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> Generative AI is like electricity, only I don't think quite as useful. The point is that, on its own, it has no value what-so-ever. The value lies in what it
by idopmstuff 4y ago
> Generative AI is like electricity, only I don't think quite as useful. The point is that, on its own, it has no value what-so-ever. The value lies in what it is used for.
I don't really understand this description - electricity is one of the most useful things in the history of civilization. I think the latter half of what you're saying is true, but it's true of everything. There's nothing inherently useful about my car, except that it gets me places. There's nothing inherently useful about my house, except that it shelters me from the elements.
Generative AI will be useful for creating lots of things (probably primarily code in its various forms). I've used it to write a few Python scripts over the course of the last week that simply wouldn't have been possible for me to do (without a few weeks of teaching myself Python at least - I'm a somewhat-code-literate PM but very much not a programmer). Those have solved real problems for me and added real value to my life.
- kochikame 4y agoThe comment you're replying to is trying to say that a house, just by existing, solves the shelter problem. Having a functioning car means you can just get in it and go somewhere. But just having electricity in and of itself does not solve any problem; you have to use it power something else (lights, TV, toaster), which is the thing that solves the problem, not the electricity.