Volkswagen says it’s putting ChatGPT in its cars for “enriching conversations”

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theverge.com

Volkswagen says it’s putting ChatGPT in its cars for “enriching conversations”::Volkswagen is putting ChatGPT into its cars starting in the second quarter of 2024. The feature is being considered for the US, but plans have yet to be finalized.

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I found this on the web for, “no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no”

I just want to fucking drive. I don't need a conversation. Can we stop listening to dumbasses fresh out of their MBA program?

It really feels like 2000 bubble. Everyone seems to be so invested in it, but more and more looks like this will burst and take many companies with it.

Oh god please, p PLEASE just burst the AI hype bubble now.

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Perhaps one of the stupidest fucking ideas ever. "Let's add more and more and more distractions for drivers. A touch screen so they have to stop looking at the road! An AI to distract them with inane rambling, because we think that's an enriching conversation since we are also robots. Add that to the ads on radio fucking with you by being different volumes and having car beeping noises and shit in them and WE WILL FINALLY ERADICATE THE DRIVERS"

Fuck that shit.

Hi. This is Volky, the Volkswagen AI powered by Microsoft!! I see you want to start an engaging conversation about anal sex during constipation. Did you know that in ancient Sumaria "Fucking that shit" was an act performed by Shaman for treating severe constipation? If you'd like to talk about this more during your trip to "Kroger Grocery store" pound your face twice on the steering column to activate your $19.99 a month subscription to ChatGPT 5.5 advanced conversation mode!

Why is that? Most car already have voice assistants to help in tasks that would ve distracting for the driver. What's the difference with chatGPT?

I don't want nor need smart features on my car. Keep it dumb or make it open source.

So, they’re fresh off of rolling back their attempt to make everything a touch interface, which everyone hated… and they’re electing to go down yet another poorly-considered human interface rabbit hole?

That’s a bold move, cotton.

I’ll stick with my “stupid” 2003 Jetta 1.8T, thanks.

Man i wish I could've kept my 2003 mk4 GTI with a stick but it's just falling apart. I'll miss it.

Why do we need "enriching conversations" built in a car at all? Aren't you supposed to be focusing on the road?

VW promises it won’t force you to create a new account or install any apps.

Not yet, anyway.

They saw us get angry at a heating subscription and decided we are tiktok brained idiots who lack the skill to be social with humans and found another potential subscription service justification that causes less anger?

Conversation keeps me alert if I've been driving a long time. I don't know if artificial conversation would be as effective, but at least it's an option.

I'm sorry Dave. I can't let you do that

Lock the doors VW, we're being car jacked.

lol no, I've seen you, you're not jacked at all rofl

You WILL have AI in every device you own and you WILL enjoy it

The AI will be watching you to make sure you're enjoying it.

Volkswagen, voice command, emergency brake

"As a language model I..."

VW: so we listened to our customers, and we're announcing we're transitioning back to physical buttons on the steering wheel

People: yes!

VW: ...and integrating chatGPT into our cars!

ffs VW. I hope it's opt-in at least.

Nah, they'll just do what every other company does: record everything and send it to their servers. "But we're only using it to improve our service"-bullshit excuse.

ChatGPT is a cancer.

I think of it more as the inbred child of down syndrome siblings that eats lead paint.

You guys dare to explain why you think of it like that? It's invaluable tool at work - writes bash one-liners and code that usually works from the first try.

You might know the saying that if your code complies on the first try you did something wrong.

"You haven't paid your leasing fee this month, ChatGPT will now start to tell bad dad jokes"

They can enrich deez nuts in their mouth.

Should we invest the money from R&D so that our cars aren't just hard plastic shit boxes? No! Give them AI!

Alternatively, we could take money away cars and put it towards public transit infrastructure

This is so incredibly stupid. If I want to use ChatGPT, I'll use ChatGPT. Not, "If I want to communicate while driving, I'll use ChatGPT."

"AI is a surveillance technology"

Remarkably stupid take. It's produced by big-data companies because you need a lot of data to feed it but that doesn't make it "surveillance technology". Stable Diffusion wasn't trained on the kind of data she's talking about, and it can't be used to surveil you either. ChatGPT no more permits surveillance of its users than does chatting with a real person.

You can’t see the potential this has for parsing massive sets of data across multiple types of media and drawing conclusions? The person in the link isn’t talking about LLMs and image generators. It’s pretty clear you didn’t read it.

AI absolutely has the potential to be used for surveillance; its use in facial recognition most obviously. But the person quoted in the article didn't say "AI has the potential to be used for surveillance" - she said "AI is fundamentally a surveillance technology". So if she's not talking about LLMs and image generators, why is she saying that it's a fundamental part of the technology? It's not very fundamental if these two year-defining AI technologies aren't included in it.

Fundamental is part of the headline and not a quote. She never said that. Stupid headline, sure. Stupid take? Nah. Surveillance is one of the most practical applications of machine learning; they can finally easily sift through all that data they’ve collected.

Fair enough, I genuinely misread and thought that was within the quotation marks. But her message is still wrong because she is still talking about AI in general, but her argument applies only to a) AI whose data is derived from data scrapers like Facebook or b) AI put to surveillance tasks. That does not apply to Stable Diffusion, which is why I mentioned it, but it is caught by her assertion, "AI is a surveillance technology."

Can Firefox make a car or something

Uh yeah... Mozilla's working on advancing their own AI products ATM, so maybe be careful what you wish for?

At least Mozilla's is opt-in by the sounds of it, runs entirely locally, and only with your own data that you consciously feed it.

If we're being pragmatic, the cat is out of the bag now. "AI" is here to stay. And I'd rather use a privacy-respecting, locally-run instance that doesn't send personally identifiable data, as opposed to using one from Google or Microsoft.

Mozilla's at least used local AI so far, although it's unclear whether they will stay on that route.

My opinion on LLMs is pretty much local only or no thanks 👍

I can see AI being a powerful tool but not for conversations - and certainly not enriching ones

I would imagine generative AI would be actually great at that particular use (more than programming for example), I'm just wondering though if they need ChatGPT for it.

I'm very interested in machine learning, or AI as it's usually referred to in hyped-up content, and have also done research in the topic of generative AI. It hurts me so much that such interesting and useful technology has become another empty hype word. Nobody is waiting for this kind of gimmicky shit. It does nothing but hurt the public's view of this technology, similar to all the copyright issues and privacy concerns. Why must companies take things that can ultimately do something good in some cases and apply it to absolutely everything with no regards for the impact on their customers.

Most companies don't need "AI" and would be much better of spending those resources on actually improving their products. Useful places for generative AI would be something like Photoshop incorporating it, or a video game with better AI or more natural NPC conversations. Not some gimmicky AI assistant in a car, or some annoying AI chat window bothering you when visiting a news site. Soon people will be completely done with all this gimmicky "AI" bullshit and the useful applications will constantly have to deal with the stigma created by these greedy mindless corporations forcing "AI" on everyone in places where it adds nothing.

I’ve always wanted to be able to get information about landmarks as I drive. If I drive by something that has a Wikipedia entry my car should offer to read the summary to me. Unfortunately, ChatGPT will probably be saturated with hallucinated information for a fraction of the minor landmarks I inquire about.

inb4 someone gets arrested for some shit they admitted to a chat bot in their car

so now in top of entertainement systems on videos, soundsystems, drivers will be distracted with bot conversations. Awesome.

thanks vw that is very useful... How to pay attention to the road, and others road users already fragile (pedestrians, cyclists, motocylists) on a 1,5T rolling living-room-sofa ?

A car is already too much considered as personnal property and "vital space", yeah it is a good idea to give drivers more of this "personnal bubble" feeling. /s if it was not explicit enough

First thought: out of touch execs adding features no one asked forand can find on their own if they really want it to justify price increases and higher profits.

Second thought: what kind of AI software do they really want to use that they are using chatgpt to justify having the hardware there for?

Maybe to offer self driving support in the future. More likely to improve the quality of data they can sell.

Know what feature I'd really like to see in new cars? No data connections other than maybe Bluetooth, though I don't have much confidence they'll use an implementation that isn't riddled with long-fixed security holes. Though a secure Bluetooth implementation could be a feature! Same with secure remote unlock that uses cryptography instead of a signal that can be sniffed and spoofed. Also the ability to blast hot air at my windshield without having to run the AC. Physical buttons for all car and environmental controls, plus volume, track skip and ff 15 seconds that Spotify can understand. And a screw hole intended for a phone mount.

Don't worry about a touch screen, you (most car companies in general) suck at both designing software and choosing hardware that isn't underpowered for what you want to do with it. I don't want a piece of tech that is just going to annoy me every time I have to use it.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Volkswagen is jumping on the generative AI bandwagon by announcing plans to install OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its vehicles starting in the second quarter of 2024.

Vehicle owners can use the new super-powered voice assistant to control basic functions, like heating and air conditioning, or to answer “general knowledge questions.” (Though, given ChatGPT’s penchant for occasionally making stuff up, user discretion is advised.)

Most vehicle voice assistants are pretty rote, able to do things like turn on seat heaters or window defrosters — but lack conversational skills and typically fall short of more complex navigational requests.

ChatGPT and other large language model chatbots have been known to serve up false information, and OpenAI is being targeted in a number of defamation and copyright infringement lawsuits.

The company’s Cerence Chat Pro software will enhance VW’s voice assistant so it can “provide relevant responses to nearly every query imaginable.”

Despite being one of the biggest automakers in the world, VW had a rough 2023, including disappointing sales growth, software malfunctions, and layoffs.

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