Leverage
Fascinating historical case of technological and strategic advantage: 400 Spaniards conquered the 6-million Mexican Empire, and just 180 soldiers overwhelmed the 10-million Incan Empire.
Will AGI bring the same kind of strategic advantage, potentially decisive? https://t.co/vqf7eNpICI
I need a good image to symbolize the Whispering Earring
it’s only going to become more relevant https://t.co/SWNMrqHpev
Convenience can indeed become a burden
It's becoming increasingly evident that in many circles, AI is not perceived as merely a technology, but as "something else" entirely. This misconception is exemplified by the recurring debate: "Humans vs AI." To illustrate the absurdity of this framing, let's replace "AI" with "technology":
"Humans vs... See more
Cristóbal Valenzuelax.comAI and the Internet are different phenomena.
The internet increased the leverage of computers by connecting them to other computers. Amplifies things that benefit from wider distribution. Network effects.
LLMs are stateless calculators (computers). Amplifies things that have a lot of computational complexity. Quick and Reliable decision making.
the fastest path to being perceived as a “genius” (commonplace hyperbole) is to read books that your peers aren’t reading. this will not be a universal perception, but it’s nonetheless a very strong effect that’s amusingly underutilized
x.comSimilarly, when everyone is saying the same things, simply asking why becomes revolutionary.
When the first steam engines were introduced, the owners had a really hard time finding people to operate them who wouldn't get drunk in the middle of the day, fuck up, and wreck the machine.
Ben Landau-Taylorx.comTechnological change is only possible with societal (behavioral) change
To use databases, you need to be able to think about your data in a structured way. The people who could do that gained most of the leverage from using databases. The folks who made it easy for people to transition to databases (ERPs and Co) captured the rest.
AI systems are fundamentally scalable decision making engines. And data is the oil required to power it. If you want to properly leverage AI, you need to make sure you're fueling it with the best refined data.
Otherwise, you're no different than the drunk trying to reliably operate complex machinery. The only repeatable part of that is injury.
And the uncredited bioweapon
Quote reply to the previous tweet that captures most of my thoughts well with lots of examples.
Excerpts:
(On design): When designing productivity software, conceptualize it as a medium first and foremost, and a tool secondarily.
(On chatbots as UI): Its browsing, code interpreter, and Dall-E tools are testament to this upside-down design philosophy: the tools go to work first, only thereafter you see some output.
With the exception of code interpreter, interactions with ChatGPT are largely stateless and transactional. Manipulations are indirect.
Dams for rice fields!