this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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Technology

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Our AI-generated future is going to be fantastic.

Archive link, so you don't have to visit Substack: https://archive.is/hJIWk

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[–] StenSaksTapir@feddit.dk 63 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Here's a basically fully automated service where you can generate a shitty book for $200. You can even have it printed as a paperback for more useless waste or have it AI narrated as a shitty audiobook.

https://www.bookbud.ai/

I hate everything about it.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

$200? I can use Llama on my computer for free.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

How much time and power per page?

Then, it seems like Meta trained Llama with copyright protected books without permission, so the model might stop being free at any moment.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They're not going to make me pay for something that's already on my computer

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Heh, we'll see.

For starters, keep that copy safe, in case Meta has to pull down all the "illegally opensourced" copies of LLaMA. If the "authors" (publisher corporations) have their way, it will become illegal to run the model without paying them royalties, so Meta will only be able to offer it as a paid service. You might still be able pirate it though, if people are willing to share.

For the future, when your next computer comes with neuromorphic RAM capable of running those models a billion times faster... just hope it doesn't also come with DRM checks built in to stop illegal models from being loaded ("RAM access error: unauthorized content detected"... doesn't that sound like every author's dream? 🙄)

[–] watersnipje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

For free? The larger models require a lot of hardware.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

If you already have the computer for other reasons, such as gaming, are you paying for it to use it for a LLM? The limiting factor isn’t raw power either, it’s VRAM size. A GTX 1080 with 8Gb is capable of running some models. But an RTX 3060 12Gb can be bought new for really cheap and is more than enough for most people’s use at home. Raw GPU power only helps with the time it takes, but even if it took 12-24 hours, well, do you want it fast or do you want it cheap?

There’s more details in this reddit thread, sorry for linking the hell site: https://old.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/12kclx2/what_are_the_most_important_factors_in_building_a/

[–] watersnipje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, if you already have it then it’s not really an extra cost. But the smaller models perform less well and less reliably.

In order to write a book that’s convincing enough to fool at least some buyers, I wouldn’t expect a Llama2 7B to do the trick, based on what I see in my work (ML engineer). But even at work, I run Llama2 70B quantized at most, not the full size one. Full size unquantized requires 320 GPU vram, and that’s just quite expensive (even more so when you have to rent it from cloud providers).

Although if you already have a GPU that size at home, then of course you can run any LLM you like :)

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Okay, now ask yourself, are these books convincing enough to fool anyone? Because it’s just as likely that company has lofty promises and uses a toaster to generate the content.

[–] watersnipje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 8 months ago

Fair enough. They only have to convince the self help books crowd 🙃

[–] Kwakigra@beehaw.org 1 points 8 months ago

I could use the predictive text android uses and come out with as readable a novel as anything an LLM can produce. This scam only works because people aren't reading what they're buying.

[–] tardigrada@beehaw.org 45 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

Amazon has been having problems with books written by LLMs for almost a year, and it doesn't appear to do anything about it. For example:

AI Detection Startups Say Amazon Could Flag AI Books. It Doesn't (Sep 2023)

A new nightmare for writers shows how AI deepfakes could upend the book industry—and Amazon isn't helping (August 2023)

These are just two examples, you'll find many more. But people keep buying there and support this business.

[Edit typo.]

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 6 points 8 months ago

"Problems"... how much is Amazon's cut?

[–] sculd@beehaw.org 5 points 8 months ago

Ah! Typical Amazon

[–] sqgl@beehaw.org 34 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Amazon also sell faked AI products if you search for (bizarrely)...

“goes against OpenAI use policy”

Try that string and see what happens.

[–] aperson@beehaw.org 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Those aren't faked products. Those are shitty products that have a shitty attempt at giving them descriptions.

[–] sqgl@beehaw.org 3 points 8 months ago

The reporter explains why they don't seem to be real. Why do you think otherwise?

[–] st3ph3n@midwest.social 26 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I do almost all of my reading on a kindle - one of the ones with ads on the lock screen, and for months now all of the ads have been for this type of no-effort, low-quality, AI-generated garbage. Amazon clearly doesn't give a fuck as long as they make money.

[–] StenSaksTapir@feddit.dk 6 points 8 months ago

Well, if they didn't care about being flooded with machine generated trash, they wouldn't have set the limit to books you can self publish down to a mere three per day.

[–] aperson@beehaw.org 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I don't know how it is now, but the older ones you could root and disable the ads.

[–] ImADifferentBird@midwest.social 3 points 8 months ago

You don't even need root, or at least you didn't when I had mine. You just need to turn on developer mode, and then the Fire Toolkit app can do the rest.

[–] square252@feddit.de 22 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] 0xtero@beehaw.org 25 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Yeah sorry - edited OP and added archive link, so no one needs to hit substack servers.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Pardon my ignorance but I'm OOTL- why is substack a bad thing? ( I didn't know of its existence before this post)

[–] frog@beehaw.org 31 points 8 months ago

They recently refused to remove pro-Nazi content from their site, claiming that doing so doesn't make the problem go away so therefore there's no point in trying.

[–] square252@feddit.de 3 points 8 months ago

Nice, thanks

[–] megopie@beehaw.org 11 points 8 months ago

Ah yes, the automated plagiarism disguising machines in action.

[–] ExLisper@linux.community 1 points 8 months ago

Two words: Camen Mola.