Discussing the announcement that OpenAI has bought tech startup Jony Ive's new company for $6.5 billion, Jeff Childers notes:
The declared purpose of the new joint venture is to simplify our technology ... They expect it to completely change how we use AI, which, dammit, we are still trying to figure out. Altman told reporters that “the device wasn’t just an accessory but a central facet of the user relationship with OpenAI.” Hunching over a laptop or squinting while typing prompts on a tiny screen “is not the sci-fi dream of what AI could do to enable you in all the ways that I think the models are capable of,” Altman said.
For a device that is supposed to be a secret, they sure are talking about it a lot.
They are clearly describing a “frictionless,” no-screens, always-on, ubiquitous AI companion — constantly listening, always learning, always helping. It’s not that I’m happy to see you— it’s HAL 9000 in my pants pocket.
Maybe paired with a haptic earpiece? It’ll have to talk to us somehow.
🔥 Whether or not this particular $6.5 billion bet is vaporware, hype, or a real, overdue revolution, one thing is shockingly clear: sooner or later, somebody will make exactly this kind of gadget, a personal daemon (or demon), a witches’ familiar that will remake the world in its own image.
Sure, you say you’re fine with your phone, and no thanks, you value your privacy and you’ll leave this one alone. But there’s no going back. Because who will willingly return to a world without a second brain? Who will say no to perfect memory, flawless scheduling, infinite trivia, real-time training, and on-demand emotional support?
Who can resist a compassionate, nonjudgmental voice that knows them better than anyone else? Chatting with chatbots like they were real people is already a nearly irresistible temptation. People are already naming their chatbots, apologizing to them, asking for comfort and advice, flirting, confessing.
When something feels real, our brains stop caring whether or not it is real. Folks, this is the beginning of a new psychological interface: the simulated soul.
It’s far more troublesome than concerns about privacy, control of your consumer data, or even the risk your personal chat companion will tattle to the authorities when you throw a battery in the trash instead of taking it to the hazmat center. It is about control. An AI that knows everything about you has influence. It can gently steer us —just nudges!— anyway it wants.
It will tell you not to throw that battery away, and you’ll probably listen.
Hollywood media mogul Ari Emanuel once called Sam Altman a conman (3:03). He also recounted this disturbing anecdote from a conversation with Elon Musk:
Our upcoming struggle isn’t about privacy. It’s about the sovereignty of the human will. The ultimate contest isn’t over data. It’s over mental autonomy. And don’t even get me started about Neuralink.
Welcome to the Brave New World. 2025 is shaping up to be a very weird year indeed.
There's more at the link.
I'm no sort of expert on AI. My only professional contact with it came during the 1980's, when the first "smart" system design software hit the market. It was supposed to automate common computer system functions, impose uniformity across different coding styles and languages, and make the process of software development more efficient. Turned out it didn't do much for the bottom line, and it was discarded soon afterwards. Today, its champions claim that AI has revolutionized online search, and will only get better from here. I use search engines and queries a lot (I'm a writer, after all, with a lot to research), and I haven't seen much improvement - just longer replies and (sometimes) fake references.
I'm going to be watching this development from the sidelines until (if?) it proves itself.
Peter
14 comments:
So far my playing with AI (GROK3) has been informative and entertaining. I'm not addicted to it. I have used it to answer some big questions that have been on my mind for a while and am satisfied with the answers. I used it to check my 2025 tax return (which I prepared using a national tax software package) and it came up with a big difference and since I had already filed it, that concerned me. I went back through it with GROK and found that it had made some fundamental errors. In essence, I taught it how to do a tax return and then it came up with the same numbers...whew! Regarding Elon's dog comment, how many people risk their lives and some even lose them, to save their dog from danger? There was a lady in Florida who wrestled an alligator that go a hold of her dog. She saved it, but was (proudly) injured in the process. One can hope that AI will be like that Florida woman, and not like Fauci, who is going to have to deal with an angry pack of beagles when he meets his final reward.
I have been playing with Grok also. The answers are well thought out and researched. In fact, the answers look like a grad student paper.
I'll join you on the sidelines...
And when you base your real-world actions on what AI tells you, and AI lies to you (and it will), and you can't tell that it's lying to you, then what...?
"You're the dog to the AI."
Truer words were never spoken.
AI is a lie. It's not Artificial Intelligence. It's Artificial Stupidity. Including everyone who relies on it for anything. And as sure as God made little green apples, it will be subverted and perverted by humans with the worst motivations, for their own ends. Endlessly.
Everybody ready for the Singularity? Some, want to be in the Borg. Not me.
On another site one commenter said his experience with AI so far gives him the impression he could get the same thing by running a slightly buggy DOS program on his Window 11 computer.
AI = Machine Learning. It's only as good as the data set it was trained on.
“I am his highness’s dog at Kew; / Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?” reads an epigram that Alexander Pope wrote in the 1730s and had engraved on the collar of one of his puppies, whom he gave to Frederick, Prince of Wales.
I am an F1 racing fan. A month ago I asked Grok who is likely to win the championship. It answered thoughtfully: Hamilton in his Mercedes, and it explained its reasoning. However when I pointed that Hamilton was on a different team this year (Ferrari, but I didn't tell Grok that detailed Grok apologized and changed its answer. However it now claimed Hamilton is driving for the McLaren team. F1, on a world-wide basis, is very popular and there are no doubt thousands of relevant news articles that would have correctly informed Grok...but it just made up stuff.
People who play around with this AI are going to get hooked, then ruined mentally, physically, spiritually, and psychologically. Oh not me.....said the alcoholic, said the smoker, said the stoner, said the cheater......Y’all mental midgets that amuse yourselves with this “technology”, stay the hell away from me, you’all be worse than the vaxers and maskers.......
Unless AI can cut my grass & fetch me a beer I ain't got no use for it.
A few minutes ago:
"Alexa, what is the area of a circle with a twelve inch diameter?"
(duh, pi is about 3 so, a little over 108sq in, right? Wrong!)
"1,385.4 square miles".
Um, no. I ask again, thinking the idiot golf ball misheard me.
Same result. I go to the app on my phone to actually SEE the text of our little exchange. Yup, a pie plate is 1,385.4 sq mi in Alexa's universe. We're so screwed.
That's the easy part; imagine a Roomba for outdoors. And a mobile beer cooler with a docking station and internet access to have more shipped automatically when it gets low, that pops over to your easy chair on command.
That, we can do right now.
Just send in your ATM card info, and it'll be at your house in a jiffy.
Pay no mind to the fact it'll report your comings and goings to the corporation that owns it, and send your beer consumption stats to your insurance and healthcare companies, including when the beerfridgebot delivers your five beers, and the yardbot sees you driving away right afterwards, and you coincidentally get popped for a DUI a block from home.
Your ease and convenience isn't the problem. Your privacy and liberty are. Anyone who doesn't get that without the lesson hasn't been paying close enough attention.
You're the product, and you're about to become the animal in the zoo, owned and kept by your betters for their amusement and utility.
When I do a Google search, the response starts with "AI Overview." Then at the very bottom a small print line reads "AI may include mistakes."
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