We've been hearing the same rhetoric from the RAD/mashup/sharepoint crowd for decades. The reality is labor has always tended toward specialization in lieu of generalization. While there is certainly value in no/low code approaches there are practical limits in terms of managing complexity, maintenance and reliability requiring effort and attention. These solutions can and do attract generalists in small organizations or branches to take on more hats yet that is generally self-limiting.

I think this is an area likely to see disruption in the form of AI infused proof assistants. Anything with an easily checkable objective function an AI can at the very least keep throwing shit on the wall until something useful sticks.

This coming from Altman sounds very much like a plea for a bigger cash infusion. A moral stance from that man would die of loneliness. Which makes me think this is an immoral plea, and the most obvious logical conclusion is that he's taking this approach until the right dollar amount is attached to the potential contract.

In fact, seeing Altman join this particular fight makes me think it's entirely possible they're all playing that same game. "We have morals, until you pay us not to," seems to be something this particular administration uses itself, so it wouldn't shock me to find out others are trying their hand at the same tactic.

I'm interested to hear why, in greater detail. The software part seemed pretty damn polished to me - easy UI, extensible via plugins, can't remember it crashing even once in ten years, seamlessly added support for digital cable and OTA sources, guide data was seamless and accurate, extenders worked well, unavoidable DRM was seamless...at a software level, I'm hard pressed to find a place where WMC fell short for its intended scope.

To me, the real issue was that Microsoft didn't have a flagship DVR that looked like a DVR, with an integrated 4-channel tuner and front display. There were custom designs that did this, and Sony made a number of Vaio computers that actually looked like TVs and had integrated tuners, but Microsoft was too dependent on OEMs to make the kind of hardware push that would have assisted consumers in something as simple as having such a device share shelf space with TVs, rather than desktop computers. Had Microsoft sold a computer that looked like a DVR, and was treated like a DVR, complete with a useful setup guide for getting a CableCARD configured the way TiVo does - or, to bring it full circle, made a "DVR conversion accessory" that made an Xbox a DVR - I think they could have competed head-on with cable companies and made a dent.

Well...ironically, I do think that most forms of consumer entertainment have been speedrunning toward the lowest common denominator for a while...but I would agree that MS decision makers do seem to live in the sort of self-congratulatory environment where there's the idea that the MS Store just needs time for consumers to prefer it, and that Windows is an active choice, and that people want Windows computers to be iPads or Chromebooks, which means that their half-measures please no one except themselves. However, I don't think that this culture is the same one that came up with WMC back in 2002 or kept it going through 2012ish, and thus I think that WMC failed due to external factors, rather than just banking on people buying a Dell Inspiron for use as a set-top box.

That will hold them for a couple months, so maybe they'll stop saying the singularity is coming tomorrow, just for a little while we can have some relief.

They really didn't. I don't have to look it up because I was a Google employee at the time and had access to the employee handbook and other documentation.

The problem is that you're looking for a kind of solution that doesn't exist. There probably isn't now any undergraduate math problem that AI can't do, and if there is, there soon won't be. Trying to find kinds of problems that students can do but AI can't is fruitless.

The only answer is to get students to understand why they really need to do the work themselves -- and it's the same reason that they need to learn integration by parts even though the CAS can do it far faster and more accurately -- because learning develops their minds. And, for the students who are unwilling to understand, test them on it in a context where they can't rely on AI: Pencil and paper tests in a room free of any sort of electronics.

You ever watch the Stock Exchange floor videos during a hype cycle? This feels very much like we've taken that Wall Street exuberance and turned it into a society-wide phenomenon, the hype is everywhere for this big new thing that's going to change the universe, except, we aren't seeing anywhere near the promised results. There's a moment when a hype cycle dies on the exchange floor where everybody gets quiet, and all the papers flying around just start slowly settling down, sometimes all the way to the floor. I do have a bit of trepidation about what happens to the entire global economy when that moment finally strikes the AI bubble of exuberance. It's gonna get ugly.

These other fools don't understand a reference when they see it.

The correct answer is: "Magic, all up in this bitch!"

Heart attack caused by creating a pregnancy!

I'm pretty sure most everybody is capable of fucking themselves well before the age of legality.

600 words is my typical end-of-day journal entry when I'm not feeling like writing. I honestly feel bad for people that don't like to create anything at all, even simple writing. I think we've created an entire generation, maybe more, of folks who have been flooded with, "Computers will do it all," for so long that they have no drive themselves. It's just sad to witness in my waning years, as I had always hoped we'd turn toward better things, rather than continually moving toward worse outcomes.

Well, at least we can say for sure what it isn't: Letting an AI do your homework.

Not saying an AI can't have a place in learning. Using it like an advanced search machine to gather data, etc. that's pretty cool. AI is going to replace search soon - until the SEO dudes figure out how to fuck it all over again.

The main problem is that school never teaches you the meta-skills. It never tells you WHAT FOR you are learning all this shit. That nobody really gives a shit in 10 years if you remember the date of that battle or the name of that king. But the ability to put together a number of events in history into a whole story, that will come in handy.

I hated every hour of Latin in school. It took 20 years before I realized that thanks to it I can understand bits and pieces in Italian, Spanish and half a dozen other languages despite never having had a single lesson in them.

We are in such deep shit, "trouble" wouldn't even BEGIN to describe it.

Gross profits are low right now, and net profits are negative.

After a huge drop in customers, we are slowly gaining a few back, and while profitability is still negative, last quarter was slightly better then the one before.

How come that lawmakers behave as if they were never kids or can't remember how they themselves considered any and all "stay out, you're not old enough" measures a challenge to overcome?

Especially if it's a machine, which lacks the common sense of, you know, the dumbest door bitch who would take one look at you and say "I don't give a fuck what your fake ID here says, you're at most 15 and you're not going in".

They didn't flip flop. They changed their position on one aspect of AI security, while holding the line on a different aspect. It's like if you decided that you were willing to leave your car doors unlocked, but refused to leave your house unlocked. Different things, different risk calculations.