4 ms·

We had a similar situation with blockchain a few years ago

rqtwteye 3y ago
The difference is that LLM has a lot of use cases where it can be enormously productive. Blockchain has never had such a use case.
- civilitty 3y ago
  Nonsense! The blockchain enabled lots of use cases that weren’t accessible to the average person before. For example: buying drugs, getting fake passports, hiring hitmen, and selling drugs.
  - Avicebron 3y ago
    buying stadiums in Florida, gambling imaginary money, moving money to your dad to pay for your inevitable legal bills, buying league skins, the list is endless.
    - postsantum 3y ago
      The only thing that really worried me was effective altruism. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of a changing world for the better binge
      - Avicebron 3y ago
        I think anyone familiar with effective altruism's roots in utilitarianism was rightly immediately concerned about it, especially how it currently seems to be manifested. Never forget Jeremy Bentham proposed the Panopticon.
      - Applejinx 3y ago
        We can't stop here. This is changing world for the better country!
  - zirgs 3y ago
    Has anyone actually hired a real hitman with Bitcoin? In pretty much all cases that I've heard of, the hitman turned out to be either a cop or a scammer.
    - loa_in_ 3y ago
      You make a good point that, blockchain or not, ultimately the problem is not technological in nature. Bitcoin facilitates drugs and hitmen as much as ability to mail someone a letter with bank account details attached (account with money). As usual, the solution is to make the activity not worth the risk by posing as either party.
  - rqtwteye 3y ago
    Nonsense! I have run a meth lab in my basement long before blockchain.
- marginalia_nu 3y ago
  While that is true, LLMs are (like blockchains) difficult to understand for laypeople, and this is (as it was with blockchains) used to compel gullible investors with FOMO to invest in some highly questionable enterprises that make no goddamn sense.
  - Workaccount2 3y ago
    ChatGPT passes the "my mom can use it" test with flying colors. It's extremely accessible.
    - bamboozled 3y ago
      “Mum why did you sell our family home at half the price it’s worth ?!?!, ChatGPT told me it was a good price son!!!”
    - marginalia_nu 3y ago
      Right, now try to explain to her how it works.
      - teucris 3y ago
        Does the average person generally understand how the internet works? The economy? Their own muscles? We understand things enough to know how to use them. Yes, this means the unknown parts can be used to scam people, but that’s true with anything.
        marginalia_nu 3y ago
        We did see a lot of that scam artistry with regards to the Internet. That was the Dot Com bubble. The two necessary components seem to be novelty/hype and inscrutable inner workings.
      - Tostino 3y ago
        "It's an overpowered autocomplete that was trained to have a conversation rather than completing your thoughts."
- atoav 3y ago
  > LLM has a lot of use cases where it can be enormously productive The great chance of LLMs is of course assistive technology, where human actors and LLMs collaborate to do tasks. I am afraid however that what will shape the impact of LLMs on humanity much more is a different thing: Throught history there was always a certain number of people a dictator had to be at good terms with in order to stay in power. My fear is, that this number will become smaller, because it will be much easier to give the realistic impression that you have the support. Existing concepts of reality and truth will definitly be completely and utterly destroyed by LLMs, and even actual, real information will be tainted by the fact that it could be fake – we are already seeing today on a smaller scale what living in such a world feels like if we look how societies in a post-truth environment operate. My prediction (and I'd love to be wrong on that) is that the negative use of LLMs will outweigh positive use significantly, because it favours use cases where you don't have to care about correctness.
  - jvm___ 3y ago
    Existing concepts of reality and truth will definitly be completely and utterly destroyed by LLMs, and even actual, real information will be tainted by the fact that it could be fake – we are already seeing today on a smaller scale what living in such a world feels like if we look how societies in a post-truth environment operate. <2050> Did Donald Trump supporters dye their hair orange in support? Yes they did... (news article supporting the idea, complete with photos and video (with audio)) I almost fear for any history that has been digitized. History is written by the victors, and AI is looking like a victor at this point.
Jeff_Brown 3y ago
Haha yes. But at the time, experts' opinions of where it would go ranged from not much to a big expansion in the size of the banked population and the space of contracts that can be written, with a lot of probability mass at nothing. AI experts themselves today estimate a range from we destroy ourselves to nearly infinite wealth, with a lot* probability mass at we destroy ourselves. * It might be on the order of 1%, but it would be insane for a rational actor to ignore a 1% probability of self-destruction.
danielbln 3y ago
The difference is the answer to "can we use it with blockchain" was: "uhhh, maybe? somehow?", whereas for LLMs it's "yeah sure, I can think of these 10 use cases, half of which we can probably implement today if we use an API".
SanderNL 3y ago
I literally never had any conversation about using blockchain at work or in our personal lives and I don't know anybody that did. This hype is nothing like blockchain.

The difference is that LLM has a lot of use cases where it can be enormously productive. Blockchain has never had such a use case.

civilitty 3y ago
Nonsense! The blockchain enabled lots of use cases that weren’t accessible to the average person before. For example: buying drugs, getting fake passports, hiring hitmen, and selling drugs.
- Avicebron 3y ago
  buying stadiums in Florida, gambling imaginary money, moving money to your dad to pay for your inevitable legal bills, buying league skins, the list is endless.
  - postsantum 3y ago
    The only thing that really worried me was effective altruism. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of a changing world for the better binge
    - Avicebron 3y ago
      I think anyone familiar with effective altruism's roots in utilitarianism was rightly immediately concerned about it, especially how it currently seems to be manifested. Never forget Jeremy Bentham proposed the Panopticon.
    - Applejinx 3y ago
      We can't stop here. This is changing world for the better country!
- zirgs 3y ago
  Has anyone actually hired a real hitman with Bitcoin? In pretty much all cases that I've heard of, the hitman turned out to be either a cop or a scammer.
  - loa_in_ 3y ago
    You make a good point that, blockchain or not, ultimately the problem is not technological in nature. Bitcoin facilitates drugs and hitmen as much as ability to mail someone a letter with bank account details attached (account with money). As usual, the solution is to make the activity not worth the risk by posing as either party.
- rqtwteye 3y ago
  Nonsense! I have run a meth lab in my basement long before blockchain.
marginalia_nu 3y ago
While that is true, LLMs are (like blockchains) difficult to understand for laypeople, and this is (as it was with blockchains) used to compel gullible investors with FOMO to invest in some highly questionable enterprises that make no goddamn sense.
- Workaccount2 3y ago
  ChatGPT passes the "my mom can use it" test with flying colors. It's extremely accessible.
  - bamboozled 3y ago
    “Mum why did you sell our family home at half the price it’s worth ?!?!, ChatGPT told me it was a good price son!!!”
  - marginalia_nu 3y ago
    Right, now try to explain to her how it works.
    - teucris 3y ago
      Does the average person generally understand how the internet works? The economy? Their own muscles? We understand things enough to know how to use them. Yes, this means the unknown parts can be used to scam people, but that’s true with anything.
      - marginalia_nu 3y ago
        We did see a lot of that scam artistry with regards to the Internet. That was the Dot Com bubble. The two necessary components seem to be novelty/hype and inscrutable inner workings.
    - Tostino 3y ago
      "It's an overpowered autocomplete that was trained to have a conversation rather than completing your thoughts."
atoav 3y ago
> LLM has a lot of use cases where it can be enormously productive The great chance of LLMs is of course assistive technology, where human actors and LLMs collaborate to do tasks. I am afraid however that what will shape the impact of LLMs on humanity much more is a different thing: Throught history there was always a certain number of people a dictator had to be at good terms with in order to stay in power. My fear is, that this number will become smaller, because it will be much easier to give the realistic impression that you have the support. Existing concepts of reality and truth will definitly be completely and utterly destroyed by LLMs, and even actual, real information will be tainted by the fact that it could be fake – we are already seeing today on a smaller scale what living in such a world feels like if we look how societies in a post-truth environment operate. My prediction (and I'd love to be wrong on that) is that the negative use of LLMs will outweigh positive use significantly, because it favours use cases where you don't have to care about correctness.
- jvm___ 3y ago
  Existing concepts of reality and truth will definitly be completely and utterly destroyed by LLMs, and even actual, real information will be tainted by the fact that it could be fake – we are already seeing today on a smaller scale what living in such a world feels like if we look how societies in a post-truth environment operate. <2050> Did Donald Trump supporters dye their hair orange in support? Yes they did... (news article supporting the idea, complete with photos and video (with audio)) I almost fear for any history that has been digitized. History is written by the victors, and AI is looking like a victor at this point.

Jeff_Brown 3y ago

Haha yes. But at the time, experts' opinions of where it would go ranged from not much to a big expansion in the size of the banked population and the space of contracts that can be written, with a lot of probability mass at nothing. AI experts themselves today estimate a range from we destroy ourselves to nearly infinite wealth, with a lot* probability mass at we destroy ourselves. * It might be on the order of 1%, but it would be insane for a rational actor to ignore a 1% probability of self-destruction.

danielbln 3y ago

The difference is the answer to "can we use it with blockchain" was: "uhhh, maybe? somehow?", whereas for LLMs it's "yeah sure, I can think of these 10 use cases, half of which we can probably implement today if we use an API".

SanderNL 3y ago

I literally never had any conversation about using blockchain at work or in our personal lives and I don't know anybody that did. This hype is nothing like blockchain.