Just curious here, how much of this was written by AI?
It seems to me to me to gloss over hundreds if not (tens of) thousands of years of human ingenuity.
Subtract AI, most people will probably be fine. Take away the plow and people will starve and die. AI is a luxury product and should be treated as such.
I would go so far as to say that AI "copilots" and "assistants" should not be allowed to refer to themselves in the first person. Can a plow refer to itself in the first person? Should a plow say, "Woah dude, we just hit a big rock"?
How many technologies came before the plow? How many people does it take to make a plow? How many people does a plow feed? How many technologies is AI contingent upon? A plow is a simple tool that has far more impact than AI has shown. It addresses a basic human need. AI, does not.
There are so many logic gaps in this argument. I don't want to go on.
> Just curious here, how much of this was written by AI?
None of it, I would guess. I'm starting to think HN needs a new guideline, against people calling anything they don't understand 'made by AI'.
> Subtract AI, most people will probably be fine.
Look at the course we're on. Radical improvements are necessary. AI is radical, whether you want to admit it or not. And it isn't getting 'subtracted' any time soon.
> Take away the plow and people will starve and die.
Not when it was first invented.
> AI is a luxury product and should be treated as such.
It is literally free (as in beer) to anyone with internet.
> I would go so far as to say that AI "copilots" and "assistants" should not be allowed to refer to themselves in the first person. Can a plow refer to itself in the first person? [etc for 2 paragraphs]
Some people don't know what a metaphor is. You might want to check the meaning of the word.
Sorry my thoughts seem to have offended you into a defensive position. That was not my intent. I'm sure that's why you attack someone's understanding. Saying there are gaps in logic, isn't accusatory or demeaning.
> None of it, I would guess.
You guess? Are you the author?
> AI is radical
Is it? Or is it a logical unfolding that has been predicted and theorized for the better part of a century?
Perhaps aspects of its implementation are radical?
> It is literally free
So are disposable razor blades when you buy the handle. Who has the most to benefit from some companies' AI products being free? I bet it's not the end-user.
> Some people don't know what a metaphor
Is that passive aggression? If so, how thoughtful. Some people are autistic.
All I'm saying is: Show me how much AI has actually changed and for whom. Then we can start this conversation. I was in fact, challenging the use of the plow as a metaphor.
AI seems very much a top down kind of tool, where a plow is bottom up.
This is a poor comparison that misses the reason why the plow took off. The plow was able to produce grains similar to human laborers at a speed that made scythes and bush knives obscelete. There was no more need for human labor because mechanized harvesting provided a "good enough" alternative.
AI does not mechanize human thought, create a suitable replacement product, or displace demand for human content. It is not the plow, because the plow was actually competitive and forced people to change their lives. Consequently, the smartest people today are probably the ones that least regard AI and LLMs.
The first two paragraphs explain why, and you didn't contradict them in any way - just repeated their points in slightly worse wording.
> AI does not mechanize human thought
It does though. Not all of it (and that's not what was claimed) but that's precisely what it does.
If I need to find an error in a large spreadsheet, I can either think about it for an hour, or upload it an LLM and have an answer in seconds. My thought has been mechanized - and at an unimaginable scale, across human civilization.
> It is not the plow, because the plow was actually competitive and forced people to change their lives
How many people are being fired right now, because their workmates who understand how to use ChatGPT are outperforming them? Do you think NVIDIA stock has gone gangbusters because they're "not actually competitive"?
> the smartest people today are probably the ones that least regard AI and LLMs.
That's not remotely true. There are no shortage of highly intelligent people across all fields who are actively making use of LLMs, and fascinated as to where they're going next, and a little scared at the crazy potentials.
ChatGPT is performing at a roughly 120 IQ, acing exams, helping people at a college research assistant level - and there's no reason to believe it won't be far above that level next year. Or next month!
Ignoring this is - funnily enough - exactly like hearing a 4000 BC Mesopotamian farmer refuse to use a plow, saying "it's not like it's fire or anything".
It seems to me to me to gloss over hundreds if not (tens of) thousands of years of human ingenuity.
Subtract AI, most people will probably be fine. Take away the plow and people will starve and die. AI is a luxury product and should be treated as such.
I would go so far as to say that AI "copilots" and "assistants" should not be allowed to refer to themselves in the first person. Can a plow refer to itself in the first person? Should a plow say, "Woah dude, we just hit a big rock"?
How many technologies came before the plow? How many people does it take to make a plow? How many people does a plow feed? How many technologies is AI contingent upon? A plow is a simple tool that has far more impact than AI has shown. It addresses a basic human need. AI, does not.
There are so many logic gaps in this argument. I don't want to go on.
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