AI is in the middle of an intense hype and speculation cycle. The startups (OpenAI especially but others too) are hyping it to up their stock prices. Google is worried about how it will affect their revenue (users skipping search results and sponsored links to get their information in Q&A format). Microsoft sees an opportunity to beat Google at *something*, so they are teaming with openAI. However both are hyping AI to sell AI services to the vast majority of (non tech) companies out there whose IT executives are clueless but want to get on the bandwagon of the next shiny thing. I recently attended one such ‘workshop’ by Google thinking it was going to be a presentation about the technology aspect of AI which is what interests me, but turned out to be a sales pitch to my employer to buy AI services from Google. I was so bored I wanted to get up and leave. My own take - I am very skeptical about outlandish claims because the people making the claims either have vested interests or are clueless. I have seen a number hype cycles over the years - the dot com hype, the y2k hype, the outsourcing hype , the cloud hype (the bubble on that is already bursting with companies moving their workloads back to data centers)..various other hypes…and now the AI hype. The reality is whenever the dust settles on these hypes there is some disruption which is to be expected but nowhere near the claims, some adjustment..even some reversal (rejection of whatever is behind the hype)..but life goes on
“ The startups (OpenAI especially but others too) are hyping it to up their stock prices. ”
I meant valuation, not necessarily stock prices but it will eventually come to that.
>the cloud hype (the bubble on that is already bursting with companies moving their workloads back to data centers)
The cloud is data centers. Someone else just owns and manages them, and the computers therein.
About 15 years ago I went to cloud computing event. Best line of the day from one of the presenters:
“I used to be an application service provider, then I did software as a service, and now I do cloud computing.”
The room, which had generally been around the block a few times, broke up laughing for a good bit.
Thank you. I couldn't agree more. The human spirit and creative mind starts the work-arounds and antidotes the minute these awful new things are rumored around.
That said, AI and related iterations of “snoop’n’boss” tech does seem to pose significant threats, and may even become the Beast as prophesied; but even the Mark won't penetrate universally to everyone/everywhere for quite some decades, if ever. There will be massive ovine general acceptance, but there will also be pockets of resistance, pockets of “we never had no wi-fi an no internet to begin wif; why all dese white pipple movin here?”
My denomination does not believe in a rapture doctrinally; but it seems clear that some people in every region will be spared until the Very End. One of our greatly underestimated and most intelligent Presidents said:
If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you. — Calvin Coolidge