micromacrofoot

because "money" with a little "who's going to stop us"

Keep in mind that often motion sensing isn't what someone wants... great for hallways, doorways, and transitional space where someone is expected to be moving, but not great if you're going to be sitting for a bit. Presence sensing is a little more expensive but has gotten a lot better (millimeter wave stuff), great for something like a bathroom or kitchen where you might be sitting for a while but still want the lights on.

the difference is that the US economy is currently over-investing in AI to the point where it's a significant portion of the economy, it's the biggest competitive opportunity in quite a while

If you think Open AI can make hundreds of billions of dollars selling subscriptions for a chatbot I have a bridge you may be interested in.

As a random consumer why would I trust an American company more than a Chinese company? either company would throw me into a wood chipper for money if they could get away with it.

So much is invested in the huge American AI companies that China undercutting them with clones that work almost as well can actually hurt the US economy.

They're at the point where copying can get people 90% of what they want anyway, the moat is drying up.

depending on who you ask the cold lighting also magically stops crime

or you know, just adjust the lights a little

Humans have been looking at the stars every night for tens of thousands of years and we've essentially occluded the night sky to most in the matter of about 50 years, I don't even think most people know what we've lost anymore.

I was being a little optimistic with theoretical designs that could happen within our lifetimes (nuclear pulse at 10% c gets ~500), but yes absolutely true that with current tech it's tens of thousands even with the rosiest of estimates

add in a bunch of complication for "oh wait, you need to stop too"

some would, but keep in mind they've been told that south korea is a hostile state controlled by evil americans for generations

people fleeing north korea already often head towards china

500+ years, and it would likely need to be inert for most of that trip, space is big

If North Korea were to collapse for any reason it would create a massive refugee issue for China.

it also undercuts American dominance, which is something China is always happy to invest in, even if it doesn't immediately mean Chinese dominance

it's not, the question was "is this bad thing better than another bad thing" and was structuring it as a false dichotomy because the answer is "neither are better"

People need to be careful, this isn't "AI" it's "AI entirely controlled by Amazon" — the question isn't "is AI a family member" it's "is Amazon a family member" and when you talk about it in that context it feels a lot different

"Welcome to Costco, I love you!"

I was going to shoot that guy, so I'm not sure why he's complaining about being stabbed

ai bots will have more privacy than we do

misses the mark, it's not about the functionality it's about the algorithm populating it

if we knew with certainty a doomsday meteor was heading towards earth 100 years from now we still couldn't plan for it, this is not how our species works

I think that supports the premise more than it defies it

I mean it might be a thing in 100 years but we're not even close now

personal medical information is an entirely separate regulatory environment

the provider using AI to takes notes is still responsible for what happens to those notes

getting serious theranos vibes from this

Amazon generally doesn't do single item delivery for perishable groceries though, Fresh has a $100 minimum to avoid fees, for example.

Non-perishables are fine on a single-unit purchase because again, they're not just going to your house, they're going to dozens in your area every single day.

I know where you're coming from, but there's a reason this whole model exists, and it's not because it costs more.

I'm surprised you don't know any inefficient people! I know many. A friend drives 15 minutes out of the way because that grocery store is a little less crowded (they're the same chain). They've probably been doing it for a decade.

that F150 going 5 extra miles is more efficient than a Prius driving 25 miles from a Costco to their home.

but that's not what's happening, Amazon isn't driving a Prius to your individual home then back to the warehouse... it's driving to a hundred people on an algorithmically optimized route. They do this because efficiency at scale makes them more profit.

Individual people make inefficient preferential decisions all the time, because the incentive to measure and improve these things is too low to bother on an individual scale.

this isn't even close to true and falls apart in a number of ways, the most popular vehicle in america right now (F-series truck) is woefully inefficient for just about everything

there are people who regularly go out of their way to drive to their favorite store for like 1-2 special items, people bring their dogs along on trips for companionship and leave them sitting in an air conditioned idling car while they shop

individuals are irrationally inefficient in dozens of ways that large businesses root out, for better or worse

I suspect delivery of single items cuts back significantly on trips to the store.

Amazon is also specifically incentivized to be efficient at scale, it impacts their bottom line to the point where they care about the shape of their vehicles. Individuals don't operate on the same scale so these sort of micro-optimizations don't happen.

Occasionally posts like this do get the attention of the company responsible, more than an email does... but indeed that's like a one in a million situation