When I was young and starting out with computers, programming, BBS’ and later the early internet, technology was something that expanded my mind, helped me to research, learn new skills, and meet people and have interesting conversations. Something decentralized that put power into the hands of the little guy who could start his own business venture with his PC or expand his skillset.
Where we are now with AI, the opposite seems to be happening. We are asking AI to do things for us rather than learning how to do things ourselves. We are losing our research skills. Many people are talking to AI’s about their problems instead of other people. And they will take away our jobs and centralize all power into a handful of billionaire sociopaths with robot armies to carry out whatever nefarious deeds they want to do.
I hope we somehow make it through this part of history with some semblance of freedom and autonomy intact, but I’m having a hard time seeing how.
Librarian here, can confirm.
I started my Master’s in Library and Information Science in 2010. We were told not to worry about the internet making us obsolete because we would be needed to teach information literacy.
Information literacy turned out to be something people didn’t want. They wanted to be told what to think, not taught skills to think for themselves.
It’s been the single greatest and most expensive disappointment of my life.
How does one go about learning information literacy?
classes in philosophy, literature, politics, and digital media. typically.
you know, those evil humanities that are destroying society… because they don’t produce ‘value’.
Rhetoric is a big one too, not just to use but to be able to identify when it’s being used to manipulate you
As far as I’m concerned the generative AI that we see in chatbots has no goal associated with it: it just exists for no purpose at all. In contrast to google translate or other translation apps (which BTW still use machine learning algorithms) have a far more practical use to it as being a resource to translate other languages in real-time. I don’t care what companies call it (if it’s a tool or not) at the moment its a big fucking turd that AI companies are trying to force feed down our fucking mouth.
You also see this tech slop happening historically in the evolution of search engines. Way before we had recommendation algorithms in most modern search engines. A search engine was basically a database where the user had to thoughtfully word its queries to get good search results, then came the recommendation algorithm and I could only imagine no one, literally no one, cared about it since we could already do the things this algorithm offered to solve. Still, however, it was pushed, and sooner than later integrated into most popular search engines. Now you see the same thing happening with generative AI…
The purpose of generative AI, much like the recommendation algorithm is solving nothing hence the analogy “its just a big fucking turd” is what I’m trying to persuade here: We could already do the things it offered to solve. If you can see the pattern, its just this downward spiraling affect. It appeals to anti intellectuals (which is most of the US at this point) and google and other major companies are making record profit by selling user data to brokers: its a win for both parties.
Thank you…
Apparently, I’ve never ever considered any LLM serious, convenient, appropriate, similar to Markov’s chain, though those differ, and I disable and uninstall absolutely everything that is LLM related, or alters human effortful works, including programming suggestions, searching, and in any kind of adequate research, in the personal life or everywhere possible since 2021 (and some in 2023), where I had a few months of experimenting with those - enough to consider the time I still have to continue actually learning, discovering, and staying social as much as I can…
Please… Please, in context of such education… instead of investing your priceless, precious, finite life time… into such empty void as unknown output of unknown LLM from unknown dataset of unknown artists… developers… people… Please, instead, please consider to take your time… and try to see the love in someone’s else works, courses, videos, books, articles, schemes, tables, drawings… who would be only heartfelt delighted to know… to know that someone else like you, like themselves… were reaching out for their experience they were gaining for decades and worked hard to prepare it for someone out there… in search… for someone who wishes and tries to create something, to improve the world… to reach for an achievement… to treasure a goal… to invent a miracle…
Since isn’t the following the miraculous purpose to live and contribute to the infinite world? To gain experience by confident, adequate effort, to work towards achievements, to stay responsible as a human, to stay alive… Which is at least: personal contributions published, social interactions, actually felt and considered facts organized by accountable people, self-confidence and miraculous time you invest into learning the human experience published in marvelous works of books, articles, videos, forums, chats - the ineffable magnificence…
There’s use for LLM, including pentesting, medicine and analyzing of unknown and random for the sake of random in scopes of “black-box”, for example, sure, but overly rarely and the fear of malformed facts, unknown sources, disturbed art… will always shadow any presence of such generative technologies, I believe… Yet, shouldn’t technology support you, your mind (i.e. not atrophy it but train and discipline it), your creativity, your ideas, your… existence?
Since isn’t learning from someone else experience is actually important… Isn’t it ineffably magnificent to discover someone’s hard work… Isn’t the process of learning and discovering actually fun!
Isn’t the knowledge that you unique carry valuable… What is the fun, the purpose, otherwise…?Please consider your confidence, skills, mind, and… your precious time…
“If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.” ~ Tristan Harris
“Machines should work; people should think.” ~ IBM Pollyanna Principle
