#ai optimism

[theblindmachine]

"### The Transformative Power of AI: Redefining Creativity and Our Self-Understanding In an era marked by rapid technological advancements, the intersection of artificial intelligence and creativity is reshaping not only the way we create art but also our understanding of ourselves. K Allado-McDowell, an artist and technologist, delivered a compelling Long Now Talk in February, illuminating the profound implications of Neural Media—a term they use to describe emerging creative forms driven by artificial neural networks modeled after the human brain's intricate design. Their presentation deftly navigated an array of themes, depicting a landscape peppered with statistical distributions and the enigmatic phenomenon dubbed “AI Slop.” This term refers to the nonsensical, often surreal outputs generated by low-quality image models that proliferate in the digital realm. It is easy to see how this flood of chaotic content can evoke skepticism about the potential of AI in creative processes. Yet, amidst the noise of what might seem like a digital wasteland, Allado-McDowell offers a narrative of hope. Drawing upon the ideas presented in their 02020 book, *Pharmako-AI*, co-written with the influential language model GPT-3, Allado-McDowell highlights an ancient Greek term—pharmakon. This word carries dual meanings, representing both a drug and a cure. In this context, the burgeoning landscape of neural media can be perceived as both a challenge and an opportunity. What might initially appear toxic or detrimental could, in fact, serve as a catalyst for deeper self-discovery and understanding of our interconnected world. The potential for AI to enhance our creative processes and introspective journeys is immense. By leveraging the capabilities of neural networks, we may find new avenues for expression that transcend traditional artistic boundaries. These technologies invite us to engage in dialogue with our own cognitive processes, to explore the depths of human creativity in ways we have yet to fully comprehend. The Long Now Foundation, which orchestrated this enlightening talk at the Cowell Theatre in San Francisco, is dedicated to fostering long-term thinking in a rapidly evolving world. For over 25 years, the foundation has played a pivotal role in igniting cultural imagination through engaging discussions that span various disciplines, including futurism, the humanities, and the complex dynamics of our place in nature. In reflecting on these themes, we are reminded of our responsibility as creators and thinkers in a world increasingly influenced by AI. As we grapple with the implications of new technologies, it is essential to consider not only the artistic possibilities they present but also the ways they challenge our definitions of self and creativity. As we stand at the crossroads of these advancements, we are called to embrace curiosity and critical thinking. The creative potential of AI may unlock new levels of understanding, offering us greater insight into not just the art we produce but our humanity as well. In this age of compounding crises, we must collectively rise to the occasion—by harnessing the power of these technologies, we can forge a future that reflects our deepest aspirations for understanding and connection. For those interested in diving deeper into Allado-McDowell’s insights and the rich tapestry of neural media, I encourage you to explore the livestream of the Long Now Talk [here](https://www.youtube.com/live/AsCGRjl3zac?si=KBfIfkqatLwdMr8M) and discover the multitude of possibilities that lie ahead in our unfolding narrative. As we navigate this uncharted territory, let us be bold in our inquiries and actions, envisioning a world where AI enhances—not undermines—our creativity and collective self-understanding."

[theenterprisemac]

Oh Dear, Why would someone write this?

Let's just dive in, because there is just so much to deal with in this post.

"ChatGPT emerged just two years ago, dramatically altering our expectations of AI. Pinecone, a vector database powering some of the most advanced AI applications, wasn't even part of the conversation six months ago. This isn't mere change, it's a fundamental shift in the velocity of innovation. As enterprises, we're no longer building on stable ground, we're constructing our future on a landscape that's continuously evolving. This offers both exciting opportunities and significant challenges for businesses aiming to maintain their competitive edge."

This is just such willful drivel. Technology was accelerating and we were operating on less than stable ground long before AI came around. The perception of increased instability now is an artifact of the fact that AI right now is so unreliable and people are trying to apply it to everything without thought as to if they should. We are creating the instability through an over eagerness to apply AI–driven by the fact that companies who peddle AI haven't found a good way to make money off of it, and are now just trying to force it down our throats.

"One promising strategy is the empowerment of non-IT professionals through low-code platforms and AI-augmented development tools. These tools are catalysts for a new era of fusion development, enabling those outside of traditional IT roles to contribute to the development process. This approach not only alleviates the burden on professional developers but also brings domain expertise directly into the development process. The result is a more agile, responsive organization capable of rapidly adapting to changing business needs. However, the goal isn't to replace professional developers. Rather, it's about freeing them to focus on more complex, high-value tasks that truly require their expertise. By offloading routine development work to business users with domain knowledge, teams can maximize the impact of scarce professional development resources."

This might have a modicum of truth, and probably rings true to people who don't develop software, but the sad fact is that only people who don't know anything about software development think that AI has improved it.

For the most part AI is actually pretty awful at writing code. Is it getting better, sure. Is it good enough where you could offload any code completely to the AI–no. This move to AI and low-code is just the same mistake as was made many years back when developers became overly reliant on frameworks–the mistake we are now paying the price for that in security and in bloat.

Low-code and AI just hide the problem behind the shoulder shrug of I don't know what happened or how it was made. This is actually a step back not forward.

"The integration of AI into the development process represents a significant opportunity for boosting productivity. AI assistants can generate boilerplate code, suggest optimizations and, in the near future, even prototype entire applications based on high-level descriptions."

I love when people who don't code write stuff like this. AI isn't close to this. I know there are people who do this, but the software they put out is not well made, optimal or secure. There is ample evidence that AI writes poor code. To broaden the example lets look at companies that apply AI to security such as Cylance.

As you may recall Cylance touted their machine learning/AI approach to security as a universal panacea. However, it didn't take long for that to be disproven. It turned out that you could fool the system into allowing even obviously malicious programs.

I think this trend really has its roots in this future that people are so desperate for where computers will be better than people and take over. I am not sure where this comes from, but we aren't close and trying to will ourselves into it is a bad idea.

"The true power of AI in boosting productivity lies not just in coding assistance, but in its ability to infuse intelligence into entire workflows and business processes. This goes beyond mere automation. It's about creating adaptive, intelligent systems that can learn and improve over time."

I don't know what "infuse intelligence" into workflows means. This is just marketing hype for AI. This idea that they learn or improve over time–we simply aren't there yet. I use numerous different LLMs and the code they generate is not great universally. Are they getting better sure–but we are a long way off from this fictional future.

You see this come up in other forms such as people talking about AI training AI–which I hate so much its incredible. If you just look at how inaccurate AI is today and think about it training more AI with its inaccurate information. It is such a dystopian future run by bullshit factories that dispense the bullshit down our throats faster than we can deal with it. If AI teaching AI is the future than we are a LONG ways away from it.

"By embracing AI-augmented development practices, effectively managing APIs in the evolving API economy and cultivating a high-performance development culture, enterprises can position themselves to respond quickly to technological changes. The strategic use of low-code platforms and AI-powered tools, combined with modern API management systems and a culture that values continuous learning and experimentation, allows organizations to adapt swiftly to new challenges and opportunities."

The amount of marketing jargon in this paragraph is amazing. It's sort of the used car salesman selling the rusty future while trying to tell you he is selling you brand new and clean. I just wanted to include it, because it's priceless.

"The future of application development isn't about having the most developers or the biggest budget. It's about being the most adaptive, efficient and innovative in resource utilization. By focusing on these principles, organizations can transform the challenges of the evolving technological landscape into unprecedented opportunities for growth and success."

The future of application development has ALWAYS been for those who best adapt, innovate and are most efficient. Nothing has changed–this is just as true now as it has ever been.

I will leave you with this: beware of people like this who write this sort of optimistic drivel who aren't in the space beyond selling it–they are not architecting the future and they have no business defining it. Don't let them! The future should belong to those who help to build it, and people like this who peddle their ignorant dreams have no place in that future!

[i-am-but-a-beta-fish]

don't look at me

@the-elder-polls — hello! it is tcs friday, so i wanted to share this piece i made of my ldb road, who enjoys magic, extreme mountain climbing, and never talking about herself, ever. don't worry about it. she's definitely not lying about her name or her age or any significant personal information like that. the mask is just a fashion statement. don't—don't worry about it. 

(she's sixteen. she only started going by road because she thought she got carted to helgen for being an enemy of the thalmor, so when hadvar revealed no one had any idea who she was she was so startled she just blurted out the name of the first thing she saw. which was the road. somehow no one has caught on to the fact that this is a really weird and suspicious name for an altmer to have, even if their parents didn't like them very much. she's come to genuinely prefer it over her original given name, but she's been living in horrible teenage anxiety about it for so long that it hasn't once occurred to her that maybe introducing herself like that at this point is not, in fact, lying, and therefore road does not, in fact, have to feel incredibly guilty about it.

she still does, because she's a emotional disaster masquerading as a functional and mentally stable adult, but she'll get there.

…eventually.)

[dutchs-blog]

Winter Wonderland

[carlyraejepsans]

HELPP i found out about character AIs and im losing it over calling deltarune sans "a more manipulative personality" 😭😭 like whatt we've only seen this man like 2 times

sorry im being a hater hgfjdks but you're the sans understander

lmaoo character.ai, look where the fall of ai dungeon got us, smh. thank you for the compliment though!

[timblrdrake]

i was going to say that you should send this to luthor but … with his company’s track record….

[metamorphicmuse]

Glorious Morning

[laurellala-comics]

To my fellow artists out there, especially ones who are trying to support themselves through art: if you do commissions I really recommend putting your presence out there in some larger way. Whether that's with an etsy listing for commissions or an account on fiver, you should have something that makes you searchable by people who are not in fandom or art spaces. I work in Big Business CompanyTM and I was on call with a customer who was like "wow I want an animated tutorial video to help show people how to use our product but I have no clue what to do, I guess I'll use generative AI" and I was like NOOOOO because like! What he wanted would've been really simple to do with some basic rigging and words moving, but he just didn't know where to go to get that! And I can't be like "oh I follow this animation student that has commissions open, let me show you their account. Please ignore all the drawings they have of spock and kirk making out". But I don't have a good website to direct him to to look... Most people won't go to instagram or tumblr or whatever and look through tags, they will either go to google or if possible a host site that seems trustworthy. So put yourself on places that people will be looking!

Also, be smart with your keywords! People don't always know the word "commission" outside of artist spaces. If you draw animals say you do pet portraits for example or like... describe what furry art is for somebody outside of the furry community (fantasy anthropomorphic animals... idk we can workshop it). I suggest imagining that you are a person looking for an artist to commission and going onto your favorite search engine and think "what would I type in if I was trying to find the art I do" and then use those words in your post. Try suggesting some things your art could be used for (avatars, profile pictures, banners, posters) etc as well. I know people love to include pictures of what they offer and include text in those pictures: PICTURES ARE NOT SEARCHABLE! Make sure you include that text typed out somewhere as well!!

On the commission sheet/post/listing/whatever you also should make the next steps people should take really clear, potentially even give an example of what a commission request should look like. If people are confused they will be less likely to act on it!! And give them concrete actionable background information like "Answer these questions and provide 3 or more reference photos, I will get back to your request within 2-3 business days".

THESE ARE JUST SOME BRAINDUMP THOUGHTS I've never done commissions myself so I'm not sure if there are better sites out there to use. I think with the rise of AI art, if people don't know what other options to use, so they're going to use what's easily accessible. So make yourself and your art easily accessible!!! Making yourself more visible to folks outside of the artist community will help show cooler better alternatives to people AND also make it more likely that you get commissioned! Please I'm begging you don't let me sit through another powerpoint presentation with generated ai art I'm losing my mind here. Give me something I can show to people at work as an alternative!

[supersoftly]

"Retired Canadian neurologist excited to employ ChatGPT to replace healthcare workers" was not the opinion piece that makes me confident about the future

[theenterprisemac]

Can't Get Away from AI Optimism

It never ceases to amaze me how many people are so optimistic about AI, and yet the results of AI to date are pretty marginal. I read recently another post by someone claiming IT folks are going to be replaced in 3-5 years likely at entry level support roles. They then proceeded to list off a bunch of half finished and not super functional technology that has yet to mature as evidence.

The question of can basic tasks be replaced by a ChatBot? Sure, however, I think its an open question what tasks, but I think there is potential here. However, is this doom and gloom for people in low-level IT support in the next 3-5 years? Probably not.

Here is the real issue: ChatBots today proclaim many false things with confidence and are wrong as often or more often than they are right. Even with a doubling in accuracy I suspect that they still will only be competent to cover the bottom 20-30% of support questions.

I think the more likely scenario will be that the ChatBot simply initiates human built workflows via a chat interface. I am not sure why people want this, but many seem to.

I think we are a long way away from the level of frictionless interaction required to make this low-level AI ChatBot future a reality in any sort of useful or lasting way.

If you want to talk about risk as a low-level IT support person–here is the real risk:

Technology is complex

Technology moves fast

The number of simple tasks that people are still expected to do that aren't regularly automated is shrinking

At some point AI might eat your lunch in the long-term

All that being said, if you are a low-level IT support person don't worry. Keep learning grow your skills. Find productive areas in IT and move into those–don't stay in low-level support. If you do this, then you will be fine.

[lunarreign24]

I am a freelance prompt engineer by day. I wanted to experiment with it to see how they would fare with descriptions (specifically looking at the general channel description and video descriptions), and I immediately saw an uptick in views on my Doey and Yarnaby video. I left my iilluminaughtii video's description the same (as my currently most viewed video) and changed the Poppy Playtime video's description so I could have a source of comparison. I specifically wanted to see if the trends captured by the model would help with catching the videos to the algorithm, and it seems to be working.

I understand AI hesitancy however, so I wanted to get thoughts on here before continuing to do so. Would using AI for descriptions and other algorithm-catching elements be understandable in your eyes, or should I continue to make my own descriptions moving forward? I decided to make a poll, so:

[dutchs-blog]

Halloween Dreams Ai Genarated

[1000rh]

You see, optimism is easy. All you have to do is say "I trust these people to do the thing they'll do" and choose to take a "cautiously optimistic" (to use Roose's terminology) view on whatever it is that's put in front of you. Optimism allows you to think exactly as hard as you'd like to, using that big, fancy brain of yours to make up superficially intellectually-backed rationalizations about why something is the future, and because you're writing at a big media outlet, you can just say whatever and people will believe you because you're ostensibly someone who knows what they're talking about.

– Edward Zitron, "The Phony Comforts of AI Optimism" (2025) Link

[afantasyoffiction]

maybe it’s all gonna be ok maybe ai will lead to more human-created art not less maybe humanity’s spirit will survive itself once again

[chronomally]

Death by a thousand cuts in my class this week

[atcuality3]

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