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There’s vast divergence of opinion on how useful AI systems, particularly LLMs (Large Language Models), are for our society. Some claim they bring us a massive leap forward and are completely worth all the money and energy being put into them. Others see them as incremental improvements (or worse) that are massively overhyped and over-invested in.
Personally, you can put me more in the latter camp. Ten years ago, you could Google something and find a good source to answer your question. Now, people Google something and get the AI-provided answer at the top or they go to ChatGPT instead and get a response there. It’s hard for me to notice a significant difference for what I do. Actually, considering that I don’t know if I can trust the AI or not (despite its authoritative tone), I am still digging, following links, and often trying to make sure I have a good source. Yes, perhaps there are certain fields (like coding) where AI is more useful. I see stories of that here and there.
Sometimes, though, some things just strike you regarding how much is getting put into this stuff. This week, it was reported that Anthropic (a top AI company that is the parent of Claude) is going to be sending $1.5 billion a month to xAI for compute. Yup, $1.5 billion! Per month! Nuts.
