[burcs]

Honestly this is the same level of snarkiness of saying, "Be a web company." in the early 2000s

YCombinator is a tech investor, of course they are investing in the future. It just so happens that in this current tech cycle AI is the future.

[tivert]

> YCombinator is a tech investor, of course they are investing in the future. It just so happens that in this current tech cycle AI is the future.

I think the term you're looking isn't "future," it's "hype."

[tptacek]

No. I think we're past the point of it being hipsterism to suggest that AI techniques are "hype". Not every startup exploiting it is bona fide, but what's happening here is for real.

[thruway516]

I second this. I just fear the hype surrounding generative AI is leading to extreme tunnel vision and neglect of other promising tech (cough crypto) and even other areas in ML and deep learning that might actually be more fruitful for Agi.

[tptacek]

(If it helps anyone else, I'm completely dismissive of the value of crypto).

[dartos]

The best thing to come out of crypto hype is the attention to Markel trees.

That probably played a part I. The development of CRDTs, which are straight up magic.

[tptacek]

I'm not sure the history of CRDTs is at all bound up in cryptocurrency, which, for instance, isn't mentioned in the INRIA paper (which paper mentions previous CRDT designs that just didn't have the name).

[thruway516]

The ratio of hype to substance is ridiculously out of this world. But like GP said (about AI), there's something there underneath all the hype

[burcs]

I am sure wheelwright's felt the same way...

I just saw a realtime generative minecraft demo, your head is in the sand if you think this is hype.

[det2x]

So much pessimism and downright denial on the impact of this technology.

The old guard have put earplugs in and wonder why everyone's dancing, they just can't hear the music. In this context it's their refusal to try anything and attempt to downplay everything. The technology will move on, with or without them, and that's the most beautiful part.

You can hate the marketing of AI, you can hate people starting startups to take advantage of this new technology, but you can not stop this technology from moving forward. They will fall into the same category as the people who denied the impact of the Microcomputer, the Graphical User Interface, and the Smartphone.

[comrh]

I feel like that is a great example of hype. Some that looks impressive but once you watch for a bit you realize it's a shallow copy that required a million hours of footage to generate.

[bhaney]

> I just saw a realtime generative minecraft demo

Wait, that demo wasn't a joke?

[dartos]

Personally, I didn’t find the Minecraft demo very impressive, aside from the speed of inference. 20fps is quite an achievement, generating Minecraft screenshots, not as much.

[wg0]

Yes it's a future that's not happening and would soon be past.