Is there anything actually useful or novel about "AI"?

ezmack@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 168 points –

Feel like we've got a lot of tech savvy people here seems like a good place to ask. Basically as a dumb guy that reads the news it seems like everyone that lost their mind (and savings) on crypto just pivoted to AI. In addition to that you've got all these people invested in AI companies running around with flashlights under their chins like "bro this is so scary how good we made this thing". Seems like bullshit.

I've seen people generating bits of programming with it which seems useful but idk man. Coming from CNC I don't think I'd just send it with some chatgpt code. Is it all hype? Is there something actually useful under there?

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Focusing mostly on ChatGPT here as that is where the bulk of my experience is. Sometimes I'll run into a question that I wouldn't even know how best to Google it. I don't know the terminology for it or something like that. For example, there is a specific type of connection used for lighting stands that looks like a plug but there is also a screw that you use to lock it in. I had no idea what to Google to even search for it to buy the adapter I needed.

I asked it again as I forgot what the answer was and I had deleted that ChatGPT conversation from my history, and asked it like this.

I have a light stand that at the top has a connector that looks like a plug. What is that connector called?

And it just told me it's called a "spigot" or "stud" connection. Upon Googling it, that turned out to be correct, so I would know what to search for when it comes to searching for adapters. It also mentioned a few other related types of connections such as hot shoe and cold shoe connections, among others. They aren't correct, but are very much related, and it told me as such.

To put it more succinctly, if you don't know what to search for but have a general idea of the problem or question, it can take you 95% of the way there.

My concern is that it feels like using Google to confirm the truth of what ChatGPT tells you is becoming less and less reliable, as so many of the pages indexed by Google are themselves created by similar models. But I suppose as long as your search took you to a site where you could actually buy the thing, that's okay.

Or at least, it is until fake shopping sites start inventing products based on ChatGPT output.

Man that'd be useful I'm actually struggling to find a really niche electrical connector roght now