Daniel Goldman: If I gave someone a TI-89, who had never seen or head of it, they'd probably find it useless. It takes a lot of time to learn how to use these tools.

About halfway through, Ed hits on a point that I've been hammering on since the AI boom started: why should anyone care about this? There is no reason for the average consumer to adopt this technology.

Was awesome to join @adamconover.bsky.social on the Factually show to talk about the AI bubble and the general state of the tech industry. youtu.be/T8ByoAt5gCA?... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

The A.I. Bubble is Bursting with Ed Zitronyoutu.be Big tech is betting tens of billions of dollars on AI being the next big thing, but what if it isn't? ChatGPT burns obscene amounts of cash daily with little return, Google's AI dispenses useless and sometimes dangerous advice, and a recent study showed that tech companies will soon run out of new training data to improve their AI models. If AI is really so costly, unreliable, and limited, what happens to the industry that has bet so big on it? This week, Adam talks with journalist and influential tech critic Ed Zitron of wheresyoured.at to discuss the impending burst of the AI bubble, the hubris of Silicon Valley, and how we suffer under big tech's "Rot Economy." SUPPORT THE SHOW ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/adamconover SEE ADAM ON TOUR: https://www.adamconover.net/tourdates/ SUBSCRIBE to and RATE Factually! on: » Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/factually-with-adam-conover/id1463460577 » Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0fK8WJw4ffMc2NWydBlDyJ About Headgum: Headgum is an LA & NY-based podcast network creating premium podcasts with the funniest, most engaging voices in comedy to achieve one goal: Making our audience and ourselves laugh. Listen to our shows at https://www.headgum.com. » SUBSCRIBE to Headgum: https://www.youtube.com/c/HeadGum?sub_confirmation=1 » FOLLOW us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/headgum » FOLLOW us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/headgum/ » FOLLOW us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@headgum » Advertise on Factually! via Gumball.fm

And, like. I'm not a tech guy. But I *am* in marketing and it is super clear that marketers have NO IDEA how to promote this technology to and average user.

The bulk of AI curious people I know made dumb photos for a day and tried to use Chat GPT for something they wrote once and they recognized it wasn’t good. And they haven’t been back - even before they knew it was also terrible for energy use.

If I gave someone a TI-89, who had never seen or head of it, they'd probably find it useless. It takes a lot of time to learn how to use these tools.

Insisting AI has a use you can't describe doesn't help the case for AI

You're totally right there! However, I did describe use cases.

Even the best assistive tools usually have a learning curve. They're useful for a lot of things, for me, including reducing the number of steps to complete certain tasks, improved ideation, translation into "neurotypical" and more.

These aren't examples that show anything. "Reduce tasks" is so vague to be worthless.

Which exactly goes to my original point! There is no one who can tell me why I should use it.

maybe for a bluntstone like you but I learned what numbers and symbols mean in the 1st grade

I doubt you can even reasonably define what a number is. As soon as you do, I'd be able to shoot it down by giving plenty of examples of what mathematicians consider numbers. But go ahead. Feel free to try.

something I hate about tech is that it gives overinflated mouth breathers like you the confidence to be condescending, when before then if someone was so dumb they couldn’t use a calculator they’d be too ashamed to admit that. you shouldn’t be trusted with tasks beyond making simple stews and gruel.

you really do sound like a self-important twat

Oh, you gonna tell us your IQ next?

i think you could give a ti-89 to a 17th century monk he’d be doing arithmetic in 5 minutes

If you gave a 17th century monk a TI-89, not only would they have no clue what to do with it, but they'd likely consider you a witch and have you burned.

Well, are we talking Eastern or Occidental?

open a book some time, man

But what problems are they solving for the average person? If they are so complicated, maybe they shouldn’t be mass marketed. Especially since they are a waste of energy for things basic web searches can do.

Even the best assistive tools usually have a learning curve. They're useful for a lot of things, for me, including reducing the number of steps to complete certain tasks, improved ideation, translation into "neurotypical" and more.

> Especially since they are a waste of energy for things basic web searches can do. And web searches can waste energy for tasks where a web search isn't needed.

I think you missed the main point. It's not just about AI's complexity and learning curve but its relevance to average consumers. Many find AI interesting but unnecessary for daily use, which makes it hard to market. Which it seems they skipped the marketing phase and just expect everyone to jump on

Don't get me started on forcing AI into users' lives (looking at you, Microsoft), where opting out is difficult and data collection is rampant. Even if you opt out, the next Windows update might quietly re-enable it without users knowing.

In essence, it's not just about learning how to use AI tools—it's about making them relevant and valuable to the average person. If these tools don't address a clear need or provide a significant advantage over existing solutions, they will remain niche rather than mainstream.

So, if you use Google translate, you're using AI, and indeed these days transformers or partial transformer architecture. You're speaking on a topic with the confidence of someone who understands the topic in detail, but you do not.

Using Google Translate is indeed using AI. Even so, only 9% of the world's internet users use Google Translate, so it's not as widely adopted as people think. The point is still about the lack of marketing the applicability to the average consumer.

beyond vague bullshit what does it do

Aside from taking my chaotic mess of thoughts and limited executive functioning and allows me to function much closer to a neurotypical individual?

that doesn’t seem to be working out here seeing as you come across as a total moron and loser

Or you're simply obstinate. Do you think you would be able to convince a MAGA to stop voting for Trump just because you're decent at communicating?

also, the average person finds the ti-89 useless not because of complexity but because they have no use for it. conflating the two ideas of uselessness (can't comprehend/don't fuckin' need) muddies the waters.

If you cannot find a purpose for a useful tool, then odds are you do not know how to use the tool.

or the task the tool is meant for is one encountered infrequently by the average person. for example, i routinely use a meat hook, a very simple tool, that the average person would find useless because specialization means one person good with a hook frees up hundreds to practice something else.

I wouldn't necessarily use it often, but if I want to hang a duck in the fridge or something, it's useful there. I don't have to a butcher.

this is not what a meat hook is for.

Wut. There are tons of useful tools in this world that are not useful to me. It’s not about knowing how to use a circular saw, it’s about the fact that mass marketing is unnecessary for most tools.

Also some tools might be helpful, and also i know how to use them, and still they are not a good tool because of the impacts of their use.

GPTs do not cost that much to use. They cost a lot to TRAIN. And these models are large scale infrastructure level models. Building public infrastructure is resource intensive.

Mass marketing is necessary for almost every product that is useful to a wide population.

And do you know how to use a circular saw?

I can do basically every function a ti-89 can on my phone, and the few my phone can't handle well a spreadsheet program on my computer can The entire purpose of a TI-89 is to wring money from parents

And, as I pointed out elsewhere, there is absolutely no one pushing for mass adoption of graphing calculators. I don't have one, I don't need one, I'm not being marketed to.

Not pro MaLIG* or LLM in general, but there are some niche applications for them if you do the opposite of what OpenAI and other hypergeneralist firms do with them and strictly control what data goes in.

That’s the thing. I’m not arguing that AI as a whole is useless. I’m saying that there are specific and more technical ways that it can be used - and it shouldn’t be marketed widely or expected to have huge use, especially at the expense of energy resources.

No yeah, absolutely. It's probably going to find most of its uses in specific niches, not these dumbass Google Image Smoosh Machines.

Yeah, the problem is that 1) we've all heard of AI and 2) a calculator actually has an applicable use. Also there's no reason for the general public to use a graphing calculator, either.

Hell, I haven't even seen a graphing calculator out in the wild since I left school and there's absolutely no one out there pushing me to invest in one.

Also Desmos is free online and has a free app so even if you needed to graph an equation, you don’t need to pay a grossly inflated price to Texas Instruments anymore.

Oh hey, now THIS is useful.

LLMs can't even count the number of letters in a word reliably

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