@troed 👍 Good point. Borders are definitely a challenge in thinking about how all this will play out.
Tagged: Akkoma
@troed
I'll readily admit I'm drawn to the dystopian… and when I said inhabitable in this context I tend to mean more of a situation where everyday life is affected in ways that force us to significantly change how we live our lives, obtain food and manage energy sources – making debates about the advancement of generative AI inconsequential, especially given how it adds to the decay.
Here is one essay that advanced my concerns:
https://medium.com/@samyoureyes/the-busy-workers-handbook-to-the-apocalypse-7790666afde7
While I don't buy into the complete underlying narrative, I take to heart a great deal of its systems thinking, with a critical focus on the fragility of how we obtain our food. 😬
Honestly, when people start talking about what AI will be in 20 years my concern is really whether or not we will even have an inhabitable* world by then.
I've been reading way too much (not possible but you know what I mean) on the climate crisis over the past week and if I've been talking about an AI bubble that will burst then the climate crisis awakening terrifies me so much more.
My patience for magical thinking is reaching its limits.
*Footnote: Adding this as a I was called out and realised and admit this was a poor choice of words. When I said inhabitable in this context I really meant more of a situation where everyday life is affected in ways that force us to significantly change how we live our lives, obtain food and manage energy sources – making debates about the advancement of generative AI inconsequential, especially given how it adds to the decay.
“The computer programmer is a creator of universes for which he alone is the lawgiver. No playwright, no stage director, no emperor, however powerful, has ever exercised such absolute authority to arrange a stage or field of battle and to command such unswervingly dutiful actors or troops.”
― Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation (1976)
@Aubrie Done. Thank you for the feedback. 🙏
@kmdk Thank you Karen 🙏
@salixsericea
Love that analogy / thought experiment! Thank you! 😅
@jamesravey
We are at a stage in human history where huge trust is placed in statistical machines, that are unpredictable and easily manipulated, for important business – and personal – decisions.
Blown away when people respond to screenshots of failed responses with screenshots of successful responses, as if the tool has "learned" the correct response.
As if it can't just as easily provide an incorrect response again.
It's unsettling to me that people don't understand how the tools work, yet decide to trust them because the language reminds them of their own language.
When this bubble bursts it will be very painful for a great many people, in many different ways.
@kcarruthers Very much so. I think perhaps he has been problematic the whole time, but some of it was 'forgiven' in the beginning, due to worship of some design ideas at the time.
@aral Thanks. Means a lot. 🙏
@tante Thank you tante! 🙏
@aral Thank you Aral! Sorry I was just too late seeing this. Got a few proofreaders and I just published and sent it... 😊
https://axbom.com/nielsen-generative-ui-failure/
Okay, here is my take on Nielsen's latest post.
"Accessibility has failed as a way to make computers usable for disabled users." Thus begins a newsletter by Jakob Nielsen. And had it not been written by someone a great many people take seriously in the UX industry I likely would just have dismissed it. But seeing how harmful I consider the post to potentially be, I would like to nip this in the bud. My reflection is that the published post is misleading, self-contradictory and underhanded. I'll walk you through the whole of it and provide my commentary and reasoning. 👇
https://axbom.com/nielsen-generative-ui-failure/
#accessibility #a11y #ux
If you appreciated my walkthrough of "generative UI" by Jakob Nielsen, you may also want to read about his fixation on IQ:
https://axbom.com/jakob-nielsen-quotes-about-iq/
@fasterandworse Haha, I'll wait at least an hour as I always do when I've been especially angry while writing.
Reading Jakob Nielsen is not good for my blood pressure. But someone sent me this absurd content, it needs a response and I feel compelled to write. That's the rest of the day sorted.
No I won't even link to his post.
#a11y #accessibility
If anyone in the #accessibility space (or #ux in general) would be interested in reading my draft post commenting on Jakob Nielsen's "generative UI" to resolve accessibility,I'd be happy to send a link in DM. I need a confidence boost before publishing, I guess...
@mrundkvist Excellent point.
Remember, 'hallucination' describes how generative AI works all the time. It's not a description of a deviation. Generative AI has no correctness gauge.
People used to roll their eyes at individuals on the street carrying signs saying ”The end is near”.
Now when the billionaires are carrying those same signs, people just want to throw more money at them.
The gravitational pull of wealth attracting more wealth is so very strong.
Anyway, was just reading about Zuck’s new bunker on Hawaii.
@Mer__edith @camillefrancois
This conversation is just amazing. So clear, obvious, and with quotable nuggets every two minutes. The clarity with which you express yourselves is inspirational and encouraging.
”Dig where you stand”. Thank you.