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With how much artificial intelligence has been improving, in many areas such as text reading/generation, picture reading, picture generation, convincing voice synthesis and more, I think there's a lot that can be discussed, about the effects that this technology will have on society.

I'll start off with one example.

I'd been thinking about the enshittification cycle of tech, and I think it's coming for Google hard. The search engine just isn't so great at finding what you actually want, and I think that's gonna leave a big opening for Bing with their use of AI. If the AI can sift through the crap and actually find what you want for real, due to its understanding of language, it'll actually make searching super useful again.

In the pre-Google internet, search engines used to search only for exact words and phrases, which had its uses, but also meant finding a lot of sites that simply crammed in a lot of popular words and phrases to get visitors. Google cut through the crap with a better understanding of how to "rank" sites relative to how relevant they are, and even find sites that are on the topic you were looking for without using the same exact words.

But Google started to become more advertiser-friendly, then later, more shareholder-friendly. There's a limit to how much one can make their product built entirely around shareholder growth, so as it turns to crap, it leaves an opening for a competitor to show up.

Since Bing/ChatGPT (which Bing is plugged into now) understands the use of language, it can actually understand context and determine relevance based on that. And that'll make it huge, I think. Context-based understanding of web pages can potentially do an excellent job of finding what people actually want, in a way that goes way beyond Google's page ranking systems, or the examination of exact words.


There is also a more specific thread for the legality, ethics and nature of AI art. Posts on this aren't off-topic here, but may sometimes be more appropriate to the other thread.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jun 22nd 2024 at 11:53:33 AM

Risa123 Since: Dec, 2021 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#1701: Nov 6th 2025 at 8:56:42 AM

@Travsam I fail to get the point here. Yes AI can be biased, but that is not solely an AI problem. Which to be clear is not to be dismissive of the problem, but I do not see how it call for such a law this calls for anti-discrimination laws for example in case of the immigrant status.

Edited by Risa123 on Nov 6th 2025 at 5:56:57 PM

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#1702: Nov 7th 2025 at 5:33:04 AM

Aye, that argument seems to assume that humans are unbiased or less biased than algorithms. The former's simply false, the second utterly unproven.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#1703: Nov 7th 2025 at 11:25:39 AM

I think there’s also a related argument that while humans may well be equally (or more) biased you can more easily challenge a human decision on bias grounds and with a human rather than an AI there’s a clear individual who can potentially be held accountable for their actions.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#1704: Nov 7th 2025 at 11:43:27 AM

However, "overturn the faulty decision and have the company pay the legal fees" is the normal procedure in Switzerland - being wealthy doesn't give your wealth political protection in a legal case, it gives the state (courts and prosecutors) the idea to take some of it.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
TomWithoutJerry Tyranny Bad, Democracy Good. from Where Might Makes Right and I have no Might. Since: Dec, 2023
Tyranny Bad, Democracy Good.
#1705: Nov 7th 2025 at 2:10:31 PM

An AI is possible to be as biased as a biased person programming it but unlike said person the AI isn't going to shed those biases and become a better person on their own.

Edited by TomWithoutJerry on Nov 7th 2025 at 6:10:44 AM

Please remember that, ultimately, fictional works of entertainment are just that.
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#1706: Nov 7th 2025 at 3:20:51 PM

I’m not sure many biased people change on their own to be honest, considering the troublesome workplace cultures I’ve encountered over the years I honestly think there will be instances where reprogramming a biased AI would be less work than reprogramming/retraining the humans involved.

A reasonable programmer can make an AI not provide an output that violates the law if you include the relevant laws in the training of the AI, but a lot of humans have this anoying tendency to be told they shouldn’t be illegal things, promise not to do illegal things then go ahead and do them anyway.

Edited by Silasw on Nov 7th 2025 at 11:22:59 AM

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
thok That's Dr. Title, thank you! (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Non-Canon
That's Dr. Title, thank you!
#1707: Nov 7th 2025 at 6:19:13 PM

Per [1], it's apparently very easy to construct a Turing Test to detect A.I.s. The tell: they aren't toxic enough to be confused for humans.

I feel like there's some sort of Questionable Content joke to make about this article (where the A.I.s can be human levels of toxic). But this captures something about various AI assistants that we already recognized.

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