Over the weekend, comedian and YouTuber Adam Conover took to YouTube to publish a poignant 25-minute video essay addressing the ongoing AI gold rush.
And honestly? It’s pretty hard.
“Tech companies are suddenly promising to use AI to revolutionize everything from computer programming to customer service to therapy,” Conover said in the video. “Yes, yes. In a few years, your insurance company’s AI claims department will reject your claim to see your health plan’s AI therapist.”
It’s a chilling thought, but it’s also not an outrageous thought at all. There is a huge amount of money being put into the AI pot, and industries from insurance to treatment are rushing to integrate AI into everything possible, from widgets to workflows.
And, of course, topics attract topics — especially when those pushing the technology promise that it will not only change the world, but it could also destroy it.
Conover, referring to this frenzied and sometimes fear-inducing hype, said, “All of this makes people wonder if a super-intelligent AI is on the horizon and that robots are about to take over.” It’s making me uneasy,” he said.
“Well, what do you think? It’s all bullshit,” he added. “That fear is an illusion of tech buddies designed to distract you from the real risks of AI. You can be tricked into using worse versions of things, while stealing real people’s jobs to do it.”
Conover admits that he thinks predictive chatbots like ChatGPT are just glorified autocorrect machines.
But either agree with Conover that chatbots are basically just typewriter monkeys, or go to the other end of the spectrum, believing that humanity will eventually collapse while superhuman AI takes over the world. The hype cycle itself is real anyway, whether you realize it or not. After all, even companies without visible products are making millions of dollars just by whispering the word “AI.”
According to the comedian, when there’s a hype cycle, everyone wants a frenzy that has the power to turn terms like “AI” into investor-hungry marketing language, regardless of what it actually is.
“Artificial intelligence is a real area of computer science that has been studied for decades and has made great strides in recent years,” Konova said in the video. “But I’m not talking about that kind of AI. I’m talking about AI, the marketing term tech companies use to advertise their barely working products. Because the stock price can go up.”
“You see, tech companies are driven by hype. Making a profit is not enough,” he added. “No, in technology you have to be able to convince investors that you have cutting-edge, disruptive technology that can dominate an entire industry.”
Conover’s essays cover areas ranging from Tesla’s Autopilot to Microsoft’s Bing Chat. But again, whether you generally agree with his AI pessimism or consider yourself an AI optimist, the facts remain the same. It’s still a gold rush, mostly with negative side effects — a potential for the public and for the industry itself.
Experts are already sounding the alarm bells. Francios Chollet, one of the world’s most respected deep learning researchers, expressed particular concern about what the largely unfounded hype might ultimately mean for his field of AI. doing.
And while some people out there may have real gold in their hands, a lot of companies definitely put gold paint on pretty basic, less-than-earth-changing technology. It’s just hitting the .
In short, whether you’re an AI pessimist, an optimist, or somewhere in between, what exactly is being marketed and how groundbreaking it actually is? Or it’s a good time to be careful if it’s halfway cash. Grab it.
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