Yet!

That’s great if they actually work. But my experience with the big, corporate-funded models has been pretty freaking abysmal after more than a year of trying to adopt them into my daily workflow. I can’t imagine the performance of local models is better when they’re running on much, much smaller datasets and with much, much less computing power.

I’m happy to be proven wrong, of course, but I just don’t see how it’s possible for local models to compete with the Big Boys in terms of quality… and the quality of the largest models is only middling at best.

Man… I don’t know if want is the right word here. I want AI to go away, but I’m not sure I want the bubble to burst. I’ve heard estimates that something like 20% of all VC money went to AI in 2024. That’s a shitload of cash, and if the bubble bursts (which I believe it eventually will) and all that invested money vanishes, the economy is going to crater. Maybe a few rich assholes will be ruined in the aftermath, but the ensuing recession is going to hurt the people at the bottom the most… just like it always does.

It’s hard to look forward to that, even when you hate AI with a searing passion.

people will stop using it for all the things they’re currently using it for

They will when AI companies can no longer afford to eat their own costs and start charging users a non-subsidized price. How many people would keep using AI if it cost $1 per query? $5? $20?

OpenAI lost $5 billion last year. Billion, with a B. Even their premium customers lose them money on every query, and eventually the faucet of VC cash propping this whole thing up is gonna run dry when investors inevitably realize that there’s no profitable business model to justify this technology. At that point, AI firms will have no choice but to pass their costs on to the customer, and there’s no way the customer is going to stick around when they realize how expensive this technology actually is in practice.

It is renewable, not free.

“Renewable” also doesn’t mean shit if the resource is being consumed faster than it’s being renewed. Ask the people who used to live on the shores of the Aral Sea how “renewable” their water was.

Billions. Practically every Google search runs through Gemini now, and Google handles more search queries per day than there are humans on Earth.

wouldn’t have seen the benefit in cars

Yeah, because the widespread adoption of cars turned out to be such a great idea with no negative consequences… But even if you ignore the glaringly obvious negatives, AI still doesn’t come anywhere close to having the practical utility as the modern car. At least a car can carry out its advertised function without issues.

I’ve been using AI almost daily for several years now, as a function of my job. It’s garbage tech. Most of the things it’s supposed to be good for it downright sucks at, and the stuff it is good at has already been possible using simpler, more reliable systems for years — sometimes even decades. The situation isn’t really improving, either. Models are using more energy, consuming more data, and doing more computation than ever before… but the results are still embarrassingly underwhelming. Anyone who’s bothered to educate themselves on the math and method behind the models knows by now that the current generation of AI is dead-end technology, and anyone who claims otherwise is either ignorant of the technical details, has a vested financial interest in AI, or both.

It also really fucking irritates me to be constantly called a Luddite by people who don’t even know how this technology fucking works… No, I don’t hate AI because I’m scared of technology, or “progress” or whatever the fuck. I’ve made a career working in technology. I love tech… or I used to, before everyone lost their god damn minds praying to Sam Altman and his horrifyingly expensive golden idol. No, I hate AI because it’s demonstrably bad technology.

260,930 kilograms of CO₂ monthly from ChatGPT alone

ChatGPT has the most marketing, but it’s only part of the AI ecosystem… and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if other AI products are bigger now. Practically every time someone does a Google search, Gemini AI spits out a summary whether you wanted it or not — and Google processes more than 8 billion search queries per day. That’s a lot of slop.

There are also more bespoke tools that are being pushed aggressively in enterprise. Microsoft’s Copilot is used extensively in tech for code generation and code reviews. Ditto for Claude Code. And believe me, tech companies are pushing this shit hard. I write code for a living, and the company I work for is so bullish on AI that they’ve mandated that us devs have to use it every day if we want to stay employed. They’re even tracking our usage to make sure we comply… and I know I’m not alone in my experience.

All of that combined probably still doesn’t reach the same level of CO² emissions as global air travel, but there are a lot more fish in this proverbial pond than just OpenAI, and when you add them all up, the numbers get big. AI usage is also rising much, much faster than air travel, so it’s really only a matter of time before it does cross that threshold.

Praise the soup! \[+]/

Right? Did AI make this?

Accidentally…?

Paleblood Hunt intensifies

deleted by creator

I’ll be honest… advertising is the one industry I wouldn’t be sad to see get completely cannibalized by AI.

“Blue no matter who”

They’re the ones who insist you have to vote for the DNC’s official candidate, no matter how unfit or reprehensible they might be.

Yeah, Activision was my first thought as well.

Shouldn’t it be trivially easy to demonstrate “prior art” in this case, making the patent invalid? I guess that requires someone to get into a legal battle with Nintendo… but it’s not like this is some niche mechanic. Surely there are other entertainment megacorps who are currently in violation of this “patent” and do have the resources to fight it in court.

comprehension is just pattern matching anyways

Anyone who claims to know what intelligence actually is at a fundamental level must possess a very artificial kind of intelligence themselves.

Ohhhh, is that what they meant by “checks and balances”???

The fact that they’re losing money hand over fist doesn’t make their stealing any less shitty.