TechTakes

Y'all remember when 3D TVs were going to be revolutionary?

Reducing computer performance:

Turbo button 🤝 AI button

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I honestly can't think of any practical use case for AI in my day-to-day routine.

ML algorithms are just fancy statistics machines, and to that end, I can see plenty of research and industry applications where large datasets need to be assessed (weather, medicine, ...) with human oversight.

But for me in my day to day?

I don't need a statistics bot making decisions for me at work, because if it was that easy I wouldn't be getting paid to do it.

I don't need a giant calculator telling me when to eat or sleep or what game to play.

I don't need a Roomba with a graphics card automatically replying to my text messages.

Handing over my entire life's data just so a ML algorithm might be able to tell me what that one website I visited 3 years ago that sold kangaroo testicles was isn't a filing system. There's nothing I care about losing enough to go the effort of setting up copilot, but not enough to just, you know, bookmark it, or save it with a clear enough file name.

Long rant, but really, what does copilot actually do for me?

I would actively avoid the extra hassle of an AI computer.

My problem is that it's not that fucking useful. I got the Pixel 9 specifically because of its advertised AI chip for the assistant and I swear it's just gotten worse since the Pixel 7. I used to be able to ask Google anything through the assistant, and now 90% of my questions are answered with "can't find the information."

They also advertised (or at least heavily alluded to) the use of the AI chip when you are in low network areas but it works just as good outside of 4g+ coverage as it ever did without the stupid chip.

Whats the point of adding AI branded nonsense if there's no practical use for it. And that doesn't even start to cover the issues with AI's reliability as a source of information. Garbage in = garbage out.

That's not fair! I care! A lot!

Just had to buy a new laptop for new place of employment. It took real time, effort, and care, but I've finally found a recent laptop matching my hardware requirements and sense of aesthetics at a reasonable price, without that hideous copilot button :)

Gen AI should be private, secure, local and easier to train by it's users to fit their own needs. Closest thing to this at the moment seems to be Kobold.

No thanks. I’m perfectly capable of coming up with incorrect answers on my own.

Don’t care AND are not stupid.

Even non tech people I talk to know AI is bad because the companies are pushing it so hard. They intuit that if the product was good, they wouldn't be giving it away, much less begging you to use it.

Oh we care alright. We care about keeping it OUT of our FUCKING LIVES.

One of the mistakes they made with AI was introducing it before it was ready (I’m making a generous assumption by suggesting that “ready” is even possible). It will be extremely difficult for any AI product to shake the reputation that AI is half-baked and makes absurd, nonsensical mistakes.

This is a great example of capitalism working against itself. Investors want a return on their investment now, and advertisers/salespeople made unrealistic claims. AI simply isn’t ready for prime time. Now they’ll be fighting a bad reputation for years. Because of the situation tech companies created for themselves, getting users to trust AI will be an uphill battle.