Artificial intelligence still has some way to go

Using Google Translate’s camera to translate Japanese CD liner notes isn’t putting anyone out of a job at least. Those things were never translated.

Yup. Increased automation can be a great thing. The problem -- as polyphonic states -- comes in as to what we do about the jobs lost due to automation.

Google Translate is still hilariously bad at translating speech, as I have found out on numerous occasions when using it in the compang of my in-laws. The nuances of a conversation seem to utterly defeat it. So there will be a job for translators of real-time speech long after the ones for translating documents have gone.

https://trossachs.co.uk/mountains/ben-aan/

ho ho holy shit

Once more of this kind of drivel escapes onto the internet it will surely be used to 'train' the next generation of LLMs, subsuming us all beneath an accreting tide of bollocks.

are there any recent articles about jobs lost due to automation? I think it's still a drop in the bucket compared to outsourcing and moving production around to the least expensive global locations

outsourcing is more wealth extraction rather than job loss since those jobs are still being presumably done by humans though?

It feels like there's more and more jobs now than ever, just fewer and fewer meaningful and/or reasonably-paying ones.

well, it's job loss in the country that's outsourcing

I kept joking with my coworker about that goofy Amazon grocery store concept they shut down. You know, the one that claimed to have no cashiers, but they did have a team of 1000 people in India working in shifts analyzing the video to both train a video analyzer and actually tally up the purchases.

They may have not had a cashier, but they did employ 1000 people in India!

youd think that one wouldve been doable every item just has a tag on it and the computer reads them it doesnt seem that hard but no

Yes a lot of companies/consultancies that claim to automate processes by using tech actually make most of their profit by facilitating outsourcing.

But in specific cases like translation/making subs I think the automation has led to job losses.

Automation is not a straight line, it takes a long time to develop.

This piece cites the prediction made a few years back that radiologists would cease to exist by now, but so far it hasn't happened.

Not to say it won't.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n06/paul-taylor/llamas-pizzas-mandolins

lol that is an amazing url, thank you

i hung out with this dude once whose job was to dissect ferrets and remove some organ to send on to labs using them for research. it occurred to me that these type of jobs that build up training chips for ML models will probably always exist, but they will be low paying jobs. i could see AI wiping out the middle class this way, especially the white collar upper-middle class.

That was a really good piece

tell that to translators who lost their jobs

― reggae mike love (polyphonic)

i'll keep saying it as long as i need to - the problem isn't the machines, it's _capitalism_.

now that linux has been fully co-opted by the beast, which is the true socialist OS to run our solar-powered LLMs on? (there's a cool solar-powered online zine that does run on linux though: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/)

yeah pretty wild that we keep developing this technology to make people's jobs easier and it's universally seen as a bad thing

ryan broderick has a good piece today about, er, pieces like that

Last week, a group of former OpenAI employees came forward with a very scary warning that AI companies have been acting secretly and irresponsibly and need to be regulated. Was this group of insiders ringing the alarm bell on rampant copyright infringement? No. What about the fact that racial biases are being encoded into these models? Nope. Misinformation and destruction of journalism? Don’t be stupid.

Rather than anything that currently matters or even exists, this group is actually very worried about “the loss of control of autonomous AI systems potentially resulting in human extinction,” as they wrote on their website. It makes for good headlines and is enough to earn them the token New York Times arms-crossed whistleblower photo, but let’s be real. This is just marketing.

https://www.garbageday.email/p/cargo-cults-autocorrect

ai is really in an alltime hype cycle right now, usually you dont get people thinking the hot new thing is going to exterminate humanity

we've already got climate change doing it but that isn't a money maker :(

climate change is increasing human misery but has no chance to wipe us out

no chance?

life won't resemble anything we would recognize today, but the special suits for the surface visits will probably be pretty cool

if were talking total extinction in my uneducated opinion its not zero but its close would prob require some weird spiraling climate effects where the planet ends up like venus or in a snowball earth situation just totally uninhabitable, major shit hitting the wall societal collapse scenarios are a lot more on the table imho tho idk how likely they are its pretty hard to figure

tho it is the fan that shit hits i guess

if things keep going the way they are the shits going to have to hit the air conditioner am i right folks

to be clear i dont really believe in shit hitting the fan societal collapse scenarios thats just shorthand for very bad things happening like war or famine, as long as theres two people society will be ongoing, maybe one person is enough

are you preparing for your role as last man

i have few different kinds of boots

doesn't last person have to be combo man / woman

is there nothing the trans agenda will not attempt to coopt

is there nothing the trans agenda will not attempt to coopt

― lag∞n

on behalf of the trans agenda, no

truly diabolical

how do we decide which jobs are worth “saving” from automation

Ones that solve actual problems.

You present them to a panel of four celebrity judges

counter-proposal: just let the Trans Agenda decide

not speaking for the Trans Agenda: i say we let the market decide

and by that i mean we make healthcare universal and give everyone a UBI so that nobody _needs_ to work

funded by taking all the money from the .01% richest people, and by taxing the shit out of income aside from that

celebrity judges idea is fine too as long as all the judges are trans

my son, who is just learning to read, picked up a free Spiderman book on a stoop this week, and it wasn't until we got home that he realized it was in French (lol Brooklyn). he was heartbroken. first actual positive cultural experience with ML: using the camera and the translate app and being able to read the book together at bedtime.

Sounds like an Apple commercial waiting to happen

lol 'lanceur de toile'

https://i.imgur.com/qdkwPUt.png
way to go

Lol I was reading this morning about all the white-collar jobs that AI will replace and thinking that what I do (project management / development aid) should be quite immune. But I also have this colleague who kept using chatgpt to generate reports and always seemed to use her free time during work hours to reportedly "clean her flat".

Which in a sense, I get. I certainly get more pleasure from doing the dishes than sitting at my desk.

Anybody use one of those resume builders?

washingtonpost has a relatively new AI "summarize" feature. i'm sure that's already a thing at other outlets, but it's kind of new to me. if anyone wants to see how well (or poorly) it works, here's an example article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/06/11/rebecca-grossman-sentencing-crash/
gift link: https://wapo.st/3Rtlp5d

Socialite gets 15 years to life for L.A. hit-and-run that killed 2 boys
Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder Rebecca Grossman struck Jacob Iskander, 8, and his brother Mark, 11, with her car in a Los Angeles crosswalk.

Rebecca Grossman, a wealthy California socialite and philanthropist, was sentenced Monday to 15 years to life in prison for the deaths of two young brothers in a Los Angeles crosswalk in 2020.

Grossman, 60, was convicted by a jury in February on two counts of murder, vehicular manslaughter and gross negligence in the deaths of Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob Iskander, 8, and an additional count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.

Prosecutors had pushed for the maximum sentence of 34 years to life. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón on Monday said he was “deeply disappointed with the outcome.” Grossman was ordered to pay $47,161.89 in restitution to the victims’ family.

Grossman — who founded the Grossman Burn Foundation with her husband, Peter, a prominent Los Angeles plastic surgeon and burn doctor — maintained throughout the trial and sentencing that she did not see the two boys, who were crossing the street with their parents in a marked crosswalk.

Police alleged in a statement at the time that she was driving at “excessive speeds” through Westlake Village. She continued driving after the crash, they said, eventually stopping about a quarter-mile away.

“This individual showed a complete disregard for the lives and safety of others in our community through her reckless actions, which ultimately shattered a family and robbed two children of their bright futures,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Chief Allen Castellano said Monday.

In a presentencing memo, prosecutors had argued for the maximum sentence, accusing Grossman of displaying a “narcissistic superiority” and saying she had neither shown remorse nor accepted responsibility for the crash.

“She has lived a life of privilege and clearly felt that her wealth and notoriety would buy her freedom,” they wrote.

In a letter to the boys’ parents, appended as an exhibit in the prosecution’s sentencing motion, Grossman wrote: “I am so sorry that I was portrayed as a monster to you. I will always remember this life-altering second of my life for the remainder of my life. Every day. I still have nightmares.” She said her previous efforts to express remorse had been “redacted.”

Grossman’s attorney, James Spertus, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that the data recorder in Grossman’s Mercedes SUV showed she accelerated to 81 mph just seconds before the crash, with her foot pressed to the floor. The speed limit in the residential neighborhood was 45 mph.

Investigator Michael Hale testified that her SUV struck the boys with the equivalent force of the vehicle being dropped on them from a 12-story height.

Grossman had no previous convictions, but the prosecution sentencing memo noted a number of driving offenses, including speeding offenses, dating to the early 2000s.

During the trial, it was alleged that she drank at least two margaritas and took Valium earlier that day, and experts testified that her mental capacity and physical reactions were probably impaired.

Multiple witnesses testified that she drove erratically and at excessive speeds before the crash, including allegedly swerving into the bicycle lane in an attempt to pass a car.

She appeared to be playing “a deadly game of chase” with Scott Erickson, the driver of a black Mercedes and her boyfriend at the time, the prosecution said.

“The loss of these two innocent lives has devastated their family and our community. Ms. Grossman’s blatant disregard for human life is a stark reminder of the grave consequences of irresponsible behavior behind the wheel,” Gascón said in a statement.

and here's the AI summary:

Key takeaways

Summary is AI-generated, newsroom-reviewed.

Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder Rebecca Grossman, 60, claimed not to see the boys.

Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob Iskander, 8, killed in crosswalk; family to get restitution.

Prosecutors accuse Grossman of “narcissistic superiority” and lack of remorse.

USA Today, eat your heart out!

it’s wild that they feel okay putting this garbage in front of customers

The Meaning Behind The Song: Stairway to Heaven by Frank Zappa
I have always been fascinated by the power of music to touch our hearts and souls, and there are certain songs that have a profound impact on us. One such song that has captivated listeners for decades is “Stairway to Heaven” by Frank Zappa. This iconic track not only mesmerizes us with its beautiful melodies and intricate composition but also leaves us pondering its deeper meaning.

https://oldtimemusic.com/w2/the-meaning-behind-the-song-stairway-to-heaven-by-frank-zappa/

F-