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I've been getting increasingly depressed about this over the last several years and it's worsened with the advent of LLMs. What are we doing as an industry? It

I've been getting increasingly depressed about this over the last several years and it's worsened with the advent of LLMs. What are we doing as an industry? It seems in the last 15 years the main focus has shifted heavily towards creating tools for the enabling, scaling and acceleration of enshittification. LLMs are the latest distillation and phase transition of this trend in the industry. A tremendous achievement to be sure. Now, garbage content and work can be produced at a scale never before seen. Quantity over quality. Familiarity over originality. I mean, are we really going to kid ourselves that this isn't where we're headed? Do we really believe all these deranged billionaires are all in on LLMs because they want to make the world a better place? Even OpenAI itself is founded by people who subscribe to bizarre, megalomaniacal ideologies and theories about AI itself, society as a whole, and even the very fabric of reality.

hotpotamus 3y ago
I always try and check myself - it’s possible that I’m just getting to be an angry old man, which wouldn’t be a huge transition from being an angry young man, but while I can agree that the LLMs do seem to be a genuine advance, I did not expect that the latest advance in AI would be a bullshit generator and it’s strange that few people seem to have a problem with that. It seems like yet another bandwagon that everyone wants to jump on since it’s the next big thing.
- wegfawefgawefg 3y ago
  idk man. gpt4 teaches me code stuff all the time.
  - hotpotamus 3y ago
    The code stuff doesn't really bother me though it tends to make up libraries/methods; it bullshits there too. The thing about that is that bullshit is generally rather easily figured out in code, especially if it refuses to compile/run. I do use it on occasion and it can be fabulous for prototyping a bit of code in just about any language. I don't disagree that it is impressive. But when you allow it free reign to bullshit on any subject and it confidently tells you things that are not so easily proven or disproven, that's where I start to get sad.
IAmGraydon 3y ago
> Even OpenAI itself is founded by people who subscribe to bizarre, megalomaniacal ideologies and theories about AI itself, society as a whole, and even the very fabric of reality. You’re really going to have to expand upon this.
- selfhoster11 3y ago
  Not sure about the fabric of reality bit, but a lot of AI folks follow effective accelerationism and things like that.

hotpotamus 3y ago

I always try and check myself - it’s possible that I’m just getting to be an angry old man, which wouldn’t be a huge transition from being an angry young man, but while I can agree that the LLMs do seem to be a genuine advance, I did not expect that the latest advance in AI would be a bullshit generator and it’s strange that few people seem to have a problem with that. It seems like yet another bandwagon that everyone wants to jump on since it’s the next big thing.

wegfawefgawefg 3y ago
idk man. gpt4 teaches me code stuff all the time.
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  The code stuff doesn't really bother me though it tends to make up libraries/methods; it bullshits there too. The thing about that is that bullshit is generally rather easily figured out in code, especially if it refuses to compile/run. I do use it on occasion and it can be fabulous for prototyping a bit of code in just about any language. I don't disagree that it is impressive. But when you allow it free reign to bullshit on any subject and it confidently tells you things that are not so easily proven or disproven, that's where I start to get sad.

IAmGraydon 3y ago

> Even OpenAI itself is founded by people who subscribe to bizarre, megalomaniacal ideologies and theories about AI itself, society as a whole, and even the very fabric of reality. You’re really going to have to expand upon this.

selfhoster11 3y ago
Not sure about the fabric of reality bit, but a lot of AI folks follow effective accelerationism and things like that.