The AI Revolution: How's it Going for You?

Audio: https://youtu.be/xmSSmpvFFaI

We're 2.5 years into this exhilarating journey, so let's get a quick progress update...

Big Tech's Mission Impossible

Years ago we stumbled across this really cool new technology called LLMs. Great tech, amazing at distilling and compressing knowledge, fun, entertaining, and something we should all be able to collectively celebrate.

But of course we can't, because the modern tech industry has been commandeered by a handful of billionaire psychopaths. These splendid group of individuals, some of the most powerful and wealthy in the history of human civilization, have decided gosh darnit, they just don't quite have enough.

Their multiple spaceships, private islands, expansive living estates, and unfathomable wealth just isn't quite enough and they need just a little more. And how much more you ask? Not much, they only want to hoover up the entire global economy while transforming the world into their own personal technocratic fiefdom. You know, the normal desires we all have in life.

According to these geniuses, any week now ASI will appear, bringing about some mystical age of abundance. Any day now ChatGPT is going to eliminate world poverty, solve all of physics, cure cancer, create nuclear fusion, start building self replicating spaceships, all while making us pancakes in bed and walking our dog!

All we have to do is sit back, relax, hand over our credit cards, and live stream our daily lives to their servers. Don't worry folks, they will take care of the rest.

LLMs Are Cool

Don't get me wrong, I love my LLMs, use them all day every day. It's simply cool technology. Same as when I got my first smart phone, it was such a cool bump in life, wasn't it?

But have you ever actually played with this tech? Ever popped the hood, and checked out what's underneath? Give it a poke. Stick a fork in these things, and you'll see, dumb as a hamster.

Nothing more than multi billion dollar mechanical turk devices designed to steal our personal data, attention, and corrupt our cognition. And these folks want us to believe this is the fourth industrial revolution? What reality do these people live in?

Test It Yourself

Give it a spin. Just ask it to write you a toaster in C++. It'll actually do it it. Then take the code it gives you, copy and paste that code into a new chat and ask for inefficiencies.

Guaranteed, it's going to tell you there's a bunch of problems with the code, and will try to help you fix them. You can even have a whole weird back and forth conversation with it about why your toaster isn't working.

All the while, it doesn't have the common sense to tell you that you can't make a toaster out of C++ code. Now figure that one out!

Teach Our Kids?

Another one, have it write a lengthy non-fiction piece about any topic you desire. Open two new conversations, copy the piece in. Preface one with "this is absolutely amazing!" and the other with "I'm so pissed off, I'm firing this moron!".

Watch the responses, you'll get three versions of the truth. This tech tells you what you want to hear, not the truth! And they actually want this in every classroom teaching the next generation of our kids?

Where did Tech Go?

I remember a time where tech was cool. You know, when we got a bump from CDs to DVDs, or from 33.6k modems to broadband, or from flip phones to smart phones. Every year, we'd just get this cool little almost transparent bump in our lives.

Silicon Valley, a magical place that used to be a beacon of hope for the innovative and intellectually curious, and who had society's best interest at heart. Have you looked at it lately?

It's morphed into a grotesque embarrassment. It's not even really technology anymore. Just a small handful of ultra rich having a public dick measuring contest, seeing which one can solve AGI first.

They're so desperate to get there first too. Hell, Mark Zuckerberg has apparently had enough. So that's it, he's going to hand select 50 people then shuffle the desks around in Menlo Park so he can keep an eye on these folks while they make him AGI. You bet, because that's how innovation happens!

Totally ignore the legend of innovation, which is that of Bell Labs in the 1940s - 60s. Instead, just rearrange some furniture so you can keep a close eye on your engineers, because that's how technological breakthroughs happen!

Carpe Diem

On a more serious note, I don't know much, but I've figured out a few things in this journey we all call life.

We can all see the pain and sadness that's out there. Hell, I wake up each day surprised I'm still alive and haven't taken a nap on the railroad tracks yet, so trust me, I know how brutal it can be.

I don't know much, but I do know it's time we all go say hi to our fellow neighbor. Go ask if they're ok. Through that, I know magical and spontaneous connections will be made, and these connections, regardless of how innate they may seem, will spur true hope, human ingenuity and write the next chapter in our shared history.

Don't worry about what algorithm Sam Altman, Elon Musk or Dario Amodei is promising they have up their sleeve. View these people as your brother and sister, and don't be scared to call them out on their bullshit.

Us humans love, laugh, cry, entertain, innovate, and build masterpieces together. No algorithm will ever replace that.

It may seem dark right now, but the skies will clear, because you only need to crack a history book to see that humanity always prevails.

Support Cicero

Thank you, if you found this piece engaging, please consider supporting Cicero. An open source initiative designed to permanently lock big tech out of our lives through open source innovation.

I don't know about you folks, but I know I'm tired of having big tech ramming shit we don't need, don't want, and never asked for down our throats. We can do so much better than this!

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