I’m bored of it.
The pervasive, all encompassing nature of it.
The inevitable, dehumanising consequence of it.
That there’s a ‘there’ there to it.
Rubbish in and rubbish out of it.
Nobody asked for it, and nobody wants it.
The best minds of my generation
58 Comments
artificialprint
Pre chatgpt 3 it was beautiful, fresh. Not it's another race to the bottom
anthk
Garbage in/ garbage out is what will happen without human curated sources verified by experts on their field.
noname120
Boring article
blatantly
Crypto or AI?
DontchaKnowit
It is legitimately like the least interesting topic of convo. When someone says "maybe they could use Aai to…." I tune out immediately
amelius
Maybe they should start a new community and call it the AI-mish people …
profsummergig
I love using it. It helped me resuscitate a bricked PC two days ago. Yesterday it cleaned up and explained some robocopy code for me. And today it taught me how to download several less powerful versions of itself to my PC to run locally.
viraptor
> You know what I’m talking about, even though I’ve not mentioned it.
Yes. That's a really long setup for a bad yo momma joke…
tjpnz
>The best minds of my generation thinking about how to make people use it.
The best minds or just the most visible?
latexr
> The best minds of my generation
I’m tired of that line. I remember first seeing it on “the best minds of our generation being employed to sell you ads”. Making a computer go brrr doesn’t qualify anyone for a “best mind”.
I’d hope a “best mind” would be, above all, empathetic. Concerned about the well being of their fellow humans. Philosophical about the state of the world. Patient. Curious. Wise and not just smart.
That we keep putting greedy assholes on a “best minds” pedestal due to their ability to exploit others for personal profit is part of the problem.
gizmo
The world is changing. Maybe for the better, maybe not. Personally, I'm pretty optimistic. Other people might mostly see risks and harm. I get that. But what I don't get is how people think this is boring. Today's kids will grow up in a strangely alien world that used to be science fiction. That's why people can't stop talking about.
ctippett
Sure, it's blunt. But surely we've all experienced the feeling of apathy expressed in this post. I certainly have.
teekert
I'm finally learning how to do unit tests in my Python code, this was long overdue (hey I'm a bioinformatician, we make some of the worst code out there!!) but Claude's taking me by the hand and I make sure I understand every character that I type. So far so good!
Still a nice to read piece though, made me smile, can be applied to many things, from crypto (the coin kind) to politics to Rust to Nix to ads [best minds of our generation?] to … .
(I assume it's about AI btw, because of the nuclear power station. Anyway, I'm not bored at all of any of the topics I mentioned :) .)
justlikereddit
A low quality complaints article that a LLM could write.
Why do we allow people like that to cause global warming and chop down the rainforest for soy latte when a complaints-oriented LLM could output the same zzz-tier slop posting as a million of his kind, all at the cost of much lower footprint?
mrb
"That there’s a ‘there’ there to it."
WTF does this mean? This sentence is grammatically incorrect.
freetime2
> Rubbish in and rubbish out of it.
Except it’s not rubbish out. The output is astoundingly good – something I would have considered science fiction a few years ago.
It’s not perfect. But as a tool in certain contexts, it is already proving its worth. And it’s only going to get better.
Sorry that you’re sick of it, but I think this tech is here to stay.
skrebbel
Remember, being terminally online is a choice. There's nothing to be bored of you don't choose to be constantly confronted by it. The current thing is only the current thing if you choose to surround yourself by people who deeply care about the current thing.
GaggiX
An uninteresting complaining article with only clichés like "Nobody asked for it and nobody wants it."
kulor
Is this intellectual fatigue not part of all paradigm shifts? Semi-serious question.
stavros
Yeah, whenever I see one of these articles, I just feel disappointed at what kind of mindset could be given an amazing new tool to build previously impossible things with, but just goes "meh".
I'm really excited that LLMs exist, and they've been making my life much easier, but to each their own.
gatinsama
Counterpoint: I am not bored at all.
Hyped as it is, it is important to be here to discuss its uses, misuses and implications. Some if it is fascinating, and other parts are fascinatingly bad.
I understand the fatigue with it. But that it is used right (or at all) is a conversation worth having.
bufferoverflow
Nobody asked for it???
Nobody wants it???
You're not paying attention.
I want it. I think it's our only chance at quickly solving huge complex problems like aging, cancer, Alzheimer's.
clovoak
"Nobody asked for it, and nobody wants it."
Whenever I read this I just lose all credibility for the author. As if millions of DAU having their problems solved are invisible to them.
adlpz
Go read a book and grow some tomatoes.
May as well be bored about steam turbines or refrigeration.
This posts reeks of a worrying lack of agency.
thih9
> You know what I’m talking about, even though I’ve not mentioned it.
Many comments here assume the "it" means AI. Is that certain though? As in: is there a line that without doubt would point to AI?
In my view this text could just as well be about the iPhone (written 15 years ago and published today).
Perhaps this makes "it" even more boring; i.e. that when the process ends with one "it", it starts again with a new one.
terhechte
— Douglas Adams
Let me guess your age.
sfortis
Still trying to figure out why this is #1 on HN.
john_texas
[dead]
egeozcan
What's written in the article would have been a good summary of my feelings when WhatsApp, an application I cannot switch away from because of the network effects, decided to add an AI icon and then integrated AI in its search.
sidcool
I did not get what this is about.
petercooper
Plus ça change. Any jump forward leads to a sentiment of neo-luddism among some group or another (I can't deny I felt a twinge of it around the NFT fever). If the latest group wants to actually effect change, maybe they need a movement and a Ned Ludd type character to get behind. As someone who is unashamedly pro-AI, I think it's healthy to have some to-and-fro and dissenting voices, because these are really big issues we're dealing with.
martindbp
I've noticed something about people's reaction to AI. People who view themselves mainly as engineers or craftsmen are threatened by AI, understandably. People who just want to make cool stuff, solve real problems or just have fun are not threatened, but love it.
And I get it, an expert furniture craftsman will not have respect for IKEA furniture, and that's fine. But it means I can affordably furnish a new apartment for $2k instead of $20k. Of course it's even more threatening because there is the risk that the AI will actually do a better job in the future. But people still play Chess and have fun with that, and people enjoy watching Magnus Carlsen play even though he can't beat the AI on a phone.
In the end, we will all have to adapt, and for your own sake I don't think it helps putting your head in the sand and being bitter. Instead of being bitter, try thinking about all the cool stuff you can make now as a one person team.
placardloop
AI is really bringing out the worst in capitalist corporatism. I think even the most pessimistic AI doomer will agree that the technology is fascinating and can do some cool things, but our corporate overlords have made it such an all-encompassing topic that it’s hard not to be disillusioned by it.
Yes, it’s an interesting technology – but seeing other interesting technologies and projects get disinvested in because it’s not new shiny AI – or watching leaders insist on creating yet another chatbot just so they can pat themselves on the back – or replacing an already-working system with a half-broken AI one just so we can say we use AI, and then forcing everyone at the company to use it just so we can release a press release saying ‘all of our developers use AI’. Watching our overall quality of work decrease, but leaders celebrate it because “mediocre but done with AI” is gold standard now…
All of it feels like a sham. Feels like we’re trying too hard to prop up AI as amazing, rather than letting it succeed on its own merits.
rsynnott
Best bit is, this is perennial; while, given the date one assumes it is a vile libel against our benevolent robot overlords, if written a few years ago you'd just assume it was about blockchain.
mgaunard
What's "it"? AI in general?
Giorgi
Can't tell if it is crypto or AI hmm
maxbaines
Books?
raydiak
While I agree with some of the points here, the aloof tone-deaf consumerist mentality reveals either ignorance of, or more likely indifference to, the transformative juncture we've reached and/or the possible perils. If all you feel about the current situation is "bored," that's a you problem. The world is not here for your amusement. Boredom is a lack of imagination. Go do something else. Your problem is not boredom, it is your own apathetic attitude and need to be regularly spoon-fed entertainment.
Maybe I don't get the level of burnout I'm seeing because I don't spend much time streaming or doomscrolling, but that's an example of my point. If you spend more time creating than consuming, then boredom isn't a problem regardless of what the rest of the world is up to. Occasional fear and horror at the news maybe, but certainly not boredom.
lapcat
Whether you agree or disagree with the sentiment expressed by the submission, the quality and utility of it is very low, so it's unfortunate that the submission has reached #1 on HN.
I suspect the brevity of the submission has made it easy comment fodder.
Havoc
Opportunity blindness imo.
Yes the hype is a bit tedious, but this is a new IT building block/primitive we didn't have before. How can you not be even a little bit excited?
photochemsyn
Is this a rant against investment capitalism and high-speed financial trading networks?
Or perhaps a screed decrying the shiny bouncing ball of blockchain-based cryptocurrency?
Possibly a takedown of the online pornography sector, which consumes a largish percentage of bandwith and data center power?
Maybe it's about LLMs, although they might end up going the way of compilers – mostly open source, only a few niche for-profit compilers still exist?
Oh wait – it's about the cell phones and tablets that everyone stares at all day instead of engaging in human social interaction and reading books?
Could it be that the problem isn't with the technology itself, but with how it's being used to manipulate and control people by the interests who currently control most people's access to the technology?
There might be something fundamentally wrong with a socioeconomic system based on investment capitalism and contolled by a few uber-wealthy oligarchs – something about it that inevitably leads to dystopian outcomes.
xeckr
"Nobody asked for it, and nobody wants it" after accusing AI of being inherently dehumanizing. How ironic. Do those who personally enjoy interacting with AI not exist in your mental landscape? This reads like hatred, not boredom.
flanked-evergl
A LLM could have told you that this is badly written, maybe consult one next time.
ilitirit
Here's some of what I think is my personal best advice:
Learn to live in the gray areas. Don't be dogmatic. The world isn't black and white. Take some parts of the black and white. And, don't be afraid to change your mind about some things.
This may sound obvious to some of you, and sure, in theory this is simple. But in practice? Definitely not, at least in my experience. It requires a change in mindset and worldview, which generally becomes harder as you age ("because your want to conserve the way of life you enjoy").
Illniyar
Right? How much more can we stand all this talk about cryptocurrency and Bitcoin.
fabiospampinato
Interesting. Development of the most powerful technology humans could ever hope to build, happening within our lifetimes, "boring".
reader9274
It's here to stay, and your boredom just makes you fall behind
wedocharlie
AI or Crypto?
roydivision
A flawed solution looking for a problem.
golol
This exact quote could have been said during every other economic revolution, so to me it just sounds like a mix of complaining about living in times of uncertainty and a conservative mindset.
hersko
This is insane. We have created the greatest tool in human history and people are complaining. I can use it to help me code, fix modeling issues as I learn CAD, help me troubleshoot the issues in my two-stroke leafblower engine and can consistently walk me through complex leetcode algorithms. It literally knows everything and people still complain.
big_paps
He means beer .. doesn’t he ?
agentultra
> People incessantly telling you how they use it.
It’s a bit like smoking indoors.
alexc05
Wait – does everyone here think they're talking about AI? Or is it bitcoin / crypto / NFTs?
JPS92
I knew what the article was about before even accessing the site
NickNaraghi
It’s particularly cute because it could have referred to social media, or the internet, or television, or radio, or the steam engine…
abraxas
I had those feelings about the crypto mania. The AI craze has at least some justification coming from genuine usefulness.
crazygringo
I can only imagine the same kind of sentiments were written about…
Electricity. Airplanes. Sailing ships. The cotton gin. The telegraph.
I, for one, am not bored. I continue to be amazed. AI has massively increased my productivity and massively decreased my frustration.
If you're bored, that's a "you" problem. Find other places to hang out if you want to avoid conversation about it.