4 ms·

When you have a (very very expensive) hammer, everything looks like a nail

lynx23 2y ago
I wonder when the environmentalists will realize what is going on right now, and start to protest AI usage in general. I was already wondering the same when the open source community started to CI every damn PR and commit, but I guess I was too optimistic with that one.
- HPsquared 2y ago
  Windows Update is another big one, the way it makes every Windows computer spin the fans like crazy on a regular basis. Probably room for improvement there.
  - bayindirh 2y ago
    For Microsoft's credit, Windows has systems in place to install your updates when you're powered by more renewables than fossil fuels [0]. [0]: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-update-is-now-carbon-aware-a53f39bc-5531-4bb1-9e78-db38d7a6df20 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-update-i...
    - blibble 2y ago
      maybe they could just make the software not be completely shit instead ? why does Windows take 2 minutes to decide what updates to install, then 45 minutes to install them when Debian on the same machine can do both in under 30 seconds?
      - deafpolygon 2y ago
        ... *puts tin foil hat on* ... let me tell you a story...
- Ma8ee 2y ago
  We are aware. AI at least have the potential to create some value, which can’t be said about crypto currencies that still waste enormous resources.
  - bayindirh 2y ago
    I don't want to sound skeptical, but this is what Crypto people used to say when it was very new. It was supposedly worth all the power expenditure, because changing the world needed energy. Now we see where we are. I'm inside this "newfangled AI thing". There are groups which create value, but they create value for everybody. The humans and the nature in general, and they use AI for scientific ends. Medical image processing, ecosystem monitoring, etc. etc. Letting bots loose on the internet, letting them consume what they say and making them answer "Sauce is a food taste enhancer, and dressing is used to keep wounds clean while allowing them to heal. A standard serving of a dressing is two spoons".
    - turtles3 2y ago
      To be fair, newer research is demonstrating that smaller more power efficient models with the same performance are possible, so the hope is that these giant LLMs are just a stepping stone to a less energy hungry place. In contrast, proof of work fundamentally needs more energy then bigger the network gets. It's no guarantee but we can at least see some hope that as energy impact drops and increasing value is found that 'AI' will cross the threshold of being worth the energy. Edit: although yes I do agree that the 'value' part is tricky. If internet spam can generate more 'value' for some people than doing science, then when intelligence is cheap we are in for a rough time.
      - bayindirh 2y ago
        To be clear, I'm not against AI or LLM as a technology in general. What I'm against is the unethical way how these LLMs trained and how people are dismissive of the damage they're doing and saying "we're doing something amazing, we need no permission". Also, I'm very aware that there are many smaller models in production which can run real-time with negligible power and memory requirements (i.e. see human/animal detection models in mirrorless cameras, esp. Sony and Fuji). However, to be honest I didn't see the same research on LLMs yet. Can you share if you have any, because I'd be glad to read them. Lastly, I'm aware that AI is not something only covers object detection, NLP, etc. You can create very useful and light AI systems for many problems, but how LLMs pumped with that unstopping hype machine bothers me a lot.
- renewiltord 2y ago
  [flagged]
- sAbakumoff 2y ago
  >> I wonder when the environmentalists will realize what is going on right now, and start to protest AI usage in general. Never, in just 2-3 months we will have much, much bigger problems
  - lynx23 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - sAbakumoff 2y ago
      why do you try labeling me without knowing ANYTHING about me? This starts to feel like mental illness.
- topaz0 2y ago
  Already boycotting.
hashtag-til 2y ago
Honestly, the “Notes” app on Mac has at least the autocomplete now and I find it quite useful. I’m very sceptical about all these AI announcements but text editing is case where I think this “AI” stuff can actually be used for good.
- null0pointer 2y ago
  Notes is a very different app to Notepad though. Nobody uses the Notes app to edit plain text files, which is the sole use case of Notepad. Notes is for writing, well, notes. Notes also has a lot of other editing modes and features like drawing with the apple pencil, scanning documents, cross device syncing, etc. As far as I’m aware Notepad can only edit plain text files.
  - rpgbr 2y ago
    It's unfortunate that Apple Notes doesn't handle plain text. I'd use it like this if possible. Anyway, I use TextEdit in plain text and autocomplete, autocorrect and spellcheck all work just fine, as they work in every text box in macOS. That Windows' Notepad got some of that just in 2024[1] is bonkers… [1] https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/8/24194047/microsoft-notepad-spellcheck-autocorrect-features-available https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/8/24194047/microsoft-notepad...
    - w0m 2y ago
      > Notepad got some of that just in 2024 I assume this was the 1:1 correlated w/ the deprecation/removal of wordpad, as both were shipped everywhere prior.
  - Hobadee 2y ago
    I used Notes to edit a text file once and learned a very important lesson; It changes all your double-quotes to fancy Unicode double-quotes. They may look prettier, but they completely break the code you are working on.
elpocko 2y ago
It's basically autocomplete, spellcheck and refactoring, just based on a new technical approach. Those are not new or unusual features for a text editor.
- DecoySalamander 2y ago
  These sound more like features for an IDE than a text editor.
- notachatbot123 2y ago
  You forgot non-deterministic hallucination.
  - geodel 2y ago
    'Hallucinating Notepad' feels like a band name.
    - olvy0 2y ago
      Or something written by William S. Burroughs.
- horsawlarway 2y ago
  On the one hand - sure. On the other - the whole appeal of notepad was that it was a barebones text editor with none of that fluff (aka - it's a text editor, not a word processor or IDE). MS has a large number of alternatives for the folks who wanted them. When I opened Notepad - it's explicitly because I don't want the machine trying to tell me what I entered is wrong, or fix it. I just want a big dumb textbox for my file. --- Basically - If you wanted those features you're looking for MS Word or Wordpad. But MS discontinued Wordpad, and now they seem intent on trying to turn Notepad into Wordpad 2.0. My prediction is this will not work well, since it directly competes with Office, and is not what the legacy users of notepad want. But hey... a text editor is an easy place to shove text based AI, and cool shiny new thing of the year means some exec can claim to be shoving novel solutions into prod and bump up AI usage.
- 2y ago

I wonder when the environmentalists will realize what is going on right now, and start to protest AI usage in general. I was already wondering the same when the open source community started to CI every damn PR and commit, but I guess I was too optimistic with that one.

HPsquared 2y ago
Windows Update is another big one, the way it makes every Windows computer spin the fans like crazy on a regular basis. Probably room for improvement there.
- bayindirh 2y ago
  For Microsoft's credit, Windows has systems in place to install your updates when you're powered by more renewables than fossil fuels [0]. [0]: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-update-is-now-carbon-aware-a53f39bc-5531-4bb1-9e78-db38d7a6df20 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-update-i...
  - blibble 2y ago
    maybe they could just make the software not be completely shit instead ? why does Windows take 2 minutes to decide what updates to install, then 45 minutes to install them when Debian on the same machine can do both in under 30 seconds?
    - deafpolygon 2y ago
      ... *puts tin foil hat on* ... let me tell you a story...
Ma8ee 2y ago
We are aware. AI at least have the potential to create some value, which can’t be said about crypto currencies that still waste enormous resources.
- bayindirh 2y ago
  I don't want to sound skeptical, but this is what Crypto people used to say when it was very new. It was supposedly worth all the power expenditure, because changing the world needed energy. Now we see where we are. I'm inside this "newfangled AI thing". There are groups which create value, but they create value for everybody. The humans and the nature in general, and they use AI for scientific ends. Medical image processing, ecosystem monitoring, etc. etc. Letting bots loose on the internet, letting them consume what they say and making them answer "Sauce is a food taste enhancer, and dressing is used to keep wounds clean while allowing them to heal. A standard serving of a dressing is two spoons".
  - turtles3 2y ago
    To be fair, newer research is demonstrating that smaller more power efficient models with the same performance are possible, so the hope is that these giant LLMs are just a stepping stone to a less energy hungry place. In contrast, proof of work fundamentally needs more energy then bigger the network gets. It's no guarantee but we can at least see some hope that as energy impact drops and increasing value is found that 'AI' will cross the threshold of being worth the energy. Edit: although yes I do agree that the 'value' part is tricky. If internet spam can generate more 'value' for some people than doing science, then when intelligence is cheap we are in for a rough time.
    - bayindirh 2y ago
      To be clear, I'm not against AI or LLM as a technology in general. What I'm against is the unethical way how these LLMs trained and how people are dismissive of the damage they're doing and saying "we're doing something amazing, we need no permission". Also, I'm very aware that there are many smaller models in production which can run real-time with negligible power and memory requirements (i.e. see human/animal detection models in mirrorless cameras, esp. Sony and Fuji). However, to be honest I didn't see the same research on LLMs yet. Can you share if you have any, because I'd be glad to read them. Lastly, I'm aware that AI is not something only covers object detection, NLP, etc. You can create very useful and light AI systems for many problems, but how LLMs pumped with that unstopping hype machine bothers me a lot.
renewiltord 2y ago
[flagged]
sAbakumoff 2y ago
>> I wonder when the environmentalists will realize what is going on right now, and start to protest AI usage in general. Never, in just 2-3 months we will have much, much bigger problems
- lynx23 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - sAbakumoff 2y ago
    why do you try labeling me without knowing ANYTHING about me? This starts to feel like mental illness.
topaz0 2y ago
Already boycotting.

hashtag-til 2y ago

Honestly, the “Notes” app on Mac has at least the autocomplete now and I find it quite useful. I’m very sceptical about all these AI announcements but text editing is case where I think this “AI” stuff can actually be used for good.

null0pointer 2y ago
Notes is a very different app to Notepad though. Nobody uses the Notes app to edit plain text files, which is the sole use case of Notepad. Notes is for writing, well, notes. Notes also has a lot of other editing modes and features like drawing with the apple pencil, scanning documents, cross device syncing, etc. As far as I’m aware Notepad can only edit plain text files.
- rpgbr 2y ago
  It's unfortunate that Apple Notes doesn't handle plain text. I'd use it like this if possible. Anyway, I use TextEdit in plain text and autocomplete, autocorrect and spellcheck all work just fine, as they work in every text box in macOS. That Windows' Notepad got some of that just in 2024[1] is bonkers… [1] https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/8/24194047/microsoft-notepad-spellcheck-autocorrect-features-available https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/8/24194047/microsoft-notepad...
  - w0m 2y ago
    > Notepad got some of that just in 2024 I assume this was the 1:1 correlated w/ the deprecation/removal of wordpad, as both were shipped everywhere prior.
- Hobadee 2y ago
  I used Notes to edit a text file once and learned a very important lesson; It changes all your double-quotes to fancy Unicode double-quotes. They may look prettier, but they completely break the code you are working on.

elpocko 2y ago

It's basically autocomplete, spellcheck and refactoring, just based on a new technical approach. Those are not new or unusual features for a text editor.

DecoySalamander 2y ago
These sound more like features for an IDE than a text editor.
notachatbot123 2y ago
You forgot non-deterministic hallucination.
- geodel 2y ago
  'Hallucinating Notepad' feels like a band name.
  - olvy0 2y ago
    Or something written by William S. Burroughs.
horsawlarway 2y ago
On the one hand - sure. On the other - the whole appeal of notepad was that it was a barebones text editor with none of that fluff (aka - it's a text editor, not a word processor or IDE). MS has a large number of alternatives for the folks who wanted them. When I opened Notepad - it's explicitly because I don't want the machine trying to tell me what I entered is wrong, or fix it. I just want a big dumb textbox for my file. --- Basically - If you wanted those features you're looking for MS Word or Wordpad. But MS discontinued Wordpad, and now they seem intent on trying to turn Notepad into Wordpad 2.0. My prediction is this will not work well, since it directly competes with Office, and is not what the legacy users of notepad want. But hey... a text editor is an easy place to shove text based AI, and cool shiny new thing of the year means some exec can claim to be shoving novel solutions into prod and bump up AI usage.
2y ago