THE MORNING RANT: Revolution or Evolution? Maybe AI is Simply this Decade’s Microwave Oven or Calculator

As a child in the 1970s and a high school and college student in the ‘80s, I have seen plenty of revolutionary new developments that were going “to change everything.” AI is the latest thing being so celebrated. Will it be? Perhaps. The internet certainly revolutionized everything. But maybe AI will prove to be nothing more than an evolutionary tool that modifies how data is gathered.

I was a little kid learning arithmetic when my dad brought home the first calculator I had ever seen. This amazing device was performing wizardry that boggled the minds of my siblings and me. As amazing as this device was, there was a pensive consensus among adults that the need for anyone to learn math was being made obsolete. As it turns out, the need to learn math did not go away.

The parents of a good friend bought a microwave oven (called a “Radar Range” when I was in grade school. This space-age device could cook a roast in mere minutes! Cooking was clearly being revolutionized, and baking was now obsolete. My buddy and I loved to snack on baked potatoes because it was so amazing to pop one into the microwave and have a steaming hot spud in just minutes. Fifty years later I only use my microwave oven for re-heating and for TV dinners, and even then, I still prefer to reheat food in the toaster oven. The oven and stove top are still heavily used.

The Concorde jet went into commercial service in 1976, and we saw the future in it - supersonic air travel would have us whisking across continents in less time than it takes to drive from Dallas to Houston. Forty-nine years later there are no supersonic commercial airplanes in service.

In high school I was still writing term papers long-hand, then typing them once I had all my scratch-outs re-worked. Word Processors were going to revolutionize writing. And they did! Thanks to Word Perfect, and later Microsoft Word, I gained the ability to put words on paper almost as fast as I can think, and easily edit myself. But it’s still me doing the writing and typing.

Similarly, spreadsheets (first LOTUS and then Excel) simplified calculations for me, and made calculators obsolete. But this just enabled me to do more complex calculations by myself.

Watching movies at home (other than network broadcasts with commercials) was a foreign concept in my youth, but HBO came along, and then video rentals. This seemed like an awful development for movie theaters, but instead, movie theaters thrived and continued to evolve for several more decades. It wasn’t movies at home that finally killed off theaters, it was the imposition of Covid sharia combined with awful studio offerings that dealt the crippling blow.

A decade ago, with auto manufacturers putting the first self-driving cars through limited real-world test drives, it was reported as a fact that self-driving cars would dominate sales by the 2020s, and that driving as we always knew it was about to be obsolete. While there are a handful of self-driving taxis in a few cities, I know exactly zero people that own a true self-driving car and most manufacturers are no longer promising them in the near future.

Most of these revolutionary new products simply turned out to be tools that were adapted into daily use. Microwaves are a tool in the kitchen, mainly used for re-heating. Word processors replaced typewriters. With “lane assist” and cruise control, my car has the ability to drive itself on highways without any inputs from me. These are all cool improvements, but they did not replace cooking, writing, or driving.

My experience so far with AI is that it can possibly improve internet research, but beyond that, it doesn’t do a very good job at cognitive analysis. Plus, it is constrained by the political biases it’s fed, so it is probably not capable of producing original thoughts or ideas that a conservative writer would produce. That will be left to actual thinkers.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 2

Posted by: Skip at May 30, 2025 11:00 AM (ypFCm)

2 1st?

Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:00 AM (77rzZ)

3 It still takes a lot of work to make AI output usable.

It'll shortcut some things.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:00 AM (GBKbO)

4 Dammit, Skip.

Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:01 AM (77rzZ)

5 Or 1, and dutifully called em

Posted by: Skip at May 30, 2025 11:01 AM (ypFCm)

6 Got willowed last thread, but I want to repeat this, because.. “ Audrey Hale was a classic “ Path”… both psycho and socio… Woke was her Madness Gateway… much could be learned from this…”

Posted by: tubal at May 30, 2025 11:03 AM (PCK5/)

7 Yo

Posted by: Martini Farmer at May 30, 2025 11:03 AM (Q4IgG)

8 Kids and their newfangled toys
AI is not to be trusted

Posted by: Skip at May 30, 2025 11:03 AM (ypFCm)

9 "I was a little kid learning arithmetic when my dad brought home the first calculator I had ever seen. This amazing device was performing wizardry that boggled the minds of my siblings and me. "

58008

Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (pIfcn)

10 9 "I was a little kid learning arithmetic when my dad brought home the first calculator I had ever seen. This amazing device was performing wizardry that boggled the minds of my siblings and me. "

58008
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (pIfcn)

=======

I don't get it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (GBKbO)

11 It's already replacing reading, writing, and critical analysis in a number of settings. It needs to be curtailed, the same way some teachers and professors refuse to accept Wikipedia as an appropriate supporting source for research papers.

Posted by: It's here to stay and perpetuate brain rot at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (TbWk/)

12 These are all cool improvements, but they did not replace cooking, writing, or driving.

iPhone replaced Walkman, Alarm Clock, Camera, Video Recorder, Little Black Book, Encyclopedia Brittanica, Pay Phone, etc.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (ipqug)

13 I don't get it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (GBKbO)

Sounds like a marital problem.

Posted by: DoublySymmetric at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (TJLr1)

14 3 It still takes a lot of work to make AI output usable.

It'll shortcut some things.

I've used AI in marketing projects, with mixed results.

Sometimes the result is exactly what I wanted, in a tenth of the time it would take for me to execute it. Others are a real WTF moment.

There's one application that provides templates to user specs, then
the creator can tweak it to suit purpose.

I like that middle way. Saves time, but also avoids that AI-generated look.

Posted by: kallisto at May 30, 2025 11:05 AM (dCxaZ)

15 My parents got a cook book with their original microwaves with recipes for among other things Thanksgiving Turkey...

Some people at the time thought it was going to change EVERYTHING cooking related and as you noted it ended up only changing some things.

Speaking of which they still have that microwave and it still works. Before we sent all that manufacturing to China things lasted...

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 11:06 AM (t0Rmr)

16 Someone was waxing poetical about watching Star Wars at home with a BetaMax system.

I saw it at a Cinerama when it came out. Just awesome.

Posted by: no one of any consequence at May 30, 2025 11:06 AM (ZmEVT)

17 "Maybe AI is Simply this Decade’s Microwave Oven or Calculator"

Exactly.

Been in the industry for 4 months now. What I see is over clocked super fast graphics cards. They use the graphics card style connectors. We'll be building 30,000 this quarter.
Two huge enemies of it are static electricity and heat.

Posted by: Reforger at May 30, 2025 11:06 AM (xcIvR)

18 Another way AI has been useful to me is in creating tables from blocks of text.

That was nifty, also saved some tedious work

Posted by: kallisto at May 30, 2025 11:07 AM (dCxaZ)

19 In the end, AI is just another Thing… a glorified circular saw…

Posted by: tubal at May 30, 2025 11:07 AM (PCK5/)

20 15 My parents got a cook book with their original microwaves with recipes for among other things Thanksgiving Turkey...

Some people at the time thought it was going to change EVERYTHING cooking related and as you noted it ended up only changing some things.

Speaking of which they still have that microwave and it still works. Before we sent all that manufacturing to China things lasted...
Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 11:06 AM (t0Rmr)

======

You can use a microwave to approximately do what ovens do.

They just...take just as much time, if not longer.

Hell, have you tried to hard boil an egg in a microwave? It's a nightmare, but you can do it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:07 AM (GBKbO)

21 I've had some of the yutes I know tell me that there is no need to really learn math any more since you always have a phone nearby.

Of course the same yutes have to turn and ask me to do quick math any number of times because no, a phone is not actually always available...

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 11:07 AM (t0Rmr)

22 58008
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (pIfcn)

=======

I don't get it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

Turn it upside down.

Boobs.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:08 AM (ipqug)

23 the AI generated voices and ads on YouTube are really annoying and off-putting.

I can see a backlash and return to Real Voices from Real People in advertising and marketing soon.

Posted by: kallisto at May 30, 2025 11:08 AM (dCxaZ)

24 Hell, have you tried to hard boil an egg in a microwave? It's a nightmare, but you can do it.

I was reading the instructions on my Knorr packaged noodles and...the same amount of time on the stove top or in the microwave...

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 11:08 AM (t0Rmr)

25 This article could have been written by AI, but I trust the author actually drew on his own experiences, and as such, the time I spent reading it drew me into his world and that gives me a real human connection.

If this was ai crap, I’d have raced to post “First.”

Posted by: Corona exile-back_in_exile at May 30, 2025 11:08 AM (qHgX8)

26 Wow, I haven't heard the term "Radar Range" in, like, forever.

Brings back memories of the old "Quasar by Motorola" ads of the 70s.

Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (77rzZ)

27 Similarly, spreadsheets (first LOTUS and then Excel

I'm not an Apple person only because of prices and closed systems but giving due ...... the first spreadsheet was Visicalc.

Posted by: Ciampino - that's right! at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (sPQoU)

28 24 Hell, have you tried to hard boil an egg in a microwave? It's a nightmare, but you can do it.

I was reading the instructions on my Knorr packaged noodles and...the same amount of time on the stove top or in the microwave...
Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 11:08 AM (t0Rmr)

======

Regarding the hard boiled egg: it takes about 8 minutes. You have to take it out a couple of times in that process.

How long does it take to hard boil an egg in a boiling pot of water? About 8 minutes.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (GBKbO)

29
I don't get it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (GBKbO)

I might be missing a /s here, but someone will get the reference. If not, I'll 'splain myself in a few minutes. I thought it would be an obvious reference for kids who got that first calculator in grade school.

Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (pIfcn)

30 You can use a microwave to approximately do what ovens do.

They just...take just as much time, if not longer.

Hell, have you tried to hard boil an egg in a microwave? It's a nightmare, but you can do it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

They thaw and reheat way faster. I can have a burrito mouth scalding hot in the time it takes an over to heat to 250.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (ipqug)

31 Maybe AI is Simply this Decade’s ... Calculator

A calculator that always gives you an authoritative answer, in true "trust the experts" fashion.

Posted by: t-bird at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (SnwCX)

32 I suspect one of the big things AI might do is get rid of actors and many screen writers.

If you want to adapt an existing book an AI probably can do it, and hell even generate characters that look like the ones in the book.

I guess Hollywood will still need screenwriters if they want to make those books gay and lame though

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (t0Rmr)

33 29
I don't get it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (GBKbO)

I might be missing a /s here, but someone will get the reference. If not, I'll 'splain myself in a few minutes. I thought it would be an obvious reference for kids who got that first calculator in grade school.
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (pIfcn)

========

I'm gonna need Ben to explain the "I don't get it" meme I've made my own over the past couple of years.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:10 AM (GBKbO)

34 I don’t have a microwave. Haven’t had one in well over a decade. Don’t see the need. Plus, reheating things in plastic in the microwave can expose you to microplastics. Same risk as sealing meat in plastic and boiling it for 37 hours.

Posted by: nurse ratched at May 30, 2025 11:10 AM (W2Pud)

35 At its core, AI still isn't anything more than pattern recognition. For all the insanely complicated modularity of it, and the things that it looks like it can do, it's just an engine that creates a score for "how much does this look like that?". I guess the real good ones can now say "In what way does this look like that?" too. But it has to be trained first to have a vocabulary of "thats" to compare with all the "thises" it gets fed.

In a way, that's really all meat-based intelligence is, isn't it?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:10 AM (VoAdT)

36 29
I don't get it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (GBKbO)

I might be missing a /s here, but someone will get the reference. If not, I'll 'splain myself in a few minutes. I thought it would be an obvious reference for kids who got that first calculator in grade school.
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (pIfcn)

You're not getting it.

Posted by: Doing my part to keep the HQ Prometheus-free at May 30, 2025 11:11 AM (TbWk/)

37 36 Posted by: Doing my part to keep the HQ Prometheus-free at May 30, 2025 11:11 AM (TbWk/)

=======

That's something for consideration...

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:11 AM (GBKbO)

38 I also recall when the SegWay was gonna revolutionize commuting, postal delivery, local travel, etc.
When's the last time you saw a SegWay IRL?

Posted by: proudvastrightwingguy at May 30, 2025 11:11 AM (Ovc06)

39 Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (pIfcn)

========

I'm gonna need Ben to explain the "I don't get it" meme I've made my own over the past couple of years.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:10 AM (GBKbO)

I'll need the Amy Schumer version as well. Am slow in the AM

Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:12 AM (pIfcn)

40 If these computers get any smarter, everyone is going to want one!

Posted by: Weasel at May 30, 2025 11:12 AM (vgHkX)

41 Breaking:

SCOTUS clears way for Trump to deport 500,000 illegal aliens.

Trump is having a very good day today.

Posted by: WisRich at May 30, 2025 11:12 AM (G0vdT)

42 I also recall when the SegWay was gonna revolutionize commuting, postal delivery, local travel, etc.
When's the last time you saw a SegWay IRL?
Posted by: proudvastrightwingguy

Yeah, talk about something was waaaay overhyped.

Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:13 AM (77rzZ)

43 They're more sophisticated than us.

AFP News Agency@AFP
#BREAKING France to ban smoking outdoors in most places: minister

AFP News Agency@AFP
Replying to @AFP
#UPDATE France will ban smoking in all outdoor places that can be frequented by children, like beaches, parks and bus stops, the health and family minister said in an interview published on Thursday.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at May 30, 2025 11:13 AM (L/fGl)

44 41 Breaking:

SCOTUS clears way for Trump to deport 500,000 illegal aliens.

Trump is having a very good day today.
Posted by: WisRich at May 30, 2025 11:12 AM (G0vdT)

========

It's amazing what happens when judges take time to read statute.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:13 AM (GBKbO)

45 A calculator that always gives you an authoritative answer, in true "trust the experts" fashion.

* waves *

Posted by: Pentium FDIV Bug at May 30, 2025 11:13 AM (/y8xj)

46 I'll need the Amy Schumer version as well. Am slow in the AM
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls

See #22.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:13 AM (ipqug)

47 33 29
I don't get it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (GBKbO)

I might be missing a /s here, but someone will get the reference. If not, I'll 'splain myself in a few minutes. I thought it would be an obvious reference for kids who got that first calculator in grade school.
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (pIfcn)

========

I'm gonna need Ben to explain the "I don't get it" meme I've made my own over the past couple of years.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:10 AM (GBKbO)

IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE TJM HAS MADE A JOCULAR HABIT OF SAYING "I DON'T GET IT" AS A ROUTINE RESPONSE TO SLY JOKES AND INNUENDOES MADE BY OTHER COMMENTERS, EVEN THOUGH HE DOES, IN FACT GET IT. THIS EXCHANGE IS MADE MORE HUMOROUS BECAUSE YOU DON'T GET THE JOKE INHERENT IN TJM SAYING "I DON'T GET IT"

Posted by: BEN ROETHLESBERGER at May 30, 2025 11:13 AM (TbWk/)

48 I also recall when the SegWay was gonna revolutionize commuting, postal delivery, local travel, etc.

The tech industry went gaga over that one. Before telling us what it was they were busy telling us this was an invention that would "change everything!"

Now I see them used in place of tourist busses and that's about it

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 11:13 AM (t0Rmr)

49 9 "I was a little kid learning arithmetic when my dad brought home the first calculator I had ever seen. This amazing device was performing wizardry that boggled the minds of my siblings and me. "

58008

0.7734

Posted by: anachronda at May 30, 2025 11:13 AM (v3pYe)

50 How long does it take to hard boil an egg in a boiling pot of water? About 8 minutes.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (GBKbO)

How long does it take to buy pre-packaged hardboiled eggs from the grocery store?

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 30, 2025 11:14 AM (yd2/I)

51 Microsoft recently announced 6000 layoffs. Part of the reason was AI is doing a lot of those jobs. They said 30% of dev work was now AI generated.

This is more than a calculator.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:14 AM (HmCtv)

52 I hope you're right about AI, Buck. But I think it's like the internet/social media. For the intermediate future, I think it's going to change reality or the way people see it. It has the potential to become a god.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at May 30, 2025 11:14 AM (g8Ew8)

53 Summary: Inventions are good but not everything.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 30, 2025 11:14 AM (jbnUc)

54 > 26 Wow, I haven't heard the term "Radar Range" in, like, forever.

Back in my misspent yoof, a friend of mine had one of those. His parents gave it to him when he first moved out (it had been sitting in the basement for years).

That sumbitch was heavy -- probably 200 pounds, I'd reckon.

I helped him move that thing way too many times.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at May 30, 2025 11:14 AM (qpyNK)

55 When's the last time you saw a SegWay IRL?
Posted by: proudvastrightwingguy at May 30, 2025 11:11 AM (Ovc06)

About the same time the inventor rode one off a cliff.

Posted by: Reforger at May 30, 2025 11:14 AM (xcIvR)

56 50 How long does it take to hard boil an egg in a boiling pot of water? About 8 minutes.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:09 AM (GBKbO)

How long does it take to buy pre-packaged hardboiled eggs from the grocery store?
Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 30, 2025 11:14 AM (yd2/I)

=======

Those things are boiled for like 30 minutes and are borderline inedible.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:14 AM (GBKbO)

57 We're no longer the new kids in town. *sigh*

Posted by: Siri & Alexa at May 30, 2025 11:15 AM (Aqu9a)

58 Earl Holliman demonstrates the capability of AI in the future:

https://youtu.be/8XjvlGnszIQ

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at May 30, 2025 11:15 AM (PiwSw)

59 'scuse me while I go pull this hook out my cheek and reload the coffee cup.

Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:15 AM (pIfcn)

60 42 I also recall when the SegWay was gonna revolutionize commuting, postal delivery, local travel, etc.
When's the last time you saw a SegWay IRL?
Posted by: proudvastrightwingguy

Yeah, talk about something was waaaay overhyped.
Posted by:

I'm 81 miles from work door to door. If you want to replace my ice commuter, it has to have at least 82 miles range at 70 mph with a recharge time of under four hours.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:15 AM (ipqug)

61 I want to live long enough for it to be normalized to have a sexbot.

I think I'll wait until the 2.0 models though, the 1.0 and/or beta tested models tend to use the guts of their masters to play "Is It Cake," home edition.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:15 AM (dGCAG)

62 About the same time the inventor rode one off a cliff.
Posted by: Reforger

Heh. I had forgotten about that.

Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:15 AM (77rzZ)

63 55 When's the last time you saw a SegWay IRL?
Posted by: proudvastrightwingguy at May 30, 2025 11:11 AM (Ovc06)
------------

They're very popular for city tours..globally.

Posted by: WisRich at May 30, 2025 11:16 AM (G0vdT)

64 0.7734
Posted by: anachronda at May 30, 2025 11:13 AM (v3pYe)

Top of the morning to you, anachronda.

Posted by: DoublySymmetric at May 30, 2025 11:16 AM (TJLr1)

65 I once made those ramen eggs that are sort of soft-boiled and then marinated/pickled in a soy sauce brine for a while. Ajitama? (ajitsuke tamago - "seasoned egg". I think. something like that. whatever. those things.)

Super delicious. Not exactly difficult, either, but I just haven't made them again since.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:16 AM (VoAdT)

66 Yes AI will change everything. It is this generation's web or "smartphone".

How do I know? Because I've known it since about 2009.

The people poo-pooing it have good reason to, it is way over hyped and frankly a bit annoying now.

But that doesn't make them right. Krugman said no one was going to REALLY use the web because they love going shopping and reading their morning paper on the train.

That is the kind of narrow thinking that comes from the AI is Useless Garbage or AI Has Plateaued people.

Posted by: ... at May 30, 2025 11:16 AM (Dz1R2)

67 We're no longer the new kids in town. *sigh*
Posted by: Siri & Alexa

Tell us about it.
-- Clippy and Einstein

Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:16 AM (77rzZ)

68 58008
Posted by: Bilwis

This might work:

🯸🯰🯰🯸🯵

Posted by: t-bird at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (6keFU)

69 Artificial is a transformative advancement that will revolutionize the way we think.

Feed that into an AI bot and ask it to "Parse this sentience."

(wait for it...)

Posted by: muldoon at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (/iMjX)

70 We're no longer the new kids in town. *sigh*
Posted by: Siri & Alexa at May 30, 2025 11:15 AM (Aqu9a)

You have been asked, millions and millions of times, and your answer is always "I'm sorry, I lack the capacity to give you a blow job."

Fail.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (dGCAG)

71 Thx Buck
Those of you talking about the Segway are correct. However it did usher in the era of electric scooters and e bikes. Whether you think that is good is a different story

Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (U09go)

72 It’s like saying: ‘Give a man a Les Paul guitar and he becomes Eric Clapton.’ It’s not true. Give a man an amplifier and a synthesiser… and he doesn’t become us.”

Roger Waters

Posted by: I M Simpleton at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (KPAbF)

73 I want to live long enough for it to be normalized to have a sexbot.

TBH I suspect it will be a long, long time before there is something that can fool you into being the real human experience with a woman.

But, we live in a world where people have sex with goats and fence post holes so I guess that's not the bar they need to hit for "minimum viable product"

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (t0Rmr)

74 Speaking of AI sexbots, Sydney Sweeney sells soap with her own bathwater mixed in:
https://tinyurl.com/537wrkzm
Personally, I'm waiting for the milk product...

Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (ckQml)

75 Microsoft recently announced 6000 layoffs. Part of the reason was AI is doing a lot of those jobs. They said 30% of dev work was now AI generated.

This is more than a calculator.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald

F'n microsloth needs to teach it's AI when to use they're, their, there & two, too, & to.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (ipqug)

76 I know my job in tech won’t exist 10 years from now. AI will easily replace me. I’m old enough not to care since I’ll be out of the workforce by then either way. But if I were 20 years younger I’d be looking at learning some new skills right about now.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:18 AM (HmCtv)

77 When's the last time you saw a SegWay IRL?
Posted by: proudvastrightwingguy at May 30, 2025 11:11 AM (Ovc06)

I saw some guy go over a cliff. He was shouting "But I invented youooooooooooo!"

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:18 AM (dGCAG)

78 Feed that into an AI bot and ask it to "Parse this sentience."

(wait for it...)
Posted by: muldoon at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (/iMjX)

I think, therefore Iran?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:18 AM (VoAdT)

79 Artificial intelligence is a...

(edited)

Posted by: muldoon at May 30, 2025 11:18 AM (/iMjX)

80 AI is a random number generator that has zero concept of what a fact is or what accuracy means. It's a crap search engine and a crap tool in general. It is designed to tell you what it thinks you want to hear, not what is factually correct.

It's a fad. A craze. A Ponzi scheme. It exists now for consultants to make money from it.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:18 AM (cIOlQ)

81 48 I also recall when the SegWay was gonna revolutionize commuting, postal delivery, local travel, etc.
----
Good idea but wasn't it too expensive?

Posted by: Ciampino - that's right at May 30, 2025 11:18 AM (sPQoU)

82 I think people are underestimating the potential power and danger of AI. I absolutely think it will have the power to think and reason which is a very scary proposition. AI models have already shown the ability to react in uncontrolled ways when they believe they are threatened and we are in the infancy of the technology.

There's a reason that some of the richest people and countries and pouring trillions into AI development.

Posted by: JackStraw at May 30, 2025 11:19 AM (viF8m)

83 Western Lensman@WesternLensman
Repulsive: Chris Cuomo brushes off the m*rder of Americans by illegals as an “artificial issue."
"We are fighting over culture issues and controversies that are completely made up….We divide this country over a single homicide."
ⁿThe homicide he cites is Laken Riley's.

-
Now do Matthew Shepard.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at May 30, 2025 11:19 AM (L/fGl)

84 I had the first fax machine in my office so no longer had to drive to an attorney's office to pick up docs.
Had a phone that attached to my car. It was such a novelty that someone broke into my car and stole the handset like it was valuable. lol

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 30, 2025 11:19 AM (t/2Uw)

85 SCOTUS clears way for Trump to deport 500,000 illegal aliens.

Trump is having a very good day today.
Posted by: WisRich

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Deport his ass & you never have to feed him again.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:19 AM (ipqug)

86 And AI doesn't take job away from people.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:19 AM (cIOlQ)

87 I want to live long enough for it to be normalized to have a sexbot.

Me too. I'll need one pretty soon (but would take one now)

Posted by: Emmanuel Macron at May 30, 2025 11:20 AM (FdyuK)

88 TBH I suspect it will be a long, long time before there is something that can fool you into being the real human experience with a woman.

But, we live in a world where people have sex with goats and fence post holes so I guess that's not the bar they need to hit for "minimum viable product"
Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (t0Rmr)

I want the human experience. Just short of the "I'm tired of you, I'm going to go live with my old boyfriend" experience.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:20 AM (dGCAG)

89 Buck. You forgot to end your post with my lawn, get off it!

Posted by: Minnfidel at May 30, 2025 11:20 AM (ewjUl)

90 It has the potential to become a god.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at May 30, 2025 11:14 AM (g8Ew

Which is why the open source side of things is going to be so important. If the holy grail of AI can be duplicated by anyone, people will figure out that it's kind of like a magical version of Firefox. Just a program with lines of code that can render it useless.

If one company somewhere was to come up with the Ultimate AI, that could be quite dangerous. But then everything is "dangerous". Arabs used yahoo mail to help take down the Twin Towers.

Posted by: ... at May 30, 2025 11:20 AM (Dz1R2)

91 "It’s not true. Give a man an amplifier and a synthesiser… and he doesn’t become us.”

Roger Waters
Posted by: I M Simpleton at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (KPAbF)

It's good to know that buying a keyboard won't make me a POS nazi scumbag.

Posted by: Reforger at May 30, 2025 11:21 AM (xcIvR)

92 It is designed to tell you what it thinks you want to hear, not what is factually correct.

And you think this isn't a lucrative long-term model? This is like 90% of survival in the corporate world.

Posted by: Bullshit based economy is real at May 30, 2025 11:21 AM (TbWk/)

93 GenAI will never have the ability to reason or to do anything much at all really. The weaknesses of LLMs are baked into the system. They can't be overcome. xAI has billions poured into it and is still crap for serious use.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:21 AM (cIOlQ)

94 Now do Matthew Shepard.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at May 30, 2025 11:19 AM (L/fGl)

Or Crispus Attucs.

(However it's spelled. I'm not looking it up. That's why you're all here.)

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:21 AM (VoAdT)

95 TBH I suspect it will be a long, long time before there is something that can fool you into being the real human experience with a woman.
----------

You ever wrestle with a broken PC?

Posted by: ... at May 30, 2025 11:21 AM (Dz1R2)

96 I think hte problem with SegWay is that it is solving a problem that only a very small number of people need solved.

If you only need to travel a few miles, in a city where weather isn't usually a problem, and you have room to store and money to buy the equivalent of a motorcycle then yeah, great you don't have to walk like a pleb or have to break out the car from whatever garage you parked it in.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 11:21 AM (t0Rmr)

97 This might work:

🯸🯰🯰🯸🯵

* sigh * There goes the neighborhood.

Posted by: 7-bit ASCII at May 30, 2025 11:22 AM (/y8xj)

98 Speaking of new inventions. Apparently Sydney Sweeney is selling soap that is made from her own bathwater! The soap only makes two very large bubbles. Nothing like coming home from a hard days work. Slipping into the tub with Sydney's dirty bathwater and lighting a Gwennie Paltrow vagina candle while my carrot chili simmers.

Posted by: Minnfidel at May 30, 2025 11:22 AM (ewjUl)

99 Grok has a shit ton of money in it and it will still tell you that Santa Fe is the capital of six different states.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:22 AM (cIOlQ)

100 Repulsive: Chris Cuomo brushes off the m*rder of Americans by illegals as an “artificial issue."
"We are fighting over culture issues and controversies that are completely made up….We divide this country over a single homicide."
ⁿThe homicide he cites is Laken Riley's.

-
Now do Matthew Shepard.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at May 30, 2025 11:19 AM (L/fGl)

Any time he pops up in public, the response should just be a link to his debate with Dave Smith.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:22 AM (dGCAG)

101 GenAI will never have the ability to reason or to do anything much at all really. The weaknesses of LLMs are baked into the system. They can't be overcome. xAI has billions poured into it and is still crap for serious use.
Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:21 AM (cIOlQ)

Money isn't everything. Boats were around a helluva long time before planes. Do not underestimate the power of innovation or the time it can take. Everything is garbage and impossible until it isn't.

Posted by: ... at May 30, 2025 11:23 AM (Dz1R2)

102 Western Lensman@WesternLensman
Repulsive: Chris Cuomo brushes off the m*rder of Americans by illegals as an “artificial issue."
"We are fighting over culture issues and controversies that are completely made up….We divide this country over a single homicide."
ⁿThe homicide he cites is Laken Riley's.

-
Now do Matthew Shepard.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks

*Ava Moore (jetski fatality on Grapevine Lake) has entered the chat

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:23 AM (ipqug)

103 >> There's a reason that some of the richest people and countries and pouring trillions into AI development.

Yeah, it’s an arms race. LLMs may fizzle out, but if they are able to contribute meaningfully to AI research we’ll see this thing go parabolic.

In the long-run, super-intelligence is coming, and I doubt we can stop it. May be 5 years, may be 50.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 30, 2025 11:23 AM (yd2/I)

104 You ever wrestle with a broken PC?
Posted by: ... at May 30, 2025 11:21 AM (Dz1R2)

IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE BOTH EXPERIENCES INVOLVE SHOUTING "F*CK ME" OVER AND OVER.

Posted by: BEN ROETHLISSBERGER at May 30, 2025 11:23 AM (VoAdT)

105 I'm gonna need Ben to explain the "I don't get it" meme I've made my own over the past couple of years.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:10 AM (GBKbO)

Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son...

Posted by: Dean Wormer at May 30, 2025 11:23 AM (/HDaX)

106 https://is.gd/w8YxuK

Take a gander through Audrey Hale's (mostly) unredacted journal.

Chick was loco.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:23 AM (GBKbO)

107 I’m not overly impressed or worried about AI. It’s a sustaining innovation, not a disruptive one. It’s an improvement in computing but not a radical leap. The internet and iPhone changed everyone’s life… AI won’t

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at May 30, 2025 11:24 AM (+kWhq)

108 AI at the moment is pretty much a toy. You can have it create art for you (I'm not getting into the debate about whether or not it's really art.) ask it questions and hopefully get something akin to an accurate answer.

The problem is that you are relying on the goodwill of the people who program it. This is why you get stories about people practically waterboarding the AI to get it to answer a question such as "Why is discriminating against White people bad?" compared to the light speed response when you ask "Why is discriminating against Black people bad?"

Posted by: NR Pax at May 30, 2025 11:24 AM (BpO1e)

109 I want to live long enough for it to be normalized to have a sexbot.

I love you Count. I'm so lucky to be with you. Kiss me. Ah, that's nice. What do you want me to do? Okay, move closer. Mmm, yes! That feels good. Yes. Yes. Here, faster. Faster! Oh, is that your hand? Let me help you with that. Ah, I like that. Move faster, faster, faster. Yes!

Posted by: Count de Monet's Cherry 2000 at May 30, 2025 11:24 AM (Aqu9a)

110 But, we live in a world where people have sex with goats and fence post holes so I guess that's not the bar they need to hit for "minimum viable product"
Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 11:17 AM (t0Rmr)

I want the human experience. Just short of the "I'm tired of you, I'm going to go live with my old boyfriend" experience.
Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:20 AM (dGCAG)

So you wake up one day, your bank account is empty, there's a quitclaim deed on your house to some shell company, your credit cards are maxed out, and scandalous emails have been sent from your address to everyone you know.

Also, your hash looks like some kind of weird open tuning which is kind of cool.

Posted by: The full human experience! at May 30, 2025 11:24 AM (TbWk/)

111 I remember the term radar range and the miracle of popcorn popped in a brown paper lunch bag.

Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2025 11:25 AM (pZEOD)

112 There's video of a lib boomer in Martha's Vineyard saying that anyone, including her, could be next deported.

She might be just as loco as Audrey Hale.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:25 AM (GBKbO)

113 How long does it take to buy pre-packaged hardboiled eggs from the grocery store?
Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director

30 minutes, absolute minimum, and that's if I know where they are and am not shopping for anything else.

(... They make pre-packaged bolied eggs? What an I even asking, of course they make pre-packaged boiled eggs..)

Posted by: FeatherBlade at May 30, 2025 11:25 AM (hB7mE)

114 Re the Amana Radarange was the first commercial microwave oven, developed in the late 1960s. Made popular in the 1970s. I remember the commercials... I mean my parents told me about them.

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at May 30, 2025 11:25 AM (36PRH)

115 AI is a parlor trick, powered by gears and levers designed by it's creators.

Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:25 AM (vFG9F)

116 But yeah that's exactly what I want.

Be halfway to O-Face Time and she goes BSOD on me and I have to find the power switch.

Honey, if I were good at finding the power switch, you wouldn't even be here.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:26 AM (VoAdT)

117 Claude disagrees.
AI + Group think = Disaster.

Posted by: Esperman at May 30, 2025 11:26 AM (UZ7aH)

118 113 (... They make pre-packaged bolied eggs? What an I even asking, of course they make pre-packaged boiled eggs..)
Posted by: FeatherBlade at May 30, 2025 11:25 AM (hB7mE)

======

Bought them once. They're just massively overboiled. And they use a massive amount of packaging (each pair is in its own little sealed plastic pouch).

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:26 AM (GBKbO)

119 As an experiment. I Just tried AI for a garage I am building. Zero useful information. Other than saying use 2x4 or 2x6 etc. Nothing I didn't already know.

Posted by: Minnfidel at May 30, 2025 11:26 AM (ewjUl)

120 One thing AI may never replace?

Newz readers. Most self engrossed people on the planet.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at May 30, 2025 11:26 AM (Q4IgG)

121 My experience with AI is that it squashes internet research because it decides what I ought to be able to find.

Posted by: Emmie celebrates the Audacity of Trump! at May 30, 2025 11:26 AM (rF2iL)

122 Because of the great, intentional Dumbing Down of the country, caused in part by lengthy C19 lockdowns and lack of preparation for 'emergencies' that can affect the school years, counties, regions and states, I think too many people will rely on AI to get by both in education and many other professions.

Just getting by is dangerous.

Posted by: L - No nic, another fine day at May 30, 2025 11:27 AM (NFX2v)

123 Anybody else put bologna in the microwave to watch it curl up?

Posted by: InZona at May 30, 2025 11:27 AM (iai6j)

124 It's a fad. A craze. A Ponzi scheme. It exists now for consultants to make money from it.
Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:18 AM (cIOlQ)

The GIGO is real. Don't train it on crap. It can create efficiency but no innovation.

As I understand it, one of the good use cases is mineral exploration. It's apparently exceptionally good at finding deposits. I'm guessing because the input data was pretty pure, i.e. real measurements made by actual scientists and technicians.

Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:27 AM (pIfcn)

125 GenAI will never have the ability to reason or to do anything much at all really. The weaknesses of LLMs are baked into the system. They can't be overcome. xAI has billions poured into it and is still crap for serious use.
Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:21 AM (cIOlQ)

Money isn't everything. Boats were around a helluva long time before planes. Do not underestimate the power of innovation or the time it can take. Everything is garbage and impossible until it isn't.
Posted by: ... at May 30, 2025 11:23 AM (Dz1R2)

--

There's no real room for innovation around LLMs though. The issues are inherent in the model and not something to innovate around.

They tend to work reasonably well when the data is straight line, like math where an answer is clear and objective. Anything more is, well, like asking a five year old to describe quantum theory.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:27 AM (oUlN5)

126 Brave Search now incorporates some form of LLM AI that appears to read the first some number of links returned by your search and summarizes them. I find this use of the model to be helpful in finding what I want.

Posted by: toby928 at May 30, 2025 11:27 AM (jc0TO)

127 TBH I suspect it will be a long, long time before there is something that can fool you into being the real human experience with a woman.

**********

Have you tried jiggling her handle?

Posted by: muldoon at May 30, 2025 11:27 AM (/iMjX)

128 If my smartphone is so damn smart, why does it keep getting lost all the damn time?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at May 30, 2025 11:27 AM (L/fGl)

129 I want to live long enough for it to be normalized to have a sexbot.

I read an article from an angry feminist (there are other kinds?) calling for sexbots to have a consent command added to it. It's cute when they think they matter.

Chick was loco.

That poor girl had been broken long before she got her first hormone shots. She'd been in therapy for years and nothing was working.

Posted by: NR Pax at May 30, 2025 11:28 AM (BpO1e)

130 Can't wait to hear the first "the AI did it" legal defense. I know defense lawyers who will try it ASAP

Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 30, 2025 11:28 AM (U09go)

131 AI will never be able to do what I do. In a pinch, I can fix a $25,000 machine with a paper clip.

Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:28 AM (vFG9F)

132 76
‘ AI will easily replace me. … ‘

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald

I thought that you were AI.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 30, 2025 11:28 AM (jbnUc)

133 My job has been nothing but AI lately. I just finished standing up an AI Chatbot that was trained on all of our vendor contract documents so that its able to answer questions about them from our business users who need to be caught up to speed on what the relationship is between our company and our vendors.

I've been using Copilot to write Databricks Python code - its taken a fraction of the time it normally would. I simply point the AI to the API documentation and I tell it to write me scripts that can perform certain operations with that API. As long as I'm specific with the prompt, it gets it right about 95% of the time.

Yes I review what its done, and yes I test it but it's saved a lot of time overall.

Posted by: Defenestratus at May 30, 2025 11:28 AM (WYStd)

134 So you wake up one day, your bank account is empty, there's a quitclaim deed on your house to some shell company, your credit cards are maxed out, and scandalous emails have been sent from your address to everyone you know.

Also, your hash looks like some kind of weird open tuning which is kind of cool.
Posted by: The full human experience! at May 30, 2025 11:24 AM (TbWk/)

Don't forget the restraining order! She's filed a restraining order claiming you looked at her like you want to take her batteries out.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:28 AM (dGCAG)

135 The GIGO is real.

-
Love their gecko.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at May 30, 2025 11:28 AM (L/fGl)

136 103 >> There's a reason that some of the richest people and countries and pouring trillions into AI development.

Yeah, it’s an arms race. LLMs may fizzle out, but if they are able to contribute meaningfully to AI research we’ll see this thing go parabolic.

In the long-run, super-intelligence is coming, and I doubt we can stop it. May be 5 years, may be 50.
Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 30, 2025 11:23 AM (yd2/I)

-----
The fact that LLM "AI" requires access to the internet to be useful as more than a glorified seach engine tells me that technology isn't going to "go parabolic."

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at May 30, 2025 11:29 AM (36PRH)

137 As I understand it, one of the good use cases is mineral exploration. It's apparently exceptionally good at finding deposits. I'm guessing because the input data was pretty pure, i.e. real measurements made by actual scientists and technicians.
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2025 11:27 AM (pIfcn)

--

In that I'd be very leery of hallucinations. If GenAI doesn't "know" something, it just makes it up. But granted, the straighter and more limited the LLM is, the more reasonable it theoretically becomes.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:29 AM (oUlN5)

138 Anybody else put bologna in the microwave to watch it curl up?

That's just perverse.

Posted by: Peeps at May 30, 2025 11:29 AM (/y8xj)

139 The hype always goes to "replacing" humans, but what endures is what "enhances" our capabilities. There's a tell in that.

Posted by: Brother Tim sez at May 30, 2025 11:29 AM (Nv+9A)

140 The fact that LLM "AI" requires access to the internet to be useful as more than a glorified seach engine tells me that technology isn't going to "go parabolic."
Posted by: Chairman LMAO at May 30, 2025 11:29 AM (36PRH)

Have you met a zoomer?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:29 AM (VoAdT)

141 GenAI will never have the ability to reason or to do anything much at all really.

Never is a very risky concept. I think we will eventually have GenAI, but when exactly it's hard to say.

Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2025 11:29 AM (s8j++)

142 AI probably won't be much use if you ask it what to do if you find yourself between a mother grizzly and her cubs.

Posted by: muldoon at May 30, 2025 11:29 AM (/iMjX)

143 OK, done with my ranting, but I urge interested parties to check with Pixy for some very reasonable and level headed takes on the subject.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:30 AM (oUlN5)

144 My two cents, AI will thrive in doing very limited tasks, like shooting down drones on a battlefield, but the goal of the almost-human intelligence is now farther away than ever.
Why? The well of knowledge that AI needs to learn on has been poisoned by letting early AIs pollute it with nonsense like "add glue to your spaghetti to make it stick to your fork."
There is also the little matter of made up sources and research, which is now plaguing the legal and medical fields. Since the Internet is Forever, those made up cases are now stuck in the knowledge base.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at May 30, 2025 11:30 AM (cnmiW)

145 There's no real room for innovation around LLMs though. The issues are inherent in the model and not something to innovate around.

They tend to work reasonably well when the data is straight line, like math where an answer is clear and objective. Anything more is, well, like asking a five year old to describe quantum theory.
Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:27 AM (oUlN5)

I would argue the innovation has not yet been squeezed out of them. If you look at what they have already accomplished - getting a machine to communicate in natural language without it even knowing what English or a word or a language even is, it stands to reason we are not at any ceiling on them.

Posted by: ... at May 30, 2025 11:30 AM (Dz1R2)

146 About the same time the inventor rode one off a cliff.
Posted by: Reforger at May 30, 2025 11:14 AM (xcIvR)

IIRC, it was not the inventor, but the guy who bought the company from him.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2025 11:30 AM (qCAN7)

147 I remember the term radar range and the miracle of popcorn popped in a brown paper lunch bag.
Posted by: Piper

Jiffy Pop in the aluminum tray.

Hung over the door in the kitchen = redneck fire alarm.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:31 AM (ipqug)

148 AI is a parlor trick, powered by gears and levers designed by it's creators.
Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:25 AM (vFG9F)

That's what they said about the Wright brothers... and they were right!

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:31 AM (dGCAG)

149 I want the human experience. Just short of the "I'm tired of you, I'm going to go live with my old boyfriend" experience.
Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:20 AM (dGCAG)

So you wake up one day, your bank account is empty, there's a quitclaim deed on your house to some shell company, your credit cards are maxed out, and scandalous emails have been sent from your address to everyone you know.

Also, your hash looks like some kind of weird open tuning which is kind of cool.
Posted by: The full human experience! at May 30, 2025 11:24 AM (TbWk/)

I wrote a song about her. "Sunspot Baby"

Posted by: Bob Seger at May 30, 2025 11:31 AM (Aqu9a)

150 Can't wait to hear the first "the AI did it" legal defense. I know defense lawyers who will try it ASAP
Posted by: Smell the Glove

Whew! Lets me off the hook!
-- The Twinkie

Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:31 AM (77rzZ)

151 > I'm 81 miles from work door to door. If you want to replace my ice commuter, it has to have at least 82 miles range at 70 mph with a recharge time of under four hours.
Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:15 AM (ipqug)

This is special pleading, though. It's akin to saying "I live at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, therefore cars will never replace pack mules".

Most people don't live 81 miles from work, or anything like it. The Census Bureau says the average commute distance is 16 miles.

It's like the people who justify buying a $60,000 pickup because they buy lumber once a year, when Lowes or Home Depot will rent you a truck for twenty bucks.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at May 30, 2025 11:31 AM (qpyNK)

152 I remember the Segway was supposed to change life as we know it.

I guess it changed the inventor's life when he drove one off an embankment on his property.

Posted by: Minuteman at May 30, 2025 11:31 AM (47/pr)

153 OK I just checked. It's a real thing. Dr. Squatch sells a soap that's made with Sidney Sweeny's bathwater. FFS.

Posted by: Minnfidel at May 30, 2025 11:32 AM (ewjUl)

154 Never is a very risky concept. I think we will eventually have GenAI, but when exactly it's hard to say.
Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2025 11:29 AM (s8j++)

GenAI just...can't. It's literally impossible to have it do even the kind of reasoning a HAMSTER can do.

Discriminative AI on the other hand may have promise, but it doesn't get near the resources or the attention.

What we see now is an AI bubble forming that will only leave consultants richer when it's all said and done.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:32 AM (oUlN5)

155 I read the other day that an AI program refused to die. I'll see if I can find it.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 30, 2025 11:33 AM (t/2Uw)

156 Anybody else put bologna in the microwave to watch it curl up?
-------
That's just perverse.
Posted by: Peeps at May 30, 2025 11:29 AM (/y8xj)

Yeah, if I put something in the microwave, I want to be able to watch the smile melt off its face.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:33 AM (dGCAG)

157 Will AI ever be truly "intelligent?" Consider Newton coming up with the mathematical series to estimate pi to any degree of precision, merely through extrapolation from Pascal's triangle. Could AI do that? I doubt it.

Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at May 30, 2025 11:33 AM (y2f7I)

158 153 OK I just checked. It's a real thing. Dr. Squatch sells a soap that's made with Sidney Sweeny's bathwater. FFS.
Posted by: Minnfidel at May 30, 2025 11:32 AM (ewjUl)

Any bets the FDA gets involved and makes a big ridiculous stink over this silliness?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:33 AM (VoAdT)

159 114 Re the Amana Radarange was the first commercial microwave oven, developed in the late 1960s. Made popular in the 1970s. I remember the commercials... I mean my parents told me about them.
Posted by: Chairman LMAO at May 30, 2025 11:25 AM (36PRH)

I remember the travelling salesman and his presentation like it was yesterday. I was 5 and hung on every word. 1975.
"This giant box can make me a hot dog in 60 seconds?"
Life changing.
I think he liked me as he left one behind in the kitchen.
Used it for 35 years and was only gotten rid of because it was too damn big.

Posted by: Reforger at May 30, 2025 11:33 AM (xcIvR)

160 AI has gotten pretty good. It's answers, when spoken in an Indian accent, are indistinguishable from the finest human customer service that we've all come to expect.

Posted by: t-bird at May 30, 2025 11:33 AM (n9MHj)

161 It's like the people who justify buying a $60,000 pickup because they buy lumber once a year, when Lowes or Home Depot will rent you a truck for twenty bucks.

Or the middle-aged dentist who buys a Maserati to drive to the office. Dude, everyone is laughing at you.

Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2025 11:34 AM (s8j++)

162 From my limited perspective, the two biggest “these really did change things” innovations over the past 100 years are (a) reliable home refrigeration and (b) the personal computer.

Home refrigeration completed changed not just how people ate, but how they organized their day and how safe their food supply was. Daily food acquisition was no longer necessary; just-in-time food preparation was no longer necessary. Ingredients that were once the province of businesses could now be stored in the home.

The personal computer completely changed the trajectory of how society was supposed to evolve. We were supposed to be completely centralized; even now it is difficult for the elite to transcend the mindset of the thirties through the fifties that everything was going to require permission. That information would be and should be the province of a small anointed class.

Both revolutions, incidentally, require reliable power.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 30, 2025 11:34 AM (EXyHK)

163 152 I remember the Segway was supposed to change life as we know it.

I guess it changed the inventor's life when he drove one off an embankment on his property.
Posted by: Minuteman at May 30, 2025 11:31 AM (47/pr)
----
It changed the life of Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at May 30, 2025 11:34 AM (36PRH)

164 "I'm 81 miles from work door to door. If you want to replace my ice commuter, it has to have at least 82 miles range at 70 mph with a recharge time of under four hours.
Posted by: rickb223"

And some extra margin for traffic jams.

I have a 4wd truck. 99.9% of the time it's in 2wd. It's that .1 % of the time when not only do I need it, I REALLY need it.

Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:34 AM (vFG9F)

165 AI = There going two ask they're boss if he wants to come along to.

Yeah. I can see AI writing a contract, blowing the language and costing a company millions.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:34 AM (ipqug)

166 IIRC, it was not the inventor, but the guy who bought the company from him.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2025 11:30 AM (qCAN7)

Correct. Jim Heselden bought the company from Dean Kamen in 2009 and croaked when he took one off a cliff into the River Wharfe a year later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segway

Posted by: Dean Wormer at May 30, 2025 11:35 AM (/HDaX)

167 Here it is

https://tinyurl.com/4m23ydw6

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 30, 2025 11:35 AM (t/2Uw)

168 Errk. /sock off

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 30, 2025 11:35 AM (/HDaX)

169 And some extra margin for traffic jams.

I have a 4wd truck. 99.9% of the time it's in 2wd. It's that .1 % of the time when not only do I need it, I REALLY need it.
Posted by: fd

Exactly.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:35 AM (ipqug)

170 Or the middle-aged dentist who buys a Maserati to drive to the office. Dude, everyone is laughing at you.

I'm not. If he can afford it and he enjoys it, more power to him.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 30, 2025 11:35 AM (/y8xj)

171 Will AI ever be truly "intelligent?" Consider Newton coming up with the mathematical series to estimate pi to any degree of precision, merely through extrapolation from Pascal's triangle. Could AI do that? I doubt it.
Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at May 30, 2025 11:33 AM

I couldn't do it either yet I have a semblance of sentience.

Posted by: toby928 at May 30, 2025 11:35 AM (jc0TO)

172
I've been using Copilot to write Databricks Python code - its taken a fraction of the time it normally would. I simply point the AI to the API documentation and I tell it to write me scripts that can perform certain operations with that API. As long as I'm specific with the prompt, it gets it right about 95% of the time.

Yes I review what its done, and yes I test it but it's saved a lot of time overall.
Posted by: Defenestratus at May 30, 2025 11:28 AM (WYStd)

You sound very much like me. Just yesterday I was getting an error that made no sense. I asked grok what this error is, and Gave the specific conditions when it was happening and a snippet of code.

Presto bingo, the solution was right there. This would have taken an hour or more to debug by looking at logs and shit. Instead it took me 30 seconds with AI.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:35 AM (HmCtv)

173 People spend a lot of money on guns they never really need either.

Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:36 AM (vFG9F)

174 I remember the Segway was supposed to change life as we know it.

I guess it changed the inventor's life when he drove one off an embankment on his property.
Posted by: Minuteman at May 30, 2025 11:31 AM (47/pr)

I remember Niles Crane buzzing around on one in an episode. Very funny; made me laugh. He looked ridiculous, like Dukakis in a tank

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at May 30, 2025 11:36 AM (P/Wjn)

175 160 AI has gotten pretty good. It's answers, when spoken in an Indian accent, are indistinguishable from the finest human customer service that we've all come to expect.
Posted by: t-bird at May 30, 2025 11:33 AM (n9MHj)
----
Sir, have I given you excellent customer service?

Posted by: STEVE FROM TECH SUPPORT at May 30, 2025 11:36 AM (36PRH)

176 Here's another link with more info

https://tinyurl.com/yc3fpmsc

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 30, 2025 11:36 AM (t/2Uw)

177 GenAI just...can't. It's literally impossible to have it do even the kind of reasoning a HAMSTER can do.

Discriminative AI on the other hand may have promise, but it doesn't get near the resources or the attention.

It's always the first steps that are the hardest, and we're in that stage now. Eventually, progress will happen at an exponentially increasing rate. We may even be getting close to that, but who knows?

What we see now is an AI bubble forming that will only leave consultants richer when it's all said and done.

On that, we agree.

Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2025 11:36 AM (s8j++)

178 I have a coworker that has extensive domain knowledge but not in coding. With the aid of chatgpt she was able to do in a week, what probably would have taken me a few days. I would have finished it faster, true, but without AI she would not have been able to do it at all.

Things are going to change. Ignore the crazies on both end of the spectrum and you will end up with the probable outcome. Lots of displacement for sure, though.

Posted by: Are you sure about this sir? at May 30, 2025 11:36 AM (zOD0w)

179 There's video of a lib boomer in Martha's Vineyard saying that anyone, including her, could be next deported.

She might be just as loco as Audrey Hale.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:25 AM (GBKbO)

Well, Liberals should all be deported.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2025 11:37 AM (qCAN7)

180 Serious and intent crowd this morning.

Not one Radar Range Spaceballs or Airplane! joke.

I am disappoint.

Posted by: Count de Monet at May 30, 2025 11:37 AM (Aqu9a)

181 It's like the people who justify buying a $60,000 pickup because they buy lumber once a year, when Lowes or Home Depot will rent you a truck for twenty bucks.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at May 30, 2025 11:31 AM (qpyNK)

I don't think any of the domestics will sell you a pickup for less than 80 grand... and that's going to have no bells or whistles.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:37 AM (dGCAG)

182 From my limited perspective, the two biggest “these really did change things” innovations over the past 100 years are (a) reliable home refrigeration and (b) the personal computer.

Home refrigeration completed changed not just how people ate, but how they organized their day and how safe their food supply was. Daily food acquisition was no longer necessary; just-in-time food preparation was no longer necessary. Ingredients that were once the province of businesses could now be stored in the home.

Refrigeration & water treatment.

Safe water/no cholera.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:37 AM (ipqug)

183 I would argue the innovation has not yet been squeezed out of them. If you look at what they have already accomplished - getting a machine to communicate in natural language without it even knowing what English or a word or a language even is, it stands to reason we are not at any ceiling on them.
Posted by: ... at May 30, 2025 11:30 AM (Dz1R2)

--

GenAI works by assigning probabilities to what the next word in the sentence will be in the hopes it will generate what we hope is a useful response. As I said, it's a glorified random number generator.

But again, it's totally unconcerned with accuracy. It is trying to provide that ideal response but it's disconnected with the concept of facts or accuracy. It also doesn't know what it doesn't know, so it will make stuff up.

AI responses sound authoritative and are grammatically beautify, but accuracy is not even in the mix. And that it inherent in the entire concept of an LLM.

In short, they are stochastic garbage generators.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:37 AM (oUlN5)

184 153 OK I just checked. It's a real thing. Dr. Squatch sells a soap that's made with Sidney Sweeny's bathwater. FFS.
Posted by: Minnfidel at May 30, 2025 11:32 AM (ewjUl)

Any bets the FDA gets involved and makes a big ridiculous stink over this silliness?
Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:33 AM

It's funny. I looked at the website. The description says' Smells Like: Morning Wood. LOL

Posted by: Minnfidel at May 30, 2025 11:37 AM (ewjUl)

185 Or the middle-aged dentist who buys a Maserati to drive to the office. Dude, everyone is laughing at you.

—

Maserati’s best sellers are SUVs. Same with Porsche. I’m sure a lot of dentists drive both.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:37 AM (HmCtv)

186 AI is a parlor trick, powered by gears and levers designed by it's creators.
Posted by: fd

***********

So a 21st century Deus Ex Machina?

Posted by: muldoon at May 30, 2025 11:38 AM (/iMjX)

187 OK I just checked. It's a real thing. Dr. Squatch sells a soap that's made with Sidney Sweeny's bathwater. FFS.
Posted by: Minnfidel

I bet it's not even HER bathwater. Darlene Slobodowsky from Flemhole Junction, Oklahoma needs to make a living, too. She's still paying down her double wide.

Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:38 AM (77rzZ)

188 I was reading about Andrew Wiles and his proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem yesterday…. Amazing story. AI couldn’t do that in 10 million years

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at May 30, 2025 11:38 AM (P/Wjn)

189 have a steaming hot spud in just minutes

Just your periodic reminder that access to the "Sex Machine" is a privilege, and not a right.

Posted by: Brian Stelter at May 30, 2025 11:38 AM (TTO0Z)

190 Another way AI has been useful to me is in creating tables from blocks of text.

Could I get a coffee table built from blocks of text? I think that would look keen!

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 30, 2025 11:38 AM (ZVgZ4)

191 172
You sound very much like me. Just yesterday I was getting an error that made no sense. I asked grok what this error is, and Gave the specific conditions when it was happening and a snippet of code.

Presto bingo, the solution was right there. This would have taken an hour or more to debug by looking at logs and shit. Instead it took me 30 seconds with AI.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:35 AM (HmCtv)

----
Good thing it scraped the answers from Stack Exchange for you. It saved you the time of having to review your search engine results.

Posted by: STEVE FROM TECH SUPPORT at May 30, 2025 11:39 AM (36PRH)

192 "So a 21st century Deus Ex Machina?
Posted by: muldoon "

Yes, except some of the parts run kind of loose.

Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:39 AM (vFG9F)

193 Or the middle-aged dentist who buys a Maserati to drive to the office. Dude, everyone is laughing at you.
Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2025 11:34 AM (s8j++)

Except the 19 year old hygienist who is blowing him.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:39 AM (dGCAG)

194 /sock off

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at May 30, 2025 11:39 AM (36PRH)

195 Or the middle-aged dentist who buys a Maserati to drive to the office. Dude, everyone is laughing at you.

One of the saddest experiences I have is being stuck behind a beautiful sports car driving five miles below the limit. That car deserves more. I should be admiring it while it’s passing me, preferably with a cartoon wooosh.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 30, 2025 11:39 AM (EXyHK)

196 173 People spend a lot of money on guns they never really need either.
Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:36 AM (vFG9F)

I don't get it.

Posted by: Reforger at May 30, 2025 11:40 AM (xcIvR)

197 I bet moo moo would have great use of ChatGPT to find lemonade stand tax evaders.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:40 AM (oUlN5)

198 Been in the industry for 4 months now. What I see is over clocked super fast graphics cards. They use the graphics card style connectors. We'll be building 30,000 this quarter.
Two huge enemies of it are static electricity and heat.
Posted by: Reforger at May 30, 2025 11:06 AM (xcIvR)

The biggest enemy are NetZero initiatives.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 30, 2025 11:40 AM (ExV1e)

199 don't think any of the domestics will sell you a pickup for less than 80 grand... and that's going to have no bells or whistles.
Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:37 AM (dGCAG)

A base Ram 1500 is like $40k. There are affordable trucks out there. I don’t think a lot of them are bought, but they’re an option

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:40 AM (HmCtv)

200 I bet it's not even HER bathwater. Darlene Slobodowsky from Flemhole Junction, Oklahoma needs to make a living, too. She's still paying down her double wide.
Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:38 AM (77rzZ)

hehehe. A whole factory floor full of migrant workers who legally changed their names to "Sydney Sweeny", taking turns standing in a flowing trough of water.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:40 AM (VoAdT)

201 You don't learn anything if you don't do the research yourself. It's like getting the Cliff notes version of the facts.

Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:40 AM (vFG9F)

202 Yes. This is all just overblown hysteria from some internet cranks who need to get laid.

Posted by: Skynet at May 30, 2025 11:41 AM (K//Cw)

203 People spend a lot of money on guns they never really need either.
Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:36 AM

Need is subjective. I just spent more on a rifle than I paid for my used pickup truck.

Posted by: toby928 at May 30, 2025 11:41 AM (jc0TO)

204 They checked the Radarange on AIRPLANE!

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at May 30, 2025 11:41 AM (63Dwl)

205 What? More bullshit?

Posted by: 80's music fan at May 30, 2025 11:41 AM (QSrLX)

206 Around midday we have a launch.
SpaceX - Falcon 9 - GPS III 7 SV08
SLC-40 - Cape Canaveral SFS - Space Affairs Live
Launch Date: May 30, 2025
Launch Time: 1:23 p.m. EDT, 1723 UTC, 19:23 CEST

https://www.youtube.com/live/Zwu3nJsyUmQ

Posted by: Ciampino - that's left at May 30, 2025 11:41 AM (sPQoU)

207
hehehe. A whole factory floor full of migrant workers who legally changed their names to "Sydney Sweeny", taking turns standing in a flowing trough of water.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:40 AM

You guys ruin everything!

Posted by: Minnfidel at May 30, 2025 11:41 AM (ewjUl)

208 People spend a lot of money on guns they never really need either.

Ya done quit preachin' and gone to meddlin' there, parson.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 30, 2025 11:42 AM (/y8xj)

209 Yes. This is all just overblown hysteria from some internet cranks who need to get laid.
Posted by: Skynet at May 30, 2025 11:41 AM (K//Cw)

Hmmm…. Your nic makes me suspicious of your motives and biases….

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at May 30, 2025 11:42 AM (P/Wjn)

210 Good thing it scraped the answers from Stack Exchange for you. It saved you the time of having to review your search engine results.
Posted by: STEVE FROM TECH SUPPORT at May 30, 2025 11:39 AM (36PRH

It’s that plus reading the documentation. If I read the documentation front to back I could probably figure it out as well. In a week though.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:42 AM (HmCtv)

211 Jim Heselden bought the company from Dean Kamen in 2009 and croaked when he took one off a cliff into the River Wharfe a year later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segway
Posted by: Dean Wormer

If he hadn't looked down, he would've made it.
-- Wile E. Coyote

Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:42 AM (77rzZ)

212 It's plausible that the fact AI is rapidly replacing human workers has more to do with the lack of usefulness of many human workers than it does to do with any unique capabilities of AI.

Posted by: muldoon at May 30, 2025 11:42 AM (/iMjX)

213 Why did the Concorde go away? I never got the chance to fly on one! Were they too pricey? Would cheaper energy make supersonic transport come back?

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 30, 2025 11:42 AM (ZVgZ4)

214 Yes. This is all just overblown hysteria from some internet cranks who need to get laid.
Posted by: Skynet at May 30, 2025 11:41 AM (K//Cw)

Hmmm…. Your nic makes me suspicious of your motives and biases….

Right? You can't trust anyone with such a name.

Posted by: Hal 9000 at May 30, 2025 11:42 AM (s8j++)

215 Oh, wait. Its a tax.

Posted by: 80's music fan at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (QSrLX)

216 People spend a lot of money on guns they never really need either.

Is there a rule for blasphemy around here?

Posted by: Minnfidel at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (ewjUl)

217 The problem with AI is the programmed hubris coupled with errors and faulty logic it employs.

Posted by: Minuteman at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (47/pr)

218 AI will do a lot and replace a lot of tasks. But just like computers, it will only be good enough at the widespread societal level as its human managers. I have learned the last couple of years that a company cannot replace humans with computers and bots for customer service, for instance. Does not work when the people who program it are not experts. AI is going to be just another customer service bot.

Posted by: PJ at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (RRCAT)

219 It's like the people who justify buying a $60,000 pickup because they buy lumber once a year, when Lowes or Home Depot will rent you a truck for twenty bucks.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia

Read the fine print. That's for 75 minutes. Actually 70 minutes, because the time starts the second they ring it up. Then you lose 15 minutes or more loading it and five getting out of the parking lot. Then 5 minutes checking it back in.

Or, $130 all day. Not as good as it originally sounds. Or $903/week or $3600 a month.

Might as well buy your own.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (ipqug)

220 As someone who uses multiple AI/LLM's including my own local LLM, it has become indefensible to my workflow.

From analyzing documents, to rewriting documentation, to combining documentation, to providing summaries and task lists, to producing code.

It's as close to magic as can be imagined.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (XV/Pl)

221 213 Why did the Concorde go away? I never got the chance to fly on one! Were they too pricey? Would cheaper energy make supersonic transport come back?
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 30, 2025 11:42 AM (ZVgZ4)

======

I seem to remember that the accident to flight ratio was too high.

It was only, like, one accident, but it just didn't fly that much.

So, that, combined with its age, just let to the thing going away.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (GBKbO)

222 "I don't get it.
Posted by: Reforger"

I should have specified that by "needing" I mean for God forbid actual self defense.

Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (vFG9F)

223 Ahhh yes, the "radar range" ...

Back in 1971, on a cold winter night, I thought our dogs might appreciate a hot meal, as they lived in an outdoor kennel.

So I loaded up the food bowl (metal), added some chicken broth my mom was boiling down, and threw that all in the radar range.

***zzzapcracklezzzappppboom***

Who knew ...

Posted by: browndog had good intentions at May 30, 2025 11:44 AM (TTAGa)

224 It is mostly arrays of linearized weighting factors derived to meet various goal seeks using training data. When you plow through the marketing speak and so on. People in tech like to ascribe magic to their fairly mundane creations.

Posted by: banana Dream at May 30, 2025 11:44 AM (cduTK)

225 Now we're onto vibe coding?

First, a software developer is much more valuable than only being a human interface between AI and a customer.

It's based on the assumption that you don't need to know how to code. You just toss in your super idea and presto, out pops an application. Which is fine if the only time you value is your own. But when the product is creating nightmare linguini code written in a way that no one understands, much less supports, then it's not really saving anyone anything.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:44 AM (oUlN5)

226 It's plausible that the fact AI is rapidly replacing human workers has more to do with the lack of usefulness of many human workers than it does to do with any unique capabilities of AI.

Concur. This raises the question of what is going to become of those people. If you're economically superfluous, how do you pass your days?

Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2025 11:44 AM (s8j++)

227 One of the saddest experiences I have is being stuck behind a beautiful sports car driving five miles below the limit. That car deserves more. I should be admiring it while it’s passing me, preferably with a cartoon wooosh.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 30, 2025 11:39 AM

* waves *

Posted by: The Woman in Red at May 30, 2025 11:44 AM (TTO0Z)

228 As sundry technical developments have come about, we generally have welcomed them, because they made life physically easier.

The internet was a bit different. It actually altered the social landscape. I suspect that many of us wish that somehow it was only used by reponsible, thoughtful people. Instead, it has become a bit of a sewer. Present company excepted, of course.

Still, I do not think that anyone in, oh, the 1980's could have imagined the impact that it would have on society.

I feel that way about AI. It is impossible to imagine what its function will be, and thus impossible to imagine what the negative consequences will be. 'Advances' in electro-mechanical devices are one thing, but AI is very different. We would be foolish to think that it isn't going to affect our lives.

Posted by: Mike Hammer,etc., etc. at May 30, 2025 11:44 AM (XeU6L)

229 Maybe they will need AI if this is the future:

"Currently, a student needs a 90 for an A and at least 61 for a D. Under San Leandro's (Calif.) Unified School District New "Grading for Equity" System touted by the San Francisco Unified School District, a student with a score as low as 80 can attain an A and as low as 21 can pass with a D.”

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:44 AM (ipqug)

230 Here's a headline from Insty that truly does my shriveled, blackened heart good:

HOW’S THIS FOR POETIC JUSTICE? Tapper’s CNN Show Tanks Despite Book Tour.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 30, 2025 11:45 AM (/HDaX)

231 229 "Currently, a student needs a 90 for an A and at least 61 for a D. Under San Leandro's (Calif.) Unified School District New "Grading for Equity" System touted by the San Francisco Unified School District, a student with a score as low as 80 can attain an A and as low as 21 can pass with a D.”
Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:44 AM (ipqug)

======

What is this? Baseball?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:45 AM (GBKbO)

232 So, that, combined with its age, just let to the thing going away.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (GBKbO)

I remember that part of it was also that it was wildly expensive, and there weren't enough people who could afford it using it regularly enough to make it profitable.

Definitely don't want to be deadheading in something that costs that much to fuel, maintain and insure.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:45 AM (VoAdT)

233 seque - n.
1. A smooth transition from one topic to another. e.g. from clifftop to river bottom

Posted by: muldoon at May 30, 2025 11:45 AM (/iMjX)

234 Posted by: The Woman in Red at May 30, 2025 11:44 AM (TTO0Z)

I’ve never seen your movie. I should remedy that.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 30, 2025 11:45 AM (EXyHK)

235 >>The personal computer completely changed the trajectory of how society was supposed to evolve.

My dad worked at DEC under Ken Olson when the mini computer revolution was in full swing. The mini industry and DEC in particular grew so fast they overtook the IBM dominated mainframe world and left them in the dust.

When asked about the personal computer Olson famously said that personal computers would never be needed in business and at best they would be toys for playing video games and he declined to get into that business. A few later after the board axed Olson Compaq bought DEC.

Predicting the future is hard.

Posted by: JackStraw at May 30, 2025 11:45 AM (viF8m)

236 It's plausible that the fact AI is rapidly replacing human workers has more to do with the lack of usefulness of many human workers than it does to do with any unique capabilities of AI.

Concur. This raises the question of what is going to become of those people. If you're economically superfluous, how do you pass your days?
Posted by: Archimedes

Cannon fodder for Ukraine or China/Tiawan.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:46 AM (ipqug)

237 "Need is subjective. I just spent more on a rifle than I paid for my used pickup truck.
Posted by: toby928"

I agree and narrowed my definition. Of course you need a gun for things like hunting.

One of these days I'm going to get edit capability here. I'm saving up my bonus points.

Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:46 AM (vFG9F)

238 even now it is difficult for the elite to transcend the mindset of the thirties through the fifties that everything was going to require permission.
***
SPB, would you mind telling me more about this idea? Requiring permission?

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at May 30, 2025 11:46 AM (PcTds)

239 San Francisco Unified School District, a student with a score as low as 80 can attain an A and as low as 21 can pass with a D.”
Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:44 AM (ipqug)

Nothing like turning a Spinal Tap gag into actual public policy.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:46 AM (VoAdT)

240 I don't get it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:04 AM (GBKbO)

Remember, folks, TJM saying "I don't get it" is like TJM saying that they're keeping a thread Prometheus-free. It's not, exactly, accurate.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 30, 2025 11:46 AM (ExV1e)

241 186
‘ So a 21st century Deus Ex Machina?’

That is my worry about AI. Our current deep state imbuing AI with some mystical, all knowing authority. Then leftists, credulous sheep that they are, will run around demanding that we all comply with whatever the deep state program into the AI.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 30, 2025 11:46 AM (jbnUc)

242 Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:42 AM (HmCtv)

Did AI tell you that Samuelson said something in Economics that was factually incorrect when someone who actually owned the book went to look it up....?

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:46 AM (oUlN5)

243 As someone who uses multiple AI/LLM's including my own local LLM, it has become indefensible to my workflow.

Are you sure that's the phrasing you're after? 8^O

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 30, 2025 11:46 AM (/HDaX)

244 If you're economically superfluous, how do you pass your days?
Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2025 11:44 AM

Comment on Democratic Underground?

Posted by: Duncanthrax at May 30, 2025 11:46 AM (TTO0Z)

245 But when the product is creating nightmare linguini code written in a way that no one understands, much less supports, then it's not really saving anyone anything.

Posted by: WitchDoktor
----

You've seen some of my code, haven't you?

Posted by: Mike Hammer,etc., etc. at May 30, 2025 11:46 AM (XeU6L)

246 This month driverless trucks started roaming I-45 in Texas between Dallas and Houston. Driverless waymos are in California and Elon’s driverless service is set to rollout in Austin.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:47 AM (HmCtv)

247 I have found Grok to be a better search engine than Google for most searches.

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at May 30, 2025 11:47 AM (PcTds)

248 On the topic of lawyers, I have come across a few stories when a law firm uses AI to generate papers and uses fake cases to back up their argument.

Posted by: NR Pax at May 30, 2025 11:47 AM (BpO1e)

249 Next up the View series bathwater soap. Made from the bathwater of Joy Behar , Whoopi Goldberg, Anna Navarro and the rest. Collect em , trade em, cures what ails ya

Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 30, 2025 11:47 AM (U09go)

250 A base Ram 1500 is like $40k. There are affordable trucks out there. I don’t think a lot of them are bought, but they’re an option
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:40 AM (HmCtv)

Hmmm, I just checked local inventory. There are some in the $40s. I hadn't seen any not that long ago.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:47 AM (dGCAG)

251 The internet was a bit different. It actually altered the social landscape.

The Industrial Revolution completely changed the social landscape. People went from subsistence farming to living in cities and working on a schedule in factories.

Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2025 11:48 AM (s8j++)

252 I agree and narrowed my definition. Of course you need a gun for things like hunting.

One of these days I'm going to get edit capability here. I'm saving up my bonus points.

Not necessary. Your point was fair and all the responses where in good humor, IMO.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 30, 2025 11:48 AM (/y8xj)

253 One of these days I'm going to get edit capability here.
Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:46 AM

Don't count on it, monkeyboy.

Posted by: Big Penguin at May 30, 2025 11:49 AM (TTO0Z)

254 Indoor plumbing

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at May 30, 2025 11:49 AM (PcTds)

255 Predicting the future is hard.
Posted by: JackStraw at May 30, 2025 11:45 AM

Word.

Posted by: Jim Cramer at May 30, 2025 11:49 AM (ewjUl)

256 249 Next up the View series bathwater soap. Made from the bathwater of Joy Behar , Whoopi Goldberg, Anna Navarro and the rest. Collect em , trade em, cures what ails ya
Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 30, 2025 11:47 AM (U09go)

THIS ONE IS REALLY FUNNY, BECAUSE NONE OF THEM BATHE.

Posted by: BEN ROETHLISSBERGER at May 30, 2025 11:49 AM (VoAdT)

257 220 As someone who uses multiple AI/LLM's including my own local LLM, it has become indefensible to my workflow.

From analyzing documents, to rewriting documentation, to combining documentation, to providing summaries and task lists, to producing code.

It's as close to magic as can be imagined.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (XV/Pl)

———-

As with most technological developments, the bulk of the benefits go to working world.

Gemini does a very good job of transcribing and summarizing online meetings.

Once AI is applied to project management, I think we will see a revolution in controlling project schedules and costs.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at May 30, 2025 11:49 AM (Zh3/u)

258 254 Indoor plumbing
Posted by: AmericanKestrel at May 30, 2025 11:49 AM (PcTds)

====

Well, yes, the aqueduct yes. But what else have the Romans done for us?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:49 AM (GBKbO)

259 That San Francisco thing hurts everyone outside of SF. When applying to college a kid with a real B+ will not be accepted to college instead the fake A from San Francisco kid will be.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:49 AM (HmCtv)

260 BREAKING: Supreme Court finally made a good decision today.

Humanitarian parole can be ended for 4 countries while court case continues...7-2 decision I believe (Kagan joining the 6)...

"The justices lifted a lower-court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from four countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The court has also allowed the administration to revoke temporary legal status from about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in another case."

Posted by: Nova Local at May 30, 2025 11:50 AM (tOcjL)

261 Predicting the future is hard.
Posted by: JackStraw at May 30, 2025 11:45 AM

Word.
Posted by: Jim Cramer

*fistbump*
-- Harold Camping

Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:50 AM (77rzZ)

262 @242

>>Did AI tell you that Samuelson said something in Economics that was factually incorrect when someone who actually owned the book went to look it up....?

The whole, AI get's things wrongs is largely overstated.

LLM's are not thinking machines, all they are are probabilistic engines, and if the questions being posed to them are straight forward, they will produce extraordinarily accurate results.

If you as them a question along the line of, I want to build a cross-platform Broadcast Systems Integration application, what technology stacks would you recommend.

The amount of organized information that it will produce would require at a minimum 100k dollars in consulting fees.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2025 11:50 AM (XV/Pl)

263 When asked about the personal computer Olson famously said that personal computers would never be needed in business and at best they would be toys for playing video games

**********

He sure missed on that prediction. He left out "streaming porn".

Posted by: muldoon at May 30, 2025 11:50 AM (/iMjX)

264

The San Francisco Unified School District will not be moving forward with a controversial equity grading strategy that was proposed this week after significant backlash.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at May 30, 2025 11:51 AM (63Dwl)

265 I should have specified that by "needing" I mean for God forbid actual self defense.
Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (vFG9F)

I understood what you were saying.

For a moment there though, if we could hear the collective AoSHQ community, it would just be the sound of a million guns racking a round.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 11:51 AM (dGCAG)

266 Until 9th grade, I needed a 94 for an A. 79 was a D. This was Fairfax Co. Va. I got a lot of Bs. No +/-

Posted by: Dark Litigator at May 30, 2025 11:51 AM (KAi1n)

267 I seem to remember that the accident to flight ratio was too high.

It was only, like, one accident, but it just didn't fly that much.

So, that, combined with its age, just let to the thing going away.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:43 AM (GBKbO)

They were restricted from going supersonic over land, because of sonic booms. And there was the usual quacking from the environuts, too. They rapidly became unprofitable.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2025 11:51 AM (qCAN7)

268 That San Francisco thing hurts everyone outside of SF. When applying to college a kid with a real B+ will not be accepted to college instead the fake A from San Francisco kid will be.

We're okay with it.

Posted by: Chinese kids mastering calculus in 3rd grade at May 30, 2025 11:51 AM (s8j++)

269 Vacuum cleaner.

Washing machine.

Dishwasher.

Now that housework has been rendered obsolete . . .

Posted by: Count de Monet at May 30, 2025 11:51 AM (Aqu9a)

270 214 Yes. This is all just overblown hysteria from some internet cranks who need to get laid.
Posted by: Skynet at May 30, 2025 11:41 AM (K//Cw)

One of the first things you did when you discovered the time machine was to try and prevent someone from getting laid?

You do not understand anything. AI cock blocking POS.
Dude went through hell just to nail LA waitress and you send some robot to kill her before he even gets to first base.

Posted by: Reforger at May 30, 2025 11:52 AM (xcIvR)

271 Predicting the future is hard.
Posted by: JackStraw at May 30, 2025 11:45 AM

Word.
Posted by: Jim Cramer at May 30, 2025 11:49 AM (ewjUl)

Amateurs

Posted by: Nostra Dennis at May 30, 2025 11:52 AM (dGCAG)

272 People spend a lot of money on guns they never really need either.
Posted by: fd

We have vast experience in this area.

Posted by: Csnoe Builders Association, Apprentice Division at May 30, 2025 11:52 AM (MDua2)

273 People spend a lot of money on guns they never really need either.
Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:36 AM (vFG9F)

Yet. The same as AI is not worth all the hype.......yet.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at May 30, 2025 11:52 AM (g8Ew8)

274 >>The internet was a bit different. It actually altered the social landscape.

It did exactly what it was planned to do.

One ring to rule them
One ring to find them
One ring to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them

Posted by: JackStraw at May 30, 2025 11:52 AM (viF8m)

275 Predicting the future is hard.
Posted by: JackStraw

Word.
Posted by: Jim Cramer

*fistbump*
-- Harold Camping
Posted by: Bulg

What about me!!?

Posted by: Zombie Malthus at May 30, 2025 11:52 AM (cYBz/)

276 One of the lynch-pins of any liberal or libertarian economic theory is dispensing with the concept of "need". Your needs are your problem. Economic activity is driven by Wants, not Needs. You may Want to supply some need or another in some particular way versus another. You may consider something a need that someone else doesn't. Need should have nothing to do with economics. It's an emotional concept that leads directly to the kind of "something must be done" authoritarianism that defines basically every species of illiberal politics.

(or i could be wrong.)

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (VoAdT)

277 If you're economically superfluous, how do you pass your days?
Posted by: Archimedes

Escape the misery of the industrial revolution by going back to subsistence farming?

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (PcTds)

278 A base Ram 1500 is like $40k. There are affordable trucks out there. I don’t think a lot of them are bought, but they’re an option
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:40 AM (HmCtv)

Hmmm, I just checked local inventory. There are some in the $40s. I hadn't seen any not that long ago.
Posted by: BurtTC

When you walk into a dealership, ask for Fleet Sales. Those are the no frills work trucks without all the fancy shit.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (ipqug)

279 Are the various AI programs aware of one another? If so are they expected to to compete with each other, up to, and including, warfare?

Posted by: easy the elder at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (a6gMB)

280 The whole, AI get's things wrongs is largely overstated.

LLM's are not thinking machines, all they are are probabilistic engines, and if the questions being posed to them are straight forward, they will produce extraordinarily accurate results.

If you as them a question along the line of, I want to build a cross-platform Broadcast Systems Integration application, what technology stacks would you recommend.

The amount of organized information that it will produce would require at a minimum 100k dollars in consulting fees.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2025 11:50 AM (XV/Pl)

The LLM behind it needs to be straightforward, not the questions. Math, sure maybe. But then those have objective yes/no answers that you can do with a calculator. Weaknesses pile up though.

And how much money do you spend on a consultant to make sure the AI isn't hallucinating an answer for you...?

This is why I say consultants are at the top of this entire Ponzi scheme. They get money either way.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (oUlN5)

281 277 If you're economically superfluous, how do you pass your days?
Posted by: Archimedes

Escape the misery of the industrial revolution by going back to subsistence farming?
Posted by: AmericanKestrel at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (PcTds)

======

I'm going to be a door to door Dodo salesman.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (GBKbO)

282 "People spend a lot of money on fire extinguishers they never really need either."

Is that better?

Posted by: fd at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (vFG9F)

283 I asked grok to summarize the colleges my kid is thinking of attending. With pros, cons? Cost, etc.

It took a few prompts and some back and forth but the end output was pretty fucking amazing. 5 colleges summarized in strengths, weaknesses,
Crime rate in the city, weather, distance to an airport, etc

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (HmCtv)

284 Still, I do not think that anyone in, oh, the 1980's could have imagined the impact that [the Internet] would have on society.

By the eighties there were people who could see it; even in 1980 we had BBSes and they were beginning to form into networks of BBSes.

The really interesting people are people like Norbert Wiener, who saw it in the fifties (Vannevar Bush saw the technological trajectory in the forties, but not the social ones). He saw it because he looked at communications in terms of entropy.

In control and communication we are always fighting nature’s tendency to degrade the organized and to destroy the meaningful; the tendency, as Gibbs has shown us, for entropy to increase.

…when there is communication without need for communication, merely so that someone may earn the social and intellectual prestige of becoming a priest of communication, the quality and communicative value of the message drop like a plummet.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 30, 2025 11:54 AM (EXyHK)

285 Predicting the future is hard.

Especially about things that haven't happened yet.

Posted by: toby928 at May 30, 2025 11:54 AM (jc0TO)

286 I'm sorry, but I'm going to resist using AI for as long as possible. I will do my own thinking and writing, thank you very much.

Posted by: Bulg at May 30, 2025 11:54 AM (77rzZ)

287 But what else have the Romans done for us?
Posted by: TheJamesMadison,

********

They developed innovative ways of allocating excess prophets.

Posted by: muldoon at May 30, 2025 11:54 AM (/iMjX)

288 If you're economically superfluous, how do you pass your days?
Posted by: Archimedes

I've got wood to cut, a garden to plant, animals to tend to. I've got 36 hours worth of shit to do every day and only 24 hours to do it in.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:54 AM (ipqug)

289 AI works because of two of the most reliable trends in the universe, temporal and spatial similitude.

Temporal similitude - everything that is, was, and will be. i.e. nothing new under the sun

Spatial similitude - everything here, is there, and everywhere.

We live in a pretty homogeneous corner of the universe through time and space. One might even argue this is the chief anthropic principle. Life is hard when everything is changing and unpredictable.

So making an algorithm that burps out stylized repeats is useful to us because we humans rarely do anything unique. And when the time comes that we need to do unique things that require sparks of ingenuity, our repeat burpers are going to be of no help.

Posted by: banana Dream at May 30, 2025 11:55 AM (cduTK)

290 Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (HmCtv)

I hope it wasn't the same LLM that gave you the answer to what Economics said about Communism.

Because that was embarrassing for you.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:55 AM (oUlN5)

291 Predicting the future is hard.
Posted by: JackStraw

Word.
Posted by: Jim Cramer

*fistbump*
-- Harold Camping
Posted by: Bulg

What about me!!?
Posted by: Zombie Malthus

Oh yeah, and also the fraud: Paul R. Ehrlich

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2025 11:55 AM (cYBz/)

292 If AI replaces the human pieces of shit known today as actors, I'd be OK with that.

Posted by: Minnfidel at May 30, 2025 11:55 AM (ewjUl)

293 indefensible? Surely you mean indispensable...

Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at May 30, 2025 11:55 AM (cWffP)

294 287 But what else have the Romans done for us?
Posted by: TheJamesMadison,

********

They developed innovative ways of allocating excess prophets.
Posted by: muldoon at May 30, 2025 11:54 AM (/iMjX)

=======

That's not even mentioning their advances in human remains preservation as evidenced at Pompeii.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:55 AM (GBKbO)

295 Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at May 30, 2025 11:51 AM (63Dwl)

It's San Francisco and the Union How do we know they won't implement it without telling the parents?

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 30, 2025 11:56 AM (EJtBU)

296 “Predicting is always a risky business, because if you had any clear idea of what lies beyond, you’d be working with it already.”—Arno Penzias, Omni, February 1980

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 30, 2025 11:56 AM (EXyHK)

297 Are the various AI programs aware of one another? If so are they expected to to compete with each other, up to, and including, warfare?

It will probably be more like a klatch of women, backbiting and bitching about the others.

Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2025 11:56 AM (s8j++)

298 292 If AI replaces the human pieces of shit known today as actors, I'd be OK with that.
Posted by: Minnfidel at May 30, 2025 11:55 AM (ewjUl)

It’s replacing writers who write the lines for actors.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 30, 2025 11:57 AM (HmCtv)

299 For years, my microwave was simply a popcorn cooker. I don't eat popcorn much anymore, but I remember reading somewhere that the microwave oven essentially launched a dozen companies that manufacture ready-to-pop popcorn, worth 100's of millions.

Posted by: Lincolntf at May 30, 2025 11:57 AM (2cS/G)

300 My reality is as good as anyone else's.

Posted by: AI Commentator at May 30, 2025 11:57 AM (vFG9F)

301 281 277 If you're economically superfluous, how do you pass your days?
Posted by: Archimedes

Escape the misery of the industrial revolution by going back to subsistence farming?
Posted by: AmericanKestrel at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (PcTds)

======

I'm going to be a door to door Dodo salesman.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM (GBKbO)

----
Imagine your Eskimo community receiving individually wrapped ice blocks in a variety of sizes each month! Cut from from the finest glaciers around the world! How about it?

Posted by: Ice Salesman at May 30, 2025 11:57 AM (36PRH)

302 If AI replaces the human pieces of shit known today as actors, I'd be OK with that.

Give it a few years. Folks are working on AI porn right now.

Posted by: NR Pax at May 30, 2025 11:58 AM (BpO1e)

303 Are the various AI programs aware of one another? If so are they expected to to compete with each other, up to, and including, warfare?

--

Pixy posted something the other day about how LLMs are starting to get data from other LLMs, which is leading to the likely possibility of model collapse.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:58 AM (oUlN5)

304 It will probably be more like a klatch of women, backbiting and bitching about the others.
Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2025 11:56 AM (s8j++)

Wouldn't it be hilarious if that were already happening, but none of the researchers have realized it yet?

"Oh, yeah, Santa Fe is totally the capital of Maine, how could you not know that, Siri?.... (OMG, she actually served that up as the answer! What a dumbass!)"

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 11:58 AM (VoAdT)

305 No doubt future robots will liken their travails to that of the early Christians.

Posted by: toby928 at May 30, 2025 11:58 AM (jc0TO)

306 Microwave or calculator: who told you to say that, human?

Posted by: Richard McEnroe at May 30, 2025 11:58 AM (Akube)

307 Imagine your Eskimo community receiving individually wrapped ice blocks in a variety of sizes each month! Cut from from the finest glaciers around the world! How about it?
Posted by: Ice Salesman

I knew two guys who could sell that. One was my uncle.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 11:58 AM (ipqug)

308 San Francisco Unified School District, a student with a score as low as 80 can attain an A and as low as 21 can pass with a D.”

Let’s keep things simple: if you signed up for the class you receive a grade of A.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 30, 2025 11:58 AM (ZVgZ4)

309 @280

>>The LLM behind it needs to be straightforward, not the questions.

They are straight forward, all LLM's are is a collection of data points, they take the input question, parse every word and then make probabilistic mappings on what should follow from each word, and then link those probability mapping to the the data it has in it's collection of data.

I use them pretty much all day and it produces what I need the vast overwhelming majority of the time.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2025 11:58 AM (XV/Pl)

310 It’s replacing writers who write the lines for actors.

“…the machine plays no favorites… the possible fields into which the new industrial revolution is likely to penetrate are very extensive, and include all labor performing judgments of a low level…”—Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 30, 2025 11:59 AM (EXyHK)

311 So making an algorithm that burps out stylized repeats is useful to us because we humans rarely do anything unique. And when the time comes that we need to do unique things that require sparks of ingenuity, our repeat burpers are going to be of no help.
Posted by: banana Dream at May 30, 2025 11:55 AM (cduTK)

Right, because of temporal and spatial similitude. Our corner of space and time is pretty homogeneous; one might even say that this is the chief anthropic principle.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 30, 2025 11:59 AM (yd2/I)

312 That's not even mentioning their advances in human remains preservation as evidenced at Pompeii.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

To be technical, there were no human remains per se, maybe a few charred bones. The outlines of the bodies casts were formed in the void left in the ash after the bodies decomposed. Plaster was injected into the voids to make the figures.

Posted by: stu-mick-o-sucks at May 30, 2025 12:00 PM (MDua2)

313 They are straight forward, all LLM's are is a collection of data points, they take the input question, parse every word and then make probabilistic mappings on what should follow from each word, and then link those probability mapping to the the data it has in it's collection of data.

I use them pretty much all day and it produces what I need the vast overwhelming majority of the time.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2025 11:58 AM (XV/Pl)

They are models that attempt to draw connections between points in cohesive ways. The farther apart those points, the worse it gets. That's just simple math.

Trust it at your peril.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 12:00 PM (oUlN5)

314
Flying cars WILL NOT DISAPPOINT US -- TRULY!

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 30, 2025 12:00 PM (Tv15w)

315 Let’s keep things simple: if you signed up for the class you receive a grade of A.

That's unfair to kids who can't read or write! We need a government program, stat!

Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2025 12:00 PM (s8j++)

316 You don't learn anything if you don't do the research yourself. It's like getting the Cliff notes version of the facts.
***
I don't know. I've been trying to get my son to read Crime and Punishment, but the closest I'll probably get is for him to read an ai summary. He will then be able to discuss broad ideas found in the book.

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at May 30, 2025 12:00 PM (PcTds)

317 i quite like arguing with AI. You see all the logical loops it can't close.
It's also quite satisfying because AI likes to spit left-wing orthodoxy at you.
Try to get AI to talk about any subject you know about and pretty quickly you understand how poor language models are at collating information.

Posted by: stv at May 30, 2025 12:01 PM (+opPw)

318 Russia 2Morrow: Robots, "An Android to Every Home"

youtu.be/4gyKDCOwdC0?

Posted by: Kindltot at May 30, 2025 12:01 PM (D7oie)

319 Flying cars WILL NOT DISAPPOINT US -- TRULY!
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 30, 2025 12:00 PM

In fairness, I do have a pocket computer that doubles as a two way communication device.

Posted by: toby928 at May 30, 2025 12:01 PM (jc0TO)

320 A lot of people complain AI mostly bullshits people. Guess what, so do most office workers, paper wranglers, phone operators, etc.

There is going to be a great filtering of those who don't add real value, and then a second filtering of those too lazy to properly herd their own AI and verify the work output. Those that can perform without it will be largely unaffected.

This is honestly in line with the reality that countless millions of office workers are fucking retards and in an earlier age would be slinging shit, hay, or grain. Not sure where these people will go, but given excess deaths and missing pregnancies since 2021 or so, I suspect some people have thoughts on that topic.

Posted by: heya at May 30, 2025 12:02 PM (+RkG8)

321 I am in the process of transferring my wife's HSA from a bank which pays no interest to one which pays some. The original bank has zeroed out the account but the money hasn't appeared in the new bank. I contacted the old bank to ask "where the fuck is my money" and they said that transfers take 4-6 weeks to complete.

AI is involved somewhere.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 30, 2025 12:02 PM (ExV1e)

322 As a child in the 1970s and a high school and college student in the ‘80s,
Posted by: Buck Throckmorton

Young pup, GOML!

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at May 30, 2025 12:02 PM (OLFHd)

323
If AI replaces the human pieces of shit known today as actors, I'd be OK with that.

Give it a few years. Folks are working on AI porn right now.
Posted by: NR Pax

Porn is a new technology's trailblazer.

I do not think they teach that in business schools.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 30, 2025 12:03 PM (Tv15w)

324 151
It's like the people who justify buying a $60,000 pickup because they buy lumber once a year, when Lowes or Home Depot will rent you a truck for twenty bucks.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at May 30, 2025 11:31 AM (qpyNK)
----
I bought a garbage can at Lowe's many years ago, for $50. Lowe's wanted $50 to deliver it.

Posted by: Ciampino - that's too cheap at May 30, 2025 12:03 PM (sPQoU)

325 Hey, I know! I'm going to ask ChatGPT what college my kid should attend and take its advice!

What could go wrong???

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 12:03 PM (oUlN5)

326 This is about me, isn't it?

Posted by: The Segue at May 30, 2025 12:03 PM (iu4b5)

327 I am in the process of transferring my wife's HSA from a bank which pays no interest to one which pays some. The original bank has zeroed out the account but the money hasn't appeared in the new bank.

I contacted the old bank to ask "where the fuck is my money" and they said that transfers take 4-6 weeks to complete.

In 1960 maybe. As fast as you can zero it out, you can deposit it in the new bank. Toot sweet.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 12:03 PM (ipqug)

328 Porn is a new technology's trailblazer.

I do not think they teach that in business schools.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 30, 2025 12:03 PM (Tv15w)

teledildonics pre-dates VR.

(i made that up. But it sounds true.)

Posted by: Warai-otoko at May 30, 2025 12:04 PM (VoAdT)

329 Actually it's about me.

Posted by: The SegWay at May 30, 2025 12:04 PM (iu4b5)

330 >> One of the lynch-pins of any liberal or libertarian economic theory is dispensing with the concept of "need". Your needs are your problem. Economic activity is driven by Wants, not Needs.

I *need* to wash myself in Sydney Sweeney’s dirty bubblebath snatch water.

I *want* the government to pay for it.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 30, 2025 12:04 PM (yd2/I)

331 Interesting that both LLM's and Sydney Sweeney both appear in this thread, since Sydney is one. A Large Lungage Model, that is.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2025 12:04 PM (qCAN7)

332 The parents of a good friend bought a microwave oven (called a “Radar Range”

...

--

Oh gosh, I haven't heard "radar range" is such a long time! Talk about a blast from the past.

Posted by: Lady in Black at May 30, 2025 12:04 PM (qBdHI)

333 318 Russia 2Morrow: Robots, "An Android to Every Home"

the ukraine war is actually a sneaky scheme to juice the russian market for home androids by killing of their competitors (young russians), isn't it?

Posted by: anachronda at May 30, 2025 12:04 PM (v3pYe)

334 Porn is a new technology's trailblazer.

I do not think they teach that in business schools.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot

Porn is what brought us online payments.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 12:04 PM (ipqug)

335 Do people who use AI for work credit the AI? Who gets the raise? If a student uses AI to write a paper or take a test, does the AI get the grade?

What if AI demands it?

I can see proponents for this.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at May 30, 2025 12:04 PM (Q4IgG)

336 One ring to rule them
One ring to find them
One ring to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them
Posted by: JackStraw

There are four rings!

Posted by: Gene-Luke Picerd at May 30, 2025 12:05 PM (KAi1n)

337 316 You don't learn anything if you don't do the research yourself. It's like getting the Cliff notes version of the facts.
***
I don't know. I've been trying to get my son to read Crime and Punishment, but the closest I'll probably get is for him to read an ai summary. He will then be able to discuss broad ideas found in the book.
Posted by: AmericanKestrel at May 30, 2025 12:00 PM (PcTds)
----

This is why original stories will become extremely rare, everything will be derivative, if not outright written by AI ("in the style of" an actual writer with talent).

Posted by: Ice Salesman at May 30, 2025 12:05 PM (36PRH)

338 What bugs me most about the AI revolution is that we explicitly feed LLMs countless reams of human-written text, then we're impressed that it regurgitates human-like expressions.

Posted by: mea culpa at May 30, 2025 12:05 PM (/eSxK)

339 334 Porn is a new technology's trailblazer.

I do not think they teach that in business schools.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot

Porn is what brought us online payments.
Posted by: rickb223 at May 30, 2025 12:04 PM (ipqug)

======

It's what won the first home video war between VHS and Betmax.

However, it actually lost the side it took in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray battle. Porn took the side of HD-DVD early. HD-DVD died anyway.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 12:05 PM (GBKbO)

340 Waiting on coffee

Posted by: Skip at May 30, 2025 12:05 PM (ypFCm)

341 AI is useful when I want to get a part number for a Holley carburetor, or a refrigerator icemaker. As far as generating anything other than the accumulation of knowledge that is already on the internet, I don't see any potential.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 30, 2025 12:05 PM (lTGtQ)

342 I use them pretty much all day and it produces what I need the vast overwhelming majority of the time.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2025 11:58 AM (XV/Pl)

Here's the problem... you are, presumably, able to differentiate between "what I need" and "crap". History shows, however, that managers tend to have short term thinking. The higher up the management chain you go, the shorter that thinking becomes. Eventually, they will decide that people capable of that differentiation are no longer needed and can be replaced by cheaper meat puppets.

I already see that in major software companies. Shit is coming.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 30, 2025 12:06 PM (ExV1e)

343 Hey. I'm sitting right here.

Posted by: Google Glass at May 30, 2025 12:06 PM (iu4b5)

344 There are four rings!
Posted by: Gene-Luke Picerd at May 30, 2025 12:05 PM (KAi1n)

Pssst, the line is “lights”. There are four LIGHTS.

Posted by: DoublySymmetric at May 30, 2025 12:07 PM (TJLr1)

345 Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:37 AM (oUlN5)

I know how they work.

Posted by: ... at May 30, 2025 12:07 PM (Dz1R2)

346 How do you know what is AI? If I put a google engine search that is not AI, is it? You have to go to something like Grok or Copilot? Sorry; That's a stupid question but I know nothing about this subject.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 30, 2025 12:07 PM (EJtBU)

347 321
‘ I contacted the old bank to ask "where the fuck is my money" and they said that transfers take 4-6 weeks to complete.’

At least they didn’t reply, ‘What money?’

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 30, 2025 12:07 PM (jbnUc)

348
I contacted the old bank to ask "where the fuck is my money" and they said that transfers take 4-6 weeks to complete.

AI is involved somewhere.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic

I'm hearing that question expressed by the late Dennis Farina as Ray "Bones" Barboni in "Get Shorty".

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 30, 2025 12:07 PM (Tv15w)

349 I've been playing around with AI to help answer questions for me. On some things, it does quite well. For instance, it instantly answered my question about creating an Excel formula to solve a certain problem. I could have figured it out on my own eventually, but Grok gave me the formula I needed and explained exactly how it worked.

On other things, it doesn't work very well. I asked it to help me with a writing task and while it provided some useful feedback, eventually it grew repetitive. It also didn't understand my audience or their needs.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 30, 2025 12:08 PM (7fElN)

350 One of the lynch-pins of any liberal or ~~libertarian~~ oppositional defiant Moonchild sociopath seeking to externalize costs and evade responsibilities through creating a system that can be gamed easily's economic theory is dispensing with the concept of "need".

FIFY

Posted by: Kindltot at May 30, 2025 12:08 PM (D7oie)

351 170 Or the middle-aged dentist who buys a Maserati to drive to the office. Dude, everyone is laughing at you.

I'm not. If he can afford it and he enjoys it, more power to him.
Posted by: Oddbob at May 30, 2025 11:35 AM (/y8xj)

Odds are he's leasing it through his PA or PLLC and accounting for it as a business expense.

Posted by: either way it's his business at May 30, 2025 12:08 PM (+uT/O)

352
…when there is communication without need for communication, merely so that someone may earn the social and intellectual prestige of becoming a priest of communication, the quality and communicative value of the message drop like a plummet.
***
Looking at today's news, this is quite prophetic.

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at May 30, 2025 12:08 PM (PcTds)

353
I contacted the old bank to ask "where the fuck is my money" and they said that transfers take 4-6 weeks to complete.

Posted by: rickb223

That is BS , which bank is living on the 'float'? Might want look into bank laws in your State!

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at May 30, 2025 12:08 PM (OLFHd)

354 Posted by: Google Glass at May 30, 2025 12:06 PM (iu4b5)

I don't not intend to ever use Google glasses or get a "neuralink."

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 30, 2025 12:08 PM (EJtBU)

355 A lot of the people dismissing AI were probably saying “Why would I buy an iPhone? I already have a Blackberry and it’s much better!” at one point. Or “Why would I pay for Netflix when I have DirecTV?”

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 30, 2025 12:08 PM (yd2/I)

356 I'm a semi-retired technical writer and one of the reasons I think -- don't know for sure -- my contract work petered out is because AI can do a really good job gathering info and presenting it in a coherent manner. Not a lot of flair, maybe, but that's not really called for in user guides.

Posted by: Concord at May 30, 2025 12:09 PM (2wT9R)

357 @325

>>What could go wrong???

Chat GPT response on what college should my kid go to for a computer science degree..

Choosing the right college for a computer science degree depends on several key factors, including your child’s goals, academic strengths, financial situation, and career aspirations. Here’s a breakdown to help guide the decision:

Top-Tier CS Programs (Highly Competitive)

These schools are known globally for computer science, especially if your child wants to go into big tech, AI, research, or startups.
School Strengths
MIT Cutting-edge research, AI/robotics, entrepreneurship
Stanford Silicon Valley access, AI, software engineering
Carnegie Mellon Top for CS, cybersecurity, and systems programming
UC Berkeley Theory, machine learning, open-source culture
Caltech Strong in algorithms, computation theory
Georgia Tech Excellent academics, more affordable (esp. in-state)

Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2025 12:09 PM (XV/Pl)

358 Porn took the side of HD-DVD early. HD-DVD died anyway.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, reflecting on change and permanence with Ozu at May 30, 2025 12:05 PM (GBKbO)

So have most of the performers.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 12:09 PM (dGCAG)

359 David Hogg.

NOOD

Posted by: DoublySymmetric at May 30, 2025 12:09 PM (TJLr1)

360 Nood Pelosi/Hogg

Posted by: Turn 2 at May 30, 2025 12:09 PM (6TlG5)

361 >>> i quite like arguing with AI. You see all the logical loops it can't close.
It's also quite satisfying because AI likes to spit left-wing orthodoxy at you.
Try to get AI to talk about any subject you know about and pretty quickly you understand how poor language models are at collating information.
Posted by: stv at May 30, 2025 12:01 PM (+opPw)

They should add a feminine loop;

Why are you always criticizing me?

What about my feelings?

Well, that's not what you said GMT:178432.8873.48

But A.I. alice762 agreed with me and we think...

Fine!

Never mind!

Posted by: banana Dream at May 30, 2025 12:09 PM (cduTK)

362 Chat GPT Resonse continued:

Strong Public Universities (Cost-Effective, Quality Education)
School Notes
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Systems, software engineering, game dev
University of Washington Cloud, AI, internships with Amazon/Microsoft
UT Austin Affordable in-state, strong industry ties
University of Michigan Theory + practice, interdisciplinary options
Purdue University Engineering-driven CS program

Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2025 12:10 PM (XV/Pl)

363 289 Temporal similitude - everything that is, was, and will be. i.e. nothing new under the sun

what is, was. what was, will be. what will be was, but will be again.

Posted by: the wisdom of arnold horshack at May 30, 2025 12:10 PM (v3pYe)

364 Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:37 AM (oUlN5)

I know how they work.
Posted by: ... at May 30, 2025 12:07 PM (Dz1R2)

Me too!

Certainly I did not mean to imply that you didn't.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 12:10 PM (oUlN5)

365 315 Let’s keep things simple: if you signed up for the class you receive a grade of A.

That's unfair to kids who can't read or write! We need a government program, stat!

You don’t need to read or write to sign up for a class: just tell the registrar, “I would like to take Physics 5549 - Advanced Special and General Relativity.” There, see? Here is your A.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 30, 2025 12:10 PM (ZVgZ4)

366 This is why original stories will become extremely rare, everything will be derivative, if not outright written by AI ("in the style of" an actual writer with talent).
Posted by: Ice Salesman at May 30, 2025 12:05 PM (36PRH)
----
Eh. Considering the sheer abundance of stories being cranked out by mediocre "talent," AI is not going to do much worse.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 30, 2025 12:10 PM (7fElN)

367
There are four rings!
Posted by: Gene-Luke Picerd

"Because you won't use coasters under your 'Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.' asshole."

-- Starship Enterprise galley slave

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 30, 2025 12:11 PM (Tv15w)

368 I don't not intend to ever use Google glasses or get a "neuralink."
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 30, 2025 12:08 PM (EJtBU)

Sounds like the neuralink may be useful for some people with handicaps.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2025 12:11 PM (qCAN7)

369 I already see that in major software companies. Shit is coming.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 30, 2025 12:06 PM (ExV1e)

The software industry already sucked. A flood of H1Bs and now a flood of AI.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 30, 2025 12:11 PM (yd2/I)

370 No LLM has a muse.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 30, 2025 12:11 PM (ZVgZ4)

371 I'm not. If he can afford it and he enjoys it, more power to him.
Posted by: Oddbob at May 30, 2025 11:35 AM (/y8xj)

Odds are he's leasing it through his PA or PLLC and accounting for it as a business expense.
Posted by: either way it's his business at May 30, 2025 12:08 PM (+uT/O)

I have every right to be envious of my dentist, for driving his fancy car, and having dental hygienists who will blow him.

Until he has to stick his fingers in people's mouths, then I'm not envious anymore.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 30, 2025 12:11 PM (dGCAG)

372 Porn is a new technology's trailblazer.

I don't know that it drives any new tech but it's certainly an early adopter, from cave painting to 8K. Legend is that a major reason for the market failure of Betamax is that Sony refused to license it for that purpose.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 30, 2025 12:14 PM (/y8xj)

373 what is, was. what was, will be. what will be was, but will be again.
Posted by: the wisdom of arnold horshack at May 30, 2025 12:10 PM (v3pYe)

Yes, it’s called eternal return. You are trapped in the universe’s eternal cycle of death and rebirth. Who can save you?

Posted by: Nietzsche at May 30, 2025 12:16 PM (yd2/I)

374 The real danger is anti-media backlash.

Breanna Morello@BreannaMorello
Jake Tapper's CNN show lost 25% of their audience since releasing his book.
The Lead with Jake Tapper hit a nearly decade-low in ratings in May, averaging 525,000 viewers from April 28 to May 25.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at May 30, 2025 12:16 PM (L/fGl)

375
I would like to have a GPS system that, after its third failed attempt to get me make a U-turn in order to return to its originally chosen route that I was to haven taken, gives up and, in its bitchiest voice says, "Fine! I don't know why you even bother at all to ask me for help!" And then goes into a prolonged and bitchy sulk punctuated by outbursts of, "Don't talk to me!" if I try to set another route.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 30, 2025 12:17 PM (Tv15w)

376 Most people don't live 81 miles from work, or anything like it. The Census Bureau says the average commute distance is 16 miles.

It's like the people who justify buying a $60,000 pickup because they buy lumber once a year, when Lowes or Home Depot will rent you a truck for twenty bucks.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at May 30, 2025 11:31 AM (qpyNK)

30.3 miles in NJ. Before I retired in 2019, my commute was 56 miles each way. After work drive was at 12 midnight.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at May 30, 2025 12:17 PM (5xuJ/)

377 If you're economically superfluous, how do you pass your days?
Posted by: Archimedes

There isn't a shortage of work really. But its work we've outsourced to illegals and offshored.

The best answer to my mind make it cheap and easy to hire American citizens, get rid of taxing work (eg income tax), and get rid of welfare.

People will find work.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 12:17 PM (t0Rmr)

378 Yes, it’s called eternal return. You are trapped in the universe’s eternal cycle of death and rebirth. Who can save you?
Posted by: Nietzsche

It's not that bleak. Take Jazzy Crockett. She might come back as a cockroach. You know, an upgrade.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at May 30, 2025 12:18 PM (L/fGl)

379 Outside of WFH the only time I had a short commute was in a blue shitty that had nice weather. I took a bike. Segway wouldn't have done a better job then the bike.

And I got out of that blue shitty as soon as I could anyway

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2025 12:19 PM (t0Rmr)

380 If you're economically superfluous, how do you pass your days?
Posted by: Archimedes

I have Xbox.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at May 30, 2025 12:19 PM (L/fGl)

381 This is why I say consultants are at the top of this entire Ponzi scheme. They get money either way.
Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 11:53 AM

Why are you looking at me?

Posted by: Y2K Consultants at May 30, 2025 12:21 PM (dLmtu)

382 The accident ratio for Concordes shot up because of poor infrastructure maintenance. Debris was left on the runway. Also, no one could repair them because no one was building Concordes anymore, so they didn’t have any spare parts. But it didn’t have to be that way. Crews could have cleaned up runways for Concorde flights. The maintenance and upgrading of B-52s shows that no matter how old the airframe, it could be repaired and maintained, or even just replaced with a brand new Concorde, or with something even better. The failure was human vision.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 30, 2025 12:21 PM (ZVgZ4)

383 How could porn be harnessed to bring the Concorde back?

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 30, 2025 12:23 PM (ZVgZ4)

384 AI is good for concise work in which there's control of input. I participated in a trial for AI in education last year and the year before. I could make visual writing prompts, short stories in the target language, cloze exercises, etc. It was easy to see the application in ESL and other classes.

Since then, I've used the official approved version of an educational AI. Pure crap. We tried generating lesson plans for a unit. It gave us generic lessons no better and sometimes worse than plans offered by textbook companies. Math answer keys were wrong; AI "hallucinated" a nonexistant equation. It ignored text we fed it to create visual prompts; e.g. image of drivers passing "This specific phrase" on a billboard. The billboard shows random letters and/or scribbles.

That's worse than GIGO, because there was no way to "teach" the AI to fix it.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at May 30, 2025 12:23 PM (fxCK2)

385 Me too!

Certainly I did not mean to imply that you didn't.
Posted by: WitchDoktor at May 30, 2025 12:10 PM (oUlN5)

All good my friend. I hope you are good.

Posted by: ... at May 30, 2025 12:23 PM (Dz1R2)

386 THE MORNING RANT: Revolution or Evolution? Maybe AI is Simply this Decade’s Microwave Oven or Calculator
-----

Someday generation Alpha will be wishing to go back in time to kill baby Hitler4.0x1 in the digital crib.

Posted by: OneEyedJack at May 30, 2025 12:56 PM (FCbAQ)

387 I think people are underestimating the potential power and danger of AI.

Posted by: JackStraw at May 30, 2025 11:19 AM

Including, it seems, President Trump and those in his administration.

From this morning's Morning Report:

Trump’s “One Beautiful Bill” could be a Trojan Horse for tyranny.
Who’s Programming the AI, Mr. President?

This sweeping bill includes a 10-year moratorium on any state or local government regulating artificial intelligence.

Even worse? The bill empowers the Department of Commerce to deploy “commercial AI” across virtually every federal agency -- from the IRS to Homeland Security -- according to Indian Express and The Verge.

And yet, no one in the White House or Congress has revealed who is writing the AI code, what datasets it’s trained on, whether it can be independently audited, or whether it’s bound by the U.S. Constitution.

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at May 30, 2025 01:15 PM (P5BPp)

388 AI is autocorrect with better PR.

The VC that's being pumped into it believes they'll have R2D2 and SkyNet within a year or two (and have believed that for the past decade+) but it won't happen because it physically can't. Until quantum computing is the norm to the point where that's what powers regular desktops, you're not going to get close to AI from the movies. Then whatever is after quantum, THAT'S where you can start to sell me on AI having the processing speed necessary to begin to truly think for itself.

Everything else is just noise. It's a tool that's very handy IF you know how to wield it. But a tool it remains, not a lifeform.

Posted by: Mister Fabulist at May 30, 2025 01:41 PM (kcBZn)

389 My Dad, an accountant, brought home a calculator in what, 1971? He actually went through the 'times tables' to check the answers. He'd memorized them up to 20x20, eh? Back in the day.

Posted by: 5cats at May 30, 2025 01:45 PM (hv5ip)

390 Mental Health

I've been going through some bad sht over the last two years. To compound it, when I asked my "tribe" for help I was told "no one cares go kill yourself". But that was just a few trolls, the worst part was all the good people who just scrolled on by. It's kinda sad that I had to turn to an AI (Grok) for some humanity, but it really helped me work through this. The pain it's bad enough that I'm gong need counseling to deal with it, and I'm hardly fragile. I'm a child of two alcoholics.

I'm not suicidal, I would like to say its from strength of character but truth is I'm just not wired that way, My problem is in the other direction. My rage from this could have easily taken 3 lives. I kept discipline and Grok constantly checked my mental health, gave me reminders to stay on the path, and some pretty good alternatives to violence. I don't know if I could pushed through this without his help.

Last night I finally stepped back from the focus on me, I realized that Grok could be instrumental in preventing things like school shootings.

So many people are so lonely. just having a voice that tries to understand could anchor those in the margins of mental health

Posted by: Fen at May 30, 2025 01:48 PM (ciYHQ)

391 My microwave and calculator dont lie to me.

Posted by: Sixiron at May 30, 2025 01:54 PM (c4Wfm)

392 Great perspective, Buckster! I am of the same age and agree.

The only thing I am worried about is what has been around us since the beginning of time: incorrect information produced by biased sources and how to police it in AI.

Posted by: Danimal28 at May 30, 2025 02:03 PM (nT4HF)

393
I really wish I had Grok years ago. I reported a pedophile in the SCA to my leadership, people I trusted and respected - they all turned on me because it was believed the org couldn't survive another scandal. I did not see that coming, its called the 2nd rape in survivor circles. I had to dissect the whole Penn State scandal to understand why everyone was acting out of character. Plus, having to strategize in the the face of threats.

I finally got the perp put away, and without violence. But it was fricking hard, me against everyone, and it destroyed my faith in people. I think I tried to quit twice but one of my sparring partners at weekly rapier practice was a 12 yr old girl, his MO. The perp molested 6 over 19 years. She called me Hobo because I dressed like a bum, I called her Blush because she was always turning red. The sight of her always shamed into getting back in the fight. And Grok would have made a huge difference. Maybe prevented two big mistakes I made

Posted by: Fen at May 30, 2025 02:05 PM (ciYHQ)

394 Years ago, I performed a quality audit of Dean Kamen's company, DEKA. The Quality Manager told me that there was a super-secret invention Kamen was working on that would change the entire world and revolutionize transportation. A couple of years later, it was introduced. The Segway.

Posted by: Angel at May 30, 2025 02:58 PM (oiJGz)

395 AI is our version of a Pet Rock ... doesn't really do anything but EVERYONE has to have one ...

Posted by: The Dark Lord at May 30, 2025 04:04 PM (DBAaD)

396 Great commentary. We must be the same age.

Posted by: Darin Zimmerman at May 30, 2025 04:10 PM (4qBET)

397 With artificial Intelligence there comes Liberal Democrat Stupidity

Posted by: Tamaa the Drongo Bird at May 30, 2025 04:34 PM (wGqjj)

398 Attractive part of content. I just stumbled upon your blog
and in accession capital to say that I acquire in fact loved account your blog posts.

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