ChatGPT Is a Bullshit Generator Waging Class War(vice.com)
vice.com
ChatGPT Is a Bullshit Generator Waging Class War
https://www.vice.com/en/article/akex34/chatgpt-is-a-bullshit-generator-waging-class-war
6 comments
I think the article has some points (I wholly reject the heavy handed political shit in there) but agree with most of what you say. As with most Vice articles it's got a heavy slant to it. ChatGPT, and LLMs more broadly, are a semantic bullshit artist machine and while a lot of what he says is stretched, there are some core points that are being missed in the nascent enthusiasm for the rise of LLMs.
Shit, Ive already used chatgpt for a cover letters, its fantastic. I hate writing them, no one reads them but I dont want to leave it blank and I dont want it to be "bad"
I mean, it sang eulers formula in the voice of tupac just fine. it might be bullshit but I find this fascinating
It's a mathematical truth, e to the pi times i
A concept so profound, it could make angels cry
A number so simple, that Tupac can explain
The equation e to the pi times i, is negative one
or it can describe ada lovelaces contribution to computer science in the voice of the cookie monster
Cookie Monster here! Ada Lovelace was a visionary when it came to computer science. She had the very first ideas of how computers could be used to do specific tasks, instead of just crunching numbers like a calculator. She wrote instructions for the first computer, a special type of weaving machine, that would make the machine able to do a lot more than just weave fabric. Her instructions, called an algorithm, showed how the computer could be used to solve mathematical problems and, eventually, be used for a wide range of applications. With her pioneering work, she is credited with being the world's first computer programmer. So, if you're ever writing code, remember to thank Ada Lovelace! She's the one who made it all possible.
It's a mathematical truth, e to the pi times i
A concept so profound, it could make angels cry
A number so simple, that Tupac can explain
The equation e to the pi times i, is negative one
or it can describe ada lovelaces contribution to computer science in the voice of the cookie monster
Cookie Monster here! Ada Lovelace was a visionary when it came to computer science. She had the very first ideas of how computers could be used to do specific tasks, instead of just crunching numbers like a calculator. She wrote instructions for the first computer, a special type of weaving machine, that would make the machine able to do a lot more than just weave fabric. Her instructions, called an algorithm, showed how the computer could be used to solve mathematical problems and, eventually, be used for a wide range of applications. With her pioneering work, she is credited with being the world's first computer programmer. So, if you're ever writing code, remember to thank Ada Lovelace! She's the one who made it all possible.
the technology behind chatGPT is actually an inmediate threat to many jobs currently paying maybe billions today. If events unfold into the worst possible scenario, many internal processes currently in hands - literally - of humans working inside organizations, will probably be replaced by some chatGPT-like based auto-middleware, able to "translate" requests from one department to the rest of the deparments inside the organization, even external processes are in risk, just imagine you could replace almost all of the humans in charge of buying departments (the guys buying the coffe for the machine, the toilet paper, etc.).
Most of the automation hasn't been driven by trying "to save some money" but because now you can do some stuff in 5 hours, and with humans in the loop you do it in 5 days, hence the humans are showed the door as soon as possible, because the shareholders will for certainly demand to use any available technology to improve economic performance, or worst, if the very existence of the organizations depends on laying off as much people as you can replace with advanced chatGPT-like automation.
So beside the obvious cognitive bias of the author, there are some hard truths coming for us, everywhere.
Most of the automation hasn't been driven by trying "to save some money" but because now you can do some stuff in 5 hours, and with humans in the loop you do it in 5 days, hence the humans are showed the door as soon as possible, because the shareholders will for certainly demand to use any available technology to improve economic performance, or worst, if the very existence of the organizations depends on laying off as much people as you can replace with advanced chatGPT-like automation.
So beside the obvious cognitive bias of the author, there are some hard truths coming for us, everywhere.
His describes his publication perfectly
If the author were able to step back and drop the “everything the rich tech bros do is satanic” framing, he might see:
* ChatGPT only threatens white collar workers.
* Labor, retail, and other very hard working people who have been left behind by tech will soon have access to tools that are comparable or better than their management
* ChatGPT isn’t waging anything, nor is it racist/etc. It has some awful training data and huge investment is going into mitigating that. How is this not exactly what many of us want to see for society in general (we’ve heard terrible things, we don’t repeat them)?
* Within a couple of years, a resume, cover letter, future work product from marginalized and discriminated-against populations will be indistinguishable from those produced by historically privileged populations.
The author is so determined to hate chatgpt that he misses the fact that it is democratizing not just knowledge but presentation.