Jeremy KahnNLP (the nerdy kind). Wrong-half Jew. Privilege-traitor.
Linguist. Empiricist. Rager against machines. formerly #indymedia
Also, #comics, #SFF #scifi, languages, big data, algorithms, software design, and more.
#LLMSkeptic. farm-to-table organic free-range prose only. Don't send me generated text.
#WestSeattle #Duwamish unceded land
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Jeremy KahnLLMs lower the immediate cost of "fucking around"
and push "finding out" beyond management's forecasting horizon
which is Yet Another reason that everyone with actual expertise should Avoid At All Costs
#NedLuddWasRight
Jeremy KahnY'all, I ain't kidding about LLMs being "word shoggoths"
especially if you read "Elder Things" as "Slow AI" LLCs
Look what it says on Wikipedia:
Though able to "understand" the Elder Things' language, shoggoths had no real consciousness and were controlled through hypnotic suggestion.
…exterminating the shoggoths was not an option as the Elder Things were dependent on them for labor and had long lost their capacity to create new life.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoggoth
Jeremy KahnI can't believe I didn't do this earlier
Jeremy KahnBut what is the solarpunk approach to "Peak AI"?
Solarpunk offers a vision, in the face of gasoline, for planning community gardens, mutual aid societies, bike repair workshops, etc, even as the gasoline culture around us creaks and groans its way bloodily towards a reckoning
What is our (data science, machine learning, UX, design) equivalent of solarpunk for the concepts of automation?
5/
Jeremy KahnWhat is our (data science, machine learning, UX, design) equivalent of solarpunk?
Can we even imagine a world of automation without the exploitation, fantasies of infinite growth, and the increasingly unsubtle justifications for "laundering toil away"?
What are compelling visions of the future of automation that _aren't_ burying the exploitation behind an app or within a billion-parameter model?
6/fin (I think)
Jeremy KahnThe boom in LLMs is going to hollow out a number of knowledge-worker industries — for example, writing boilerplate code or technical documentation
Not because it does it well but because the flacks can sell upper management on the idea that it can do it at all, as @pluralistic@mamot.fr recently pointed out
This sale is a pig-in-a-poke, and the winning move is to not be holding the bag when the actual code or documentation is found to be terrible
1/
Jeremy Kahn@MisuseCase@twit.social
Whoof yes. Imagine thinking that the Emperor in Dune or Star Wars was the good guy.
Deciding that the Imperium (the Imperium!) are the good guys — because they're the same species you are — is…
…let's just call it a "tell" about your commitment to "racial purity"
Jeremy Kahn@MisuseCase@twit.social
I'm far more sympathetic to the idea that the Fremen (or the Jedi, or the Eldar) are also problematic
But to decide that therefore the Empire are the good guys, sheesh. I'm embarrassed that my generation of white guys is so shallow
Jeremy KahnOh look the white house just deleted sections of Congress 's public copy of Article 1
Not only are we Ministry-of-Truth memory-holing habeas corpus, but we're crossing the separation of powers to do it
(Also, weak headline, MSN. Don't "ask a question", DO A JOURNALISM.)
https://www.alternet.org/white-house-constitutional-crisis/
Jeremy KahnLLMs lower the immediate cost of "fucking around"
and push "finding out" beyond management's forecasting horizon
which is Yet Another reason that everyone with actual expertise should Avoid At All Costs
#NedLuddWasRight
Jeremy KahnY'all, I ain't kidding about LLMs being "word shoggoths"
especially if you read "Elder Things" as "Slow AI" LLCs
Look what it says on Wikipedia:
Though able to "understand" the Elder Things' language, shoggoths had no real consciousness and were controlled through hypnotic suggestion.
…exterminating the shoggoths was not an option as the Elder Things were dependent on them for labor and had long lost their capacity to create new life.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoggoth
Jeremy KahnI can't believe I didn't do this earlier
Jeremy KahnBut what is the solarpunk approach to "Peak AI"?
Solarpunk offers a vision, in the face of gasoline, for planning community gardens, mutual aid societies, bike repair workshops, etc, even as the gasoline culture around us creaks and groans its way bloodily towards a reckoning
What is our (data science, machine learning, UX, design) equivalent of solarpunk for the concepts of automation?
5/
Jeremy KahnWhat is our (data science, machine learning, UX, design) equivalent of solarpunk?
Can we even imagine a world of automation without the exploitation, fantasies of infinite growth, and the increasingly unsubtle justifications for "laundering toil away"?
What are compelling visions of the future of automation that _aren't_ burying the exploitation behind an app or within a billion-parameter model?
6/fin (I think)
Jeremy KahnSo, back to LLMs, or rather, back to prepping for "Peak AI"
(It's coming, let me tell you.)
Those of us currently under attack/usurpation by the push towards AI, we can respond to this by prepping toward either pole
The doom-prepper approach is to, I dunno, start planning a consultancy on "unbefunging your company's poorly-thought-out dependency on chatgpt", or building tools to poison (or detect poisoning) for the LLMs
4/
Jeremy KahnBut what is the solarpunk approach to "Peak AI"?
Solarpunk offers a vision, in the face of gasoline, for planning community gardens, mutual aid societies, bike repair workshops, etc, even as the gasoline culture around us creaks and groans its way bloodily towards a reckoning
What is our (data science, machine learning, UX, design) equivalent of solarpunk for the concepts of automation?
5/
Jeremy KahnSo I see two poles for how to respond to "Peak Gasoline" in SFF
[bear with me while I digress; coming back to LLMs in a sec]
and they're basically
doomer hoarding and xenophobia (everyone for himself, and f your feelings) — think MAD MAX
vs
Solarpunk invention of new ways of living that... just don't use gasoline (everyone's in this together, so we'd better have a community garden, build transit, and learn first aid) — think THE TERRAFORMERS (thanks @annaleen@wandering.shop !)
3/
Jeremy KahnSo, back to LLMs, or rather, back to prepping for "Peak AI"
(It's coming, let me tell you.)
Those of us currently under attack/usurpation by the push towards AI, we can respond to this by prepping toward either pole
The doom-prepper approach is to, I dunno, start planning a consultancy on "unbefunging your company's poorly-thought-out dependency on chatgpt", or building tools to poison (or detect poisoning) for the LLMs
4/
Jeremy KahnBut there isn't really a winning move if you're one of the people getting hollowed out — for us, the game is survival until the grift collapses
So I'm thinking about what it looks like to prepare for the Collapse, and I've been making an analogy to depending on gasoline for your entire culture
(I mean, we do, and — after "racism", "gasoline politics" is the second good answer for "why are Americans like that")
2/
Jeremy KahnSo I see two poles for how to respond to "Peak Gasoline" in SFF
[bear with me while I digress; coming back to LLMs in a sec]
and they're basically
doomer hoarding and xenophobia (everyone for himself, and f your feelings) — think MAD MAX
vs
Solarpunk invention of new ways of living that... just don't use gasoline (everyone's in this together, so we'd better have a community garden, build transit, and learn first aid) — think THE TERRAFORMERS (thanks @annaleen@wandering.shop !)
3/
Jeremy KahnThe boom in LLMs is going to hollow out a number of knowledge-worker industries — for example, writing boilerplate code or technical documentation
Not because it does it well but because the flacks can sell upper management on the idea that it can do it at all, as @pluralistic@mamot.fr recently pointed out
This sale is a pig-in-a-poke, and the winning move is to not be holding the bag when the actual code or documentation is found to be terrible
1/
Jeremy KahnBut there isn't really a winning move if you're one of the people getting hollowed out — for us, the game is survival until the grift collapses
So I'm thinking about what it looks like to prepare for the Collapse, and I've been making an analogy to depending on gasoline for your entire culture
(I mean, we do, and — after "racism", "gasoline politics" is the second good answer for "why are Americans like that")
2/