Readit Newsvivekd commented on Why AI is still dumb and not scary at all (pt. 1) tejo.substack.com/p/why-a... · Posted by u/tejonutella
A gun is not smart or magical but is nevertheless a powerful tool that can be scary depending on who is holding it. Accordingly, I worry less about my occupation and more about the moral character of those wielding it. Further i worry about "smart" people who have not been acquainted with the dark side of human nature facilitating bad actors.
My issue with this line of thinking is not that it's wrong but it's being manipulated by silicon valley.
Open AI is not arguing that AI is harmless they are agreeing it's dangerous. They are using that to promote their product and hype it up as world changing. But more worrying they're advocating for regulations, presumably the sort that would make it more difficult for competition to come in.
I think we can talk about the potential dangers of AI. But that should include a discussion on how to best deal with that and consciousness of how fear of AI might be manipulated by silicon valley.
Especially when that fear involves misrepresentation - eg. AI being presented to the public as self directed artificial consciousness rather than algorithms that mimic certain reasoning capabilities
vivekd commented on Write to Escape Your Default Setting kupajo.com/write-to-escap... · Posted by u/kolyder
I find that, once I write something down, even if I never look at what I wrote, I often don't need a reminder. If I don't write it down, I forget.
I also find it's a great sanity check. Ideas that seem good in my head often fail when I put them into words. Especially when I outline it in step by step format
vivekd commented on It’s still worth blogging in the age of AI gilesthomas.com/2025/02/b... · Posted by u/gpjt
I wonder if there is a practical test of this question? Are there any moderately successful blogs written purely by an LLM with a human just doing the prompts.
As far as I know there aren't any but I look forward to being corrected
vivekd commented on It Took Trump Only Twenty-Four Days to Sell Out Ukraine newyorker.com/news/letter... · Posted by u/dotcoma
I've never heard anyone insist on there being no peace talks, only that there be no peace talks that don't involve Ukraine. I think most people who support Ukraine are worried about Trump conducting peace talks with Russia, excluding Ukraine from those peace talks, and then coming to some kind of deal that involves Russia keeping the land they've annexed.
It's like that "Myth of Consensual Sex" meme with the two teenagers and Jesus. Isn't there somebody (Ukraine) you forgot to ask?
That would be a reasonable I objection if it looked as if there was a risk of that. Everything I've heard from Zelynski so far tells me that Ukraine will be involved and they will have the final say
vivekd commented on It Took Trump Only Twenty-Four Days to Sell Out Ukraine newyorker.com/news/letter... · Posted by u/dotcoma
I think we can have peace talks - like what is happening. Or if we believe Russia is too great a threat we can have all out war against Russia involving NATO.
Both those outcomes would be acceptable.
What is not acceptable to me is the current status quo of Ukraine and only Ukrainian lives being lost while the rest of the world funds it with money and weapons while insisting there must be no peace talks
vivekd commented on Add "fucking" to your Google searches to neutralize AI summaries gizmodo.com/add-fcking-to... · Posted by u/jsheard
AI has value the way self-checkout has value: it's anti-consumer and widely hated, but it (can) save the companies money and will therefore be too widespread for anyone to opt out.
I donno I like AI, I don't use it often but when I do I've found it useful and impressive. It's really improved quality of life when it comes to having something to read over my work or help with finding small bits of info. I also like self checkout because this it reduced wait times at the store.
I think people are always resistant to change. People didn't like ATMs when they first came out either. I think it's improved things.
vivekd commented on Should we use AI and LLMs for Christian apologetics? (2024) lukeplant.me.uk/blog/post... · Posted by u/hwayne
If you literally believe that getting an answer wrong can send someone to hell, then I think the stakes are a little more dire than bad nutritional advice.
Like imagine if this were a baby-care bot, dispensing advice on how to safely care for your baby. That would be pretty stupid, and would likely eventually give advice so incorrect a baby would die. For someone who believes, that is a less tragic outcome than being led astray by an apologetics bot. It takes an incredible level of conceit to build one anyway.
chat GPT and Gemini both provide advice on how to care for babies. I think in the end you have to have faith in people to also use their common sense, discretion and not blindly believe or act on everything a bot tells them.
I think the same is true for an AI giving religious advice - you have to exercise a bit of faith in the readership and, perhaps in this case , also faith in the ultimate guidance of the divine. Faith that they're not going to make serious mortal or religious decision by unquestioningly following a chatbot
If we take this thinking to its logical conclusion we should put all our efforts as a civilization to getting rid of all misinformation that may harm babies whether online or spoken. And every religious person should do nothing but have flame wars and censorship campaigns about any flase religious information that has any chance of affecting a person's salvation.
The author seems to be in a purity spiral and seems to be taking an overly hardline interpretation of the religion
also self entitlement, reliance on the government is at the highest, individual autonomy is at the lowest ever