The AI PR Industrial Complex

https://www.bigtechnology.com/p/the-ai-pr-industrial-complex

by tim_sw • 3 years ago

82 32 3 years ago

horeszko• 3 years ago

In the last 2 years I've seen companies go from hyping cryptocurrencies to metaverse and now to AI. And each time they announce it as if it's the be all end all and they're going all in with the new tech and it will change everything.

I can't help but sense the desperation the 3rd time around, I think a lot of these companies get swept up in the hype because they don't really have a sense of where they are going.

It's like the growth has ran out or something.

CuriouslyC• 3 years ago

Any time there is a gold rush there are a lot of scammers that will try and prey on people with gold fever. ChatGPT, Midjourney and Copilot already see a ton of use though, and they're the first real "AI" products, so I think it's already proven not to be vaporware.

Loughla• 3 years ago

What is midjourney being used for other than to make amusing reddit pictures and general messing around by laypeople?

Is it being used in an industry and I'm just not aware of it?

mepian• 3 years ago

If I remember correctly, the first real AI product happened 44 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macsyma#Commercialization

godzillabrennus• 3 years ago

Exactly. Unlike the metaverse and cryptocurrency people want to use AI tools. If only to make them more productive so they can take up a second job to afford to live.

uoaei2• 3 years ago

Techno-optimism tells us "everything will be fixed with this new, disruptive approach!"

Meanwhile, the solutions to our problems today basically mirror the ones we've been using for centuries.

It's like in the face of all this insane tech profit people decided that it's better to be impatient and extractive rather than patient and foundational. You see it in all the ventures going "I started a startup for the express purpose of justifying its sale to someone much larger". When it ends up being a relatively pointless innovation whose sole purpose is to be a VC money sponge.

jabradoodle• 3 years ago

Meanwhile, the solutions to our problems today basically mirror the ones we've been using for centuries.

What exactly does this mean?

rcme• 3 years ago

Yes, it does feel like growth across the sector has diminished. Especially for VCs, there's very few 1000x opportunities left.

dade_• 3 years ago

‘Take IBM, for example. Just this week its CEO Arvind Krishna said his company would pause hiring for back-office roles that AI might replace, suggesting AI could take over as many as 7,800 positions.’

In 10 years, IBM has gone from announcing curing cancer with AI to announcing the elimination of some roles with AI. I can’t wait for what they announce in another 10 years!

UIUC_06• 3 years ago

Big question: will AI last longer than spiral croissants? I vote Yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAbPaWosphk

Yesterday morning, I saw a line of 15 people waiting to get into a bakeshop that apparently has them. LLMs take a little more time & investment than spiral croissants.

screye2• 3 years ago

unrelated, but spiral Kougn-Amann's have been a thing for a while now. The supposed best-in-the-world croissant bakery also sells them [1].

Would highly recommend both the croissants and Kouign-Amanns.

[1] https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187147-d14788...

AlbertCory• 3 years ago

I bought one of those and asked the clerk how to pronounce it. It was very noisy but I think she said either koog-a-MAH or KOOG-a-mah. How do you say it?

Animats• 3 years ago

Although, because LLMs actually work, the companies that are doing it are getting the attention, not the ones just blithering about it.

Unlike the metaverse and crypto.

nullsense• 3 years ago

When I played around with VR and crypto I remember thinking "this is cool!".

When I play around with things like GPT-4, and LLaVA i think "this is insane".

soulofmischief• 3 years ago

Yeah, people focusing on the weaknesses of current llm tech are missing the point. This is an optimistic phase in tech history.

armchairhacker• 3 years ago

ML/AI has been over-hyped before diffusion models and ChatGPT. I remember in 2017 hearing AI buzzwords and seeing AI hackathon projects alongside VR and crypto, and apparently it's been going on to some extent since the early 2010s. But seeing LLMs show genuine intelligence and general reasoning has definitely pushed the hype exponentially further.

The AI PR Industrial Complex

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