AI Cameras

[sojournerphoto]

I studied and wrote history for six years, the final two at the graduate level. To say that history is written by the winners is a prime example of the Dunning-Kruger effect. It is a popular and repeated canard but has no basis in fact. A Marxist historical interpretation of the Luddites would be quite anti-owner and pro-worker, just as an example. A more than cursory reading of the Luddites or any other historical event will reveal a lot of opinions. While studying history I saw no evidence of an conspiracies of thought.. Rather the opposite, seminars could get quite heated in interpretations. The purpose of education is to encourage thought. Despite whatever impressions you may have it is not a conveyor belt of pre-assigned opinion.

Broadly speaking AI is any intelligence that is artificial, and that could even include the vacuum advance that was once on automobile distributors and can certainly be applied to autofocus, auto ISO and so on. This seems to be degenerating into semantic quibbling. IMNSHO the increasing introduction of "automatic" functions to camera firmware/software increases the chances of a "keeper" rather than diminishes it. That is the point, isn't it? Others may enjoy the old analog(ue) exercise of film, light meters, manual focus and setting lens opening and shutter speed. I do not. I would not relish manually advancing the spark in my car either. It is 2025, almost 2026, let's reap the benefits of what science has brought us. I do understand that some folks like the analog exercise but doing things the hard way for whatever reason does not appeal to me. It's like playing golf with a croquet mallet or making love standing up in a hammock.

My car has neither spark plugs nor air induction system😉

 

[boojum]

My car has neither spark plugs nor air induction system😉

And is rife with AI.

 

[agentlossing]

I call your attention to a parallel, TV. Some folks are appalled at what is broadcast. TV's come with channel selectors and in the case of extreme disgust, the off switch. None of us are obliged to watch what we do not want to watch. Likewise we are not obliged to use all the "auto" functions on cameras. Turn them off if you don't want to use them. Any camera I have has that option.

No, not my point. Your "AI" auto features being referred to in cameras are machine learning. Not LLM/gen AI. We need to keep our terms defined, or this conversation gets confusing fast.

 

[boojum]

No, not my point. Your "AI" auto features being referred to in cameras are machine learning. Not LLM/gen AI. We need to keep our terms defined, or this conversation gets confusing fast.

Very good point. We are fast approaching a "Burn the witch" hysteria on the subject. AI in the pure sense could be, is a great tool. But like any tool it can be misunderstood and misused. Like a knife.

 

[boojum]

I think this will soon degenerate into the same thing as the Nick Ut thread, lots of heat, not much light.

 

[agentlossing]

Very good point. We are fast approaching a "Burn the witch" hysteria on the subject. AI in the pure sense could be, is a great tool. But like any tool it can be misunderstood and misused. Like a knife.

It's on purpose; AI companies know what they're doing. Right now the gen AI/LLM stuff is providing all the flash and none of the real utility and the public is still lapping it up. Soon enough people are going to get tired of posting long AI written rants on Facebook or LinkedIn, and (among many other poor bets by corporations) Microsoft's $80-something billion commitment to Copilot is going to bite them in the backside.

 

[boojum]

It's on purpose; AI companies know what they're doing. Right now the gen AI/LLM stuff is providing all the flash and none of the real utility and the public is still lapping it up. Soon enough people are going to get tired of posting long AI written rants on Facebook or LinkedIn, and (among many other poor bets by corporations) Microsoft's $80-something billion commitment to Copilot is going to bite them in the backside.

I do not follow any of this and do not directly use any of it. However I think it is inescapable and offers some real value.

 

[Coldkennels]

I do not follow any of this and do not directly use any of it. However I think it is inescapable and offers some real value.

It really isn't inescapable - nor does it have any value. But there's definitely a reason you'd think that.

As @agentlossing and myself have both pointed out, there's a lot of marketing going on here - the big tech guys like Sam Altman and Sundar Pichai are playing very specific games to make it seem like GenAI is the future to boost their share prices. One of them is conflating GenAI with what used to be called "machine learning" - or even just automation - which a lot of companies have foolishly bought in on (rebranding something their software already did as "AI" allows them to ride the hype bubble). Another one is pretending GenAI has a path to the "real" AI - the AI we think of because of decades of science fiction (when, as previously mentioned, GenAI is a dead end).

But the most pernicious of these claims/ideas is that you can't escape GenAI. You can. You don't have to use it - and it's probably better if you don't (study after study has shown very little - if any! - benefits to using AI, either at the business or personal level; for instance, one of the most recent in-depth studies has shown AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time, with the worst concerningly being Gemini, Google's AI - which is now forced upon everyone who uses Google as a search engine). But tech companies continue to shove GenAI into everything both to claim a large user base (as just mentioned, if you use Google, you're using Gemini by default - whether you want to or not! - which artificially bumps up their numbers) and to make it seem inevitable - but it's no more inevitable or inescapable than crypto or NFTs were.

This podcast interview on the subject is well worth a listen: Generative AI is Not Inevitable w/ Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna - Tech Won’t Save Us

 

[Out to Lunch]

It's not truly learning and expanding, it's just spitting out a product. Once we all get a little more familiar with its defining features, it'll seem like the hollow, lifeless drivel that it is, because it's not going anywhere fresh or exciting. This is how the bubble pops, because this is just about as good as this tech is going to get.

Flippant because even in it's present state, AI, in the hands of let's say scientists, medical practitioners, and generals -who have been trained to use it, is an incredibly potent technology that boosts their ability to do both good and bad a thousand fold.

 

[agentlossing]

I don't need to provide any more input here. My views are what they are - we'll see how things shake out.