posted in Technology
Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying
www.thenerve.news/p/cory-doctorow-ai-business-incentive-to-lie-useless-chatbots-report-nikhil-suresh
The NerveCory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lyingIt has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our tech columnistReplying to @floofloof@lemmy.ca
What has AI changed so far?
And all it cost us were millions of jobs, thousands of psychosis and deaths, hundreds of new loud polluting data centers, untold amounts of co2 when were right smack in the mids of a climate crisis…
I’m not advocating for murdering the AI CEOs, but I’m definitely a fan of at least permanent tarring and feathering
Replying to @phoenixz@lemmy.ca
Replying to @amelia@feddit.org
Trust me, bro!
They are real people these friends of mine, but you don’t know them, because they are from a different school. And you won’t see them this summer at all because… they are both actually models in Canada during the summer.
But totally cured and now they get boners also with THIS ONE TRICK that doctors HATE it!!!
Replying to @Snapz@lemmy.world
The medical field is one of the places where AI has made real, tangible improvements.
I can’t vouch for that other person’s anecdote, but it seems entirely plausible that an LLM chatbot would be able to better diagnose an issue than a search engine, or even a human doctor, especially if the underlying issue was something like an autoimmune disease, which are notoriously difficult to diagnose.
One of the big flaws in the medical profession (and, really, most professions) is that once you are out of school, nothing forces you to keep learning as the field advances. This potentially, and counterintuitively, results in gaps in knowledge that increase the longer a doctor has been practicing. LLMs, with access to the newer medical information and with the ability to receive and output natural language, do make good tools for diagnosis.
AI, as it turns out, is also way better at analyzing MRI scans and x-rays than humans.
An old-fashioned Google search can point you to more information, if you’re curious about how AI has advanced the medical field.
Replying to @joe@lemmy.world
Funny how my experience is the American health care system is still 100% absolute shit that costs me 2k a month for the privilege of said shit. My wait times are the same, my “go fuck yourselves” are the same, my healthcare workers are still underpaid, and the systems for consumers are still shit.
“But the charts say AI is helping”
Once again it’s consumers get to wait for the piss to trickle down our backs. AI hasn’t done shit for the average Joe except make everything cost more while providing a worse service. Please, tell me how my healthcare experience has improved in the past 2 years. Go.
Replying to @Hypnotoad_@sh.itjust.works
You are talking about a different thing than I am. The American healthcare system is garbage with or without AI, but AI is helping the medical field. Getting a more accurate analysis of an MRI scan is objectively a good thing, for example, even if the healthcare system that performed the scan is garbage.
Replying to @joe@lemmy.world
They’re not using LLMs to analyse MRI scans. There are image processing algorithms for that, but they’re a whole other thing to what this entire thread is about.
Also, are you a fucking bot? I’ve read all your comments so far in this thread and uhh yeah. Please feel free to jog on now.
Replying to @skisnow@lemmy.ca
I’ve read all your comments so far
I’m flattered. Did you read the first one where I said it was reductive to equate AI with chatbots?
Replying to @joe@lemmy.world
When people say AI they are talking about Gen AI chatbots. Pretending they aren’t in a thread discussing an article where the author is definitely talking about chatbots is being really pedantic.
Replying to @aesthelete@lemmy.world
Which was my earlier point. He is wrong when he equates AI with nothing more than chatbots.
Replying to @joe@lemmy.world
He’s not wrong. He’s talking about what everyone else is talking about and you’re arguing semantics. AI is generic enough of a term that it’s been applied to thousands of things over time. But almost all of the modern hype about “AI” and the stock bubble and everything is referring to the chatbots. I know you know this.
Replying to @aesthelete@lemmy.world
As I said elsewhere, that’s like saying the internet is just websites (and apparently for some people, that’s all it is).
However, it’s irrelevant, Doctorow may have wanted to just discuss chatbots, but that doesn’t mean that’s all I’m allowed to discuss. I’ve tried to make it clear that I’m not just talking about chatbots. If I wasn’t clear enough on that point, I apologise
Now that this has been cleared up, do you have anything further to discuss?
Replying to @joe@lemmy.world
You’re not very good at this
If you have any specific constructive criticism or corrections for me, I’ll happily read them. Otherwise, it seems more like you’re avoiding addressing what I’ve said and just looking to insult me, which I’m sure was not your intent.
Replying to @joe@lemmy.world
How is “helping the medical field” not compatible with better healthcare quality? If the end user isn’t experiencing benefits, then how can you claim that benefits have been provided? Who is getting these “benefits” if it’s not the end user? If someone IS getting benefits, yet the end users still haven’t gotten a better experience… Then can you agree that AI is only helping intermediaries? Like… The corporations who provide the garbage experience?
Do you see your logical fallacy here?
Replying to @Hypnotoad_@sh.itjust.works
If your loved one is diagnosed with cancer early that would have been missed by a human, that’s a fucking benefit, is it not?
I’m sick of luddites.
Replying to @joe@lemmy.world
But is that happening? Have we seen better diagnoses? Can you reference a study showing that we are actually catching more cancer?
Or are you just feeding into the bullshit of “AI IS CHANGING EVERYTHING” because that’s what they tell you?
I’m sick of people like you claiming benefits from a technology that is literally raping us all. Our checkbooks, our jobs, our environments, our freedoms, our communities. “But but someone told me it’s helping” fuck off prove it.
You’re sick of luddites? I’m sick of being lied to, and sick of saps like you spreading the lies.