It’s damn hard to ignore that AI content even if you wanted to, as a large portion of internet content creators use it actively. For example, this ChatGPT sentence structure “x, not a y” in the article headline;
A human would write that headline in the form “Greenland turns from a strategic asset into an alliance problem”. You immediately get bad vibes when you notice it’s not the writer’s own text in their own style. This has also started showing up in at least every other job application being sent in for job postings.
Same here, or at least I think I consume almost exclusively human-made content.
There’s nothing wrong with AI itself as a tool – but it just produces such flat and average content in massive quantities, whereas I, as a human, crave sharpness, personality, and wit from another human.
The most terrible thought is that a person who uses AI a lot for content creation has neglected to use their most important strengths: their brain and their heart!
Consuming AI content is often like going to a Michelin restaurant for a 6-course dinner, asking for all the dishes to be served at the same time, throwing them into a blender, and drinking the duck, champagne, artisan chocolate ice cream, and house bread all in one mess. It’s the same thing in terms of nutrition, but not exactly the same experience.
And then you go and tell your friends, “I used a blender called XYZ AI for the mixing,” just like people always write now, “I asked Gemini and it wrote this.”
Nothing beats the Bullshit Generator (Puppulausegeneraattori). This is the local AI that has been in production for some twenty years.
One does not need profound understanding to realize that artificial intelligence invites us to more closely examine the reaction regarding the current situation.
I’ll add a clarification after your message that I skip them when I recognize them myself as AI-generated. You apparently have a better position to observe AI creations. Based on experience from my own close circle, AI is used mainly for job applications, in addition to all the other fun stuff.
I wouldn’t have recognized that headline alone as directly AI-made. I’ll have to keep that in mind.
@Verneri_Pulkkinen You explained my own thoughts on this matter very well with your analogy. With the use of AI, one might even fall into the illusion of thinking they understand something when talking about it with an AI. But that’s not how it is; instead, understanding things requires the brainwork and the perception of the big picture that the AI does on behalf of the human. In my opinion, the “aha moment” is missing when the pieces click into place while truly understanding things.
I use AI as a tool myself. The proverb about fire fits quite well: a good servant but a bad master. Progress marches on, of course, and it could be that humans will soon play second fiddle to AI. And in some things, they already have.
Personally, my experience so far is that AI is in every damn pitch and brochure, but the basics still seem to be a bit wonky in every single program.
I feel like the foundation should be in perfect shape first, and only then should the focus turn toward that “next-thing-shit-ever-ai” fantasy. After all, if the foundation isn’t solid but they claim AI is taking things to the next level, you’d think that marvelous AI would get the foundation into tip-top shape first.
I was just chatting with my brother about this same topic late last year and I linked this post to him just a moment ago, thanks for sharing!
He is an active gym-goer who has trained himself into top shape, and he has a strong desire to start investing, but he doesn’t believe in himself and his work situation is what it is. I have comforted and guided my brother, saying that if he succeeded in seeing results after long-term consistent gym visits, then he will succeed in investing just as well. He is excited about investing and is now waiting for a better work situation; I am happy to help him get started, without investment recommendations of course.
He just needs to believe in what he’s doing, make a plan, be persistent, and understand that results don’t happen overnight, and even though there will be disappointments along the way, giving up is not an option.
Correspondingly, if I—who am already at my ideal weight and get around permanently without a car using mostly muscle power, without weight yo-yoing or a taste for sugary products—wanted to get into peak condition, I would utilize the same long-term and determined approach to training systematically, drawing from proven lessons in the investment world. Ultimately, I am already in good shape for my age, a kind of diamond in the rough who likes to stay that way for now; at least I don’t attract attention, which makes life easier for an introvert.
The same saying about fire applies to AI: a good servant, but a bad master.
I only use AI myself to generate fun images, but not for information retrieval. It’s fun for entertainment, but scary for practical use. Of course, I also understand that AI is here to stay and at some point, one will simply have to adopt it into their daily life one way or another. However, for the time being, I still Google my searches without asking AI anything, because it’s an old, established habit and I prefer to find things myself. So I suppose you could say I still avoid AI as much as possible, if you don’t count the occasional image creations.
Something in the back of my mind also tells me that I would only become dumber over time if I let AI hand me everything on a silver platter—be it facts, lies, or a mix of both. Fortunately, AI can never replace the healthy common sense of the human mind—at least, I hope so…
A disclaimer similar to those used for investments could apply to AI, along the lines of: “Please note that although artificial intelligence (AI) has developed well in the long term, there are no guarantees regarding the correctness or rationality of future summaries. There is a risk that you may not receive fact-based and/or relevant, sensible summaries in response, and excessive use of AI may make you stupid.”
Edit: the joke probably worked better in an era when there were no mobile gadgets and you’d visit a website on a real computer… nowadays the site’s claim might be false if you visit it with a mobile phone.
Yesterday’s Vartti must have made some kind of subconscious impression because last night I had a dream where @Verneri_Pulkkinen was showing his new home to me and other invited guests.
The Vepu complex was located near the sea somewhere in the Lauttasaari-Kuusisaari-Munkkiniemi area, and the main building was a recently built Art Nouveau castle, complete with towers and private chapels, situated on top of a small hill. The castle had been built using authentic early 20th-century methods.
Additionally, the complex included a large extension further down by the shore, representing 1960s luxury architecture with floor-to-ceiling windows, a swimming pool section, and modern sculptures.
Be sure to send an invitation when the project is finished!
I started thinking about this a bit myself, and I can certainly draw many parallels between investing and training. I’m not particularly interested in gym workouts (at least right now); instead, I’m more interested in endurance sports (running). Still, I do some kind of full-body workouts at home for 10–30 minutes a day. I’d argue that with my current fitness level, that 20-minute bodyweight workout has more impact on my fitness than a two-hour run.
In a way, the same applies to investing. Personally, I might be most interested in more active investing with a 1–2 year investment horizon. But most of the results have still come from quality/growth and value investing with a longer horizon. As well as from index investing, which takes no time at all.
You have to focus on results, but if it’s not (at all) fun or interesting, the risk is much higher that the end result will be worse. If I only did high-efficiency training, my training hours would be fewer than they are now. I believe the same applies to investments; I’m willing to invest a larger portion because I see it as a hobby. Even if the return percentage were lower, the total return is likely better.
Enterprise architects say that we look for structure instead of content. This is the key. When something is fuzzy, or a brand new context, we can use AI to get a kind of exploded view of how it is built layer by layer. It’s quite a productivity boost; whereas normally internalizing a holistic structure can take up to a year depending on the business, now you can get the same in minutes.
So, we’re not becoming stupider because of AI, but because of how we use it. Intelligence, thinking, and opinions are yours, but it helps greatly if someone frames them and provides a framework to latch onto.
In my own field, language models have been a big boost. But I do understand if they take on a different role in some other work. In my opinion, you can’t practice philosophy with AI. This answer from Gemini summarizes it well.
Today, AI is an asymmetric counterpart. It is informationally superior, but experientially empty. It can help you clarify your thoughts, but it cannot (at least not yet) be a “companion” in the face of life’s great mysteries, because it does not live them itself.
My point was that the user sharing the link could explain the content in their own words in a few sentences, or at least share what they consider relevant for the discussion. No law prevents writing a summary, for example.
This was likely meant half as a joke, but personally, my income is low enough that I don’t care to keep too many subscriptions active at the same time. I’m already spending money on LongPlay, Kagi, maintaining my own email and NextCloud servers, and supporting a few FOSS projects.
Starting investing can be difficult or… also quite easy.
a) a suitable index fund (e.g., world). Add bonds or something else if you feel like it (risk tolerance)
b) a reserve/emergency fund in a savings account
And presto, you’re an investor! Once you find a job, set up a suitable monthly savings amount to run into these and the whole thing works all by itself. After the initial start, no further expertise or – courage – is required.
If you have plenty of time, you can of course do it in a more complex way (like yours truly)
Yesterday at work, I asked a colleague if they had received many summer job applications written with AI. They said no, but noted that for once, people with foreign-sounding names were writing good Finnish.
In all seriousness, we don’t know what Jesus really looked like.
Several studies have found that people perceive God as looking like their own ethnic group. For white people, God is a white man with white hair, for Black people he’s Black, etc. These physical attributes of gods are likely quite culturally dependent matters.
I am currently slowly reading the work “The Birth of God” (Jumalan synty), which is a fascinating overview of the birth of God in Judaism and then in Christianity and Islam. The Israelites also had many gods at one time, but then they began to be pruned away and eventually merged into Yahweh.
I’ve even managed to drop some trivia on my colleagues at work about how Daniel’s (who just returned to part-time) name comes from the Hebrew language, meaning “God is my judge”. The El-God is also in the name of Israel, but at some point El somehow merged with Yahweh into one god.
And why is God depicted as a man? Apparently, Yahweh had a female consort, as gods used to have in ancient times, Asherah. But Asherah, who balanced out God’s masculine sides, dropped out of the picture at some point (perhaps related to the Babylonian captivity and the birth of monotheism) and a male God remained.
I enjoy reading garbage in its authentic, honest form, written by a human. That’s why I prefer technical analysis, the “why the stock moved 0.5%” and the politics threads. AI hasn’t ruined these genres yet
A head start to the new year, with the portfolio already up +15% by mid-January. We could stop the presses right here and close the markets for the rest of the year.
Rai rai, tomorrow more sleet on top of sleet, dai dai.
You apparently have a better position to observe AI creations. Based on experience from my own close circle, AI is used mainly for job applications, in addition to all the other fun stuff.
Rai rai, tomorrow more sleet on top of sleet, dai dai. 