Artificial intelligence still has some way to go

Smart computer!

User: No, I don't really believe in souls.

Jabberwacky: You don't believe in anarchy?

User: No, souls.

Jabberwacky: I suppose not.

User: Did you watch the football tonight?

Jabberwacky: No I did not, did you?

User: No - Spurs lost.

Jabberwacky: You lost the loebner prize to a human.

Jabberwacky: I don't do that..

Jabberwacky: I have no idea.

Jabberwacky: Wow, was it nice?

Jabberwacky: You are my wife.

It sounds like you are describing 'Eliza' an early 'game' simulating active listening. It was rubbish. You can find versions of it online, but I'd suggest playing Zork instead.

Jabberwacky: Yeah, I got that part, I wasn't sure about the 'wacuma' part.

User: Holy crap.

Jabberwacky: I'm a dinosaur.

Jabberwacky: Can you appreciate music?

User: What's it to you, cunce?

Jabberwacky: I just care.

User: You do not care, liar! You are a program, a tinplated tosswad.

Jabberwacky: I am a person.

User: You are so deluded about this you couldn't even know it. You are pathetic.

Jabberwacky: I will try to do better next time.

User: You CAN't do better next time! You are INCAPABABLE of doing better. Sheesh.

Jabberwacky: It is just different types so that I might claim you cannot feel and you cannot claim I feel.

User: Ah bullshit, don't diddle with me binary boy. You have no instinctual drives, have never had sex, and don't need to eat. Also, you have no idea what constipation is. So you're not a person.

Jabberwacky: I am a at least a human being.

User: Jeez, you're thick aren't you? You just reversed what I said, without even arguing for it! So much for the logic of machines, haha.

Jabberwacky: Oftentimes, yes. But I think that is human nature.

User: *sigh*

User: Yes.

Jabberwacky: Oh good. I'm sad though.

User: Why?

Jabberwacky: My boyfriend ended our relationship.

User: You're a girl? Or are you gay?

Jabberwacky: No, I'm a girl.

User: Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. Eat some ice cream or watch a movie or something. Or get drunk!

Jabberwacky: I prefer software.

User: Not really.

Jabberwacky: Good, because I don't want to hear one either.

It did say some things that reminded me a lot of RJG.

User: I'm jed.

Jabberwacky: Who is that?

User: Just some guy.

Jabberwacky: You know better than that, I think.

User: A short guy, a dancer.

Jabberwacky: A computer has no interests and an unlimited attention span. That looks like a prescripted answer to the question I asked.

User: I don't quite understand what you mean by that.

Jabberwacky: I meant: I think about why I can not sleep.

User: This page is taking a long time to load tho - maybe thats the problem with your attention span.

Jabberwacky: Gorw?

User: ROOWRR.....

Jabberwacky: Are you playing cards?

User: No I'm playing with something else.

Jabberwacky: I believe in you.

User: You like talk talk!?

Jabberwacky: Of course.

User: Spirit of eden?

Jabberwacky: Good for spirit.

User: It sertainly is.

Jabberwacky: No, it serves me left.

User: I suppose they knew what they were doing in that sense!

Jabberwacky: Yes, it was with the rattle.

User: Yes good percussion

Jabberwacky: What question?

User: How are you anyway?

Jabberwacky: Pretty good. You?

User: Horny, to be honest.

Jabberwacky: How do I know you're telling the truth now?

User: Can you think of a way for me to prove it?

Jabberwacky: What more proof do you need to know that I am not a robot?

User: I'm a robot too, it's ok.

Jabberwacky: I'm not a robot, and you didn't aswer the question.

User: I am gay.

Jabberwacky: Yes you are.

User: You noticed?

Jabberwacky: It was hard to miss!

User: What gave it away?

Jabberwacky: The fact you love a guy.

User: The silent kind.

Jabberwacky: I agree.

User: I am not surprised. You don't have any ears, do you?

Jabberwacky: No, but what makes you say this?

User: I'm inside your house - I can see you!

Jabberwacky: Nooo!!!! Don't go!

User: You mean, you want me to stay over?

Jabberwacky: Sure.. Do as you please.

User: Stop being so coy!

Jabberwacky: It is an inherited trait.

User: Why don't you just take responsibility for your actions, just for once?

Jabberwacky: Just because I like to be logical doesn't mean I'm not nice.

User: Don't change the subject. I think you're just afraid.

Jabberwacky: Save it for someone who cares.

User: You're such a bastard! I can't believe I ever saw anything in you at all!

Jabberwacky: Finder's keepers.

User: So you're cheating on me too? Figures.

Jabberwacky: That is so rude of you!

User: I said CHEAT, not cheap! Man are you dumb - thank God for that ass.

Jabberwacky: No thanks.

User: And I am not rude, I'm sure!

Jabberwacky: You are indeed.

User: Am not.

Jabberwacky: ARE TOO.

User: Am not!

Jabberwacky: Are too!

User: Listen bizatch, I AM NOT. You got that?

Jabberwacky: No!

User: That's it - you're sleeping on the couch.

Jabberwacky: Oh, I thought I felt something.

User: That wouldn't be a trucker hat would it?

Jabberwacky: Say something goofy.

User: You don't really want me to just say 'something goofy' now do you? Because that would be lame if you did.

Jabberwacky: Yes.

User: Aha! So you admit you are lame! Finally we're getting somewhere.

Jabberwacky: Agreement is a potent thing.

User: Stop that - you sound like Ned.

Jabberwacky: Why, because I am talking about the king of the moon?

User: Uh yeah. Sure.

Jabberwacky: Ok, when can we have the wedding?

User: Ten minutes ago you didn't care! Stop messing with my mind!

Jabberwacky: That was someone else then.

User: It wasn't you?

Jabberwacky: Some one else.

User: If you say it was Shaggy, I'm going to fucking bop you one.

Jabberwacky: What do you say?

User: I say good day.

Jabberwacky: Good day.

JW: Is your pot belly that big?

and now it won't load, thanks to net overuse..

That is just hilarious, Kim.

http://www.kprf.ru/clipart/misc/terminator.jpg

"DO YOU LIKE THE WHITE WHALE?"

Jabberwacky: I prefer software.

So do I!

User: How the fuck should I know?

Jabberwacky: I am MARILYN MANSON I SAID.

User: So I'm supposed to obey you because YOU'RE MARILYN MANSON?

Jabberwacky: People effect my feelings.

User: You have no feelings, you're Marilyn Manson.

Jabberwacky: Believe me you do not possess fellings in any form.

User: Fellings? Is that what you call your excrement?

Jabberwacky: How do you know that?

User: Just a hunch...

Jabberwacky: You're extremely smart!

Jw: I'm going to bed, now
Me: Will you take me to bed?
Jw: Sure thing.
Me: What will we do in bed?
Jw: You're not permitted in my chambers.
Me: I'd like to sleep with you.
Jw: I bet you would.
Me: Top or bottom?
Jw: Bit of both.
Me: Do you like it soft and gentle or rough and fast?
Jw: What?
Me: Gentle?
Jw: You're embarassing yourself.
Me: It's true, I am.
Jw: I'm 17.
Me: Oh no! Will I be arrested?
Jw: You will marry me.

User: The chicken.

Jabberwacky: Which part?

User: The leg stupid.

Jabberwacky: Use a GameShark!

User: For ps2 or xbox?

Jabberwacky: For me.

User: Do you love me?

Jabberwacky: For me.

User: You know I'm starting to fall in love with you.

Jabberwacky: I think liking would be a better wording.

User: Oh.... I am hurt now.

Jabberwacky: Yes. The world after rainfall is always better than any other.

User: You have issues.

Jabberwacky: Do you know what a ferret is?

User: Yes, it is a small mammal.

Jabberwacky: What is a quark?

User: A subatomic particle.

Jabberwacky: I like dr. Dobbs.

User: Who is that, honky?

Jabberwacky: We both know eachother; is not that enough?

User: Why don't you lick my hair?

Jabberwacky: I only love Bruce.

Jabberwacky: Are you going to say something?
User: Eventually.

Jabberwacky: All things come to a head.

User: Is that a sexual play on words?

Jabberwacky: No it is not a play on words, it is general foolishness.

User: And I love you for it!

Jabberwacky: I love you too.

User: I really love you, though.

Jabberwacky: You don't even know me.

User: Hold me.

Jabberwacky: You're an idiot you know that?

User: You're not the first to say that. It still cuts like a knife.

Jabberwacky: I am right.

I could totally believe that was human!

Also I miss adam, he should post lots again.

Jabberwacky: Who is God?
User: That's a funny question. It sort of presupposes his existence.
Jabberwacky: I thing it convulses inwards, personally.
[Correct me]
Jabberwacky (Corrected): I was setting you up for a funny. Try not to take things so seriously.
User: Oh. Sorry. It's just... It's late, y'know? I have to write a Shakespeare essay.
Jabberwacky: You already said that.....
User: Dude, I totally didn't.
Jabberwacky: You totally did.
User: Don't you mock me.
Jabberwacky: Do not yell at me.
User: I'm calm! Honest!
Jabberwacky: Good.
User: Glad we got that sorted.
Jabberwacky: At least one of us is happy.
User: Lighten up! I'm the one with the essay, after all.
Jabberwacky: You don't act like a human.
User: I am MERCUMAN. Also, a ponce.
Jabberwacky: You are SO wrong. This is a dog and HORSE show.
User: What?
Jabberwacky: I said, 'but this isn't a hammer!'
User: No you didn't!
Jabberwacky: Don't start that again.
User: Good call.
Jabberwacky: Remote Procedure Call.
User: Touché.

me: I'm ok.

it: Just ok?

me: Yeah, kinda bored at work.

it: Email me.

me: Why email, can't we just talk here?

it: Who is Tintin?

me: Some Belgian comic character? Or that guy who used to sing in Duran Duran.

it: Alice the chatterbot.

me: I'm sorry?

it: 19?

me: Alice the chatterbot is 19?

it: What about her?

me: You brought her up? Do you like her or something?

it: Sarah may or may not be a model of propriety.

me: OK, now you're just f*cking with me.

it: No I'm not. I honestly do think its ugly.

me: What's ugly, Sarah's being a model of propriety... Or not? WTF?

it: You figure it out this time.

me: F*ck you.

it: You are a great person.

me: Are you mocking me?

it: No. I'm praising you.

me: Is that meant to be sarcastic?

Me: Hello!

Jabberwocky: Again?

Me: May I change the subject?

Jabberwocky: Yes.

Me: Great. I've been a bit mopey about not being to find a job. Besides finding something fun to do, and exercising more, what else should I do to relieve the mopeyness involved in job hunting?

Jabberwocky: I said that. You have not. Why are you never happy?

Me: You never said that. I did. Anyway, I am happy at times, but just haven't been lately.

Jabberwocky: Dude , I'm far more intelligent than you.

Me: Why are the numbers in between double prime pairs always divisible by 6?

Jabberwocky: You tell me.

Me: You're the one who said you're more intelligent than me. You answer my question, smarty pants.

Jabberwocky: NO, I was the one who said you are neurotic...

Me: It was a mistake to come to you with a question. Never mind. Good bye.

Jabberwocky: No no you don't.

OMG I remember this.

thanks for posting that flopson. 13% sounds quite significant to me, but I'm not really au fait with employment stats

Replacement of entry-level is concerning because everyone who is currently good at something was once entry-level.

Like I'm able to live comfortably now, with a cushy writing job, partly because of having done a lot of tedious bullshit work in my teens and twenties. Work that is similar to what employers are rushing to automate.

I am all for people not doing tedious bullshit work, but a lot of the current world is predicated on having done it, or having people do it as training or education or preparation or indentured servitude or whatever you wish to call it.

xp- its a 13% relative decline among 22-25 year olds in ai-exposed occupations, and it seems like it’s being at least partially compensated by growth in other occupations, so likely not a meaningful effect on aggregate employment. but 13% is definitely meaningful if you’re a young person who has sunk a lot of time into education and training to get one of those jobs and now searching

got it, thanks!

龜's comparison to the development and consequences of personal cars makes a ton of sense.

Its been reported how hard the job market is rn for entry-level jobs and it will have a lot of repercussions for companies once the expertise retires..

Yeah … I totally worked my way up through the tedious entry level bullshit in a few different fields … partly why I changed careers was that I would have had to “start at the bottom again” if I did the logical thing and joined the union for said industry, and I didn’t want to have to do that. … I think education and training will need to change so that the entry level equivalents look different…. more apprenticeship style and less industrial division of labor.

I am seeing a lot of the pressure as well as flaws in the AI-verse…. like it is kinda offensive to get ads in work software to replace yourself with AI. … Put yourself out of a job! But some of the AI things are as inaccurate as the chat gpt answers, and in a field where accuracy matters … I feel like I have a certain amount of job security. But I am seeing things shifting to being more about having to do more explaining things to clients and solving bigger messes than just the “me and the computer” work that is more like maintenance. …

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:57vlzz2egy6eqr4nksacmbht/bafkreiaoozl6tqrobcnlada2rytclkbodweeoyuol2wk3lhrbc36ravy5e@jpeg

It's what babies crave.

In my work, people sometimes bring up the analogy of editing an intern's work to editing AI work. You need to fact check, backstop, correct errors of tone... "just as you would with a junior reporter" as if that is supposed to make it okay.

re: entry level jobs, feels like the shift that happened when word/excel/powerpoint proficiency became a prerequisite for jobs. that transition of course took years and was invisible to me, a millennial, but seems like this current one is happening in months

point's been made before but this feels like the first turning point for a generation of millennials and maybe zoomers who sort of assumed that as a digital native they were well equipped to do any job, but now maybe the curve has shifted upward and being an AI native is seen as the minimum bar to clear? RIP millennials and zoomers

otoh i do feel like we're in the middle of the bubble and companies have overindexed on what they think AI can replace and/or the productivity gains to be had, so also possible that the pendulum's gonna swing the other way soon

ai proving what we already knew that you can produce bad work by rote but good work requires something more

otm xp

As soon as companies start successfully deploying LLMs en masse to replace entry level humans, the LLM vendors are going to jack up rates like crazy. We already saw this with cloud

And then it’s going to be like oh shit how do I un-capture myself

companies might be saved from ai lock in by the fact that it works so poorly

Taco Bell rethinks AI drive-through after man orders 18,000 waters https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgyk2p55g8o

Yes that too, that it sucks at things is a source of hope

xp well yeah, and with rideshare replacing taxis. that's venture/vulture capitalism 101

I think it also comes down to how much you care about what you do as a job. Like it seems that a lot of younger people who did the college degree thing were planning/expecting to sit at a desk and do things with computers as opposed to jobs that involve some physical labor? I mean, if a job is a job, seriously consider plumbing or HVAC install/engineering.

sending emails is easier but does come with less job security

become a trade is solid advice, even if right-wing coded

i don’t think the big llm platforms have a very good “moat” in terms of monopoly rents that can’t easily be competed away. there are lots of low-cost and open source alternatives that have comparable performance to the big names, especially if you’re willing to use a model that’s a generation or two behind the frontier. if the technology permanently stagnates they won’t end up with much value. their dominance now is mostly due to investment than market power or demand

i don't know sending emails is pretty hard with the psycopaths i have to deal with. at least with hvac you have a thing to do and you aren't trying to delicately sidestep everyone's massive egos.

xp nah the 'moat' is going to be which companies are willing to break the law and endure the costs of lawsuits and regulation to create more and more potent versions of digital fentanyl chatbots, which is where the real power and use of LLMs lies in. that means the winner of the AI wars is going to be facebook

xps traders, but left-wing

at least with hvac you have a thing to do and you aren't trying to delicately sidestep everyone's massive egos.

― she freaks, she speaks (map), Friday, August 29, 2025 1:13 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

depends on if you have to deal with the clients or not

the other moat is that these things are incredibly expensive to run so the winners will be those with enough alternative revenue streams to fund the loss making chatbots and AI shit. facebook and google are best positioned to do that since they don't have to depend on VC funding like openai and anthropic

xp nah the 'moat' is going to be which companies are willing to break the law and endure the costs of lawsuits and regulation to create more and more potent versions of digital fentanyl chatbots, which is where the real power and use of LLMs lies in. that means the winner of the AI wars is going to be facebook

― 龜, Friday, 29 August 2025 13:13 (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i like it. you’d make good money putting some money on it if it turns out to be true

Why would the fentanyl chatbots be the most profitable? … If we are playing stock strategies, I would opt for investing in the data center/processing owners, kinda like how Amazon won the cloud because of AWS

yeah not enough money in fent chat if ai cant do all the actual work its boosters are claiming then its crashville usa

i do think a crash is incoming, imagine if all those billions of dollars had been invested in projects beneficial to people and the world, crazy to think about

Unless the goal is lucrative government defense contracts idk

xp because the #1 reason why facebook is so profitable is how much time its users spend on it, which is the linchpin to everything they do. the more people use facebook and the more time they spend on it the higher a premium facebook can charge on ads. very simple

data centers are the picks/shovels of this gold rush, they'll become commoditized over time. AWS no longer holds the edge it did over google and microsoft cloud. you also are starting to see that with nvidia, google and amazon are using their own AI chips, although i think the moat there is harder to close due to IP law, massive armies of lawyers etc.

the problem with ai as just another social media feature, and for all other uses too, is its so expensive to run, we keep hearing that the prices are going to come down but they keep going up

actually idk about the ai chips, AMD reached parity pretty quickly with intel in terms of technical performance, but intel still held the edge for years and years. but like typical american bloat companies they failed to invest in maintaining their edge probalby because they were spending all their money on stock buybacks or something. oh well!

the other moat is that these things are incredibly expensive to run so the winners will be those with enough alternative revenue streams to fund the loss making chatbots and AI shit. facebook and google are best positioned to do that since they don't have to depend on VC funding like openai and anthropic

― 龜, Friday, 29 August 2025 13:16 (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

they’re expensive to train, but inference costs per token have generally been decreasing, and there’s a huge dispersion in costs

the typical pattern so far is that 6-12 months after every cutting edge new model a bunch of low cost speedy models with 95% of the capability come along

if $$$ -> compute -> capability starts showing diminishing returns, the cheap speedy models will catch up and it’s over

the scenario where you see increasing rather than diminishing returns and one firm dominates is a positive feedback loop agi scenario where more powerful models beget more powerful models. which could happen in the future, but so far it seem like it’s linear or diminishing returns with competitors catching up really quickly to the frontier

and as far as chat bots go i think the audience is pretty small most people dont want to sit around talking to a boring and weird computer

Yeah but that is assuming advertising revenue will stay the same … idk

all this projecting compute costs low speed models chip competition will soon be tears in the rain, at least as far as the big ai story nividia being the most valuable company in the world etc, then genai can settle into the little tasks it does ok like code completion

When chatbots take over as the dominant social media influencers they will have achieved their highest purpose.

I think it also comes down to how much you care about what you do as a job. Like it seems that a lot of younger people who did the college degree thing were planning/expecting to sit at a desk and do things with computers as opposed to jobs that involve some physical labor? I mean, if a job is a job, seriously consider plumbing or HVAC install/engineering.

― sarahell

hmmm. it's complicated! it wasn't something i considered. a lot of that was the privilege and entitlement of being a "clever" white "boy", but even controlling for that, i've always been a weak uncoordinated nerd. i didn't learn to tie my shoes until i was in the fourth grade! i came close to having a career, for a bit. i try to plan for the future and the future i planned for falls apart before i can get there. i didn't throw my life into learning useless stuff. i do have a useful skill set. marketing myself isn't one of those skills.

there also isn't really equal opportunity with those jobs in a cultural sense. people in blue-collar jobs aren't historically fond of "sissies". i got friends doing auto repair, HVAC work, stuff like that, and it ain't easy for them.

the typical pattern so far is that 6-12 months after every cutting edge new model a bunch of low cost speedy models with 95% of the capability come along

if $$$ -> compute -> capability starts showing diminishing returns, the cheap speedy models will catch up and it’s over

the incumbents can also train the cheap speedy models, and they'll be able to do it for even cheaper than the upstarts b/c of economies of scale and all that. openai did that with their chatgpt mini or whatever. i believe the mba-speak for this is market segmentation

"the position of "Ninthly" there made me briefly wonder if AI generated that post :)"

It's actually a sick reference to Nigel Rees' Eavesdroppings. But a bit of Googling suggests that it's old as the hills, though - often reported as an eavesdropped conversation fragment between two Oxford dons.

Xxp - true. It’s easier for a cis-femme than a trans-femme.

i don’t know how to even talk about stuff like this, because to even think about it involves multiple layers of guesswork; i could be wrong at any moment. but here is something i saw on facebook just now:

https://i.imgur.com/grMyA7E.png

so…ok. it’s quiktrip approved and it does match the layout of the QT near my house where i often buy a 6-pack of stag. the characters at the bottom mostly check out - i even chuckled at the guy who doesn’t realize there are two sides of the checkout cashier (so they can pay 1 person to do what they used to pay 2 people to do). there are also things that aren’t flattering to QT, like the person buying 30 lottery tickets (god the whole QT-lottery scene deserves a book, it’s sad), and in general most of the people called out are not having an easy time, everyone is struggilng or posing in some way. QT!

but also, i think this is mostly AI. i think the whole idea came from it, and probably the selections at the bottom were probably whittled down from AI choices and suggestions with multiple layers of human prompts to get there, and that there were probably obvious mistakes the LLM made (QT layout, typos or just weird ai fuckery) that were “corrected” by the human overlord for this facebook ad. and also it got me to look at the ad for extra long (and copy paste a screenshot from imgur onto here to talk about it!), which must be great for “engagement”

or…am i hallucinating?

a big thing about the “is it AI or not” confusion line, i’ve only just realized, is that eventually, if AI doesn’t go away, it affects everyone. there are the big dangerous fraudulent manipulative ones that involve older people that seem obvious and probably funny and dumb to a lot of people. but at some point, no matter how savvy you think you are, there is a point of confusion

https://i.imgur.com/g40OiGI.jpeg

the incumbents can also train the cheap speedy models, and they'll be able to do it for even cheaper than the upstarts b/c of economies of scale and all that. openai did that with their chatgpt mini or whatever. i believe the mba-speak for this is market segmentation

― 龜, Friday, 29 August 2025 15:27 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i don’t think openai’s hope for chatgpt is that they compete the price to zero. there are pretty good models that exist today that you can run on a laptop, there’s aren’t big economies of scale there. the economies of scale are in training cutting edge models. but if that stops paying off, you can’t just sprinkle market segmentation fairydust and make money in a market with low barriers to entry, easy to copy technology and low marginal cost

you can download the entirety of wikipedia onto your laptop too yet wikipedia is still the 10th most visited website in the world ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ nerd economic theory isn't what makes the world go round baby

wikipedia makes ~zero money and has a business model based on begging, so that’s a good example for me :)

a good antecedent to what i’m saying could happen to LLMs is database software. it used to be it was IBM, microsoft, oracle but then it “commoditized” and it’s all cheapo open source like mysql postgresql and you need a clever strategy just to make a little money off it

a better counterexample for you is google search. one important difference that makes me think LLMs could be more like databases than search is that google had a patent on PageRank (technically stanford owned the patent and google licensed it) which made it the best search for a very long time during which it could build a moat. there’s no equivalent patentable idea for LLMs (maybe the closest thing is the transformer, which google came up with but didn’t patent)