this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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Explain Like I'm Five

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

None of the current "AI" technology (which is just machine learning, which is just large scale statistical analysis, and not really intelligence in any way) will "end the world" in any functional way.

What it will do is further enshittify the world. Services will implement "AI" tools that give them enough functionality to justify cutting their customer support staff even further than they already have. New businesses won't even hire CS people or set up proper departments for that, they'll just have a chatbot in their app that ultimately sends an email to an inbox that no one has been hired to actually check.

The "AI" bots will be used to make decisions about who does or does not get access to a service or product. Discriminatory practices will be institutionalized in algorithms that will boil down to a company employee just saying to you "the computer says no".

In addition, the Large Language Models will be used to produce vast amounts of misinformation and just plain bad information spewed out by AI writing tools because they’re great at that, which will make it more and more difficult to find true information about anything. We’re going to be snowed in by a pile of AI garbage, and it will happen faster than anyone is prepared for because speed and amplification are the whole point of these tools.

The world isn't going to end, it's just going to suck more to not be a rich person who can just throw money at their problems.