Skynet or: How I learned to stop worrying and love AI

[oblong]

Ok I promised this earlier in the week. I figure we can use this to discuss AI items and anecdotes, etc rather than pollute the investing thread.  
 

yes, I used AI to help with the title.  
 

And whats really weird?  I took some suggestions they offered and merged it and I felt the need to reply back and sort or apologize. As if it’s waiting for me to reply or that it cares. Jesus, it’s not a person.  
 

a friend of mine is a wordsmith and often pastes a co workers writings into it to see why he finds it so annoying.  This is what it says:

—————

“This is a 39-word sentence where:

    •    the subject is muddy,

    •    the contrast is lopsided,

    •    and “causality in complex systems” hits like a wet sandbag.

It’s not wrong, but it’s unpleasant — like chewing uncooked rice.”
————-

that is so amazing to me. It’s not just gathering info. It’s making judgement calls and offering analogies.  sarcasm. Wit. 

[chasfh]

I’ve been wondering lately how I should interface with AI. I mean, it’s basically search, right? Which, when that’s done, I just move on, because of course I would.

But they make AI so damn polite that I do feel a little icky just closing the page without comment after using it. It’s always asking at the end, very nicely, can I pull this additional information together for you? Can I show you several different examples? Can I elaborate on how you can effectively accomplish this thing you want? And it’s hard not to reflexively reply, nope, I’m good, thanks. Which would be dumb if I put that in a Google search box after that delivers results.

But one of the other reasons I’m loathe to just close out AI without reply, or worse, berate it for a hallucination, which happens way too often still, is that I’m mildly concerned I would get used to the idea of turning my back unceremoniously on something so polite, and that would inadvertently bleed into a situation IRL, which might have bad consequences. Maybe you’re smart and aware enough to never ever make that mistake even once for the rest of your life, but I can’t make that promise to myself.

So, I’m probably going to continue being polite right back to AI, at least indefinitely, just so I can stay in the habit of being polite back to someone/something so polite to me. I think probably when AI is hovering over me in the guise of a robot just before laser-beaming me to Kingdom Come, maybe that’s when I’ll consider changing that approach.

[oblong]

That’s a good point. I always follow up with whatever it is I decided. 

[chasfh]

10 hours ago, oblong said:

That’s a good point. I always follow up with whatever it is I decided. 

It's hard not to. They make the thing seem so darned human.

Mr. Conspiracy Theorist asks, is that part of an overarching strategy to lead us to be disarmed by its politeness and to bring our guard down so they can implement whatever their nefarious purposes are against us? I guess we'll all find out after we are disarmed by its politeness and we let our guard down. 😏

[oblong]

One year when we're all making our Thanksgiving turkeys and asking AI for guidance it will find a way to make us either poison ourselves or introduce some mind altering element, like Pluribus.

 

[Screwball]

Since there is a thread about this now, I would be curious when talking about our own experience with AI, which AI app did you use?

There seems to be quite a few. I did a Google search and got this;

Quote

 

There is no exact number of AI apps because new ones are constantly being created, but estimates suggest there are tens of thousands, with some sources estimating around 70,000 AI platforms alone. This includes a wide variety of applications, from large language models like ChatGPT and Google Gemini to more specialized tools for image generation, productivity, and coding. 

Estimates vary:

It's difficult to pin down an exact number because the AI landscape is rapidly evolving, with new apps emerging daily. 

Types of AI apps:

The apps range from general-purpose tools like chatbots and assistants to highly specialized platforms for tasks like photo editing, code generation, and content creation. 

Examples include:

Some of the most well-known apps are ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Midjourney. 

Productivity tools:

There are also many AI-powered productivity tools designed to help with tasks like writing, scheduling, and project management. 

 

I've used Co-pilot (comes with Windows 11), Grok (Twitter's version) and Google's Gemini. Make one wonder how the results from the same query would vary across platforms.

[oblong]

I stick with ChatGPT.  No reason other than it's what I've always used.  A hobby of mine at night is using the Sora app to make videos. Something pops in my head so I will make one. My wife thinks I'm crazy and she doesn't think its hilarious like I do.  

[Edman85]

I have looked into prompt engineering as a way to learn how to better use AI. I still don't really use it because I just don't trust it. I have a feeling society at large will misuse it and there will be catastrophic consequences.

[oblong]

I was trying to recreate the Sopranos opening credits on Sora using me and Detroit as the setting.  I started with ChatGPT and describe what i wanted to do.  About 15 minutes of back and forth settled on landmarks and music (It even offered copyright free music or I could pay to license some).  Finally at the end when I asked about using my own likeness they told me I had to be a subscriber.  Didn't pull the trigger on that.

But I have used it to make videos for dreams I had.  ChatGPT will ultimately give you the prompt to put into Sora.

 

[Screwball]

Be careful or beware might be in order...

Google's Agentic AI wipes user's entire HDD without permission in catastrophic failure — cache wipe turns into mass deletion event as agent apologizes: “I am absolutely devastated to hear this. I cannot express how sorry I am"

[chasfh]

11 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Be careful or beware might be in order...

Google's Agentic AI wipes user's entire HDD without permission in catastrophic failure — cache wipe turns into mass deletion event as agent apologizes: “I am absolutely devastated to hear this. I cannot express how sorry I am"

Well, of course it can't express how sorry it is! By definition, it can't express sorrow!

[gehringer_2]

16 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Well, of course it can't express how sorry it is! By definition, it can't express sorrow!

What was the line from one of the early Harry Potter books? "Never trust something if you can't see where it keeps its brains"?

Edited Friday at 08:51 PM by gehringer_2

[chasfh]

One nifty thing I have been using AI for is for summarizing terms and conditions, as well as privacy policies, of companies I have a online subscription to. Or, more exactly, I might ask Gemini a specific question pertaining to specific areas of the T&Cs, such as, what are the company's rights or abilities to review and seize content I use through their products or services—for example, can Apple claim any ownership and usage rights or otherwise examine the assets I upload to its iCloud service? Can they help themselves to photos I upload to their service and use them in their marketing materials, for instance? (Topline answer: they can't use content you upload for marketing purposes, although under their Standard Data Protection plan, they can broadly scan to detect and report uploading of illegal or harmful materials, but not examine any financial records you might upload to it; under their Advanced Data Protection, they can't even scan your drive for illegal/harmful materials; but in all cases, if the government demands access to your uploaded content, they will fork it over. Makes sense.)

You can even use AI to compare updated T&Cs with previous T&Cs to highlights what the relevant changes were. Beats having to read and compare the entire documents.

I would like to know the other cool, helpful, productive, and/or time-saving things other board members use AI for.

Edited Friday at 09:56 PM by chasfh

[Screwball]

Someone above mentioned "prompt engineering" which caught my eye. So let's see what our Google AI buddy has to say;

Quote

Prompt engineering is the process of designing and refining prompts to get accurate, desired outputs from AI models. This involves crafting specific instructions, roles, and constraints to guide the AI, and can include techniques like zero-shot prompting, or providing examples to the model. Prompt engineering is used to improve developer control, create better user experiences, and bridge the gap between a user's vague input and the AI's need for clear instructions. 

Of course! 

We are helping to train what is now a derivative of old school programmers. The code we started writing back when binary math hit the computer world it all changed. It's been an incredible ride. Below was from October 30 originally posted in the investment thread. This is from MSFT Co-pilot.

It now simply says "Co-pilot may make mistakes."

My Co-pilot buddy is an Aussie. Next time we do a project I'm going try to give him a name. Like mentioned above, it's amazing how personal they get. So might as well **** with them. 🙂

 

[Motown Bombers]

AI landed me a job. I took the formal job description of my previous job, added the job description of the job I was applying for, and asked it to spit out a resume and cover letter. I of course tweaked it a little. For my interview, I would ask AI to give me some sample questions and answers based on my resume and the job description I was applying for. I would also take some questions I found on Glassdoor and ask AI to give some sample answers based on my resume and job description. I would record the interview and use AI to put the recording into a transcript and then ask AI to create a follow up email based on that conversation. I would finally ask AI based on that interview if I was a strong candidate or not. 

[Screwball]

Assuming you were interviewed by humans? I've been out of the workforce for a while and nothing in this world would surprise me. At some point my Aussie buddy will be hiring people, if he's not already. From the Investment thread (related).

MIT study finds AI can already replace 11.7% of U.S. workforce - From CNBC (Bubblevision)

 

[Screwball]

Friday night, why not play with my old buddy from down under. Let's give AI a little test. Thought about the old days when Visual Basic was a thing. Is that still around? Yea, it kind of is so it turns out. Free as well. Simple download and install. How can AI help us with a basic interface and calculation?

I used Microsoft's Co-pilot. All I wanted was a simple form with three inputs, and a button to calculate these inputs to the output we are looking for. In this case a simple math problem of cubic inches, like used in our family car. It took longer to download the software (the new VB) and get familiar with that, than it did me and my Aussie buddy to come up with this;

Some things to clean up. Couple of hours total. Wild stuff.

ON EDIT: Forgot, this is a stand alone .exe file. 

Edited Saturday at 04:55 AM by Screwball

[oblong]

The main system I am responsible for just migrated off of VB. It was 25 years old. We literally couldn’t find people to support it.  Our developers were in diapers when this system launched. 

[Screwball]

It is now called Visual Studio. You can download it from Mircosoft at no cost. The interface looks similar to the old Visual Basic of years ago. The input boxes, buttons, and text I used seemed to work the same way. I built the interface and AI wrote the code. All I had to do was copy and paste the code. The interface looks like this;

[pfife]

Yeah i use VScode every day.   Its pretty agnostic for what languages you can code in within it, i use it for python.   The github integration is awesome too

Gotta go dark mode on that tho lol!

Edited Saturday at 04:34 PM by pfife

[oblong]

This is making the rounds today.  

 

[Screwball]

37 minutes ago, pfife said:

Yeah i use VScode every day.   Its pretty agnostic for what languages you can code in within it, i use it for python.   The github integration is awesome too

Gotta go dark mode on that tho lol!

I don't know how you do it.

I played with coding years ago and it's not for me. It drove me nuts with all the squiggly brackets and stuff. Visual Basic (at the time) was fairly easy, and I'm being kind with "fairly" when it came to my talents. I did OK with that but didn't like it. I also played with C, and C+ or whatever it was. Hated that. Tried Java which looked a lot like C so I hated that too. If those weren't bad enough to pull your hair out, I had to learn and deal with a language called "Fourth."  Oh, brother!

[oblong]

My first job out of college was supporting a VB based product where the main developer was self taught. It was kind of a start up.  He put every bell and whistle into this thing. There were 4 ways to do everything. That meant 4 ways to break and 3 wrong paths to go down to fix it.  

[Screwball]

I would imagine coding is like design engineering - the KISS rule still applies. Keep It Simple Stupid. The more complex, the more things there are to break and go wrong. Many times things don't need to be complex - all they need to do is work (correctly).

This is where it will be interesting to see how AI handles things. It doesn't know what it doesn't know. Humans have experience and know things because they have that. I posted an example in the Investment thread where I told AI to design and give me a drawing for a punch press that pokes a 1" diameter hole in a sheet of steel. It failed miserably. It didn't even get the tonnage correct.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

My first job out of college was supporting a VB based product where the main developer was self taught. It was kind of a start up.  He put every bell and whistle into this thing. There were 4 ways to do everything. That meant 4 ways to break and 3 wrong paths to go down to fix it.  

I once had to re-engineer an automated VB excel system that someone else (who had quit) had put together and not documented at all. It linked to into a half a dozen external applications and generated a pretty massive monthly account summary. My worst couple of  months in 50 years of paid employment.

I pretty much hate programming as well, but have been lucky in that most of what I had to do over the years was instrument control stuff and those are generally small, self-contained, and you mostly don't have to work with anyone else!