I stopped drinking the AI Kool-Aid

(joshtronic.com)

34 points | by joshtronic 2 hours ago

3 comments

  • variety8675 1 hour ago
    Using AI agents to email each other is just a reflection of "If you're not going to bother to write it, I'm not going to read it"
    • joshtronic 1 hour ago
      How would you approach this. You email a company that has something you want to license. An agent responds. Do you abandon your pursuits at that point and consider other options?
      • vips7L 21 minutes ago
        Yes.
        • joshtronic 19 minutes ago
          Let's say it was critical for the business, with no viable alternatives? I'm all for "find a way or make one" but there are times when you need to be more practical than dogmatic.

          Would love to hear your thoughts

      • AnimalMuppet 1 hour ago
        Depends on how close other options are to what I want.

        But if you're going to have an agent rather than a human respond to enquiries from potential customers (= $), then I'm not convinced I'm going to like how you respond after I am a customer.

        • joshtronic 1 hour ago
          Yeah, that closeness of options makes it tough to really dig the heels in. Also, you can become a customer today, and have them fire their entire support staff and replace it with an agent tomorrow. Dwindling QC and CS isn't a new concern though, just need to make sure the space isn't owned by a single company
      • variety8675 1 hour ago
        I mean honestly yes, if given the choice not to interact with an AI system for something I will. Simple example, the Comcast AI slop bot stonewalls you online, but you can walk into a retail location and have a human resolve the issue in 30 seconds
        • joshtronic 1 hour ago
          Totally get that. I think the fear there is that maybe this is the timeline where we just keep running out of those options.

          I still favor a longer line with a human or two in the loop at the store rather than self checkout. Depending on the time of day, self checkout is the only options. Fortunately, there's usually problems and you still get a chance to connect with a human :)

          RMS drew a line in the sand with how he interacts with closed-source systems. Starting to wonder if that's how extreme we need to be AI systems.

  • TruffleLabs 1 hour ago
    Thanks for the Bill and Ted reference at the end ;)
    • joshtronic 1 hour ago
      I'm humbled that somebody made it to the end. Doubly blessed because it's not every day you get to make 2 Keanu Reeves movie references in one post
      • verdverm 1 hour ago
        made it to the end as well :wq

        it was good, resonates with my own experience dialing it back and reconnecting with other human beings, I like being pro-Ai, but not pilled-Ai, and trying to moderate the Ai discourse

        • joshtronic 1 hour ago
          :wq indeed :)

          it's been a wild ride, in a lot of ways I feel like I speed ran running my EQ into the ground, only to be reborn like a phoenix.

          I've been told in the past to "think like an entrepreneur, not an engineer" and in a lot of ways I think that was bleeding into how I was approaching AI-usage.

          I'm on your blog now, hoping you've posted your own musings so I can read them!

          • verdverm 1 hour ago
            I have not :x

            Supposed to be redoing that, I've been making zines instead (physical blogs?)

            • joshtronic 1 hour ago
              really? that's freakin' cool. what kind of topics??

              I'm old, so I remember 'zines from the 80s and 90s :)

              • verdverm 58 minutes ago
                Mostly political oriented, one of my returns to humanity was getting involved in my local indivisible. I have one on May Day, lots of Get Out The Vote, "changing the constitution" (wip). I've been using the exercise to learn the history of things.

                I'm currently (like right now) working on A Survey of Ai Regulation (and more), which is far too much to fit into the mini-zines I make, and will be used to force my hand into updating my site q:]

                • joshtronic 42 minutes ago
                  Very cool! Heck, need to force that hand just to help spread the word about the other zines! :)))
  • cpoile 57 minutes ago
    One of the nicer blogs I’ve read on the subject, thanks Josh.
    • joshtronic 44 minutes ago
      Appreciate the kind words, tyty :bow: