Absolutely needed: to get high efficiency for this beast … as it gets better, we’ll become too dependent.

“all of this growth is for a new technology that’s still finding its footing, and in many applications—education, medical advice, legal analysis—might be the wrong tool for the job,”

  • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    At some point, someone said the same thing about:

    • electricity
    • books
    • cars
    • computers
    • medicine
    • houses

    Is this /c/technology or /c/anti_technology because it’s hard to tell most of the time.

    • yeahiknow3@lemmings.world
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      2 months ago

      A better analogy for AI is the discovery of asbestos or the invention of single-use plastics. Terrible fucking idea.

      • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        I think it’s probably a bit early to tell for certain on that assessment. There is definitely pros and cons to all technology. Electricity production causes environmental damage, building wooden houses require logging. Plastics are a byproduct of a withering industry. Asbestos might have saved more lives than it took, but there were probably much better ways to solve fire resistant buildings.

        Why all these destructive things? Capitalism requires maximizing profits above all else. So, really the question is how will capitalism fuck us over with AI? So, so many ways. That’s why it’s important that we build community understanding of this technology in order to combat it. It’s not going away. It’s here to stay. So we either put our heads in the sand and pretend it’s not here or we can embrace it and learn how it works and how to defeat it and come up with open source tooling to combat it.

        I’m in the latter camp. I love technology breakthroughs and want to learn first hand the capabilities to understand how it will be used against me and how I can use it.

      • dust_accelerator@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 months ago

        Well, it’s a bit better than that, simply because you can train AI with solar power. Probably nobody does that currently, as it’s easier, faster-to-market and probably (for whatever corrupt reason) cheaper for business to let it run on burning fossils/nuclear. Currently there’s an insane amount of waste, often 1000s of models are trained and only the best performing one is deployed - and then it’s just a fancy autocomplete. The better use is for prediction of material failure, new medicine and protein folding, generally improved processes.

        With asbestos you get some convenience, but it’ll be for eternity a pain to find a waste management facility that will accept it.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      Cars are literally privileged garbage that’s destroying the planet. Great comparison on that one.

      Is this /c/technology or /c/anti_technology because it’s hard to tell most of the time.

      Well only one of those is allowed to exist so you figure it out.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism

    • madjo@feddit.nl
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      2 months ago

      What benefit for society does this crop of large language models and generative “AI” offer?

      We already see students use it for homework, meaning they don’t learn their stuff.

      We also see people treat the output of LLMs as gospel truth, despite the fact that LLMs often hallucinate complete BS!

      LLMs and generative “AI” rely on stolen artwork. Which is a net negative for society.

      • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        Well for me, I enjoy pair programming my own projects with offline models. I also bounce ideas off it to attempt to ground myself in some type of reality (some models are better for this than others… probably has risk of delusions of grandeur. Some models will just verbally suck you off which is annoying).

        I built ansible tooling for deploying k3s kubernetes and Ceph-backed Proxmox clusters and VMs and containers and services. Utilized the help of LLMs to structure my playbooks and figure out how roles work.

        I love learning new things and LLMs have a lot to offer in that regard. You have to watch out for the bullshit and independently look at other sources as well, but it’s a great starting point and I can sometimes have sone deep conversations around some topics.

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      2 months ago

      You might have heard of these fossil fuels we’re busily running out of. And fossil is still 80% of primary energy use so there is no renewable energy transition, and renewable infrastructure is being built almost exclusively using fossil fuels.

      So this means future energy rationing. What’s the business case for AI?

        • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Also telling me how to install arch Linux but sing it to me as a Kenny Loggins

          Verse 1 Reboot your rig and hit the USB, Boot it up live from the Arch IS-OOOHH-B! You’re in the zone now, terminal’s lit, You gotta ping that net and make sure it’s legit!

          (CHORUS) Highway to the Arch install, (Gonna fly into the…) Highway to the Arch install!


          Verse 2 Partition time with cfdisk — no fear, Format your root with mkfs.ext4 my dear. Mount it up with a little mount /dev/sdX, Now you’re rolling smooth, yeah you’re onto the next!

          (CHORUS) Highway to the Arch install, (Gonna fly into the…) Highway to the Arch install!


          Bridge Mirror, mirror, set 'em fast, reflector knows how to make that last. Then pacstrap /mnt base linux — so fly, Installin’ Arch, baby, you’re touching the sky!

          (Slow breakdown) genfstab, then chroot in, Now you’re living life like a power sysadmin…


          Final Chorus – belt it! Highway to the Arch install, You’re flying, configuring it aaaaall! Bootloader, locale, make that call — You’re livin’ the dream with no safety net at all!

          Highway… to the Arch install…

      • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        Restricting our energy use is not a very good end game. We need to learn how to unlock more energy production without destruction of the environment. This will happen through technological development. Temporarily rationing or conservation may be needed, but permanent is not the answer.

          • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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            2 months ago

            I’m not interested in books championing our reduction of human expansion. I want to see us reach out into the stars one day. Technological development and progress is needed. We need to also change our mindset on current systems. E.g., if it doesn’t maximize return on investment, forget about it. If there is a way to do it slightly cheaper even if it’s detrimental, do it cheaper. That mindset sucks.

            • eleitl@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              Just develop fully autopoietic artificial photosynthetic systems. Piece of cake.

    • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      When AI was getting popular, the media released an absolute war against it. A lot of us are swayed by what the media tell us

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      2 months ago

      Is this /c/technology or /c/anti_technology because it’s hard to tell most of the time.

      People here are generally anti-anything. That’s what echo chambers are for.

      • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        It’s much better to be a critical thinker than mindlessly accepting whatever BS from some grifter just because it’s “accepted wisdom” in a completely brainwashed society.

        • Engywook@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          I’m gladly you’re one of the few non-brainwashed humans on the Earth. So special!

      • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        I am biased, I am having a ton of fun with LLMs and they are helping me achieve some personal goals. Do they use energy? Sure. Will new, more powerful technologies come along later that require even greater amounts of energy? I hope so one day. We need to find cleaner more abundant energy sources.

      • zerofk@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Sounds like most of Lemmy. Honestly sometimes I feel it’s worse than Reddit with the constant bashing on anything except Linux, Firefox, or - for some reason - Steam. Still glad I left Reddit though.

        • Engywook@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          I didn’t leave reddit, because I consider useful the subs I use (mostly technical stuff). And yes, you’re right about the constant bashing on anything out of the herd mentality.

        • taladar@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Nuclear power seems to be one of those things that are anything but bashed here but instead gets treated with an almost worship-like reverence.