AI does have its uses

[fisicx]

dont forget video games are making us more violent too XD

I’m assuming this a joke as that trope has long been disproved.

I know people who are unable to function without their phone. It got to point where they were unable to use a ticket machine at the train station - they had only ever used their phone to buy tickets.

And there are now people who don’t realise you can open a car door with a key.

 

[ctrlbrk]

AI is just another evolution of the human reliance on technology; it's 'progress'

Like Bill Clinton would say, 'it all depends on what "progress" means'

 

[Data Swami]

I’m assuming this a joke as that trope has long been disproved.

I know people who are unable to function without their phone. It got to point where they were unable to use a ticket machine at the train station - they had only ever used their phone to buy tickets.

And there are now people who don’t realise you can open a car door with a key.

Yes definitely a joke. From a youth of playing Grand theft auto 3 almost religiously the amount of times i saw it in the news is laughable

 

[antropy]

I've worked in IT all my life, never heard "PICNIC".

However, PEBKAC was common, perhaps not so much now.

PEBKAC is a technical acronym for "Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair"

Paul.

 

[Imgto3d]

Interesting discussion. Moving away from coding and text generation for a sec, if look at the broader generative AI, the shift is undeniable

AI image generation tools can now take a fairly generalized, vague prompt and, through occasional bursts of algorithmic "inspiration," produce highly usable assets, AI image-to-image editing is rapidly reaching a point where it's making like Photoshop practically redundant for the average user.

However, AI 3D model generation—specifically in the image-to-3D pipeline—still has a bit of a road ahead. We are still seeing inconsistent outputs resulting in excessively high polygon counts, and the mesh topology definitely still has room for improvement. But realistically? That gap is not huge anymore, and it is shrinking steadily by the day. And of course, the compute and generation costs are only going to keep dropping.

The overarching trend is: if a job merely requires someone to be a basic "tool operator" who applies just a tiny bit of intelligence to execute a mechanical software task, that role is actively being replaced.

 

[fisicx]

And of course, the compute and generation costs are only going to keep dropping.

The opposite is true. The current pricing structure is unsustainable. Even the free tools are becoming restricted.

 

[UKSBD]

The opposite is true. The current pricing structure is unsustainable. Even the free tools are becoming restricted.

Yes, and once drawn in and familiar with what you are using the prices initially gradually increase and eventually increase at crazy rates.

 

[Data Swami]

Yes, and once drawn in and familiar with what you are using the prices initially gradually increase and eventually increase at crazy rates.

Yes and No. OpenAI etc are priced a hell of alot lower and Anthropic have enacted some changes for that too with blocking third party usage. To be fair that is the tech stack approach for years now like how AirBnB and Uber embedded themselves are the go to and then changed their pricing. However there have been big strides in local models and being able to use them on your own hardware. So building tools that can be moved away from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic are a must. However building these tools I think are outside of the scope of an SME to do themselves as there are alot of moving parts to manage. But the rewards are there to be taken. For me lets take advantage of their low pricing now for ourselves and build to know we will not be using them later to make them obsolete

 

[gpietersz]

Yes, and once drawn in and familiar with what you are using the prices initially gradually increase and eventually increase at crazy rates.

That is there plan, but there is a lot of competition, a lot of light users will not pay a lot more and local AI is improving rapidly too. Even now I think it would be a lot cheaper for a team on typical business subs to spend a few grand on their own hardware and run local AIs. Not quite as good, but no worse than the best ones were six months ago. Unless you really need the best, not worth paying a lot.

 

[Keynote Speech]

Interesting discussion. Moving away from coding and text generation for a sec, if look at the broader generative AI, the shift is undeniable

AI image generation tools can now take a fairly generalized, vague prompt and, through occasional bursts of algorithmic "inspiration," produce highly usable assets, AI image-to-image editing is rapidly reaching a point where it's making like Photoshop practically redundant for the average user.

However, AI 3D model generation—specifically in the image-to-3D pipeline—still has a bit of a road ahead. We are still seeing inconsistent outputs resulting in excessively high polygon counts, and the mesh topology definitely still has room for improvement. But realistically? That gap is not huge anymore, and it is shrinking steadily by the day. And of course, the compute and generation costs are only going to keep dropping.

The overarching trend is: if a job merely requires someone to be a basic "tool operator" who applies just a tiny bit of intelligence to execute a mechanical software task, that role is actively being replaced.

That’s an interesting way of looking at it. It does feel like anything that’s more about operating tools than actually making decisions is starting to get chipped away pretty quickly.

At the same time though, I’ve noticed even with things like code or content, the output still needs a fair bit of checking and context around it. It’s great for getting something started or speeding things up, but not quite at the point where you can just leave it to run on its own.

I’ve heard a few AI speakers like Cassie Kozyrkov talk about that idea of separating prediction from judgement, which seems to fit here. The tools can do a lot of the heavy lifting, but someone still needs to decide what “good” actually looks like.

Feels like the roles aren’t disappearing completely, more shifting towards oversight rather than execution.