I'm currently lying in a real hospital, after real surgery, being cared for by real staff. AI is just such a DISTRACTION from anything at all important. You can read Socrates right now, you don't need a fake convo with Bill Gates to do that.
My votes this year go to whichever party shows a physical and real commitment to health care. If I didn't have private health insurance (and I am extremely privileged to do so), all I was funded for was disabling levels of opiates for 6 years before I was even eligible for a wait-list to see a specialist. I want a better future for everyone regardless of ability to pay, and there is no use for pretend nurses in that.
I feel like what’s missing from AI art is emotion. My daughter is an artist and the emotion she brings out in her drawings, paintings and videos is what taps into those deep inner workings of what it means to be human.
With that being said, I’ll continue saying please and thank you to Siri because when that shit becomes self aware I’m hoping they’ll spare my life 🤣
Heartening: the Armageddon exhibition/conference in Auckland NZ was a resounding success. Being old, I don't totally understand the concept, but it seems to involve REAL PEOPLE (mostly young, many in costume) milling about looking at exhibs and at each other. Both my grandies went. The 17-year old bought lots of books. The 16-year-old and friends dressed as Teletubbies, which they all currently adore.
I already get annoyed when I go somewhere (like a family gathering with people I know) and I look around and there are moments where people are all independently scrolling their phones. I REALLY don't want that to turn into everyone has on their own personal headset. But I guess it should be noted that I am 41 yet throw a fit every time I need to download an app on my phone....and I am avoiding getting a new car because I don't want the push button start, I like my physical key to turn... so I am definitely not the target audience for this new face machine :)
Allow me to be a lone detractor in this my favourite echo chamber. With the generative AI tech that is now available, like the invention of the internet, it’s going to be a mixed bag. We will need to learn to take the good with the bad.
The concern around AI art is very valid but it misses the bigger picture. Generative AI helps with a large number of cognitive tasks which we are only just starting to understand. Here are some examples:
1. Better case management, helping people get quicker and fairer access to benefits.
2. Learning tutor, tailored assistance for your learning needs.
3. Lowering barriers to legal assistance, contract writing etc.
4. Assistive helpers for people with varying disabilities.
5. Making you more productive at work.
On balance, humanity has a lot to gain from this technology. There are a lot of real world use cases where this will benefit people. I am actively encourage people to get to grips with this and start using it. The fact is that there is now this thing out there and like the internet, if you chose not to engage with it you’ll be left behind.
One comment stood out on that twitter thread about AI. It’s not intelligent it’s predictive based on existing data. It’s just giving you more of what already exists.
If we allow this to take over out art and writing we lose the spark, everything becomes greige, like like those cheap bad movies that come out just before the real one. It’ll all become homogenised with so much more valueless shit to wade through to find the real art.
It can be a great tool to help with drudge work, simple programming tasks, that sort of thing, but it’s not a tool to do everything for you. And it’s not creative.
I'm sure a room full of Ivy League MBA's came up with the idea for Star Tours without accounting for the very limited pool of people with enough money to do it, who are also Star Wars fans, who are also immersive theater nerds, who also want to be trapped in a 48 hour LARP. That's probably twenty people. I've made plenty of silly mistakes in my work life but never one that big and they will all undoubtedly get promoted to make even costlier mistakes in the future because mismanaging money only becomes punitive when you don't have a lot of it.
Why does humanity seem determined (at least some of it) to take up residence in The Matrix? Is it a desperate attempt to escape from the mess we're making of our planet and other people's lives, perhaps? We really don't need this kind of stuff - we need much more live interaction with each other, not less. Given the rabbit holes that many fell down during Covid, the evidence suggests we have a lot of difficulty distinguishing real life from malicious garbage, and AI seems to provide a brilliant outlet for those keen to provide endless supplies of malicious garbage.
Remember when we were growing up and the movies and TV shows we had predicted that we would have flying cars and space travel made available to everyone? Not once do I remember the media of that time predicting racism on social media, AI making art for false advertising or some billionaire liking henti. Not even The Simpsons got that one right.- if you're a believer in The Simpsons prophecy stuff. -
Shouldn't we at this time in life be more advanced as a race socially? On a equal ground as we have studied the past mistakes in history and corrected ourselves? How does a computer strapped to our face help us solve the issues that we currently face? How is AI helping us make change instead of people using it to make chaos? These tools could in fact do just that, but it goes to something I listened a while back.
Billy Graham did a Ted Talk before he died, and even if you're not a Christian or don't agree with him, it's definitely worth a listen. I know that there is a lot that can be said on who he is and all that, but he said something that got me thinking. At the end, he made a statement about 3 questions to problems that King David had and he pondered on how we have yet to find a solution to.- I mean he was after all a evangelist, so it's no surprise he would bring up a Biblical figure- Among them was evil. In that question he asked:
" Have you ever thought about what a contradiction we are? On one hand, we can probe the deepest secrets of the universe and dramatically push back the frontiers of technology, as this conference vividly demonstrates. We’ve seen under the sea, three miles down, or galaxies hundreds of billions of years out in the future. "
This is shortly followed by this:
" We can’t get along with other people, even in our own families. We find ourselves in the paralyzing grip of self-destructive habits we can’t break. Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death. "
I say that because with all these things that you fine folks have posted about concerninf technology, AI or Apple, Elon or the idiots in Truth Social, how is it that we can't as a society see the evil and destruction that is in front of our noses? Why are we so blind to the tragedy that is our own malice and hatred? And even though it's nice to see technology at the level it is at today, why is it being used to set us back socially instead of moving us forward philanthropically?- is that a word? -
This is what I think when I read everything. It hurts my soul knowing that all these injustices are going on in the world, yet no real change is happening. You guys always do a great job of exposing this, it's just upsetting that the powers that be in this world choose ignorance. They could make real change happen. Imagine if Elon wanted to do good. Or if Apple fixed it's sight in global warming. That the minds that are creating more and more advanced AI worked on providing resources to underdeveloped countries or places where poverty, famine and disease lay to waste so many? Or that instead of being racist and pricks, the MAGA crowd would accept people for who they are.
These are all things I wish would change but I doubt any of us will see happen in our lifetime sadly. I just hope that we who care will raise the future generations to be the change that is so needed in our world.
Remember that movie Surrogates? Yeah, me too. Last thing I want to do is sit around the house using “fake me” to interact with “fake friend” versions of my friends. I’m definitely an introvert, and it’s uncomfortable sometimes to be in groups, but I always feel better after making myself interact with other humans in person. Also, didn’t Google already try the VR crap which led to major losses? Why would Apple try the same thing again? Must be nice to have the money to spend billions and lose it.
AI is scary AF. SKYNET is real. Join Sarah Connor’s resistance because eventually they’ll figure out that humans tend to be jerks, and they’ll generalize the minority jerk population to the majority normal population and decide all humans don’t deserve to live.
Interesting. Twice I’ve been to a virtual reality studio in Papamoa near Tauranga and for $40 a pop had a “computer strapped to my face” for 50 minutes. Yes, I experienced the thrill of a trip to the moon and back with Neil Armstrong, “escaped” from the Titanic and swam with Orca and Sea Turtles but at the end of it, my neck was screaming and my head was pounding. Do I want to own one for $3000 plus? Never!
On back pain. Right now there are no knives stabbing my left leg or electric impulses from pinched nerves keeping me awake at night. I’m “painkiller free” - I go to Aquacise classes in the local pool which help free up trapped or pinched nerves, my aching and burning bursitis in my hip joints seems to be having a sabbatical and life is easier. I’ve been advised that my stuffed L4, L5 vertebrae should only be fused as a last resort. Life goes on and while my back pain and related aches and pains are at a minimum, I’m happy.
Hope you are too, buddy. Love Webworm and your pithy commentaries! Namaste!
I saw a meme quote recently that summed up how I feel about AI perfectly. Something like “humans do the hard jobs on minimum wage while AI write poetry and paint. This isn’t the future I want”.
I want tech to do the crap jobs I/no one wants to do, to tell me where is the cheapest place to get my groceries this week, to get me the best utility prices, to weed my garden beds. I don’t want some crappy pictures of fake people with seven fingers smiling at me and I sure as shit don’t want a computer strapped to my face like a horror movie spider, distracting me from having genuine interactions with people I care about.
Sorry, that’s more ranty than I was expecting but urgh, tech bro’s just don’t have any clue hey. They may be smart in their own way, and have bucket loads of money but they’re stupidly removed from how 99% of the world actually live 🙄
I'm currently lying in a real hospital, after real surgery, being cared for by real staff. AI is just such a DISTRACTION from anything at all important. You can read Socrates right now, you don't need a fake convo with Bill Gates to do that.
My votes this year go to whichever party shows a physical and real commitment to health care. If I didn't have private health insurance (and I am extremely privileged to do so), all I was funded for was disabling levels of opiates for 6 years before I was even eligible for a wait-list to see a specialist. I want a better future for everyone regardless of ability to pay, and there is no use for pretend nurses in that.
With the rise of AI and its effects on the creative (and real) world, sign me up for the resistance.
I feel like what’s missing from AI art is emotion. My daughter is an artist and the emotion she brings out in her drawings, paintings and videos is what taps into those deep inner workings of what it means to be human.
With that being said, I’ll continue saying please and thank you to Siri because when that shit becomes self aware I’m hoping they’ll spare my life 🤣
Isn’t it simply insane that tech has come this far, yet tooth extraction in dentistry is still “we’re going to crowbar your tooth out now”.
Heartening: the Armageddon exhibition/conference in Auckland NZ was a resounding success. Being old, I don't totally understand the concept, but it seems to involve REAL PEOPLE (mostly young, many in costume) milling about looking at exhibs and at each other. Both my grandies went. The 17-year old bought lots of books. The 16-year-old and friends dressed as Teletubbies, which they all currently adore.
I already get annoyed when I go somewhere (like a family gathering with people I know) and I look around and there are moments where people are all independently scrolling their phones. I REALLY don't want that to turn into everyone has on their own personal headset. But I guess it should be noted that I am 41 yet throw a fit every time I need to download an app on my phone....and I am avoiding getting a new car because I don't want the push button start, I like my physical key to turn... so I am definitely not the target audience for this new face machine :)
Allow me to be a lone detractor in this my favourite echo chamber. With the generative AI tech that is now available, like the invention of the internet, it’s going to be a mixed bag. We will need to learn to take the good with the bad.
The concern around AI art is very valid but it misses the bigger picture. Generative AI helps with a large number of cognitive tasks which we are only just starting to understand. Here are some examples:
1. Better case management, helping people get quicker and fairer access to benefits.
2. Learning tutor, tailored assistance for your learning needs.
3. Lowering barriers to legal assistance, contract writing etc.
4. Assistive helpers for people with varying disabilities.
5. Making you more productive at work.
On balance, humanity has a lot to gain from this technology. There are a lot of real world use cases where this will benefit people. I am actively encourage people to get to grips with this and start using it. The fact is that there is now this thing out there and like the internet, if you chose not to engage with it you’ll be left behind.
One comment stood out on that twitter thread about AI. It’s not intelligent it’s predictive based on existing data. It’s just giving you more of what already exists.
If we allow this to take over out art and writing we lose the spark, everything becomes greige, like like those cheap bad movies that come out just before the real one. It’ll all become homogenised with so much more valueless shit to wade through to find the real art.
It can be a great tool to help with drudge work, simple programming tasks, that sort of thing, but it’s not a tool to do everything for you. And it’s not creative.
I'm sure a room full of Ivy League MBA's came up with the idea for Star Tours without accounting for the very limited pool of people with enough money to do it, who are also Star Wars fans, who are also immersive theater nerds, who also want to be trapped in a 48 hour LARP. That's probably twenty people. I've made plenty of silly mistakes in my work life but never one that big and they will all undoubtedly get promoted to make even costlier mistakes in the future because mismanaging money only becomes punitive when you don't have a lot of it.
Why does humanity seem determined (at least some of it) to take up residence in The Matrix? Is it a desperate attempt to escape from the mess we're making of our planet and other people's lives, perhaps? We really don't need this kind of stuff - we need much more live interaction with each other, not less. Given the rabbit holes that many fell down during Covid, the evidence suggests we have a lot of difficulty distinguishing real life from malicious garbage, and AI seems to provide a brilliant outlet for those keen to provide endless supplies of malicious garbage.
Only humans can make something that dumb and expensive. The more I read about AI, the more I want to hug my cat.
Remember when we were growing up and the movies and TV shows we had predicted that we would have flying cars and space travel made available to everyone? Not once do I remember the media of that time predicting racism on social media, AI making art for false advertising or some billionaire liking henti. Not even The Simpsons got that one right.- if you're a believer in The Simpsons prophecy stuff. -
Shouldn't we at this time in life be more advanced as a race socially? On a equal ground as we have studied the past mistakes in history and corrected ourselves? How does a computer strapped to our face help us solve the issues that we currently face? How is AI helping us make change instead of people using it to make chaos? These tools could in fact do just that, but it goes to something I listened a while back.
Billy Graham did a Ted Talk before he died, and even if you're not a Christian or don't agree with him, it's definitely worth a listen. I know that there is a lot that can be said on who he is and all that, but he said something that got me thinking. At the end, he made a statement about 3 questions to problems that King David had and he pondered on how we have yet to find a solution to.- I mean he was after all a evangelist, so it's no surprise he would bring up a Biblical figure- Among them was evil. In that question he asked:
" Have you ever thought about what a contradiction we are? On one hand, we can probe the deepest secrets of the universe and dramatically push back the frontiers of technology, as this conference vividly demonstrates. We’ve seen under the sea, three miles down, or galaxies hundreds of billions of years out in the future. "
This is shortly followed by this:
" We can’t get along with other people, even in our own families. We find ourselves in the paralyzing grip of self-destructive habits we can’t break. Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death. "
I say that because with all these things that you fine folks have posted about concerninf technology, AI or Apple, Elon or the idiots in Truth Social, how is it that we can't as a society see the evil and destruction that is in front of our noses? Why are we so blind to the tragedy that is our own malice and hatred? And even though it's nice to see technology at the level it is at today, why is it being used to set us back socially instead of moving us forward philanthropically?- is that a word? -
This is what I think when I read everything. It hurts my soul knowing that all these injustices are going on in the world, yet no real change is happening. You guys always do a great job of exposing this, it's just upsetting that the powers that be in this world choose ignorance. They could make real change happen. Imagine if Elon wanted to do good. Or if Apple fixed it's sight in global warming. That the minds that are creating more and more advanced AI worked on providing resources to underdeveloped countries or places where poverty, famine and disease lay to waste so many? Or that instead of being racist and pricks, the MAGA crowd would accept people for who they are.
These are all things I wish would change but I doubt any of us will see happen in our lifetime sadly. I just hope that we who care will raise the future generations to be the change that is so needed in our world.
And I side with you David.
I get a headache from wearing any kind of headband. Remember how far you’re supposed to sit from a screen? No? Right on top of your irises is perfect!
Remember that movie Surrogates? Yeah, me too. Last thing I want to do is sit around the house using “fake me” to interact with “fake friend” versions of my friends. I’m definitely an introvert, and it’s uncomfortable sometimes to be in groups, but I always feel better after making myself interact with other humans in person. Also, didn’t Google already try the VR crap which led to major losses? Why would Apple try the same thing again? Must be nice to have the money to spend billions and lose it.
AI is scary AF. SKYNET is real. Join Sarah Connor’s resistance because eventually they’ll figure out that humans tend to be jerks, and they’ll generalize the minority jerk population to the majority normal population and decide all humans don’t deserve to live.
Interesting. Twice I’ve been to a virtual reality studio in Papamoa near Tauranga and for $40 a pop had a “computer strapped to my face” for 50 minutes. Yes, I experienced the thrill of a trip to the moon and back with Neil Armstrong, “escaped” from the Titanic and swam with Orca and Sea Turtles but at the end of it, my neck was screaming and my head was pounding. Do I want to own one for $3000 plus? Never!
On back pain. Right now there are no knives stabbing my left leg or electric impulses from pinched nerves keeping me awake at night. I’m “painkiller free” - I go to Aquacise classes in the local pool which help free up trapped or pinched nerves, my aching and burning bursitis in my hip joints seems to be having a sabbatical and life is easier. I’ve been advised that my stuffed L4, L5 vertebrae should only be fused as a last resort. Life goes on and while my back pain and related aches and pains are at a minimum, I’m happy.
Hope you are too, buddy. Love Webworm and your pithy commentaries! Namaste!
I saw a meme quote recently that summed up how I feel about AI perfectly. Something like “humans do the hard jobs on minimum wage while AI write poetry and paint. This isn’t the future I want”.
I want tech to do the crap jobs I/no one wants to do, to tell me where is the cheapest place to get my groceries this week, to get me the best utility prices, to weed my garden beds. I don’t want some crappy pictures of fake people with seven fingers smiling at me and I sure as shit don’t want a computer strapped to my face like a horror movie spider, distracting me from having genuine interactions with people I care about.
Sorry, that’s more ranty than I was expecting but urgh, tech bro’s just don’t have any clue hey. They may be smart in their own way, and have bucket loads of money but they’re stupidly removed from how 99% of the world actually live 🙄