I think this is one of the biggest problems with AI.
It allows people to bullshit more and think they know what they are doing.
Pointy-Haired Bosses spouting garbage has always been a problem, but I think AI has made it worse.
I watched an interview with someone from Institute Of War, one of the best informed think tanks concerning the war in Ukraine. She said they monitor hundreds of Russian bloggers and posters for information. When asked if they use AI to sort the information she said they found it meaningless because it doesn’t have the ability to understand what’s important or not.
Too many people think it’s a shortcut to experience and expertise.
I haven’t been reading this thread, but there is a YouTube channel that I follow, called The Art of Storytelling and his latest video, around 13 minutes worth, talks a lot about how AI degrades and displaces creativity. It’s a good watch, and entertaining (he apparently coins some terms that may have staying power, such as how allowing small bits of AI in your creative process can lead to a slippery slop).
And when the proposal fails, as it inevitably will, blame will come to roost on your shoulders, because (a) you stated your opposition clearly and up-front, thereby marking yourself as Not A Team Player, and (b) you worked on the proposal against your better judgement, leading you (in their minds) to sabotage it (consciously or not).
I have some questions for the AI experts here. There are several AI threads I might have posted this in, but I thought this one would be the best one to obtain reasonable answers in. If a mod wants to move it, fine by me.
A few months ago, my wife found this YouTube channel, which features nearly 300 videos, all over two hours long, with “facts” about various science topics, intended to put you to sleep.
It works pretty well for her. Before this, I would often read her random Wikipedia entries until she fell asleep. So this is easier for me. I just turn it off after she starts snoring.
The first few nights she played them, I marveled at the notion that someone had written and narrated (very professionally) such long videos. It was only a few nights later, when it mispronounced a word (I think it was “live” with a short I instead of a long one, or some such thing) that a real human would never do, that I finally realized, “Oh, this is all AI.”
FWIW, in that portion of the videos I have listened (and paid attention) to, I have not heard anything obviously wrong within the limits of my understanding of the various topics.
Since then I’ve found that there are lots of other similar channels of entirely AI-generated videos for sleeping. To say nothing of all the awful AI slop of other kinds, clogging up YT.
So my questions for you guys are:
How much does creating 150-minute videos like these cost the founder of the site?
How long does it take AI to generate them?
How much money is he likely to be making from them?
I suppose I could ask AI all these questions, too, and maybe I will, but I thought I’d ask here first.
(The putative creator of the site explains how he came to do it in this video, but a comment suggests that that video is also AI! It’s AI all the way down!)
I was invited today by Yale University to participate in a controlled 3-month test of an LLM AI (their own, apparently) and how it can change opinions (or something like that). I accepted, partly because I have never used a chat AI before and I thought this might be a harmless way to experiment. I started with today’s suggested topic, federal budget and national debt.
So far I find the discussion very difficult to keep track of. I ask a question and it gives back a couple of screens’ worth, broken down into detailed sub-topics, and all I can do to continue is to focus on one of them, thereby leaving a lot of stuff behind. Of course, I can always scroll back up and pick up on something that I skipped. But it’s frustrating to realize that such a discussion will never reach an end point, unlike talking with a person where we both get tired of the discussion.
Is there a useful strategy for me to ask the bot to somehow pare down or simplify what they are giving me? Also, it is patting me on the back a little for asking perspicacious questions (my word, not its). I wish it would stop that.
Bearing in mind that this topic could be a hijack, would folks prefer if I start a new thread for this? I don’t know what level of interest there would be in it.
Absolutely. You can tell it something like “limit your response to single topic or subtopic at a time,” or “limit your responses to x words or less,” or “start with a high-level explanation and only provide more in-depth analysis when I request it.” Or whatever you would tell a person that was giving you these kind of responses.
For the sycophancy, just straight-up tell it “compliments for a good question are annoying and unnecessary.”
This assumes that the study doesn’t give you guidelines on how you are supposed to interact.
?