OpenAI is pitching a future where basically all of society operates as a SaaS client to their API, what I don't get is why someone who isn't an OpenAI shareholder would guzzle that particular kool aid.