Some thoughts on Apple Ingelligence's (and AI's in general) promotion by Apple.
We can't all be the clever (and slightly psychopathic) mom from the Apple commercial. Who will be the dad and daughters, made fools of by someone unsuspecting, who (in theory) wants the best for us?
Some thoughts on Apple Ingelligence's (and AI's in general) promotion by Apple.
We're in this weird transitory phase where many people don't see AI generated content for what it is yet; low effort garbage. Imagine you're a kid, and for your birthday, your parents get you a...
We're in this weird transitory phase where many people don't see AI generated content for what it is yet; low effort garbage.
Imagine you're a kid, and for your birthday, your parents get you a dollar lollipop from the store.
You'd probably be pretty damn disappointed because lollipops are extremely common, take virtually zero effort to acquire, and aren't unique at all. You can go to a bank and get a lollipop on a tellers desk for free.
Imagine now you're a kid from the 1500s in Europe and you get something resembling a lollipop from back then. You'd probably pretty damn pleased. Sugar was expensive as hell. The skills needed to boil it and refine it and put it on a stick are pretty damn specialized. This is something that for many people would have been a once in a lifetime experience. It's really special.
I imagine for a certain amount of time between then and now, there was a period of industrialization, where lollipops were both easy and cheap to produce, but not everyone knew that yet. For some of those people, receiving a lollipop as a gift was still special and pretty cool.
That's where we're at right now. Custom videos, custom art, and custom music generated by AI aren't yet considered by everyone as disposable trash that someone put no effort into making, so this whole "woahhuhh, a heartfelt custom video" schtick in the mentioned apple add still sorta works.
That's not going to be the case in five years once the jig is up.
I don't think we have seen AI's truly selfish side yet. Assuming it ever gets to a more trustworthy point, it is only going to benefit executives instead of workers. There is a reason that...
I don't think we have seen AI's truly selfish side yet. Assuming it ever gets to a more trustworthy point, it is only going to benefit executives instead of workers. There is a reason that business owners are willing to invest so much money into this technology - they are hoping to replace paid workers.
Do you know anyone who has worked in a call center? Many people don’t last long at jobs like that. Maybe it would be for the best if there were fewer jobs like those.
Do you know anyone who has worked in a call center? Many people don’t last long at jobs like that. Maybe it would be for the best if there were fewer jobs like those.
I think the end consumers will be worse off. I have yet to experience a support chatbot that wasn't incredibly frustrating and a complete waste of time. I work in a company that has a support chat...
I think the end consumers will be worse off. I have yet to experience a support chatbot that wasn't incredibly frustrating and a complete waste of time. I work in a company that has a support chat with human operators, and a good percentage of our customers start a case with "I WANT TO TALK TO A HUMAN".
I despise chat bots more than almost anything, such a waste of time. I have literally not once in ~10 years of being forced to use shitty chat bots received a helpful answer from one. But as I...
I despise chat bots more than almost anything, such a waste of time. I have literally not once in ~10 years of being forced to use shitty chat bots received a helpful answer from one.
But as I said, I don't think we are at the point of trustworthy AI just yet (if ever). Assuming we reach that point, a LOT of jobs are at risk, not just call centers. I'd say image generation is already kind of at this point for anyone who does graphic design as a business. Why would some CEO who just wants a cheap picture to advertise hire someone when they could generate exactly what they want in five minutes.?
Anecdotally, I was recently asked by someone who runs a psychology clinic which AI produces the best human pictures so they could use them on a website. I suggested going to any stock photography site and getting a picture of real people, but they suggested that the people in the stock photos tend to not really seem like they know each other, while AI generated pictures seem quite realistic and convey a more accurate sense of emotion. To be completely honestly, the fact that this sentiment was coming from an experienced psychologist doesn't fill me with optimism for AI / the future.
I don’t think chat-based UI’s as currently implemented are a good experience either. But in the long run, I suspect we will see better UI eventually. Consider how much the web improved customer...
I don’t think chat-based UI’s as currently implemented are a good experience either. But in the long run, I suspect we will see better UI eventually.
Consider how much the web improved customer service with no AI at all, just forms. Sure, some online forms are better than others. But getting forms online, getting to the point where we can assume that there is a website for routine transactions, instead of always having to call or put forms in the mail, was a major advance.
We’re at the point where this is mostly taken for granted, where there are laws saying you have to be able to cancel your subscription online because we know that’s the more convenient way to do it.
But it takes surprisingly long for good UI to win out, and sometimes it takes new companies to show how to do it right. We’re still in the horseless carriage stage as far as AI-driven UI is concerned, where there are a lot of bad experiments by companies rushing to use AI somehow.
Other examples: the first search engines were terrible. The first web-based maps were terrible.
It is not about UI, but about the AI chatbot not being able to really help as it just rephrases existing FAQs. The tools the internet made possible made it easier and more efficient to communicate...
It is not about UI, but about the AI chatbot not being able to really help as it just rephrases existing FAQs. The tools the internet made possible made it easier and more efficient to communicate with a company and their support staff. AI bots are replacing the support staff. Not because it is better or easier, but simply because it is cheaper. But worse in every other aspects. Even the first search engines were an improvement over having none at all. It didn't replace something better. Which is a common theme for AI implementation. It is rarely doing a better job at anything, it just does it cheaper. No one wins expect companies with this.
I still think that's too pessimistic. I use LLM's every day, in the form of autocomplete in my text editor. It's valuable. "Chat" is just a particular kind of UI, and maybe not the best one.
I still think that's too pessimistic. I use LLM's every day, in the form of autocomplete in my text editor. It's valuable. "Chat" is just a particular kind of UI, and maybe not the best one.
The closest I ever was to suicide was when I worked at a call center. Everyone who calls in is angry, impatient, and thinks they're the single most important person in the world. There's no...
The closest I ever was to suicide was when I worked at a call center.
Everyone who calls in is angry, impatient, and thinks they're the single most important person in the world. There's no kindness, no consideration, nothing except demands for instant action.
And the bosses do not give a fuck. On the clock. Numbers, timer. I got yelled at for having a damn notepad document full of standard ticket text, things like "Customer cannot log in. Asked to try again after verifying caps lock key, still unable. Had customer confirm (identifier information) and reset. Customer can now log in."
I was supposed to custom write that standard bullshit from scratch, every time, simply because it meant "I was dedicated to providing the highest standard of customer care."
One afternoon, I got home and opened my freezer. Took out a bottle of vodka. Chugged it. Had to have been ten seconds, head tipped all the way back, just gulp-gulp-gulp. Went to bed, slept fifteen hours. And then I had to wake up the next morning and go back to hell.
AI "taking" call center jobs is saving lives. Is making the world a better place. People are horrible to other people. Especially when they have a little bit of power. When they know you have to bow and scrape. Their lives aren't any better than yours, but they can feel better about themselves for maybe a few minutes by calling a Customer Support line and being an asshole to someone who's not allowed to respond. Who has to constantly apologize, show deference, no matter what.
Beyond AI I think there is some truth to the intense social pressures to being unselfish that got us to this point. It is, more often than not, human nature to act in one's own best interest. I...
Beyond AI I think there is some truth to the intense social pressures to being unselfish that got us to this point. It is, more often than not, human nature to act in one's own best interest. I think the key to forming a better, more empathetic world is to forgive people for their selfish impulses and learn how to co-opt it to help the needs of the many. If technology can help to position good acts as good for the actor, I'd be supportive. It's a hard ask, but it's my hope that we can figure it out.
Some thoughts on Apple Ingelligence's (and AI's in general) promotion by Apple.
We're in this weird transitory phase where many people don't see AI generated content for what it is yet; low effort garbage.
Imagine you're a kid, and for your birthday, your parents get you a dollar lollipop from the store.
You'd probably be pretty damn disappointed because lollipops are extremely common, take virtually zero effort to acquire, and aren't unique at all. You can go to a bank and get a lollipop on a tellers desk for free.
Imagine now you're a kid from the 1500s in Europe and you get something resembling a lollipop from back then. You'd probably pretty damn pleased. Sugar was expensive as hell. The skills needed to boil it and refine it and put it on a stick are pretty damn specialized. This is something that for many people would have been a once in a lifetime experience. It's really special.
I imagine for a certain amount of time between then and now, there was a period of industrialization, where lollipops were both easy and cheap to produce, but not everyone knew that yet. For some of those people, receiving a lollipop as a gift was still special and pretty cool.
That's where we're at right now. Custom videos, custom art, and custom music generated by AI aren't yet considered by everyone as disposable trash that someone put no effort into making, so this whole "woahhuhh, a heartfelt custom video" schtick in the mentioned apple add still sorta works.
That's not going to be the case in five years once the jig is up.
I don't think we have seen AI's truly selfish side yet. Assuming it ever gets to a more trustworthy point, it is only going to benefit executives instead of workers. There is a reason that business owners are willing to invest so much money into this technology - they are hoping to replace paid workers.
Do you know anyone who has worked in a call center? Many people don’t last long at jobs like that. Maybe it would be for the best if there were fewer jobs like those.
I think the end consumers will be worse off. I have yet to experience a support chatbot that wasn't incredibly frustrating and a complete waste of time. I work in a company that has a support chat with human operators, and a good percentage of our customers start a case with "I WANT TO TALK TO A HUMAN".
I despise chat bots more than almost anything, such a waste of time. I have literally not once in ~10 years of being forced to use shitty chat bots received a helpful answer from one.
But as I said, I don't think we are at the point of trustworthy AI just yet (if ever). Assuming we reach that point, a LOT of jobs are at risk, not just call centers. I'd say image generation is already kind of at this point for anyone who does graphic design as a business. Why would some CEO who just wants a cheap picture to advertise hire someone when they could generate exactly what they want in five minutes.?
Anecdotally, I was recently asked by someone who runs a psychology clinic which AI produces the best human pictures so they could use them on a website. I suggested going to any stock photography site and getting a picture of real people, but they suggested that the people in the stock photos tend to not really seem like they know each other, while AI generated pictures seem quite realistic and convey a more accurate sense of emotion. To be completely honestly, the fact that this sentiment was coming from an experienced psychologist doesn't fill me with optimism for AI / the future.
I don’t think chat-based UI’s as currently implemented are a good experience either. But in the long run, I suspect we will see better UI eventually.
Consider how much the web improved customer service with no AI at all, just forms. Sure, some online forms are better than others. But getting forms online, getting to the point where we can assume that there is a website for routine transactions, instead of always having to call or put forms in the mail, was a major advance.
We’re at the point where this is mostly taken for granted, where there are laws saying you have to be able to cancel your subscription online because we know that’s the more convenient way to do it.
But it takes surprisingly long for good UI to win out, and sometimes it takes new companies to show how to do it right. We’re still in the horseless carriage stage as far as AI-driven UI is concerned, where there are a lot of bad experiments by companies rushing to use AI somehow.
Other examples: the first search engines were terrible. The first web-based maps were terrible.
It is not about UI, but about the AI chatbot not being able to really help as it just rephrases existing FAQs. The tools the internet made possible made it easier and more efficient to communicate with a company and their support staff. AI bots are replacing the support staff. Not because it is better or easier, but simply because it is cheaper. But worse in every other aspects. Even the first search engines were an improvement over having none at all. It didn't replace something better. Which is a common theme for AI implementation. It is rarely doing a better job at anything, it just does it cheaper. No one wins expect companies with this.
I still think that's too pessimistic. I use LLM's every day, in the form of autocomplete in my text editor. It's valuable. "Chat" is just a particular kind of UI, and maybe not the best one.
The closest I ever was to suicide was when I worked at a call center.
Everyone who calls in is angry, impatient, and thinks they're the single most important person in the world. There's no kindness, no consideration, nothing except demands for instant action.
And the bosses do not give a fuck. On the clock. Numbers, timer. I got yelled at for having a damn notepad document full of standard ticket text, things like "Customer cannot log in. Asked to try again after verifying caps lock key, still unable. Had customer confirm (identifier information) and reset. Customer can now log in."
I was supposed to custom write that standard bullshit from scratch, every time, simply because it meant "I was dedicated to providing the highest standard of customer care."
One afternoon, I got home and opened my freezer. Took out a bottle of vodka. Chugged it. Had to have been ten seconds, head tipped all the way back, just gulp-gulp-gulp. Went to bed, slept fifteen hours. And then I had to wake up the next morning and go back to hell.
AI "taking" call center jobs is saving lives. Is making the world a better place. People are horrible to other people. Especially when they have a little bit of power. When they know you have to bow and scrape. Their lives aren't any better than yours, but they can feel better about themselves for maybe a few minutes by calling a Customer Support line and being an asshole to someone who's not allowed to respond. Who has to constantly apologize, show deference, no matter what.
Beyond AI I think there is some truth to the intense social pressures to being unselfish that got us to this point. It is, more often than not, human nature to act in one's own best interest. I think the key to forming a better, more empathetic world is to forgive people for their selfish impulses and learn how to co-opt it to help the needs of the many. If technology can help to position good acts as good for the actor, I'd be supportive. It's a hard ask, but it's my hope that we can figure it out.