On Thu, 29 Jan 2026 14:05:33 -0800 Kent Borg <[email protected]> wrote:
> We are in a *very* interesting time. "Interesting" for what I think are all the wrong reasons. The tech itself isn't anything new, nor do I think it's intrinsically evil. A "generative AI" system is a large language model run in reverse. A large language model is an image recognition system trained on bodies of words instead of bodies of images. An image recognition system is a neural network trained on images instead of, say, credit card transactions, a thing credit card companies were doing in the 1980s. And the concept of artificial neural networks is well over a century old. A "generative AI" is a statistical prediction machine: feed it a bunch of data, ask it a question, it presents a statistically plausible answer based on those data. In principle. In practice, the tech bros foisting this on a gullible world aren't interested in the shiny, gleaming science fiction future they tout. That shiny, gleaming future is predicated on the elimination of the boss class and wage slavery under that class. Musk, Altman, and their ilk will never commit to that. They're too greedy, too selfish, too wrapped up in acquiring all the money for them to eliminate their entire socio-economic existence. Instead of that promised future, we're getting a dystopian present of systems designed to drive addictive behavior (they call it "engagement) and promote their operators' agendas (look at what's happening to TikTok under its new US tech bro overlords). -- \m/ (--) \m/ _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
