Post #4164286

2026-07-28 11:28 UTC

In his essay on Salvador Dali, Orwell argued that because Dali was a repulsive human being, the right wouldn't admit that he was a great artist; conversely, because he was a great artist, the left wouldn't admit he was a repulsive human being. I'm seeing the same thing with AI: because it's unethical, one side won't acknowledge that it's useful, but because it's useful, the other side won't acknowledge that it's unethical. Time to make another cup of tea…

Replies (7)

@morten_skaaning@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-07-28 11:32

@gvwilson@mastodon.social theft is also a useful way of acquiring resources👍

Open ##4169300
@cxiao@infosec.exchange 2026-07-28 17:17

@gvwilson@mastodon.social This is a view that assumes the only people in the world that exist are technologists, or at least biases "who matters" in the world heavily towards technologists. Whether us technologists like it or not, we live in a society. And that society will eventually come knocking at our door asking what useful things we have done with all the resources they have given us, and weigh it against what we have inflicted on them. They are already knocking, and the toll is already so unequal, as to cause the technologist's "reasonable middle position of usefulness" to appear as an incredibly naive view.

Open ##4169401
@DaveMWilburn@infosec.exchange 2026-07-28 23:06

@gvwilson@mastodon.social IMO its usefulness is still at least a little bit up in the air. There are too many legitimate concerns about user skill degradation, hallucinations, and business ROI at full unsubsidized token cost to confidently say it is useful. Perhaps its usefulness will be more firmly proven in the future as models improve, tool sets and processes around them improve, and the alleged usefulness is better studied. Or maybe not. In the meantime, while the uses are at best unproven, anecdotal, and speculative, the ethical problems and societal harms are much more firmly established.

Open ##4175929
@lienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net 2026-07-28 11:33

@gvwilson@mastodon.social I've read a comic book that didn't name Dali but was clearly referencing him, and suggested that Dali used the Civil War in Spain (where he was protected by Franco's regime) to commit murders. Any idea if it's pure invention or if it's based on something true ?

Open ##4176763
@TrueNorthSpice@mastodon.world 2026-07-28 11:58

@gvwilson@mastodon.social It does have uses and the people I know, including myself, are angry it was released for public use with zero safeguards!!!! So please stop lumping people together and saying one side or another is having a knee-jerk reaction

Open ##4176765
@naturepoker@genomic.social 2026-07-28 12:49

@gvwilson@mastodon.social I feel similarly. The 'no LLM at all costs' voices in the media are leaving a big wide gap that could have used positions calling for restraint and cutting down on hype. How the current generation of llms were developed and are being used is revolting, but the comments you've gotten here so far don't look a ton better.

Open ##4176767
@Spirit@cybernetic.monster 2026-07-28 12:58

@gvwilson@mastodon.social That cup of tea you just boiled used 1/10 of the energy of a average ChatGpt query.

Open ##4180493