• bampop@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      It’s like the dotcom bubble. Everyone got all excited thinking the internet would be the next big thing, change the world, revolutionize the way we do business. And it did. But not without a lot of hot air and snake oil getting sold along the way.

      • fodor@lemmy.zip
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        13 hours ago

        Not really comparable, maybe. This is more scam and less substance… There is no definition of “AI”, is there? If you bring up the fundamental problems with genAI, they just pivot to expert systems. Classic scam artistry. They know they’re selling hot air, promising digital workers that are already complete failures.

        Of course computers will continue to be used in various ways … Just like we’ve seen since 1951, right?

        • bampop@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          I can easily imagine having this conversation with someone in the late 90s, when there was so much excitement about the internet. If, as a skeptic, you were to ask me why the internet was really needed or why anyone would take the trouble to connect to it on a daily basis, I wouldn’t have been able to give a complete and correct answer, not being able to predict the future with any accuracy.

          But AI is already super useful as a tool for sifting through data, finding patterns and acting based on patterns. Its potential applications in medical diagnostics or surveillance (yes, I hate that too but it is what it is) are huge. People like to shit on LLMs but they do go beyond what search engines or scripts can do. But the real question is what AI will be in the next decade or so. And much like the internet in its early days, we can only guess at its future capabilities, how it will integrate with our lives, what will take off, and what is just a scam. Everyone is selling ideas that don’t work yet but seem exciting. But just because it’s inflated, oversold, and often untrustworthy, doesn’t mean that AI as a whole is just a mirage. It will be huge, and change our world fundamentally. That said, I’m still shorting Palantir ;)

          • groet@feddit.org
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            2 hours ago

            sifting through data, finding patterns and acting based on patterns. Its potential applications in medical diagnostics or surveillance …

            Those are the "expert systems’ they were talking about. ML systems and not genAI. They are not the AI people mean when they use the word AI.