While I tend towards the side of the article, I find it difficult to agree (or follow) many of the points it makes, which is a bit disappointing.
For example, under “ChatGPT Is So Popular”, they disagree with the premise then use the argument that “ChatGPT was marketed with lies” as evidence. The later argument is well researched, but is simply out of place, leaving nothing to support their disagreement.
superkuh · 4h ago
I think the "What is an AI Booster" could've been placed a bit more towards the top of the article to explain this was about business people and corporations and not actually about AI,
>So, an AI booster is not, in many cases, an actual fan of artificial intelligence. People like Simon Willison or Max Woolf who actually work with LLMs on a daily basis don’t see the need to repeatedly harass everybody, or talk down to them about their unwillingness to pledge allegiance to the graveyard smash of generative AI. In fact, the closer I’ve found somebody to actually building things with LLMs, the less likely they are to emphatically argue that I’m missing out by not doing so myself.
>No, the AI booster is symbolically aligned with generative AI. They are fans in the same way that somebody is a fan of a sports team, their houses emblazoned with every possible piece of tat they can find, their Sundays living and dying by the success of the team, except even fans of the Dallas Cowboys have a tighter grasp on reality.
Uehreka · 1h ago
I get the feeling that folks like Ed find “genuine AI enjoyers” to be an annoying inconvenience in their efforts to write fun cathartic screeds about how AI is useless and the people pushing for it are all frauds.
He has to include that section as CYA against people saying they legitimately like AI, but if he made it more prominent it might start to complicate the narrative and let air out of the balloon.
ryandvm · 2h ago
I'm not an AI booster as much as I am an AI fatalist. Assuming that AI has short term profit potential for the entrenched ruling class, this genie is not going back in the bottle. You might as well get used to it.
floundy · 4h ago
It can't be mere coincidence that there's a significant overlap between crypto bros and AI boosters in my social circles.
bediger4000 · 4h ago
Vanishingly few crypto boosters have a grip on the mathematics or software engineering. They clearly sense (or believe they sense) a money making opportunity because cryptocurrency is new. Bluster, a hearty handshake or the projection of confidence and hard work is all they think is necessary to make a fortune before the normies figure it all out.
I think the same sort of "peaked in highschool" folks would be dazzled by LLMs, so that overlap seems natural to me.
For example, under “ChatGPT Is So Popular”, they disagree with the premise then use the argument that “ChatGPT was marketed with lies” as evidence. The later argument is well researched, but is simply out of place, leaving nothing to support their disagreement.
>So, an AI booster is not, in many cases, an actual fan of artificial intelligence. People like Simon Willison or Max Woolf who actually work with LLMs on a daily basis don’t see the need to repeatedly harass everybody, or talk down to them about their unwillingness to pledge allegiance to the graveyard smash of generative AI. In fact, the closer I’ve found somebody to actually building things with LLMs, the less likely they are to emphatically argue that I’m missing out by not doing so myself.
>No, the AI booster is symbolically aligned with generative AI. They are fans in the same way that somebody is a fan of a sports team, their houses emblazoned with every possible piece of tat they can find, their Sundays living and dying by the success of the team, except even fans of the Dallas Cowboys have a tighter grasp on reality.
He has to include that section as CYA against people saying they legitimately like AI, but if he made it more prominent it might start to complicate the narrative and let air out of the balloon.
I think the same sort of "peaked in highschool" folks would be dazzled by LLMs, so that overlap seems natural to me.