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author here. the key insight is that (a) the AI promotional nonsense is the same as crypto (b) the VCs are literally the same guys who just bombed out on Web3.

author here. the key insight is that (a) the AI promotional nonsense is the same as crypto (b) the VCs are literally the same guys who just bombed out on Web3. AI is not as blitheringly useless as crypto - ML is real and does things! - but those guys are zeroing in on the applications that really are that useless. Also, the AI guys are making the same excuses for their ghastly power usage that the coiners used to.

jijijijij 3y ago
Compare the last two S. Altman interviews on the Lex Fridman Podcast. Dude already got lawyers breathing down his neck not to make unsubstantiated claims. I guess, they can't deliver, and the suspicion of fraud is in the air.
- aitchnyu 3y ago
  Umm, so what promises he is/maybe legally liable for?
southernplaces7 2y ago
>AI is not as blitheringly useless as crypto Really? You can't think of one single practical use for a non-centrally controlled system for sending -basically money- to others without gatekeepers being able to effortlessly interfere or debase? You completely dismiss the very real cases (all bubble hype uses and scams aside) of people using crypto to escape the worst parts of certain countries horrible inept, corrupt banking and financial systems? If you flatly deny that any of these uses cases do exist and could become larger, I'd argue that you're speaking from ideological blindness against crypto instead of from a reasoned, thoughtful notion of its problems.
- cvz 2y ago
  I've only ever heard of one use that wasn't speculative, promotional, astro-turfing, or just a straight up scam. That one use was an anonymous online marketplace to buy and sell illegal drugs. Do you have another example?
  - southernplaces7 2y ago
    If that's the only example you can think of, then you know next to shit about the crypto landscape besides whatever spoon fed your own emotional bias, and shouldn't consider your opinion to be worth a damn. Further examples, since you're apparently too lazy to even do a google search: https://www.reuters.com/technology/venezuelas-economy-regresses-crypto-fills-gaps-2021-06-22/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/venezuelas-economy-regres... https://www.forbes.com/sites/eliasferrerbreda/2024/03/06/venezuelas-crypto-rebirth-interview-with-enrique-de-los-reyes/?sh=3e1732465d78 https://www.forbes.com/sites/eliasferrerbreda/2024/03/06/ven... https://cepa.org/article/crypto-boosts-ukraine-and-russia/ https://cepa.org/article/crypto-boosts-ukraine-and-russia/ There are many more outside the privileged bubble of reliable financial services that many tech people on this site live in. Even if there weren't, the existence of a mechanism for sending others money without easy blocking by arbitrary gatekeepers is an innately valuable thing in an increasingly controlled society.
    - cvz 2y ago
      The personal attack on me is unwarranted, rude, and wrong. I don't know a whole lot about crypto because it's not central to my life, and the things I do know about crypto (for example, that it's lousy with scams) haven't inspired much interest to learn more. That deserves a correction, not sloppy insults. Maybe you thought I was someone else who deserved it more? I appreciate you being willing to go find actual material to cite, though. That's valuable.

jijijijij 3y ago

Compare the last two S. Altman interviews on the Lex Fridman Podcast. Dude already got lawyers breathing down his neck not to make unsubstantiated claims. I guess, they can't deliver, and the suspicion of fraud is in the air.

aitchnyu 3y ago
Umm, so what promises he is/maybe legally liable for?

southernplaces7 2y ago

>AI is not as blitheringly useless as crypto Really? You can't think of one single practical use for a non-centrally controlled system for sending -basically money- to others without gatekeepers being able to effortlessly interfere or debase? You completely dismiss the very real cases (all bubble hype uses and scams aside) of people using crypto to escape the worst parts of certain countries horrible inept, corrupt banking and financial systems? If you flatly deny that any of these uses cases do exist and could become larger, I'd argue that you're speaking from ideological blindness against crypto instead of from a reasoned, thoughtful notion of its problems.

cvz 2y ago
I've only ever heard of one use that wasn't speculative, promotional, astro-turfing, or just a straight up scam. That one use was an anonymous online marketplace to buy and sell illegal drugs. Do you have another example?
- southernplaces7 2y ago
  If that's the only example you can think of, then you know next to shit about the crypto landscape besides whatever spoon fed your own emotional bias, and shouldn't consider your opinion to be worth a damn. Further examples, since you're apparently too lazy to even do a google search: https://www.reuters.com/technology/venezuelas-economy-regresses-crypto-fills-gaps-2021-06-22/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/venezuelas-economy-regres... https://www.forbes.com/sites/eliasferrerbreda/2024/03/06/venezuelas-crypto-rebirth-interview-with-enrique-de-los-reyes/?sh=3e1732465d78 https://www.forbes.com/sites/eliasferrerbreda/2024/03/06/ven... https://cepa.org/article/crypto-boosts-ukraine-and-russia/ https://cepa.org/article/crypto-boosts-ukraine-and-russia/ There are many more outside the privileged bubble of reliable financial services that many tech people on this site live in. Even if there weren't, the existence of a mechanism for sending others money without easy blocking by arbitrary gatekeepers is an innately valuable thing in an increasingly controlled society.
  - cvz 2y ago
    The personal attack on me is unwarranted, rude, and wrong. I don't know a whole lot about crypto because it's not central to my life, and the things I do know about crypto (for example, that it's lousy with scams) haven't inspired much interest to learn more. That deserves a correction, not sloppy insults. Maybe you thought I was someone else who deserved it more? I appreciate you being willing to go find actual material to cite, though. That's valuable.