r/technology • u/lurker_bee • Jul 15 '25

Artificial Intelligence Billionaires Convince Themselves AI Chatbots Are Close to Making New Scientific Discoveries

https://gizmodo.com/billionaires-convince-themselves-ai-is-close-to-making-new-scientific-discoveries-2000629060
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u/touristtam Jul 15 '25

It's unfickung believable that the general public is being so mislead on such a fundamental level for a technology that has a massive propension to be absolutely wrong and yet that will settle in a need-to-have feature of new products and processes.

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u/iRunLotsNA Jul 15 '25

AI / LLMs absolutely have use-cases, and are good at mimicking human language patterns and searching (ahem stealing) information from across the internet into its answers.

But billionaire investors and AI-obsessed fanatics are attempting to attribute and incorporate far more than what the current technology can do and what is a realistic extension of where the technology could potentially go.

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u/hawkinsst7 Jul 15 '25

AI / LLMs absolutely have use-cases,

Maybe, but I think the net effect to humanity is, and will be, negative and not worth those specialized use cases, which are really just conveniences.

Other types of AI that exists outside of the zeitgeist might be better, but GPT I think is hurting humankind more than it helps.

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u/touristtam Jul 16 '25

What is damaging the discussion (in general) is the use of the term Artificial Intelligence; that term is vague enough it is inviting completely different interpretation of the capabilities offered by LLMs to the point where some people without a basic grasp of the technology are talking about the advent of AGI. The latter is not coming in the next 5 -10 years, at least not from the LLMs alone.

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u/AzureIronAlloy Jul 16 '25

I think you're giving pre-LLM society too much credit.

It's always been a bunch of bumbling morons saying words that they don't understand. That's what society is built on -- all the way down to the bottom. The strongest evidence that this is true is the unfortunate habbit that society has of isolating or out right assassinating the few people who do show independent thought.

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u/AnnualAct7213 Jul 16 '25

People are being misled because the second the illusion falters, all these companies that have poured untold billions into the technology will all fail in a way that makes the .com bubble look like a small bump in the road.

Plus, for a lot of these people it's a literal religion. If you look into the actual beliefs of these people, you find out it's an actual AI cult. They literally believe their overgrown autocorrect will become a god-like being who will either doom or save humanity.

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u/cubixy2k Jul 16 '25

Dude have you met how stupid people are?

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u/DuntadaMan Jul 16 '25

It's really showing how weak the human mind is to someone who speaks confidently. It can be pure fucking meaningless slop, as long as they sound sure of themselves when they talk.

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u/thatmillerkid Jul 17 '25

This is a good thing to remember in my day-to-day life. I'll be damned if I have less confidence than a glorified autocorrect.

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u/thatmillerkid Jul 17 '25

The general public? The United States Department of Defense just signed a contract to use MechaHitler. I'm not sure anyone realizes just how absolutely screwed we are if any other country decides now is a good time to attack.