this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 64 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I find it insane when "tech bros" and AI researchers at major tech companies try to justify the wasting of resources (like water and electricity) in order to achieve "AGI" or whatever the fuck that means in their wildest fantasies.

These companies have no accountability for the shit that they do and consistently ignore all the consequences their actions will cause for years down the road.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It's research. Most of it never pans out, so a lot of it is "wasteful". But if we didn't experiment, we wouldn't find the things that do work.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Most of the entire AI economy isn't even research. It's just grift. Slapping a label on ChatGPT and saying you're an AI company. It's hustlers trying to make a quick buck from easy venture capital money.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You can probably say the same about all fields, even those that have formal protections and regulations. That doesn't mean that there aren't people that have PhD's in the field and are trying to improve it for the better.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sure but typically that's a small part of the field. With AI it's a majority, that's the difference.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No, it is the majority in every field.

Specialists are always in the minority, that is like part of their definition.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

The majority of every field is fraudsters? Seriously?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Is it really a grift when you are selling possible value to an investor who would make money from possible value?

As in, there is no lie, investors know it’s a gamble and are just looking for the gamble that everyone else bets on, not that it l would provide real value.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I would classify speculation as a form of grift. Someone gets left holding the bag.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I agree, but these researchers/scientists should be more mindful about the resources they use up in order to generate the computational power necessary to carry out their experiments. AI is good when it gets utilized to achieve a specific task, but funneling a lot of money and research towards general purpose AI just seems wasteful.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

I mean general purpose AI doesn't cap out at human intelligence, of which you could utilize to come up with ideas for better resource management.

Could also be a huge waste but the potential is there... potentially.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

I don't think I've heard a lot of actual research in the AI area not connected to machine learning (which may be just one component, not really necessary at that).

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

What’s funny is that we already have general intelligence in billions of brains. What tech bros want is a general intelligence slave.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Well put.

I'm sure plenty of people would be happy to be a personal assistant for searching, summarizing, and compiling information, as long as they were adequately paid for it.