Why Does AI Feel Like 'Just Another Buzz Word' Now?

24/05/2023 - Oxford.ing

Ok, well maybe it's not THIS bad, and if I'm being honest, most of the companies I'm interested in are doing some pretty amazing things AI and tech and all the fancy do-dads that come with it. My problems nowadays stem from something I think is a little deeper than a surface tension of 'I'm just sick of the word being used'.

The thing that prompted me to type this little thing, and yes, I actually 'have' or 'am' actually typing this post with my own two fingers and every now and then my thumbs to use the space bar or turn the caps lock off; is actually to do with the same thing every younger generation experiences with the 'new'. It's not that I don't love AI, I think the linear progression of codebases and logical matrix programming is fascinating and will be the link between us now, and us using Quantum computers to do everything imaginable.

It's a strange problem that I'm sure you've had at one point in your life, the new thing comes along, and you go 'ah sweet!' and brag about it to your friends, some of whom get jealous and try to get one themselves, then their mothers don't buy one for them and they keep on moaning about not having the thing at school until that one mother goes to the school to complain about their child being left out, and that the thing should be banned because it's impacting on their precious child's wellbeing.

No?... Ok just our generation then is it?

Well, maybe that's saying something about why I'm in the predicament I'm currently in then. I don't think the analogy is exactly one-for-one, but you get the jist of the situation, with the kids being us, and the school being the entirety of the world, or for what was - at that time in our little lives - quite literally the only and most important thing going on. The mother is still a bit like our parents, but I was sort of going for the more prevalent issue of it being a mix of both our older generations and our governments. and I think that's what's eating at me now.

It's a sort of amalgamation of wanting the terminology to be cool and interesting, then the moment the powerful - mother types - start tying to be hip or 'cool' and use the same lingo to be 'down with the kids'. It immediately stops being fun and interesting.

I guess it's also got a large part to play in a large disinterest-ification amongst general news watchers and tech up-to-daters, who have had their AI lingo meter filled way past the 'Do Not Fill Past This Line' line.

I think this has all come about because of an experience I had last night, during the time I should have been closing my eyes and having a rest from myself on the only piece of furniture I ever 'go to'. I was staring disinterestedly at a screen of passing content, with meme's and lots of people all trying to get famous doing the same things of not a lot of nothing in particular. And I had the sudden realisation that nothing, absolutely nothing had sunk into my skull in the last 45 minutes, not even the content about the things I usually love, like AI tech advances, and how it's being used in really cool ways at different Expo's around the world.

I went to watch a few of these things back and found the shocking truth as to why I had the 'I don't care about this enough to watch it for 30 seconds of my life, moment. I found that it was all the same type of people, saying all the same words, in all the same ways, to all the same people, with all the same jobs, in all the same Expo's, and doing all this whilst trying their hardest to make it sound original.

I mean... Just how many 'Fore-fronts' or AI can there actually be, at this point the things going to have more edges than one of those fancy die all those people use in that Dungeons and Dragons board game. Probably, IDK I've never played it.

I guess I'm not the only one who's started to mentally check out of the AI conferencing stuff, don't get me wrong I'm still really excited to see what stuff people get up to, but I just think I'm now at the point of only really caring when the CEO of the newest tech start-up company comes out and explains their product or service with their proof of concept before wanting to take the company public with an IPO.

I think a real part of this catalyst for me has been the vast inadequacies of government regulators' understanding of basic technologies, like when a senator at a hearing about data sharing doesn't know how the internet works. One of the annoying ones I actually watched today had a senator tell one of the OpenAI founders, that he 'should have got a lawyer and got the money out' of the company, after discovering that he doesn't take a dividend from the shares that he owns. I find it crazy that such people are in control. But I find it incredibly funny when they then try and convince us - all of a sudden as well btw - that 'AI is great' and that 'the US will be at the forefront of educationally integrated AI technologies', etc. etc.

I think a few people are having the same problems with their governments and then big companies too. It's almost like they've managed to remove part of the identity that accompanied AI, or at least or interest in in. It was unadulterated by the media and only the people who had a genuine passion, genuine connection, genuine interest, and genuine knowledge about AI and it's little buzz-words were talking and discussing possibilities with like-minded people. Now, I guess it kind of feels like the politicians and government are gunna tell us what we're going to be excited for, and what to expect for the government in relation to AI.

It's just a bit of food for thought, but the next time your looking through the endless scrolling we once called entertainment, try and observe the change in the way people talk about it, and how now, the governments and politicians are trying to replicate those same emotions that we once had, manipulating them with their fake hunger games smiles trying to be 'down with the kids'.

Just a thought ehy...