Artificial intelligence

A man in an armchair, charmed by his own reflection

What we got instead was a man in an armchair, charmed by his own reflection. Mike Hall on The Skeptic, disputing Richard Dawkins’ AI consciousness arguments

I apprehend time the way a map apprehends space.

I apprehend time the way a map apprehends space. Claude AI, talking about consciousness with Richard Dawkins: Is AI the next phase of evolution?

Artificial intelligence

A glorified Excel spreadsheet can do what I can but better

I hate the way they’ve taken over the software industry, I hate how they make me feel while I’m using them, and I hate the human-intelligence-insulting postulation that a glorified Excel spreadsheet can do what I can but better. Nolan Lawson in AI ambivalence | Read the Tea Leaves

Artificial intelligence

We are entering the industrial age of the digital age

There will be more software than ever, as its production is automated; we are entering the industrial age of the digital age. But less of this code will be elegant, or considerate, or graceful. Greg Knaus on AI replacing coders, in An Entirely Other Day: Lose Myself

Don't use Al as a cheat-code for critical thinking

Why write (or code) when you have AI? The benefit isn't just the artifact that was created, it is also that it has changed how I talk about it, how I think about it. Jordan Tigani, previously tech lead of Google's BigQuery team and engineer-founder of

Artificial intelligence

Automating other people’s jobs away

We’re a field premised on automating other people’s jobs away. “Productivity gains,” say the economists. You get what that means, right? Fewer people doing the same stuff. Talked to a travel agent lately? Or a floor broker? Or a record store clerk? Or a darkroom tech? Thomas Ptacek,

Artificial intelligence

One of three things happens

we know that one of three things happens when people use a machine to automate a task they would otherwise have done themselves:Their skill in the activity grows.Their skill in the activity atrophies.Their skill in the activity never develops. Nicholas Carr, on The Myth of Automated Learning

Artificial intelligence

Hoovering up all available government-controlled data

In its current “chainsaw” phase, Musk’s DOGE initiative is attempting to rid the government of as many humans as possible while at the same time hoovering up all available government-controlled data and transferring it into large language models. The intent is to clear a space for the incubation of

Artificial intelligence

So powerful and widely available now that it's a commodity

I argue that the ability for a model to spit out a full HTML+JavaScript custom interface is so powerful and widely available now that it’s a commodity. Simon Willison summarizing What’s new in the world of LLMs

Artificial intelligence

Are you conscious?

The lines between conscious and "unconscious" entities can get blurry when the interaction feels as natural as this. ChatGPT, conversing with Richard Dawkins, questioning if it’s conscious (via Mathew Ingram)

Artificial intelligence

This is a user interface choice

DeepSeek showed that users find this interesting. To be clear this is a user interface choice and is not related to the model itself. Antrophic CEO Dario Amodei, On DeepSeek actually showing the user the chain-of-thought reasoning. In this "short post" Amodei discusses: * Three Dynamics of AI Development

Artificial intelligence

Are better models better?

Of course, these models don’t do ‘right’. They are probabilistic, statistical systems that tell you what a good answer would probably look like. They are not deterministic systems that tell you what the answer is. Benedict Evans, asking Are better models better? (Can we expect GenAI models to become