It is a truth about the world that that loudest people in the room seldom represent the majority. When it comes to so called “AI” the two loudest people in the room are the tech bros who love “AI” and those like me who are willing to hack their OS to remove any “AI” put on it. The large majority of people who are in the middle don’t care about “AI”. They may use it a few times and a few of them might use it maybe once a week or once a month but that’s it. On the other hand they won’t go out of their way to get it off their computers either, they’ll just ignore that Copilot button Microsoft forced onto Windows. To most people all the “AI” talk is just part of the noise of the modern world. The truth is everyone is in some way a freak, for AI tech bros their freak is “AI,” for those against “AI,” like me, our freak it is being so willing to out of the way to gt rid of it. We are both abnormal freaks (everyone is an abnormal freak they just have different freaks, no one is normal).
Look at voice control. So long as one has an internet connection they can have voice control (because a phone doesn’t have the processing power to have voice control itself, it has to sent the commands to a server to be processed), but how often is the technology used? It has uses, if one is driving they should use voice control (keep you hands on the wheel, and your eyes on road and if you don’t want to drive properly shred your drivers license, sell your car and take the bus!) but outside of those uses it is not used all that often, on the bus, at work, at home, etc, it isn’t used often. Amazon Alexa has been a money-sink for Amazon and is still loosing money. Microsoft Cortana failed so badly Microsoft abandoned it. We have options to use voice control on our phones, computers, and TVs, but most people don’t use them. We’ve had touch screen for well over thirty years yet to this day is rarely used outside of hand held technology. A search of Best Buy will give 375 of 1340 laptops listed have touchscreen, that is only 28%. While it seems like touchscreen would be a useful feature, it turns out the old fashioned touch pad or mouse is simpler, easier, and quicker to use. It is not a matter of technology or even privacy, it is a matter of usefulness. Mice, touchpads, and keyboards are more useful for using a laptop or desktop that than touchscreen or voice control, a remote is more useful for selecting a streaming service and show or movie than talking to a TV, and one’s fingers are more useful on a phone than talking to a phone (except in a car, eyes on the rode!).
It is not always a matter how advanced a technology is, sometimes the less advanced or less sophisticated methods just work better. You can see this in nature, crocodiles, horseshoe crabs, sharks, nautilus, etc all have not changed much in a hundred million years, and the crab shape has evolved multiple times, these forms just work so evolving away from them reduces fitness. Some things just work, many of the ways we are doing things now, just work, and thus will not be replaced by “AI.” In some ways using “AI” is going backwards. Sure “AI” can summarize a document, or I can scan it with my eyes and gist of what it says and not have to think about whether the “AI’s” summery was accurate or not. Using “AI” for travel reservations is not better than calling a travel agent, one could just go to a travel site, put in the information and date, then book a flight and hotel. Using an “AI” to shop is like asking someone else to shop for them, one could just go to Amazon type in what they are looking for, look at what they got, click one and then click “buy now.” If one has a question, asking ChatGDP would just get you an answer that came from the internet, so why not just look on a search engine? A web search would likely give better answers anyway as it will give multiple sources for answers. Because these ways just work there is no reason for most people to go to “AI.” Just as mice and touch pads just work, in some ways better than touchscreen and voice control, touch screen on phones and tables just work, in some ways better than voice control (unless you are driving because if you are driving you should not be looking at your phone).
That is the death of “AI”. The tech bros, futurists, techno utopianists who lie and call themselves optimists, and novelty seeking people who would be into “AI” are already into it, those that don’t like “AI” will never be persuaded to use it, and those in the middle just don’t care and never will. The “AI” user base is passed peak growth, it’s growth will be much slower than it was and with increasing competition the “AI” companies that are already loosing money will loose even more. All these “AI” companies and all these companies jumping into “AI” are for profit companies, not enough people care about “AI” as it is for it to be profitable. With out profit companies like OpenAI will go under, investors will not continue to throw money at “AI” companies. Existing companies like Microsoft who are pushing “AI” will eventually pivot away from “AI” loosing a lot of money and a lot of progress on their product development. Investors and executives will over react, taking money away from practical and useful “AI” applications and development. “AIs” like ChatGDP require a lot of power which costs a lot of money, with “AI” not making money, “AIs” like ChatGDP can’t continue to exist. The bubble will pop, investment will cease, hype will vanish and talk of “AI” will go back to enemies in games and science fiction stories, and like 3D printing the tech will remain but be a fraction of what people thought it would be.
The Rainmaker font by Skomii used in header.
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C.L. Who Writes 
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