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I need to jump on the wagon here and beg you and others to stop comparing AI to Agriculture, mastering of Fire, the Wheel, Electricity or the Combustion Engine.
by guhcampos 3y ago
I need to jump on the wagon here and beg you and others to stop comparing AI to Agriculture, mastering of Fire, the Wheel, Electricity or the Combustion Engine.
It's hard to even argue, cause these things stand on very disparate levels of civilizatory pressure. AI has, no question, potential to deeply change human experience, but even if it does, that will be mostly due to extreme optimization of existing processes, not likely the development of new modes of living.
And it's very, very, very far from getting there. All this hype over Generational AI is, sadly, more of a Marketing stunt than anything else. Generational AI don't bring any great innovation in what AI can achieve, only in how people perceive what AI already does. GPT's biggest achievement is to sound coherent, not to leap forward human knowledge in any meaning full way.
- lbotos 3y agoAt what point does "extreme optimization of existing processes" turn into "development of new modes of living?" I think about cars as an "extreme optimization of the wheel" and it completely changed the way people live. (See Suburbs) I do share that AI is quite overhyped, but I think the seeds are juuuuuust starting to germinate.
- guhcampos 3y agoI tend to agree, but when I mention Combustion Engine I don't necessarily mean cars. Cars are indeed just an optimization of horses, depending on how you think. Railways and Ocean Freighters, on the other hand, enable some pretty incredible cases. They allow food and goods to reach otherwise impossible places, regardless of the seasons, which allowed previously impossible developments. And then there's airplanes
- throwawayyy9237 3y agoSome advancements are process improvements, some enable the impossible. Electric bulbs are neat, but there was inneficient artifical light before. On the other hand, a caveman might look at the moon, but he would never land there without modern tools. GAI doesn't allow us to overcome any Human inherent limitations, it's just an efficient tool (in certain scenarios).
- throwawayyy9237 3y agoCompletetly agree. GAI doesn't enable Humanity to do anything that wasn't possible before. Perhaps we can do it more efficiently, but it's not turning the impossible into possible, like many other previous advancements did.
- tim333 3y ago> not likely the development of new modes of living. Until the AIs can build better AIs without needing humans. Give it 20 years.