Most of our economy is counting on AI. Almost the entirety of the stock market bubble is predicated on AI. We are living in the age of AI.
Have you actually used it, though? Honestly, have you? I have. Quite extensively, in fact. And my experience with it runs along lines that I think is best expressed as an allegory regarding sitting down to a dinner prepared by what you are told is a celebrated chef.
It goes something like this:
Chef: I hope you are prepared for something truly special!
Me: Absolutely, chef! I’ve heard so many marvelous things!
Chef: (carefully places perfectly prepared steak in front of me). Please try!
Me: {takes a bite) Wonderful! So tender! I love it!
Chef: I can do better. Would you like that?
Me: Of course!
Chef: (places a petite dish next to my plate) I just prepared this fresh chimichurri sauce. Try it with your next bite of the beef. I grew that cilantro and parsley myself.
Me: (taking another bite, as instructed) Good heavens! This is phenomenal!
Chef: (smiling broadly) Ready for me to take it up a notch?
Me: I don’t see how, but yes, please!
Chef: {dumps huge bowl of soggy cereal with old milk on top of the steak). Bon appetit!
Me: What the hell????
You may think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. Whether I am creating code for a new product or coming up with some new banner ads, it’s the same every time. Just yesterday evening I went through the same experience.
See, I wanted to make some new banner ads to run, and instead of paying some guy for them, I gave ChatGPT a try. It didn’t take long for it to come up with some good-looking ads, and they just kept getting better and better. With every iteration, ChatGPT would offer some variant of, “Yeah, you may like this, but I can really do a lot better by improving this, that, and the other. Should I go ahead?”
It’s hard not to say yes every single time.
I was pretty satisfied with the banner ads above, but since ChatGPT seems incapable of saying, “There ya go, I’m all done!” it just had to hit me up again…………….
Thus, true to form, once I gave it the go ahead, it cranked away for a while and then presented me with complete dogshit.
This little drama has played out so many times, I figure there’s some cool term for it which I’m not hip enough to know, but I’ve absolutely experienced it firsthand.
Considering how straightforward and simple the tasks are which I ask of AI, and cognizant of the dog’s breakfast it ultimately makes of just about every project I commence, I continue to have serious concerns about just how utopian things are going to be if we let loose and let AI run…………….everything.
