this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

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[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 7 points 2 months ago (19 children)

have you ever run into the term “learned helplessness”? it may provide some interesting reading material for you

(just because samai and friends all pinky promise that this is totally 170% the future doesn’t actually mean they’re right. this is trivially argued too: their shit has consistently failed to deliver on promises for years, and has demonstrated no viable path to reaching that delivery. thus: their promises are as worthless as the flashy demos)

[–] ovid@fosstodon.org -4 points 2 months ago (18 children)

@froztbyte Given that I am currently working with GenAI every day and have been for a while, I'm going to have to disagree with you about "failed to deliver on promises" and "worthless."

There are definitely serious problems with GenAI, but actually being useful isn't one of them.

[–] zogwarg@awful.systems 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (9 children)

There are definitely serious problems with GenAI, but actually being useful isn’t one of them.

You know what? I'd have to agree, actually being useful isn't one of the problems of GenAI. Not being useful very well might be.

[–] ovid@fosstodon.org -4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

@zogwarg OK, my grammar may have been awkward, but you know what I meant.

Meanwhile, those of us working with AI and providing real value will continue to do so.

I wish people would start focusing on the REAL problems with AI and not keep pretending it's just a Markov Chain on steroids.

[–] zogwarg@awful.systems 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

On a less sneerious note, I would draw distinctions between:

  • Being able to extract value from LLM/GenAI
  • LLM/GenAI being able to sustainably produce value (without simple theft, and without cheaper alternatives being available)

And so far i've really not been convinced of the latter.

[–] ovid@fosstodon.org -2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

@zogwarg

Consider traditional databases which let you search for strings. Vector databases let you search the meaning.

For one client, someone could search for "videos about cats". With stemming and stop words, that becomes "cat" and the results might be lists of videos about house cats and maybe the unix "cat" command. Tigers, lions, cheetahs? Nope.

Vector database will return tigers/lions/cheetahs because it "knows" they are cats. A much smarter search. I've built that for a client.

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