Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spiraled out of control’

Re:Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spir... by viscanti on Wednesday August 23, 2023 @10:09PM (#37244274)

If blockchain did fulfill the claims of it revolutionizing the world of finance, it's still unlikely your kids would have become obsessed and regular users of it. If room temperature and pressure superconducting or nuclear fusion became viable, your kids might also be unlikely to play around with them on their own. Kids apparently love Roblox and most adults think the metaverse is dead. What kids like seems pretty orthogonal to what is legit or snake oil.

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Re:Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spir... by TuringNYC on Wednesday August 23, 2023 @10:29PM (#37244380)

Point taken, but how about these:

- My mom cant figure out Blockchain either

- My sister (doctor) and brother (3 degrees) cant figure out Blockchain either, because they are too afraid of scanning the wrong QR code and having their balance drained

My mom, sister, and brother all use ChatGPT. My brother uses it actively for work.

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Re:Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spir... by pdntspa on Thursday August 24, 2023 @01:37AM (#37245389)

You can dig deeper.... what exactly are the real-world applications of an immutable transaction ledger? I can't think of very many. Let alone a bunch of kids.

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Re:Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spir... by somenameforme on Thursday August 24, 2023 @02:01AM (#37245516)

Decentralized is critical to the recipe as well. 'Immutable' centralized ledgers are largely a non-starter because the scenarios you want to use block chain for are zero-trust type scenarios. With centralization, the promise of immutability holds exactly as long as it's convenient for the centralizing power.

In any case, defining public use or accessibility as the metric of relevance of something is quite illogical. You end up with countless absurdities like relativity being worthless and CocaCola being the most relevant invention ever.

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Re:Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spir... by pepa65 on Thursday August 24, 2023 @02:50AM (#37245813)

Immutable decentralized public ledgers could have many usages, but the biggest problem is: who is authorized to add new entries? There are different answers to this question depending on use case, but it is really the crux of the matter.

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Re:Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spir... by CyberDildonics on Thursday August 24, 2023 @08:37AM (#37248065)

I don't blame them since the stakes are much higher, but it probably doesn't help to say "they can't figure out blockchain" because that doesn't make any sense.

Which 'blockchain'? Blockchain is a singular noun, that's like saying "they can't figure out phone".

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Re:Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spir... by viscanti on Thursday August 24, 2023 @02:20PM (#37252637)

Sure. I'm not saying Blockchain fulfilled it's promise. I'm just not convinced that every major new thing will be immediately adopted by kids. It seems like it's an orthogonal thing.

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Re:Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spir... by JuanPosadas on Thursday August 24, 2023 @11:26PM (#37257655)

> it without being forced to

I think this is an important detail. A lot of "forced into it" numbers will get presented as "happy users" in various unfair metrics comparisons.

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Re:Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spir... by deanCommie on Thursday August 24, 2023 @02:15AM (#37245587)

> Kids apparently love Roblox and most adults think the metaverse is dead.

Can you define what a metaverse is in this case and how is it different from what we used to call an MMORPG?

Roblox involves no block chain and no VR, so what exactly is "metaverse-y" about it?

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Re:Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spir... by viscanti on Thursday August 24, 2023 @02:19PM (#37252626)

Anyone can create and monetize their content in a world where a user's character can access all of the content. MMORPGs generally seem to be built by a single developer who controls the whole experience. They're also generally a single game instead of thousands of mini games.

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Re:Princeton ‘AI Snake Oil’ authors say GenAI hype has ‘spir... by patrakov on Thursday August 24, 2023 @09:24AM (#37248464)

> If room temperature and pressure superconducting or nuclear fusion became viable, your kids might also be unlikely to play around with them on their own.

I disagree. Kids will turn anything not too abstract into toys. An improvised radioactive sample (actually some neon indicator bulbs in a box) + Geiger counter brought by my parents = a version of a hide-and-seek game from my own past.

Also, a model maglev train is something so obvious that I am sure such toys will appear immediately once the technology becomes viable.

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