The Phony Comforts of AI Optimism
www.wheresyoured.at
A few months ago, Casey Newton of Platformer ran a piece called "The phony comforts of AI skepticism," framing those who would criticize generative AI as "having fun," damning them as "hyper-fixated on the things [AI] can't do." I am not going to focus too hard on this blog, in
  • Optional@lemmy.worldEnglish
    101·
    4 days ago

    The leaders behind the funding, functionality, and media coverage of the tech industry have abdicated their authority so severely that the consensus is that it’s fine that OpenAI burns $5 billion a year, and it’s also fine that OpenAI, or Anthropic, or really any other generative AI company has no path to profitability. Furthermore, it’s fine that these companies are destroying our power grid and our planet, and it’s also fine that they stole from millions of creatives while simultaneously undercutting those creatives in an already-precarious job market.

    Amazing, as always. That AI is . . . what it is.

    • BertramDitore@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      4 days ago

      Casey Newton founded Platformer, after leaving The Verge around 5 years ago. But yeah, I used to listen to Hard Fork, his podcast with Kevin Roose, but I stopped because of how uncritically they cover AI and LLMs. It’s basically the only thing they cover, and yet they are quite gullible and not really realistic about the whole industry. They land some amazing interviews with key players, but never ask hard questions or dive nearly deep enough, so they end up sounding pretty fluffy as ass-kissy. I totally agree with Zitron’s take on their reporting. I constantly found myself wishing they were a lot more cynical and combative.

  • Optional@lemmy.worldEnglish
    51·
    4 days ago

    OpenAI is CoreWeave. CoreWeave is OpenAI. SoftBank is now both CoreWeave and OpenAI, and if SoftBank buckles, both CoreWeave and OpenAI are dead. For this situation to work even for the next year, these companies will have to raise tens of billions of dollars just to maintain the status quo.

    You’d think if that was easily disprovable, someone would want to do that.