What is AI good for?
blundervalley.ca
We all know that AI systems use a lot of energy and resources. But what for? What are these systems good at, exactly? To answer that, let's a look at how AI is being used today. And as a bonus, we'll also take a look at why Kevin O'Leary likes AI.
    • utopiah@lemmy.ml
      2·
      1 day ago

      Arguable… it’s OKish at best, definitely nowhere near as good as professional… then IMHO it’s like spotting a spelling mistake in an official document, you instantly look for MORE mistakes then it become distracting. There is something powerful about trust that once it’s broken, it’s hard to get back. Once a spelling or here transcription mistake happens, then we brace for more (rationally so) and it becomes a very taxing endeavor.

      So… sure STT progressed quite a bit but it’s STILL not good enough in a lot of cases.

      Case in point, IMHO when there is a choice, most people (everybody?) would rather have human made captions than AI ones.

      • RiQuY@lemm.ee
        3·
        1 day ago

        So for example if I want to add closed captions to my Twitch streams there is no way that I go pay a person to transcribe/translate the shit I’m saying for 3 hours everyday. Maybe this is a weird example but it fits my needs.

        • utopiah@lemmy.ml
          1·
          23 hours ago

          Not a weird example. I have my self hosted video server (PeerTube) and I tinkered with transcription thanks to whisper.cpp locally. It “works” in the sense that most of it is acceptable. It still does mistake though. I provide all my content, including hosting, at my costs and to anyone in the World for free.

          So… I definitely see the value. I’m only saying that it has downsides and quality-wise relative to professional, it’s still bad.

        • utopiah@lemmy.ml
          2·
          23 hours ago

          Indeed, professionals are expensive, and IMHO rightfully so. I’m only trying to highlight the fact that it’s unfair to imply it’s much cheaper when the quality isn’t on par.

  • dinckel@lemmy.world
    71·
    2 days ago

    There are plenty of uses for machine learning, that are genuinely helpful and useful, but the way people shove generative AI, and surveillance down everyone’s throat needs to stop

    • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
      31·
      2 days ago

      I find it’s great for doing all the piddly day-to-day crap that I don’t want to put much brain power into, like writing cover letters and emailing the bank or whatever.

      I think as long as it’s used sparingly it can free you up to do stuff you’d rather be doing, but IMO where people go wrong is when they use it to do the stuff they want to be doing as well.

  • WasPentalive@lemmy.oneEnglish
    24·
    2 days ago

    What is AI good for - Images that are suitable for screen backgrounds, Creative text work - I had chatgpt work with me on a procedure to un-mothball a starship, it suggested details I did not think of. I had chatgpt also read and suggest re-wording and correction on text for documentation. I fed it a chapter at a time and proofread the output carefully to mitigate hallucination.

    Here is the text above after a chatgpt re-write:

    AI excels at creating stunning screen backgrounds and tackling creative text work. For example, I worked with ChatGPT to craft a procedure for un-mothballing a starship, and it offered valuable details I hadn’t considered. It’s also a fantastic tool for refining documentation—I had it review and reword chapters, carefully proofreading to ensure accuracy. The results were efficient, insightful, and elevated the final product.

      • smallpatatas@lemm.eeOP
        5·
        2 days ago

        Yeah out of many changes that distorted or outright altered meaning, one of the worst bits was that the second version eliminated the crucial first few words - which acknowledged the original post and therefore set a particular tone.

        Communication is way more complex than statistical relationships between words, and I sincerely doubt that any of these systems will ever be able to fully mimic that complexity

    • WasPentalive@lemmy.oneEnglish
      21·
      2 days ago

      However, in the art arena AI is frustrating when you need a very specific image and not just a ‘a tree a dog a bird and a farmhouse’ AI art is getting better with text in the image but still makes some mistakes there. AI does poorly when you try to use it as a search engine : “What movie had a ball shaped robot” might bring back any answer. Warning though - AI is getting better at hands and spurious limbs.