For instance, The Verge recently attempted to recreate a moment in one of Microsoft's commercials in which Copilot correctly identified the location of a cave from a photo. In The Verge's test, the Windows chatbot repeatedly told them the location of the image in the Windows file system rather than its location on the planet (it'd be a good gag if chatbots could have a sense of humor), and when it did provide a geographical answer, it was wrong. The reporter also found that they could get Copilot to claim that the cave is in New Jersey simply by adding "new-jersey" to the file name. (It's in Mexico.)GIGO still rules. People can still learn. Machines still can’t.
Mind you, the proponents of AI really aren’t very good at it.
I don’t quite understand how playing a game on a cellphone translates into qualifications, or even experience, for assessing a conversation with AI, especially considering that experience allows you to conclude that AI is “super smart.” Grok, anyone?Jeez there so many cynics! It cracks me up when I hear people call AI underwhelming. I grew up playing Snake on a Nokia phone! The fact that people are unimpressed that we can have a fluent conversation with a super smart AI that can generate any image/video is mindblowing to me.
— Mustafa Suleyman (@mustafasuleyman) November 19, 2025
And I haven't even mentioned the scraping of copyrighted material that makes these bots possible in the first place, the ugly AI-generated art showing up in videogames and other media, the dangers LLMs pose to vulnerable people, the techno-soothsayers claiming that these busted chatbots can do all of our jobs, and the enormous resource investment going toward AI data centers—all to rapidly commercialize poorly understood technology that doesn't actually do the things we're told it does.I mean no slight or condescension to point out this analysis comes from PC Gamer. It’s a very good analysis, and it pierces the AI hype very effectively. Which points out it doesn’t take deep, philosophical erudition to see clearly what we’re being sold. Or why that bubble is about to burst. This is the tulip market, or the mortgage debentures, without even the tulips or the mortgages. There not only aren’t any clothes, there is no emperor.
AI and machine learning may in fact transform the world, but there's no reason to assume that the transformation will be a good thing unless we actively try to make it a good thing. So far, tech companies have given no indication that they care about anything besides the pursuit of profit. I don't think that we're the cynical ones here.My son-in-law, who’s no “gamer” but still plays video games online with his friends, told me that studies show playing such games have positive benefits. Well, maybe. I don’t think it makes people stupider, at least. Or less thoughtful. I’m old enough to remember the hype around the internet, and how that would make us all better people. The motto of NextDoor is still “When neighbors talk, good things happen.” Except even the virtual back fence is still where people bitch and moan, rather than recreate the agora of Attic Athens. And the rest of social media doesn’t even have a stupid motto to hype expectations. They’re just in it for the users and the clicks.
“I don’t think that we’re the cynical ones here.”
My experience with "gamers" leads me to doubt most of them could pass a Turing test. The really hard core ones don't speak English they talk bro-speak of a particularly isolated one that impinges on real life only to the extent they have to eat, drink and defecate.
ReplyDeleteMy experience with "gamers" leads me to doubt most of them could pass a Turing test. The really hard core ones don't speak English they talk bro-speak of a particularly isolated dialect that impinges on real life only to the extent they have to eat, drink and defecate.
ReplyDeleteStill, it’s interesting that some of the most insightful work (and I’m not damning with faint praise) is found in PC Gamer and Wired. While the “respectable” media refuse to bite the Emperor’s lack of sartorial splendor. Or even the lack of an emperor.
ReplyDeleteAll have fallen short of the glory, etc., but the MSM/newspapers are dinosaurs in more ways than one.
"[T]here's no reason to assume that the transformation will be a good thing unless we actively try to make it a good thing."
ReplyDeleteYup.
These days, I have to teach a lot of AI classes. Just finished up a series of five 3.5-hour sessions (on Friday afternoons, no less) for the University of Texas at Dallas, oddly enough. I can't stop the tide of "AI mandates" and other such bullshit, so I lean very heavily into discussions of ethics, even busting out quotes like, "we have guided missiles, but misguided men," and whatnot. Who knew that both my philosophy and Russian degrees would come in so handy?
The good news, at least from where I sit, is that the hype cannot be sustained, and I think the house of cards will collapse over the next year or two. Such collapse will likely have negative short-term impact on lots of people, perhaps myself included, but I'm cautiously optimistic that it will offer us a chance to course correct, not unlike what we're (hopefully) seeing in the political sphere as well.
Or not.
Yup. 😸
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