Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Brand Logo

agnos.is Forums

  1. Home
  2. Technology
  3. Majority of AI Researchers Say Tech Industry Is Pouring Billions Into a Dead End

Majority of AI Researchers Say Tech Industry Is Pouring Billions Into a Dead End

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Technology
technology
183 Posts 101 Posters 10 Views
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • T [email protected]

    If this is their way of making AI, with brute forcing the technology without innovation, AI will probably cost more for these companies to maintain infrastructure than just hiring people. These AI companies are already not making a lot of money for how much they cost to maintain. And unless they charge companies millions of dollars just to be able to use their services they will never make a profit. And since companies are trying to use AI to replace the millions they spend on employees it seems kinda pointless if they aren't willing to prioritize efficiency.

    It's basically the same argument they have with people. They don't wanna treat people like actual humans because it costs too much, yet letting them love happy lives makes them more efficient workers. Whereas now they don't want to spend money to make AI more efficient, yet increasing efficiency would make them less expensive to run. It's the never ending cycle of cutting corners only to eventually make less money than you would have if you did things the right way.

    Z This user is from outside of this forum
    Z This user is from outside of this forum
    [email protected]
    wrote on last edited by
    #46

    The oligarchs running these companies have suffered a psychotic break. What the cause exactly is I don't know, but the game theyre playing is a lot less about profits now. They care about control and power over people.

    I theorize it has to do with desperation over what they see as an inevitable collapse of the United States and they are hedging their bets on holding onto the reigns of power for as long as possible until they can fuck off to their respective bunkers while the rest of humanity eats itself.

    Then, when things settle they can peak their heads out of their hidie holes and start their new Utopian civilization or whatever.

    Whatever's going on, profits are not the focus right now. They are grasping at ways to control the masses...and failing pretty miserably I might add...though something tells me that scarcely matters to them.

    N 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • N [email protected]

      Yeah but its like....pretty half baked

      P This user is from outside of this forum
      P This user is from outside of this forum
      [email protected]
      wrote on last edited by
      #47

      No, it's just not something exposed to you to see

      But under the hood it very much does shift gears depending on what you ask it to do

      It's why gpt can do stuff now like analyze contents of images, basic OCR, but also generate images too.

      Yet it can also do math, talk about biology, give relationship advice....

      I believe open AI called the term "specialists" or something vaguely like that, at the time.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • P [email protected]

        Meanwhile a huge chunk of the software industry is now heavily using this "dead end" technology πŸ‘€

        I work in a pretty massive tech company (think, the type that frequently acquires other smaller ones and absorbs them)

        Everyone I know here is using it. A lot.

        However my company also has tonnes of dedicated sessions and paid time to instruct it's employees on how to use it well, and to get good value out of it, abd the pitfalls it can have

        So yeah turns out if you teach your employees how to use a tool, they start using it.

        I'd say LLMs have made me about 3x as efficient or so at my job.

        A This user is from outside of this forum
        A This user is from outside of this forum
        [email protected]
        wrote on last edited by
        #48

        It's not that LLMs aren't useful as they are. The problem is that they won't stay as they are today, because they are too expensive.
        There are two ways for this to go (or an eventual combination of both:

        • Investors believe LLMs are going to get better and they keep pouring money into "AI" companies, allowing them to operate at a loss for longer That's tied to the promise of an actual "intelligence" emerging out of a statistical model.

        • Investments stop pouring in, the bubble bursts and companies need to make money out of LLMs in their current state. To do that, they need to massively cut costs and monetize. I believe that's called enshttificarion.

        A P 2 Replies Last reply
        0
        • A [email protected]

          It's not that LLMs aren't useful as they are. The problem is that they won't stay as they are today, because they are too expensive.
          There are two ways for this to go (or an eventual combination of both:

          • Investors believe LLMs are going to get better and they keep pouring money into "AI" companies, allowing them to operate at a loss for longer That's tied to the promise of an actual "intelligence" emerging out of a statistical model.

          • Investments stop pouring in, the bubble bursts and companies need to make money out of LLMs in their current state. To do that, they need to massively cut costs and monetize. I believe that's called enshttificarion.

          A This user is from outside of this forum
          A This user is from outside of this forum
          [email protected]
          wrote on last edited by
          #49

          It's not that LLMs aren't useful as they are. The problem is that they won't stay as they are today, because they are massively expensive.
          There are two ways for this to go (or an eventual combination of both):

          • Investors believe LLMs are going to get better and they keep pouring money into "AI" companies, allowing them to operate at a loss for longer That's tied to the promise of an actual "intelligence" emerging out of a statistical model.

          • Investments stop pouring in, the bubble bursts and companies need to make money out of LLMs in their current state. To do that, they need to massively cut costs and monetize. I believe that's called enshttificarion.

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • A [email protected]

            It's not that LLMs aren't useful as they are. The problem is that they won't stay as they are today, because they are too expensive.
            There are two ways for this to go (or an eventual combination of both:

            • Investors believe LLMs are going to get better and they keep pouring money into "AI" companies, allowing them to operate at a loss for longer That's tied to the promise of an actual "intelligence" emerging out of a statistical model.

            • Investments stop pouring in, the bubble bursts and companies need to make money out of LLMs in their current state. To do that, they need to massively cut costs and monetize. I believe that's called enshttificarion.

            P This user is from outside of this forum
            P This user is from outside of this forum
            [email protected]
            wrote on last edited by
            #50

            You skipped possibility 3, which is actively happening ing:

            Advancements in tech enable us to produce results at a much much cheaper cost

            Which us happening with diffusion style LLMs that simultaneously cost less to train, cost less to run, but also produce both faster abd better quality outputs.

            That's a big part people forget about AI: it's a feedback loop of improvement as soon as you can start using AI to develop AI

            And we are past that mark now, most developers have easy access to AI as a tool to improve their performance, and AI is made by... software developers

            So you get this loop where as we make better and better AIs, we get better and better at making AIs with the AIs...

            It's incredibly likely the new diffusion AI systems were built with AI assisting in the process, enabling them to make a whole new tech innovation much faster and easier.

            We are now in the uptick of the singularity, and have been for about a year now.

            Same goes for hardware, it's very likely now that mvidia has AI incorporating into their production process, using it for micro optimizations in its architectures and designs.

            And then those same optimized gpus turn around and get used to train and run even better AIs...

            In 5-10 years we will look back on 2024 as the start of a very wild ride.

            Remember we are just now in the "computers that take up entire warehouses" step of the tech.

            Remember that in the 80s, a "computer" cost a fortune, took tonnes of resources, multiple people to run it, took up an entire room, was slow as hell, and could only do basic stuff.

            But now 40 years later they fit in our pockets and are (non hyoerbole) billions of times faster.

            I think by 2035 we will be looking at AI as something mass produced for consumers to just go in their homes, you go to best buy and compare different AI boxes to pick which one you are gonna get for your home.

            We are still at the stage of people in the 80s looking at computers and pondering "why would someone even need to use this, why would someone put one in their house, let alone their pocket"

            gradually_adjusting@lemmy.worldG A 2 Replies Last reply
            0
            • spankmonkey@lemmy.worldS [email protected]

              Your product is other people's work thrown in a blender.

              Congrats.

              P This user is from outside of this forum
              P This user is from outside of this forum
              [email protected]
              wrote on last edited by
              #51

              Wait til you realize that's just what art literally is...

              L 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.deM [email protected]

                trust me bro, we're almost there, we just need another data center and a few billions, it's coming i promise, we are testing incredible things internally, can't wait to show you!

                P This user is from outside of this forum
                P This user is from outside of this forum
                [email protected]
                wrote on last edited by
                #52

                We are having massive exponential increases in output with all sorts of innovations, every few weeks another big step forward happens

                https://youtu.be/d4tMzagjXrI

                L 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • cm0002@lemmy.worldC [email protected]
                  This post did not contain any content.
                  L This user is from outside of this forum
                  L This user is from outside of this forum
                  [email protected]
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #53

                  Me and my 5.000 closest friends don't like that the website and their 1.300 partners all need my data.

                  speculater@lemmy.worldS 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • T [email protected]

                    As an experienced software dev I'm convinced my software quality has improved by using AI. More time for thinking and less time for execution means I can make more iterations of the design and don't have to skip as many nice-to-haves or unit tests on account of limited time. It's not like I don't go through every code line multiple times anyway, I don't just blindly accept code. As a bonus I can ask the AI to review the code and produce documentation. By the time I'm done there's little left of what was originally generated.

                    _cnt0@sh.itjust.works_ This user is from outside of this forum
                    _cnt0@sh.itjust.works_ This user is from outside of this forum
                    [email protected]
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #54

                    As an experienced software dev I'm convinced my software quality has improved by using AI.

                    Then your software quality was extreme shit before. It's still shit, but an improvement. So, yay "AI", I guess?

                    T 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • P [email protected]

                      You skipped possibility 3, which is actively happening ing:

                      Advancements in tech enable us to produce results at a much much cheaper cost

                      Which us happening with diffusion style LLMs that simultaneously cost less to train, cost less to run, but also produce both faster abd better quality outputs.

                      That's a big part people forget about AI: it's a feedback loop of improvement as soon as you can start using AI to develop AI

                      And we are past that mark now, most developers have easy access to AI as a tool to improve their performance, and AI is made by... software developers

                      So you get this loop where as we make better and better AIs, we get better and better at making AIs with the AIs...

                      It's incredibly likely the new diffusion AI systems were built with AI assisting in the process, enabling them to make a whole new tech innovation much faster and easier.

                      We are now in the uptick of the singularity, and have been for about a year now.

                      Same goes for hardware, it's very likely now that mvidia has AI incorporating into their production process, using it for micro optimizations in its architectures and designs.

                      And then those same optimized gpus turn around and get used to train and run even better AIs...

                      In 5-10 years we will look back on 2024 as the start of a very wild ride.

                      Remember we are just now in the "computers that take up entire warehouses" step of the tech.

                      Remember that in the 80s, a "computer" cost a fortune, took tonnes of resources, multiple people to run it, took up an entire room, was slow as hell, and could only do basic stuff.

                      But now 40 years later they fit in our pockets and are (non hyoerbole) billions of times faster.

                      I think by 2035 we will be looking at AI as something mass produced for consumers to just go in their homes, you go to best buy and compare different AI boxes to pick which one you are gonna get for your home.

                      We are still at the stage of people in the 80s looking at computers and pondering "why would someone even need to use this, why would someone put one in their house, let alone their pocket"

                      gradually_adjusting@lemmy.worldG This user is from outside of this forum
                      gradually_adjusting@lemmy.worldG This user is from outside of this forum
                      [email protected]
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #55

                      I remember having this optimism around tech in my late twenties.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • C [email protected]

                        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth's_law

                        B This user is from outside of this forum
                        B This user is from outside of this forum
                        [email protected]
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #56

                        TIL

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • snotflickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneS [email protected]

                          I mean it's pretty clear they're desperate to cut human workers out of the picture so they don't have to pay employees that need things like emotional support, food, and sleep.

                          They want a workslave that never demands better conditions, that's it. That's the play. Period.

                          C This user is from outside of this forum
                          C This user is from outside of this forum
                          [email protected]
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #57

                          And the tragedy of the whole situation is that they canβ€˜t win because if every worker is replaced by an algorithm or a robot then whoβ€˜s going to buy your products? Nobody has money because nobody has a job. And so the economy will shift to producing war machines that fight each other for territory to build more war machine factories until you can’t expand anymore for one reason or another. Then the entire system will collapse like the Roman Empire and we start from scratch.

                          T H 2 Replies Last reply
                          0
                          • L [email protected]

                            Me and my 5.000 closest friends don't like that the website and their 1.300 partners all need my data.

                            speculater@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
                            speculater@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
                            [email protected]
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #58

                            Why do many sig figs for 5 and 1.3 though?

                            squeakybeaver@lemmy.blahaj.zoneS 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • P [email protected]

                              Thing is, same as with GHz, you have to do it as much as you can until the gains get too small. You do that, then you move on to the next optimization. Like ai has and is now optimizing test time compute, token quality, and other areas.

                              speculater@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
                              speculater@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
                              [email protected]
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #59

                              To be fair, GHz did go up. Granted, it's not why modern processors are faster and more efficient.

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • cm0002@lemmy.worldC [email protected]
                                This post did not contain any content.
                                L This user is from outside of this forum
                                L This user is from outside of this forum
                                [email protected]
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #60

                                It's because customers don't want it or care for it, it's only the corporations themselves are obsessed with it

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • cm0002@lemmy.worldC [email protected]
                                  This post did not contain any content.
                                  N This user is from outside of this forum
                                  N This user is from outside of this forum
                                  [email protected]
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #61

                                  The actual survey result:

                                  Asked whether "scaling up" current AI approaches could lead to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), or a general purpose AI that matches or surpasses human cognition, an overwhelming 76 percent of respondents said it was "unlikely" or "very unlikely" to succeed.

                                  So they're not saying the entire industry is a dead end, or even that the newest phase is. They're just saying they don't think this current technology will make AGI when scaled. I think most people agree, including the investors pouring billions into this. They arent betting this will turn to agi, they're betting that they have some application for the current ai. Are some of those applications dead ends, most definitely, are some of them revolutionary, maybe

                                  Thus would be like asking a researcher in the 90s that if they scaled up the bandwidth and computing power of the average internet user would we see a vastly connected media sharing network, they'd probably say no. It took more than a decade of software, cultural and societal development to discover the applications for the internet.

                                  S C P 1 F 5 Replies Last reply
                                  0
                                  • P [email protected]

                                    Meanwhile a huge chunk of the software industry is now heavily using this "dead end" technology πŸ‘€

                                    I work in a pretty massive tech company (think, the type that frequently acquires other smaller ones and absorbs them)

                                    Everyone I know here is using it. A lot.

                                    However my company also has tonnes of dedicated sessions and paid time to instruct it's employees on how to use it well, and to get good value out of it, abd the pitfalls it can have

                                    So yeah turns out if you teach your employees how to use a tool, they start using it.

                                    I'd say LLMs have made me about 3x as efficient or so at my job.

                                    speculater@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
                                    speculater@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
                                    [email protected]
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #62

                                    I think the human in the loop currently needs to know what the LLM produced or checked, but they'll get better.

                                    P 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • speculater@lemmy.worldS [email protected]

                                      Why do many sig figs for 5 and 1.3 though?

                                      squeakybeaver@lemmy.blahaj.zoneS This user is from outside of this forum
                                      squeakybeaver@lemmy.blahaj.zoneS This user is from outside of this forum
                                      [email protected]
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #63

                                      Some parts of the world (mostly Europe, I think) use dots instead of commas for displaying thousands. For example, 5.000 is 5,000 and 1.300 is 1,300

                                      speculater@lemmy.worldS D V L 4 Replies Last reply
                                      0
                                      • P [email protected]

                                        Wait til you realize that's just what art literally is...

                                        L This user is from outside of this forum
                                        L This user is from outside of this forum
                                        [email protected]
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #64

                                        You're confusing ai art with actual art, like rendered from illustration and paintings

                                        D 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • cm0002@lemmy.worldC [email protected]
                                          This post did not contain any content.
                                          A This user is from outside of this forum
                                          A This user is from outside of this forum
                                          [email protected]
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #65

                                          The cope on this site is so bad sometimes. AI is already revolutionary.

                                          T C 2 Replies Last reply
                                          0
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Recent
                                          • Tags
                                          • Popular
                                          • World
                                          • Users
                                          • Groups