Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Not as bad as it may seem (Score 1) 26

He said he uses it for reflections, and that's not a bad thing.

If you're otherwise a sane person who don't actually believe "A.i." is alive and superior or "god like" then you'll be just fine.
I kinda smiled when he admitted he also used chatgpt (like most of the entire population, the no#1 app in Sweden is BankID, the second one is Swish, both used for monetary transactions, the 3rd one is ChatGPT), why would he deviate from the norm?

I mean, it's kinda sweet that he is so open about his life that he would openly admit that with zero shame, it's like he really didn't have that much to hide. We make mistakes, that's more human than being a president that constantly think he's right above the entire planet.

Comment This is partially true but has its caveats (Score 4, Insightful) 83

Companies does indeed hire people on an equal level to graduates, but you have to prove you have some skills, and those counts way more than your papers or degrees ever will, I know - because that's how I got hired (not at Palantir but similar).

There's a caveat to that however, people with degrees often get a much higher salary than the ones without a degree.
The degree protects you to a certain extent, but the companies have found out the degrees aren't really that important, it's only a paper proving that you can take orders and follow direction, it doesn't demonstrate talent. (I know a bunch of people will get really upset when I say this, they always do, but it is what it is - an opinion).

This is as old as time itself, for example in the 80's I was hired as a Service technician, with ZERO degrees or education. When I asked my boss why me? He answered, I'd rather have you because you know how to solder, and you also know how to fault find with intuition and skill with comes with real interest and passion for what you do. You should have seen the tiresome 170 applicants I went through, I took a few in for an interview, it was exhausting, sure, their paperwork looked brilliant, but when I put them to the test, they wouldn't know a C-mos from a TTL, and you can do this blindfolded I didn't even have to ask.
That's why.

Later in life I also realized that's not the entire story. As an lifelong student of Computers and Electronics, without a degree you have zero protection, you often get a lower title which in turn gives you less rights when it comes to salary and bonuses. And it's almost impossible to grow without it, it's just the way it is.

The company I now work for, had the same reasons, my manager told me "well, just one look at the lab behind you (my lab) was enough to skip all the questions, I already see you have more than enough to learn anything we throw at you, can you start monday?).

But there was a catch, I didn't get any titles like the ones I replaced, and the salary was relatively low for what I do, I see this in my fellow coworkers around the world as well (I work internationally), all the ones with a Degree, has about twice the salary we do, and they don't even do the same amount of work we do).

We have to work crazy hours, put all of our passion into it, and we don't get rewarded for it - we're a gold-mine for corporations, and they don't want you to know that, in a way - we're a part of undermining your position, and it's a double edged sword, because on one hand - we have a job, and you with an expensive education wonder why no one is hiring you.

Not a great development.

Comment Well google was cluttered (Score 2) 84

with ad sponsored results the first 4-5 pages, and often more.
They solved this with a "ChatGPT search engine" of their own since OpenAI was literally destroying them while they were so depending on oh the good money stream of sponsored ad, it was like drugs to them.

So how to get off that drug? Still get the sponsored search results, but top it off with AI Search results.

Profit.

Comment Desktop computers are not that common anymore (Score 2) 116

You see it in the stores as well, when was the last time you saw a PC or Computer store on every corner.

Now there is a Mobile phone store on every corner instead, so it's very visible
If you think that argument is not convincing enough, you weren't born in the 80-90s or a young adult then, or you never had the need or wish for owning a PC, and why should you? Times and needs changes over the years.

On top of that, PC's are kinda crazy expensive in comparison to everything else, most people get their gaming needs with perfectly fine consoles (albeit with exorbant gaming prices, and the death of physical media - which makes collecting those kinda redundant, sad but true - a lot of you-shall-own-nothing here and people are sadly getting used to it).

It's not PC alone, it's all the streaming services, they are convenient and offers no real incentives to collecting, and they offer a true silent enshittification because you don't truly collect anything anymore, sure there are exceptions (me and probably a few of you who reads Slashdot), and we're becoming increasingly rare, so we pay the extra costs of a traditional albeit modern PC.

A modern PC is kind of a supercomputer too, if you have the top of the line Graphics card and a high end multi-core computer, you're sitting on a computing superpower, and that has costs with it.

We're often kind of autonomous, meaning we don't like to be "controlled" but rather in control of our own hardware, so you lose some of those customers loyalty because you offer the same kind of "lack of control" over your system as you do with the mobiles per default, so we're actively seeking other solutions.

Today it's not that unusual to pay the price of an entire small cheap brand new car for a decent Desktop Pc, but the capability of such a device is beyond most home users in reality, we're not using those at capacity because we're used to lazy programmers and all-in-one development software (such as game engines) were the code is rather sloppy because the PC's are "fast enough" to get desent results without a slow experience, but it could be 10+ times faster if coded efficiently, it's kind of the old "compiled vs hardcoded" dilemma, but I will stop here for the sake of sanity.

Comment It's the next Dot Com Bubble (Score 2) 124

Yes, everyone is scrambling towards AI now, and they're tossing money at anything AI. Everyone is also trying to put "AI" on every product they can, even if there's no AI at all, just as long as some AI has been used to generate something, could even be a logo on a product, then it's AI supported.

No, your jobs are pretty safe - with one small caveat:

If you suck at your job, and you refuse to use your AI LLM tool help you learn and extend your knowledge, yes - you'll most likely lose your job to those who are useful and resourceful.

If you use LLMs and AI to make your job easier, yes - you're using it the way it was intended, it's a great learning tool, and it's even better at doing mundane tasks, guess what - they used to call that automation, AI is exactly that - it's more intelligent automation, but still nowhere NEAR capable of replacing a human fully.

Sure, a lot of companies will lay people off due to AI, but that's because they were dumb enough to buy into the hype, they actually think that AI can replace humans, well - sort of, but not really. AI and LLMs hallucinate a lot. LLMs demands a VAST amount of computing power to get even the simplest of stuff predicted correctly (in other words, it cost a fortune to train a database), in fact - it's so darn expensive that if anyone of you have been using and following OpenAI's adventure into this success, you'll notice that they had to DIAL BACK their latest models, because it became to expensive to provide to the masses, in other words, you got thousands of people on Reddit proving how "dumb" LLMs have become after the dialback, they met with MASSIVE protests because of this.

But think about this, if its THIS expensive, how much of a HYPE bubble dont you think we're in right now? This is why I think your jobs are still safe, at least for the next 10+ years until we have better GPUs, which in turn will have to be a lot more energy efficient. So you're safe for now, if you use it as a tool and don't freak out because of it, that is.

What's worse is all that A.i. slop we're facing, all those "let's get rich of VAO 3" scheemers on Youtube that now automated the process of "Cocomelon" stuff, aka AI videos made for content, mindless drivel content, but they just copy anything in existence, and make AI content out of it, untill we're so swamped that we don't know how to find real content anymore, youtube don't care because it means more money, the Scheemers don't care, because the more AI slop they make, the more money they make.

And ofc. this ends up in a sea of AI garbage, now that is a FAR bigger problem in the future than joblessness. because you aint gonna be out of a job, as long as you're creative and willing to change.

Comment Well duh... (Score 4, Insightful) 110

News at 11, the more you use it, the more capable you become.

It's with everything. The more you challenge yourself the more adept and agile your mind will become, it does not only apply to the use of computers and technology in general, but the more problem solving you do - the more likely you are to think things through and become better at decision making as well, even if it was computers.

I've noticed this cognitive ability with myself as well. For example, if I took a look at myself 30 years ago, if I had a down period were I was lazy, not caring, didn't push myself in any way, then the poorer decisions I would make.

I am in a very stressful job these years, and it's been asking more of me than any time in my life, and I have noticed the difference in the other parts of my life that I am simply making better decisions, it's so obvious that I can see it from the real results that is my life, I plan for things better, I don't overreact, I am way better prepared, I focus on things that matter quicker instead of just "spinning" the same loopy wheel like one tends to do if nothing better to do.

It's all about training that brain "muscle" of ours, and it shows results over time.

Comment Re:No one wants to go where I live (Score 1) 290

We know, and we love you. Well - as for Germans, we really do like you, just make sure to leave the garbage IN designated bins, by all means use our free nature to take in, hang out, camp for a day, move on and camp another place. One of the most annoying things is that tourists take stuff with them, never buy anything, leave it out in nature and never use hotels or paid facilities, but basically an RV.

So again - we love you, you're practically our neighbors, but buy something once in a while?

This has been a public message from the good people known as your friendly neighbors.

Comment No one wants to go where I live (Score 4, Informative) 290

I Live in Scandinavia,

And the office talks goes like this:
"Did you hear about that poor British tourist that got detained because there was some ESTA issues, she spent 19 days in jail, in an AMERICAN Jail?".
"Yeah, not going there, we've cancelled the family trip to the US".

Etc.
I was planning to go as well as I have a couple of favorite towns I visit over there, but yeah - no one of us is going to America again in that state they're in right now, we do feel their pain, and we have a lot of friends over there. But we ain't going.

Comment Re:Inequality, yes - but not as you know it, Jim (Score 1) 40

Could very well be.

But one thing I do know, is that I am in NO way more competent than the 1000s of books of programming tips and knowledge there is out there, and that no matter how little or much I think I know, I learn all the time, and sometimes it can fast-track me towards what I was seeking, and suggest things I wasn't even remotely aware of.

Competence is many things, also the ability to not overevaluate yourself.

Slashdot Top Deals

Your computer account is overdrawn. Please reauthorize.

Working...