I'm in no way an AI hater.
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@randulo @liztai for me it’s strong negative if the lead is “AI!” rather than real benefits to me, especially if they pull a Copilot and raise prices.
As a contrast, I use the Newsblur feed reader which recently launched a feature that uses LLMs to synthesize feeds from sites which don’t have them. The ethical/copyright/externality questions aren’t erased but that’s at least a feature real people have requested for years, not some PM trying to show they shipped AI on their promotion package.
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@randulo But what are these very good use cases?
@zebulonmysterioso One is what Google translate has been doing forever (before we were saturated with AI and LLM terms).
I have been collaborating with a Brazilian musician for several years. We share no language. We comminicate via Gmail, which automatically translates the messages, passing them betwen English and Brazilian Portugese.
Asking for explanations of some things is also a good use. Of course you have to check for accuracy.
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"Firing some people in order to increase investor dividends"
@androcat @zebulonmysterioso Sad, but also true.
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I'm in no way an AI hater. It has some very good use cases. But in the commercial world, if you are promoting a product or service, the phrase "AI-powered" translates to "didn't read the room". The majority probably don't see that as a plus? (I could be wrong!)
Boost if you will to get coverage. The results will be interesting if enough people vote.
Funny thing, no average non-technical person probably even heard of AJAX and CSS, but these revolutionized the web, tho not always for the best.
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@randulo hey @tagirijus is this the bubble you're talking about?
@holzchopf @tagirijus In the sense that it will eventually disappear as did "with Blockchain", one could probably say "bubble", if that's what you mean?
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@randulo Well, I'll tell you one thing, posting this on Mastodon is going to give you pretty overwhelming votes on the negative side. It would be interesting to see a more general populace vote, but my suspicion is that negative would still win by majority. My bet is still by quite a lot.
As far as I can tell, those at the top are just wildly disconnected in every single possible way to literally everything below them. Including the systems they're actually forcing all this into...
Some, I suspect, don't even know what their own business actually is or does...
As a side note, it has struck me on more than one occasion that if there is any position in a business that could be replaced by a LLM without causing massive problems, it's the way overpaid jobs of those at the top...
@nazokiyoubinbou Yes, I realize that. My question isn't "do you hate (or like) AI", but what do you think of the use of "AI-powered" as a flex, a quality? I think you're right, that investors will be impressed, but that a lot of potential users will dislike it, even if the product is just what they need. (The "powered" claim is meaningless, regardless.
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I'm in no way an AI hater. It has some very good use cases. But in the commercial world, if you are promoting a product or service, the phrase "AI-powered" translates to "didn't read the room". The majority probably don't see that as a plus? (I could be wrong!)
Boost if you will to get coverage. The results will be interesting if enough people vote.
In the 50s through 70s they used to put the word "Sugar" in front of the names of breakfast cereals (to which a huge amount of crystalline sugar had been added) and it really helped them sell better. Until people finally realized how undesirable that really was and it started having the opposite effect.
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In the 50s through 70s they used to put the word "Sugar" in front of the names of breakfast cereals (to which a huge amount of crystalline sugar had been added) and it really helped them sell better. Until people finally realized how undesirable that really was and it started having the opposite effect.
@pieist I think I do recall that! Sugar Snaps! No, SMACKS!
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@nazokiyoubinbou Yes, I realize that. My question isn't "do you hate (or like) AI", but what do you think of the use of "AI-powered" as a flex, a quality? I think you're right, that investors will be impressed, but that a lot of potential users will dislike it, even if the product is just what they need. (The "powered" claim is meaningless, regardless.
@randulo All I can tell you for sure is the general attitude I've seen here on Mastodon is very close to 100% that that particular flex is negative with lots of memes of people turning away or etc in response when they see that.
How well that reflects the world as a whole I can't say because every day when I log on about half of my feed consists of people saying over and over "I hate 'AI' and everyone who has ever used it!" (to such an extent that some of the hate has gone beyond reasoning even.) So, in other words, there is definitely a bias here that doesn't necessarily match the world as a whole, thus making it hard to really judge the overall feelings.
That said, everything I've seen does seem to support the idea that even the average person sees the flex as a negative.
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@randulo All I can tell you for sure is the general attitude I've seen here on Mastodon is very close to 100% that that particular flex is negative with lots of memes of people turning away or etc in response when they see that.
How well that reflects the world as a whole I can't say because every day when I log on about half of my feed consists of people saying over and over "I hate 'AI' and everyone who has ever used it!" (to such an extent that some of the hate has gone beyond reasoning even.) So, in other words, there is definitely a bias here that doesn't necessarily match the world as a whole, thus making it hard to really judge the overall feelings.
That said, everything I've seen does seem to support the idea that even the average person sees the flex as a negative.
@nazokiyoubinbou Yes, Mastodon is a guaranteed anti-AI audience except for programmers who love using the tech but don't try to talk it up. AS I said, it's a technology and I neither hate or love it. The current implimentations like Gemini can do impressive things but are they worthy of attention? Not always. For example, it ingested a short story of mine and generated a two-person podcast discussing it. It sounded very much like two real people discussing the story. I didn't post that anywhere
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@androcat @zebulonmysterioso Sad, but also true.
"The purpose of a thing is what it does"
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@holzchopf @tagirijus In the sense that it will eventually disappear as did "with Blockchain", one could probably say "bubble", if that's what you mean?
@randulo No, I mean in the sense that Mastodon is an AI sceptic bubble (tagirijus' words)
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I'm in no way an AI hater. It has some very good use cases. But in the commercial world, if you are promoting a product or service, the phrase "AI-powered" translates to "didn't read the room". The majority probably don't see that as a plus? (I could be wrong!)
Boost if you will to get coverage. The results will be interesting if enough people vote.
@randulo Pls name some good use cases. I need to know where I'm wrong when I think generative AI has none.
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@randulo No, I mean in the sense that Mastodon is an AI sceptic bubble (tagirijus' words)
@holzchopf Yes, no question about that! I don't think it's worth my time to hate on it publicly, even though I have the same objections most have. It is IMO neither as good or as bad as most people say. Two extreme fringes, and here it's the negative one.
Maybe more an echo chamber? -
@holzchopf Yes, no question about that! I don't think it's worth my time to hate on it publicly, even though I have the same objections most have. It is IMO neither as good or as bad as most people say. Two extreme fringes, and here it's the negative one.
Maybe more an echo chamber?@randulo yes it was definitely meant in the sense of echo chamber
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@randulo hey @tagirijus is this the bubble you're talking about?
@holzchopf @randulo yes, lol.
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@nazokiyoubinbou Yes, Mastodon is a guaranteed anti-AI audience except for programmers who love using the tech but don't try to talk it up. AS I said, it's a technology and I neither hate or love it. The current implimentations like Gemini can do impressive things but are they worthy of attention? Not always. For example, it ingested a short story of mine and generated a two-person podcast discussing it. It sounded very much like two real people discussing the story. I didn't post that anywhere
@randulo I think it's too lossy to be used for summaries. It's like trying to get the complexity of a concert with a recording on an old cassette from someone sitting in the back.
Most of the uses I can imagine up for them are more small time. For example, an author quickly testing out a concept to see how it feels in play. Everything I can think of would be fine with a local LLM and no need for server farms and compromising personal info for oneself and everyone one knows to achieve that. (People forget local exists.)
The true issue isn't even LLMs, but the way they're being used — forced into things, gathering data illegally, etc. Unfortunately, remove the LLMs and those behind them still do that stuff with something else...
And, to that end, the flex is absolutely negative.
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@randulo Pls name some good use cases. I need to know where I'm wrong when I think generative AI has none.
@bewilderbeast23 I did. Anything where a small artistic endeavor cannot afford human work but a machine could do it easily. Here's an example:
I used to use it for album covers. Music makes no money, and I can't pay a decent sum for an actual artist. Now I make my own covers, mostly my own photos. I already mentioned translation. Again, something I couldn't pay for.
One NOT good one is thinking it's your girl (or boy)friend. I hope that phenomenon disappears fast, it's dangerous. -
@randulo I think it's too lossy to be used for summaries. It's like trying to get the complexity of a concert with a recording on an old cassette from someone sitting in the back.
Most of the uses I can imagine up for them are more small time. For example, an author quickly testing out a concept to see how it feels in play. Everything I can think of would be fine with a local LLM and no need for server farms and compromising personal info for oneself and everyone one knows to achieve that. (People forget local exists.)
The true issue isn't even LLMs, but the way they're being used — forced into things, gathering data illegally, etc. Unfortunately, remove the LLMs and those behind them still do that stuff with something else...
And, to that end, the flex is absolutely negative.
@nazokiyoubinbou Yes, local would be the way to go, but it still needs to be trained. If that can be done, it'd be great.
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@zebulonmysterioso @randulo If you write code, fact is today's coding AIs are great. If you explained what you can do with them in 2026 to someone to 2016, they would just laugh in disbelief.
If you don't write code, well, naturally this is hard to feel. But that's why there are two different camps about it.
@hopeless @zebulonmysterioso @randulo In my experience they still need a human providing guard rails. In the hands of novice devs they often just enable massive amounts of slop.
