[jqpabc123]

Yes ... but so is AI.

Generative AI is an attempt to mimic cognitive ability using statistics ... and it always fails at some point. It's cognitive skills are as fake as Google's demo.

AI can drive a car as long as the roadway environment matches certain expected statistical parameters.

But mismatches are inevitable and unavoidable. In the real world, stuff happens. Emergency vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, children, illegal u turns, etc. are all part of the real world environment that can't be predicted.

AI's naive response to unexpected conditions is to slam on the brakes and stop --- which in and of itself creates an unexpected road hazard.

There is too much "A" and not enough "I".

[The_Colonel]

Generative AI isn't perfect. It's not really even very intelligent as you say.

But I'm still amazed how much you can do with this very imperfect, unintelligent "AI".

I think we're still at the very beginning of seeing all the possible application. One stiffling factor is the still enormous computation necessary, but that is no doubt going to change.

[jqpabc123]

But I'm still amazed how much you can do with this very imperfect, unintelligent "AI".

I'm amazed at how little you can actually do with it.

It's entertaining --- but it really only "works" when you are willing to manually verify the results or just accept the fact that it may be spewing BS. And as you point out, the imperfect results come at a high cost which makes the economics of it questionable for many applications.

Drinking bleach doesn't cure COVID --- but AI may suggest it because it found it on the internet.

[rowanG077]

Verification of a result is often much easier then coming up with the result. Even though chatgpt4 sometimes gives me bs I am much faster in some tasks with it.

[sorokod]

Often implies statistics which are not available.

One counter example is summary verification where you can't do better then summarize yourself.

[rowanG077]

There are definitely things where chatgpt doesn't help much or is worse then doing it yourself. Part of using it effectively is to get a sense when it is effective.

[jqpabc123]

The real question --- Do the benefits really justify the cost?

We don't know the answer to this yet.

[The_Colonel]

> but it really only "works" when you are willing to manually verify the results or just accept the fact that it may be spewing BS

Verifying a solution is often much easier than coming up with a solution. GPT-4 has produced a lot of "hallucinations" when I asked about my programming problems, but they were easy to discount. OTOH it did help me a lot with coming up (or inspiring) solutions which would take me a long time to find otherwise.

Same thing for Dall-E / Midjourney. I'm unable to produce any usable graphics on my own, with these tools I'm able to produce interesting illustrations for my needs, even if I need to discount many results. It literally provides me with a capability I didn't have before. Notice the similar pattern - it's much easier to critique a solution (generated image) than to come up with it.

I believe there are so many applications where this holds true. You can create domain-specific chatbots helping out knowledge workers in almost any discipline.

[noitpmeder]

Regarding autonomous cars, it'll only make sense once every car is in/on the network and roadways are hermetically sealed. So never.

I really hope governments get their act together and start developing/planning/testing improved public transportation. Trains are already nearly fully autonomous, and just imagine the countless benefits having cities/towns/countries designed around something other than the wasteful self owned car.

[jqpabc123]

In other words, the autonomous transportation that is most practical and best suited for the real world is called a train.

[tim333]

We've had autonomous trains here in London since 1987 and trains since about 1850 but still there is the usual traffic. I think self driving cars may add something new.

[JohnFen]

> I think self driving cars may add something new.

I'll bite -- what new thing would it add?

[tim333]

Potential upsides include less road deaths if self driving gets good, and cheap robotaxis from train stations. Also maybe robotic goods delivery overnight rather than the streets being clogged with trucks and vans during the workday.

[rini17]

Or ditch cars and do the last mile by e-bikes and scooters.

[Teever]

This seems like complete misdirection from the fact that OpenAI has a better product than Google.