You've worked in ML since 2012 but dont think transformers have had an absolutely insane impact, for example in NLP and machine translation? (I have worked in those fields longer than that and while I dont think AGI or anything like that is coming from transformers and deep neural nets I think you are full of it if you dont admit they have revolutionized a large number of [highly technical] fields).
When google glass came out (2012 or 13) it was absolutely hilarious living in the bay and regularly riding muni (public bus) in the mission. I saw multiple people run into the door/poles/etc and also multiple people get their glasses ripped off their face and stomped on. Bus driver just shrugged, bus patrons applauded. I'm no luddite and all for technology but even more for consent.
Or they have kids and a spouse? Family of 5 here in very hcol area (sf bay) anything fancier than pizza is easily $100 when delivered via grubhub/doordash/etc. Even pizza ends up being well over $50 for 2 large pies delivered (probably can get a bit cheaper by going for the crappiest national chain and whatever deal they have going, but that's gross).
I mean, Salesforce is clearly different than Lockheed Martin, even if they do business with all sorts of companies (many of whom I wouldn't personally want to be in business with).
I've specifically found b2b software at least a bit less creepy and invasive - I've done applied ML for many many years and prefer enterprise b2b vs consumer tech because of this.
Won't necessarily go over well on Lemmy but still want to brag a bit. My company got bought by salesforce, life changing for my kids' kids (let alone me and my wife). Had a meeting this week with Marx Benioff and he said "I dont care about that i want to hear that v_krishna thinks" and then spent 15 minutes on the spot answering his questions.
Not sure if this is common elsewhere but in the SF bay area (esp in Berkeley) there are a lot of worker-owned/syndicalist businesses. Cheeseboard is probably one of the oldest and most famous, but Arizmendi also comes to mind (and they have long ties to the Mondragon cooperative).
From your question I'm not quite sure if you want places that will hasten the revolution (e.g., involved in activism) or just places that operate under a different economic model where your politics would be the norm. For the latter I'd search "worker cooperatives [your city]"
Sorry your friends suck. I haven't heard those type of jokes since South Park did the whole "haha Kyle's a jew" thing 20 years ago. I hear a lot more "from the river to the sea" than I did back then tho.
Edit - i may have misread your post. If your friends dont suck im happy and sorry for saying they do
It's very obvious in this thread that you have hands on experience and many others do not. 20+ years professional SWE here, a majority of it applied ML/big data/etc. LLMs are really bad at many things but specifically using them as a natural language layer over NPC interactions would be relatively easy and seems like a great use case honestly.
It's been working its way through California courts since the 2015 WHO guidelines said processed meats are carcinogenic. Under Prop 65 that should have triggered immediately labeling processed meats as "Known to the State of California to cause cancer" (like we already have on any charred food, parking garages, etc) but because reasons a decade later I think it is still being adjudicated.
You've worked in ML since 2012 but dont think transformers have had an absolutely insane impact, for example in NLP and machine translation? (I have worked in those fields longer than that and while I dont think AGI or anything like that is coming from transformers and deep neural nets I think you are full of it if you dont admit they have revolutionized a large number of [highly technical] fields).