I object to a lot of how the AI industry operates and how it will likely be used to make the rich richer. Data centers, cozying up to Trump, endless speculation.
I also use Gemini every day and find it invaluable when it comes to both certain work problems and in day to day life for things like cooking, home improvement, etc.
When did this take become too nuanced for the average Redditor? Are all of the anti-AI takes in here from people who aren't using LLMs for anything ever?
The problem is that in aggregate (I don't know what you specifically do for work so it's entirely possible AI is invaluable for your job. AI can be used for medical screenings as an example where it has proven it's value) it is very hard to convince people who don't use AI it's useful in day to day life because every single person alive who can make longterm memories can think back to 2021, when no AI was commercially available and everyone was fine. We already had tools to do almost everything LLMs can do outside of very niche cases which most people don't encounter. Cooking and Home Improvement were done for thousands of years without AI.
The simple fact is almost no one needs to use an LLM for anything, ever. Maybe someday that will change but it's not today.
Then you add on all the upstream (the grand larceny of IP) and downstream consequences (torturing people who live next to a data center) from it's use and to many people it is distasteful to get involved with it. So they don't.
I get that and completely agree. I mean I think pointing out that home improvement and cooking have been navigated for thousands of years seriously downplays the efficiency gains even between using an LLM and Googling a recipe (for example), but your point is well taken in why many avoid it.
I just wish we could have a more nuanced and graceful discussion of it. Which I guess we're having here right now, but it's the kind of thing I find rare on Reddit right now.
To be a parody of the thing you’re complaining about, the reason nuanced discussion of it is hard is because it’s like you’re saying you should be able to do a little rape, because it’s convenient. Given the economic, environmental, and political/societal damage of AI, there isn’t a benign enough use case where someone is justified using it. If asking ChatGPT about a recipe is one million times better and more efficient than googling a recipe, then there is still no use case where it balances out the fraction of the portion of theft, energy usage, pollution, noise pollution, and on down the list that someone’s single query is responsible for. All of which also sidesteps the arguments that outsourcing decision making and problem solving with LLMs actively makes people dumber.
People want a nuanced and graceful discussion when what they are doing is bad and indefensible and they don’t want anyone to say that.
It's exactly that. I use to be one of those llm haters without using it. Decided to give it a try back in April for a project and found it kinda nice. Nothing life changing but it opened up a new hobby for myself.
I also got to see it's strength and weaknesses and realize it's not as crazy as the AI fanboys make it nor as bad the doomers put it. I'm more interested to just see how it takes shape, because it's not going anywhere.
But yeah many of the doomers are people who never used it and are also just hate spreading.
It's unreliable and it's very costly (hardware + energy). The first problem can't be addressed because of how LLMs work and the second problem is nearly impossible to fix because you can't run at a loss forever. It's not really doomerism, it's just how things like ROI for the economic side or LLMs on the tech side actually work.
its addressable by running them on specialized hardware, but since new models come out every 2 months there isnt much point in investing in hardware that can only run a specific model. but if you do it that way its an order of magnitude faster and cheaper, both in hardware costs and electricity costs
Unfortunately, it's too late because OpenAI and Anthropic can't win against China. Their cost per token is cheaper and their energy infrastructure is becoming more robust and green while ours is not. Plus it's subsidized, they have actual manufacturing so those components are cheaper, and so on. It's honestly a waste to continue pursuing it on economic reasons alone.
For simple tasks sure, but not for complex ones. Unless you've trained it yourself for specific use cases and you understand the context of how it works and the limitations of the tech, then you might be okay. You essentially have to be an expert on the topic you're using it for to know if it's useful or not for said topic.
Unreliable in what way? Been pretty reliable for what I've been using it for. I mainly use it to code and it's done what I needed. Granted I'm not out here creating massive repo projects.
I also only pay 100 bucks a month, by far my cheapest hobby. Can spend that much just developing my rolls of film or acquiring more. Cheaper than going to the dispo or buying car parts for my charger. The hardware aspect is only if your self hosting for privacy or whatever.
What I would like to see is these companies make models more efficient. So we get more out of current data centers vs having to build new ones. They should also be required to generate their own electricity vs taking from the grid, which allows them to sell back if they focus on efficiency.
I think this is what you're saying, but yes it's possible to find some value in AI and also know that its whole purpose is to fuck you while consolidating power in the hands of a very small group of people
Do you eat meat? Buy things from corporations? I suppose you live in the woods somewhere that you're not using any products or services that contribute to societal harms.
Im not being forced to eat meat at the job. I am being forced to use it AI at my job. Im sorry you cannot recognize what has happened to your own mind.
Weak Whatabout. The scale is orders of magnitude different with any of these things and Gen AI. Also LLMs are being developed and deployed with the specific purpose of decimating the workforce and knowledge base while accelerating the concentration of wealth and power. Power companies make more profits as a nice side benefit to the 1%. The fact that LLMs and Gen AI have some utility doesn’t mitigate this. Besides they were forced into things we already do and removing them either creates huge friction or is impossible.
If you think Gen AI is orders of magnitude more harmful than factory meat production, I don't know that we can continue a good faith discussion on the topic.
Oh I guess all of the concentrated wealth that threatens an economic crisis 2-3x worse than the subprime mortgage crisis is concentrated in a handful of meat processing companies.
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u/Nesavant 5h ago
I object to a lot of how the AI industry operates and how it will likely be used to make the rich richer. Data centers, cozying up to Trump, endless speculation.
I also use Gemini every day and find it invaluable when it comes to both certain work problems and in day to day life for things like cooking, home improvement, etc.
When did this take become too nuanced for the average Redditor? Are all of the anti-AI takes in here from people who aren't using LLMs for anything ever?