And stay, and stay, and stay...

of how AI is taking over. Not in any kind of superintelligence way, but in permeating our online cultural conversation, to the point where the line is blurred between hallucinations and reality.

Yup. I live in a small town in a rural area, and local hole-in-the-wall dives have gotten big bills in the mail from some licensing org just for some yokel plunking on a banjo during an open mic (if he's playing a recognizable copyrighted tune). They really do have undercover agents, and they really pursue any violations they can find.

Everybody wants to be a middleman. That's where the profit is. You don't have the hassle of creating something, you don't have the hassle of selling something. You just sit in the middle and collect rent.

Of course it's totally reasonable to expect a commercial establishment to pay for entertainment. But the proliferation of 'rights organizations' along with the farce of naming 20 songwriters on a hit recording that's a 1-chord riff, aren't doing a thing for the working musician. The ultimate outcome will be less music in public, less exposure for artists, and bigger profits for those who sit on top of the music industry food chain.

This is just the private credit playbook, played out in the music industry.

Using "high altitude" and "ground-breaking" in the same headline brings up an image that the authors probably didn't intend

Whether or not China "wins" the "AI race" (whatever that means) in the short term, our cuts to science and education will insure that China surpasses us technically in the long term.

For one thing, doctors only 20% accurate? I know they make lots of mistakes, but that figure seems suspiciously low, and the article (and links) seem light on the specifics.

After all, this is Microsoft tooting their own horn, and of course we believe every word. /s

I've got an RME FireFace 800 audio interface. Expensive, top quality, tons of features. I use it with Windows and a PCIe card, so of course what Apple does or doesn't do is irrelevant to me. If I had to replace it with a current RME model, they've got a USB equivalent now. But I'm very happy with my current setup. Amazing sound quality (I run a small recording studio), and totally stable -- never a glitch or problem. PCIe card uses a TI chip -- I had problems at first with another off-brand card, but never a hiccup with this one.

Exactly. Toys are supposed to be about imagination. Barbie used to be a character in a kid's own private world -- now all the stories will be generated by AI. All downside, no upside.

Not easy to create a buzz about something if you're not even willing to say what it is. Steve Jobs could do it, but these guys are looking lame by comparison.

As contrasted with Starship, which ain't lookin so good at the moment. Not to deny the amazing accomplishments of SpaceX, but space is hard.

I definitely agree with the first part of what you said. There's an awful lot of hand-waving going on here. Trying to put a timeline on things that have yet to be discovered or invented is dumb, no matter what the credentials of the person making the claims.

Sure, a copywriter for a gardening site doesn't seem like an essential function for society. I'm not into gardening myself, so I probably wouldn't miss her.

So what do you do for a living? Do you do it sitting in front of a computer? What percentage of jobs would you define as "knowledge work?" Do you realize how many of those jobs have gone away, and how many more will disappear in the near future? You don't have to buy the AI hype about "superintelligence" to understand that what it can do right now is causing massive disruption, and this is only a glimpse of what's coming down the pike.

I switched to Notepad++ years ago and never looked back.

Simply have AI write the missing books