Six years ago today, after 19 years with Boing Boing, during which time I wrote tens of thousands of blog posts, I started a new, solo blog, with the semi-ironic name "Pluralistic."
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Now it's AI. But those bubbles were like Enron, frauds that left nothing good behind. AI is like the dotcom bubble, awash in sin and inflicting untold misery, but it will leave something useful behind:
And when it does, I'll make sense of it on this blog.
eof/
@pluralistic I've been wanting to say quietly for a while, but haven't dared: I find LLMs useful in some ways. No they will not replace my skills as a software developer. No they will not replace artists and authors and actors and script writers. No they will not justify the valuations implied by the amount of money currently being pumped into them. But that doesn't make them useless.
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@pluralistic I've been wanting to say quietly for a while, but haven't dared: I find LLMs useful in some ways. No they will not replace my skills as a software developer. No they will not replace artists and authors and actors and script writers. No they will not justify the valuations implied by the amount of money currently being pumped into them. But that doesn't make them useless.
@pluralistic That they can make mistakes doesn't make them useless. That idiots can use them in stupid ways doesn't make them useless. That bastards can use them in evil ways doesn't make them useless.
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@pluralistic That they can make mistakes doesn't make them useless. That idiots can use them in stupid ways doesn't make them useless. That bastards can use them in evil ways doesn't make them useless.
@pluralistic I wrote this elsewhere: https://www.quora.com/Is-ChatGPT-coding-trustable/answer/Ben-Curthoys
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Doubtless some of you are affronted by my modest use of an LLM. You think that LLMs are "fruits of the poisoned tree" and must be eschewed because they are saturated with the sin of their origins. I think this is a very bad take, the kind of rathole that purity culture always ends up in.
Let's start with some context. If you don't want to use technology that was created under immoral circumstances or that sprang from an immoral mind, then *you are totally fucked.*
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@pluralistic Think it's worth me making the point - as an artist who has been in that hole until a month ago, it is very schismogenesis-coded. Whatever positive uses for LLMs in writing that exist, it's tricky to talk about them without accidentally defining yourself against people who, on any other day, would share the same politics as you.
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@stf @pluralistic He's not a number! He's a free man!!
@aj @stf @pluralistic That's not a man that's Rover
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(Phantom empty posts at the end of the thread that need to be individually selected and deleted are a common one, but not the only one.)
The old Twitter's ability to add a new thread to an existing one has been dead for at least a year, so every post after the 25th stanza has to be manually tacked on to the previous one, which is made *far* harder by the fact that Twitter no longer reliably shows you the post you just made after it publishes.
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@pluralistic why can't you just write one post ? These storms of short messages are just irritating and unreadable
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@pluralistic why can't you just write one post ? These storms of short messages are just irritating and unreadable
@multiscan A better question: why do you read an account whose bio begins, "I post long threads," and that exists entirely for the purpose of posting "storms of short messages" that you find "irritating and unreadable?" My bio has lots of ways to get my work off Mastodon if you don't like threads, but it's genuinely weird to insist that everyone else stop posting and reading threads just because you don't like them.
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Six years ago today, after 19 years with Boing Boing, during which time I wrote tens of thousands of blog posts, I started a new, solo blog, with the semi-ironic name "Pluralistic."
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
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@pluralistic I suddenly feel the urge to re-watch the prisoner...
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@pluralistic That they can make mistakes doesn't make them useless. That idiots can use them in stupid ways doesn't make them useless. That bastards can use them in evil ways doesn't make them useless.
@bencurthoys the problem is not their usefulness, the problem is that they are a dick move.
'AI' is a dick move, redux
Writing at the end of the world, from Hveragerði, Iceland
(www.baldurbjarnason.com)
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Now it's AI. But those bubbles were like Enron, frauds that left nothing good behind. AI is like the dotcom bubble, awash in sin and inflicting untold misery, but it will leave something useful behind:
And when it does, I'll make sense of it on this blog.
eof/
@pluralistic Your writing making sense of things is exactly why I look forward eagerly to every Pluralistic installment. Thank you, Mr. Doctorow.
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@bencurthoys the problem is not their usefulness, the problem is that they are a dick move.
'AI' is a dick move, redux
Writing at the end of the world, from Hveragerði, Iceland
(www.baldurbjarnason.com)
so were:
* rocketry
* the double-helix structure of DNA
* Unix
* SMB
* packet-switching
* silicon transistors
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@pluralistic Your writing making sense of things is exactly why I look forward eagerly to every Pluralistic installment. Thank you, Mr. Doctorow.
@grheavyroller Aw, thanks.
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@jawarajabbi @pluralistic Cory is not viewed kindly by many marginalized communities. Threads like this, where he advocates using fashtech are evidence of why. I would suggest if you care to actually see what dissenters say about him, as white people we need to get better about listening to communities of color about these white dude self-appointed 'saviors' who dismiss the concerns of those most impacted by these tech decisions.
@reflex @jawarajabbi @pluralistic
I hope you see the irony in appointing yourself the spokesperson for "marginalized communities" and " communities of color" to disparage someone who works very hard to encourage the opening of technology to all. -
@reflex @jawarajabbi @pluralistic
I hope you see the irony in appointing yourself the spokesperson for "marginalized communities" and " communities of color" to disparage someone who works very hard to encourage the opening of technology to all.@qole @jawarajabbi @pluralistic I'm comfortable repeating what I've been told, over and over. Cory is a wealthy white dude who consistently promotes harmful technology, such as Kagi and in this thread, LLMs. If you think it's wrong to call him out for that, well, you do you.
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@qole @jawarajabbi @pluralistic I'm comfortable repeating what I've been told, over and over. Cory is a wealthy white dude who consistently promotes harmful technology, such as Kagi and in this thread, LLMs. If you think it's wrong to call him out for that, well, you do you.
@reflex @jawarajabbi @pluralistic
1) Rather than saying, "I've been told," I suggest linking to first-person criticisms from marginalized people.
2) Please research Cory's ethnicity before referring to him as a "white guy," because it's kind of embarrassing to use the race card in this case. -
@reflex @jawarajabbi @pluralistic
1) Rather than saying, "I've been told," I suggest linking to first-person criticisms from marginalized people.
2) Please research Cory's ethnicity before referring to him as a "white guy," because it's kind of embarrassing to use the race card in this case.@qole @jawarajabbi @pluralistic Um, per wiki his family is Ukranian/Russian/Romanian, which I'm pretty sure is 'white' in most cultural contexts.
And secondly I'm not your personal search engine and I don't build a ton of links to the criticisms, but you can feel free to do the work. As mentioned, my specific criticisms here stand on their own, he's recommending technology that is harmful, and has ignored pleas to stop for years.
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so were:
* rocketry
* the double-helix structure of DNA
* Unix
* SMB
* packet-switching
* silicon transistors
@pluralistic not sure you’re really adressing @baldur’s critique here. Nobody’s talking about the creators of the tech (which Altman and al. are not), but the persons *profiting* from it.
I’m not refusing to use a Tesla because the inventor of the electric car was a jerk, but because Musk is, and by using one, I’m empowering him.
But that’s only part of the equation. Who and how are created SLM ? Which impact does they have on cognition, jobs, education etc. -
@pluralistic not sure you’re really adressing @baldur’s critique here. Nobody’s talking about the creators of the tech (which Altman and al. are not), but the persons *profiting* from it.
I’m not refusing to use a Tesla because the inventor of the electric car was a jerk, but because Musk is, and by using one, I’m empowering him.
But that’s only part of the equation. Who and how are created SLM ? Which impact does they have on cognition, jobs, education etc.“AI itself is a normal technology” so is nuclear power. And yes, arguably nuclear does have an interesting net benefit use (that’s a debate for another time
). I’m not sure that’s the case for genAI, open or not, small or not. -
@pluralistic not sure you’re really adressing @baldur’s critique here. Nobody’s talking about the creators of the tech (which Altman and al. are not), but the persons *profiting* from it.
I’m not refusing to use a Tesla because the inventor of the electric car was a jerk, but because Musk is, and by using one, I’m empowering him.
But that’s only part of the equation. Who and how are created SLM ? Which impact does they have on cognition, jobs, education etc.@ced @baldur @bencurthoys No one profits from you running an OSS model on your own computer.
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@ced @baldur @bencurthoys No one profits from you running an OSS model on your own computer.
@pluralistic depends on the bias embedded in your OSS model. And no, it being OSS doesn’t mean you can “open it” or fix it.
Anyway “But that’s only part of the equation. Who and how are created SLM ? Which impact does they have on cognition, jobs, education etc.”
Sure, using a LLM spell checker doesn’t look like much. Once you have it, though, it will be soooo tempting to use it more and more.
