ChatGPT lies then gaslights reporter with fake transcript

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Haven't you ever used an AI for work where it actually helped you?

The only task I could find that would help in my workplace is summarizing long emails, and that's at best a "nice to have," not a "need to have."

I've used it to perform work thousands of times.

You should be concerned about your future at your company if your employer figures out how much of it AI can do.

Yes it makes mistakes that I have to prompt and train around, but when it produces a 1,000-line program for something like a local web server with a QA I want to run that day and does it in seconds, that's real work output that saves tons of time.

Does it have problems? Sure. Is it useless garbage? No way.

I'm not a programmer. Most people aren't programmers.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's totally outside of my consideration. I find democratized Internet access at home useful, but I don't regret AOL or Compuserve.

I really enjoy jalapeno on pizza.

Both of our statements feel off-topic.

 

[Scribe]

You should be concerned about your future at your company if your employer figures out how much of it AI can do.

This was the conversation I had with a younger co-worker months ago. As he went on and on about how much of his work he was having one of these things do, I eventually asked him how much of it he could do himself if he had to, and what happens when his boss figures out that someone else can do his 'prompt work' for half the salary.

He's no longer with us after the last round of lay offs, odd that.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This was the conversation I had with a younger co-worker months ago. As he went on and on about how much of his work he was having one of these things do, I eventually asked him how much of it he could do himself if he had to, and what happens when his boss figures out that someone else can do his 'prompt work' for half the salary.

He's no longer with us after the last round of lay offs, odd that.

Yeah, my wife's company has clearly, IMO, been creating content that could be used to train an AI to do for about four years now. At a town hall meeting this week, guess what they announced they'd be pivoting to do now? "Select staff" will be staying on, and even though she's been told she's safe, everyone is (finally) heading for the lifeboats.

 

[kermit4karate]

The only task I could find that would help in my workplace is summarizing long emails, and that's at best a "nice to have," not a "need to have."

I work in the U.S. tech industry. Hiring in this industry here virtually stopped about a year ago. Very few people are moving around in tech jobs now, and the people who remain employed now have to use AI because they're expected to produce the same output that 2-3 people would have performed prior to the first round of tech layoffs that started with Twitter.

You should be concerned about your future at your company if your employer figures out how much of it AI can do.

The people who are most concerned are the people who don't want/know how to use AI to augment their output.

I'm not a programmer. Most people aren't programmers.

Point sort of taken, but I'm not a programmer. Officially I'm a network architect. Unofficially I'm an infrastructure, cloud and systems engineer, again because of role consolidation in the tech industry. Fewer people doing more things with the help of AI.

As for most people using AI, I don't only use it for IT work. I use it for a multitude of things throughout the day. I rarely use Google anymore because ChatGPT searches the web for me. I think a lot of other people also use AI without necessarily realizing it, too. If they use Google and refer to that top section of the results that says "AI Overview" they're using it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I work in the U.S. tech industry. Hiring in this industry here virtually stopped about a year ago. Very few people are moving around in tech jobs now, and the people who remain employed now have to use AI because they're expected to produce the same output that 2-3 people would have performed prior to the first round of tech layoffs that started with Twitter.

Yeah, that's what's been happening to people in every other industry for decades now, which elicited "huh huh, learn to code" responses from the tech industry. Which now turns out to have been short-sighted as career advice goes.

Just because they got to you last doesn't mean they weren't always coming for you.

Point sort of taken, but I'm not a programmer.

Dude. You work with code. For the vast majority of the world that does not, the value of AI is much, much lower than the Silicon Valley CEOs, who are both in a tech industry bubble and have a financial stake in all of this, will ever concede.

As for most people using AI, I don't only use it for IT work. I use it for a multitude of things throughout the day. I rarely use Google anymore because ChatGPT searches the web for me. I think a lot of other people also use AI without necessarily realizing it, too. If they use Google and refer to that top section of the results that says "AI Overview" they're using it.

And it's a wildly destructive use of it. Actual human content producers were already struggling financially. Killing off traffic to those sites -- down 80% since the introduction of search engine AI "assists," by some measures -- isn't going to usher in some new golden age. It's going to mean that even more search engine results are just AI slop and the value of the internet as a whole is going to plummet.

The tech oligarchs are throttling the goose that laid the golden eggs in front of our eyes and will nope out to their compounds in Kauai once it's done.

Ideally, Google and company will realize that this is an extremely short-term strategy and pull back from the brink in time.

 

[kermit4karate]

Yeah, my wife's company has clearly, IMO, been creating content that could be used to train an AI to do for about four years now. At a town hall meeting this week, guess what they announced they'd be pivoting to do now? "Select staff" will be staying on, and even though she's been told she's safe, everyone is (finally) heading for the lifeboats.

Many, many careers will disappear over the next 20 years. I wish I knew what all of them were because I'd steer my kids away from going into those careers. Still not clear which industries will be safer than others. Maybe plumbers and contractors? Skilled laborers and trades people who work with their hands. Nurses. Veterinarians and some doctors.

I certainly would not advise a teenager to pursue a career as a copywriter. That's for sure.

 

[kermit4karate]

Yeah, that's what's been happening to people in every other industry for decades now, which elicited "huh huh, learn to code" responses from the tech industry. Which now turns out to have been short-sighted as career advice goes.

I've never said or even thought, "huh huh, learn to code" in reference to someone but fair point.

I wouldn't say a career in tech is/was shortsighted, but it's certainly not as smooth sailing as it was.

Just because they got to you last doesn't mean they weren't always coming for you.

Agree there.

Dude. You work with code. For the vast majority of the world that does not, the value of AI is much, much lower than the Silicon Valley CEOs, who are both in a tech industry bubble and have a financial stake in all of this, will ever concede.

And it's a wildly destructive use of it. Actual human content producers were already struggling financially. Killing off traffic to those sites -- down 80% since the introduction of search engine AI "assists," by some measures -- isn't going to usher in some new golden age. It's going to mean that even more search engine results are just AI slop and the value of the internet as a whole is going to plummet.

The tech oligarchs are throttling the goose that laid the golden eggs in front of our eyes and will nope out to their compounds in Kauai once it's done.

Ideally, Google and company will realize that this is an extremely short-term strategy and pull back from the brink in time.

Destructive? Yes, probably. Will certainly shift paradigms over the coming years. I believe it'll be more disruptive than the internet was. More than radio, television and flight, but I'm not the one behind it. I didn't create any of this stuff. I feel like I'm being tarred and feathered as an AI evangelist, but just because someone drinks water doesn't mean they love to swim. I use AI because I feel like I have to. It's a useful tool, and it's there. I think I'd be foolish not to. In no way does that mean I'm glad it was invented.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've never said or even thought, "huh huh, learn to code" in reference to someone but fair point.

"Learn to code" was a wildly common response online for years to people whose industries were disappearing from under them. I'm glad you weren't one of the folks doing it, but it was incredibly common.

Destructive? Yes, probably. Will certainly shift paradigms over the coming years. I believe it'll be more disruptive than the internet was.

It's in the process of finishing off the independent media in many countries, which is something we will miss. A world where we have oligarch-funded "news" with a point of view that is mostly about screaming at people we're told we disagree with politically is certainly one that's been disrupted. The hyper-polarized world we're living in is just getting started.

 

[kermit4karate]

"Learn to code" was a wildly common response online for years to people whose industries were disappearing from under them. I'm glad you weren't one of the folks doing it, but it was incredibly common.

It's in the process of finishing off the independent media in many countries, which is something we will miss. A world where we have oligarch-funded "news" with a point of view that is mostly about screaming at people we're told we disagree with politically is certainly one that's been disrupted. The hyper-polarized world we're living in is just getting started.

Don't forget the completely fabricated videos. OpenAI just released Sora 2, their AI video generator, and whoa baby, just wait till those fake propaganda videos start spreading and getting memed and amplified. We may very well be in the late stages of democracy itself, and I don't mean that in a political sense. I mean that in the academic sense, as in 'democracy' in general.

OK, saying all that, I would argue with probably anyone here that I actually think AI will be even WORSE than many of the members here think it will be. I use it A LOT, and I work in a career that's enmeshed in it, and I think the disruptive effects of AI will be... Well, seriously, it could lead to Armageddon, or at the very least societal collapse in many nations. Widespread >20% unemployment, massive underemployment as PhDs are relegated to minimum-wage retail.

It may also lead to the cure for cancer, practical cold fusion, other epic scientific and medical advances.... End of the day, will it have been worth it? End of the day, depends on who you're asking. If you're asking a future human? Maybe not! If you're asking one of their AI overlords though...?

Yes, this hinges on the development of what they call AGI, Artificial General Intelligence, but that's coming soon enough. I bet we only have 5 years tops before actual self-motivated AI is here.