I don't understand how anyone can believe that we're near even a whiff of AGI when we barely understand what dreaming is, or how the human brain interacts with the quantum world. There are so many elements of human creativity that are still utterly hidden behind a wall that it makes me feel insane when an entire industry is convinced we're just magically going to have the answer soon.
The people heralding the emergence of AGI are doing little more than pushing Ponzi schemes along while simultaneously fueling vitriolic waves of hate and neo-luddism for a ground-breaking technology boom that could enhance everything about how we live our lives... if it doesn't get regulated into the ground due to the fear they're recklessly cooking up.
Big scientific revolutions tend to happen before we understand the relevant mechanisms. It is only after the fact that we develop a theory to understand how it works. AGI will very likely follow the same trend. Enough people are throwing enough things at the wall that eventually something will stick.
I've been wondering for awhile what keeps bad actors from using bots to upvote solutions that introduce malware, thereby poisoning LLMs and making them even more untrustworthy than they are currently. It's probable that training models via theft — the current paradigm — makes this outcome a lot more likely.
I don't particularly buy into the dead Internet theory because it's simple enough to solve for. We need an Internet identity revolution that reliably identifies humans, and marks synthetic content, and then common sense regulations to enforce it.
Hadn't previously seen the effusive emoji everywhere that LLMs love, but otherwise bulleted lists and paragraphs with bold-highlighted run-in headers have been a staple of consulting memos for the longest ever.
Very effective way to summarize reports, recommendations, or analysis. IME well-received and appreciated by those consuming complex info for the first time.
Still love the style, though one does need to soft-shoe it so as to not scream "this is LLM copypasta!"
Agreed, I love the emdash, and I have 20 years' worth of online writings that are positively peppered with those flat fellas. I have no intention of abandoning the character yet, but the future may be a bleak place for handsomely-formatted asides. It gives one pause.
I understand, but I also will not pay a subscription fee for limited service. I canceled as soon as I got this e-mail. Too bad I signed up for an annual subscription last month.
This is also exactly why I feel this industry is sitting atop a massive bubble.
> I also will not pay a subscription fee for limited service.
you...already were? it already had a variety of limits, they've just added one new one (total weekly use to discourage highly efficient 24/7 use of their discounted subscriptions).
Dropped out in the eighth grade, taught myself, and I've been working as a SRE for the past decade or so. Have been working in tech for a little over 20 years.
The people heralding the emergence of AGI are doing little more than pushing Ponzi schemes along while simultaneously fueling vitriolic waves of hate and neo-luddism for a ground-breaking technology boom that could enhance everything about how we live our lives... if it doesn't get regulated into the ground due to the fear they're recklessly cooking up.