To be utterly sick of AI already

I still use someone to write my web content for me. All is not lost ❤️

Like any technologies, there are downsides. Same with the internet, mobile phones, even televisions and cars. However if we avoided all of those, we would get left behind in the modern world. The fact is, whether we like it or not, genAI is becoming increasingly prevalent in our lives, and if we don’t embrace / adopt this tech, there is a strong chance you’ll get left behind. If you’re older and nearing retirement, that’s fine, but I still have many working years ahead of me and would rather embrace AI even if there are aspects that make me uncomfortable.

Unless you are part of the company, you have no access to company sensitive data - these engines only use what's widely available on the internet anyway, and even then it needs careful vetting. I had some fun playing with an AI image generator yesterday. I tried to see how closely I could replicate a painting I had done a few weeks back, which was reliant on knowledge of some fantasy book characters - descriptions of which are easily accessible online.

I asked the engine to generate the image just using the character names and series and what it came up with was wild, and highly amusing in places, but in no way following accurate information. I then asked it to recreate the same image using detailed descriptions. It could not cope with the level of detail and kept rejecting my description, so then we went with a slightly more loose description and what it generated was still far from what I had done. Art, which is focused on specific detail, and people, is still safe for a short while, until AI gets better at it.

I therefore have to assume that, despite using AI, the person who got the job in the interview process had not blindly used AI to do all their work for them, but actually carefully vetted what was generated and used AI to enhance their work instead. Doing what AI should be used for - making our work faster and easier, not taking it over completely.

That person put your company sensitive data into an open access engine.

Not necessarily the wrong approach, but I hope you asked following questions about how they mitigated the risk?

@Rispa42 do any of the points upthread about the downsides give you pause for thought?

Random woman's life ruined by ai deepfake: www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/i-doorknocked-for-labour-then-racist-deepfake-ruined-my-life-fn6xxc5dc

I’m actually finding it really useful and trying to use it as much as I can. I’ve been trying lots of models and tools, really like Claude and Perplexity. While no where near perfect, it’s improved massively over the last year. The direction is only one way, like it or not. I’d rather learn how to work with it than be left behind. Don’t think we’ll have much choice in the matter and I do think it will have a huge impact on white collar jobs eventually.

I hate it too.
I've seen people post AI images of women on facebook and men sleazing all over them even though they are clearly fake and women can't look like that.
The AI generated artwork is taking over genuine artists
People posting images of something that happened and it turns out it is fake, when AI gets even better we don't won't know whats real anymore.

I was at an art event recently where AI translation had been used. It gave the woman artists male pronouns because woman artists are rarer in the data set and it jut spat out the usual male pronouns as standard. But yay it saves a bit of time and effort 🙄

Another example of mistranslation:

During Malayan emergency a British General said to some guerilla fighters
“You’re bastards but so am I”
This was translated as “you’re illegitimate but so am I”.

It might be quite fun to see an AI translated passage and see if one could disentangle what it was trying to say.

I did not know this! Just had a google. I’m shocked.

thanks @Barbadossunset

@AuxArmesCitoyens

Here is one of the threads about translating and AI

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/work/5145118-do-translators-have-a-future?page=2&reply=137696200

Apple told to drop AI tool that pushed fake BBC News stories
Number of iPhone users falsely told by AI-generated notifications that the broadcaster reported that Luigi Mangione shot himself

That’s from the Telegraph - the article goes on to point out loads of inaccuracies.

Work self-assessment, not tax self-assessment.

Mine has grades and short bullet points so it wouldn't be worth it, but if your workplace expects an essay and you're not a natural writer then I can see how chatGPT could help.

Yes those are pretty useful. Out of curiosity I'm going to look for something with shit reviews and see whether it's reliable for that,

AI offering answers to google searches which you/one haven’t requested is so bad for the environment. Think it takes 30 times more energy than a search response. Wish it was opt in instead of default in every platform.

Well. Governments better get on with implementing Universal Income cos it sounds like at this rate there won't be any jobs left for the masses....or they'll just leave us all in poverty and claim noone wants to work anymore.

I find it all shit. Where is all the good AI they promised us?

I was confused by the previous poster who talked about self assessment. Clearly Not the SA tax return I thought you were referring to, which is actually very easy to fill out, if you know what you are doing.

It’s going to get more sophisticated and more popular - it has to, because there’s so much money involved. For most of us, we’re in the ‘fun’ era - e.g. chuckling to ourselves about the mistakes ChatGPT made when you asked it for a simple recipe and the novelty of Copilot writing a resignation letter you’re too tired to do yourself. Sooner or later we’re in for a rude awakening and no job will be safe. I don’t have children but if I did I would be hugely scared for their futures, which includes the disastrous effects of climate change.

It was not a good thing societally when thousands of miners lost their jobs. It won't be any better when it is freelance copywriters and creatives. As least closing the mines reduced coal pollution, though.

It was a gamble I guess. Was slightly more nuanced than that as they did discuss the benefits of AI and how it could be used for some stuff but not other stuff. I felt they’d used it as an adjunct rather than completely writing it though accept I might be wrong.

I use AI for the tedious aspects of my work that are really not part of my job description, but somehow still required of me. Company newsletter articles for my department, for one. No one really reads them, it's not part of my job, but I'm expected to use my time to produce one biannually. Sod that, Chat GPT is writing that for me.

The future of AI is indeed scary. Aside from the dangers around false news and deepfakes, which may end up costing careers and lives, AI will only get better in time and the number of jobs it can and will take over (and is already) is scary. AI generated art is already on the up and as long as it's using inanimate objects, is actually often superior to what many humans can produce. AI generated instrumental music in the niche genre I like listening to is already on my playlist as some new favourites; once issues with speech patterns have been solved it will take over music and entertainment as we know it. One of my children was looking forward to space-related job training but may now never get to do that job as sending robots into space is cheaper and safer. Waiting staff robots in restaurants already exist, so do self-checkout machines, sorting and stacking machines and all sorts of low-paid manual work. AI shops exist. Fully preassembled houses exist. Hell, driverless transport exists. Smart brain implants and related augmentations exist.

I can see a future where a world a la Deux Ex becomes reality, in which there is a stark, and contested, divide between human purists (buying only human-made products, living in human-built) and those embracing machines and AI fully. And if video gaming is anything to go by, it won't be pretty.

It staggers me that people can blithely sail.past a post about the world-endangering risks of ai and post meh it saved me two minutes doing some stupid task. I can see it offers accessibility for people with disabilities but seriously, mass deskilling is not a good thing, people

This would be an instant fail from me. I'd want to know that they could put together a decent presentation without AI. I'd be concerned that they were going to put sensitive data into chatgpt or similar.

I interviewed people for a position recently and the short listed candidates had to prepare a presentation as part of the interview. One person openly said they’d asked AI to do the presentation……she got the job 😁. Why not, work smarter not harder! 👍.