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Comment on 95% of Companies See ‘Zero Return’ on $30 Billion Generative AI Spend, MIT Report Finds

b3an@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

I would argue we have seen return. Documentation is easier. Tools for PDF, Markdown have increased in efficacy. Coding alone has lowered the barrier to bringing building blocks and some understanding to the masses. If we could hitch this with trusted and solid LLM data, it makes a lot of things easier for many people. Translation is another.

I find it very hard to believe 95% got ZERO benefit. We’re still benefiting and it’s forcing a lot of change. More power use? More renewable energy, and even (yes safe) nuclear. These tools will also get better and improve the interface between physical and digital. This will become ubiquitous, and we’ll forget we couldn’t just ‘talk’ to computers so easily.

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I’ll end with, I don’t say ‘AI’ is an overblown and overused and overutilized buzzword everywhere these days. I can’t say about bubbles and shit either. But what I see is a lot of smart people making LLMs and related technologies more efficient, more powerful, and is trickling into many areas of software alone. It’s easier to review code, participate, etc. Literal papers are published constantly about how they find new and better and more efficient ways to do things.

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ubergeek@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Documentation is easier. Tools for PDF, Markdown have increased in efficacy. Coding alone has lowered the barrier to bringing building blocks and some understanding to the masses.

I have seen none of these, in practice.

The documentation generated is no better than what a level 1 support rep creates, and needs to be heavily fixed before being relied on.

Pandoc still produces PDFs, Markdown, etc just as quickly as it always has.

The code produced still has the same issues as documentation: it’s shite, and not easily bug fixed due to a lack of understanding by anyone with what its actually doing. And, if you need someone who understand the code already to bugfix it, guess what? You didn’t save anyone anything.

And, all of this, only using terrawatts more electricity than before, with equivalent or worse outcomes.

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- b3an@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  OCR was more my thinking, not Pandoc. LLMs enable OCR to achieve greater accuracy through context enhancement for example.
  
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  - sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    That sounds like one of those rare appropriate use cases.
    
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berrodeguarana@lemmy.eco.br ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Well written response. There is an undeniable huge improvement to LLMs over the last few years, and that already has many applications in day to day life, workplace and whatnot.

From writing complicated Excel formulas, proofreading, and providing me with quick, straightforward recipes based on what I have at hand, AI assistants are already sold on me.

That being said, take a good look between the type of responses here -an open source space with barely any shills or astroturfers (or so I’d like to believe) - and compare them to the myriad of Reddit posts that questioned the same thing on subs like r/singularity and whatnot. It’s anecdotal evidence of course, but the amount of BS answers saying “AI IS GONNA DOMINATE SOON” ; “NEXT YEAR NOBODY WILL HAVE A JOB”, “THIS IS THE FUTURE” etc. is staggering. From doomsayers to people who are paid to disseminate this type of shit, this is ONE of the things that mainly leads me to think we are in a bubble. The same thing happened/ is happening to crypto over the last 10 years. Too much money being inserted by billionaire whales into a specific subject, and in years they are able to convince the general population that EVERYBODY and their mother is missing out a lot if they don’t start using “X”.

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- ubergeek@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  providing me with quick, straightforward recipes based on what I have at hand,
  
  Ah yes, the wonderful recipes AI generates. Like Pizza made with glue!
  
  businessinsider.com/google-ai-glue-pizza-i-tried-…
  
  You know what else generates quick, straightfoward recipes based on what I have on hand?
  
  My brain. I open fridge, and freezer, and then decide what to make. Usually takes less than a minute to figure something out.
  
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  - berrodeguarana@lemmy.eco.br ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Not sure if I am following the sarcasm, I made it very clear I think AI’s purpose is hyperinflated, and it is a bubble as well, I was just saying it is not completely useless.
    
    IT does give a LOT of false information, but for simple stuff it saves time, that I will not deny.
    
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    ubergeek@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Oh, it’s not completely useless. If you need something that makes gibberish that sounds real for ad copy, I’m sure its fine for that.
    
    And, while it may save me, a higher level person some time to produce a document… the cost for the production (Due to the electricity required, and other compute resources, which require all their own people to maintain) outstrips the time saved, when I could have handed the job to a level 1 support person, since I still need to review it and correct it for accuracy.
    
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- Pollo_Jack@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Excel still struggles with correct formula suggestions. Basic #REF errors when the cell above and below in the table function just fine. The ever present, this data is a formula error when there is no longer a formula in the entire column.
  
  And searching, just like its predecessor the google algo, gives you useless suggestions if anything remotely fashionable uses the scientific name too.
  
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JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Documentation is easier.

For the love of all things good and pure, do not use LLMs to make your documentation.

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