Agreed. Already seeing some very successful implementations of it for clerical tasks. Serious time savings, good results…and this is only the early stages of it.
60 Minutes Nvidia AI segment
- Thread starter JeffKeryk
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I keep hearing things like this and have heard these kinds of statements for decades. Most of it never comes to fruition because big money always wins out.
Let me give some sort of example/life experience that I have been thinking about and have heard FOUR examples of me being right in my thinking just in the last 6 months-
I work for a small-ish construction company, we focus mainly on the industrial sector, heavy skilled trades-based work - ground-up construction of heavy steel-framed buildings, piping, mechanical systems, industrial electrical/high voltage systems, structural work, maintenance/repair of process systems, millwright, machine moving/setting, etc.
You don't hear the front end girl answering "the phone" much, as most of our communication is direct with employees of the company through cell phones (even the owner/higher management). But one day last week there was a cold call from a facility that is not familiar with us, called up out of the blue with an issue they need resolved. Our front end girl just happened to be at her desk, answered the phone, took a message and as luck would have it, handed the message to someone with a brain and it was the right person to receive it.
We got the job. The owner/facility told us he had called 9 other companies like us, no one answered the phone directly, all were robot-answered, punch 1 for engrish, 2 for this, 4 for that. He hung up on all of them. We were the only one who he could talk to a REAL human, take a message and we called him back in a timely manner. We got the job.
This lead could end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for us over time, if not millions.
I frequently make calls like this; I want to talk to a human immediately, I want interaction. I want to know if the entity I call can help me and I want to know immediately. So do millions of others in this country and most likely across the Globe. We NEED to know if we can get our issues solved and need to know quickly. We don't have hours, days, weeks to let AI route calls to people who don't give two squirts whether or not their company gets work or can even assist others.
I am not alone in these desires. In fact, in a country where the number of people who produce is constantly going down, where the number of people who can actually do something and get issues resolved is going down, more and more people are becoming frustrated and want to talk to humans who can help. Not AI.
Know what else AI isn't going to do? Change out a water heater, air conditioning system or fix a leaking valve cover or brakes.
AI has the possibility to answer questions far faster and more accurately than any human that ever lived or will.
Let's take your example of the gal who answered the phone. What if your company was 1,000 times bigger. Would she know who to call?
What if she were sick that day? What if she were new?
it’s a language model, not really an intelligence. I would definitely not trust it with medical advice. Being able to search internet database super fast and having an actual knowledge are two totally different things.
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Comparing a simple ie primitive phone answering system to the highly advanced abilities AI will provide is like comparing automobiles to horse drawn buggys. Sure the first (primitive steam powered) cars couldn't compete against horses, and I'm sure lot's people at the time espoused confidently about why automobiles would never replace horses - the first ones were slow, unreliable, expensive, and roads weren't set up for them. Only took a few decades of advancements however for cars to completely supplant horse transportation in every way.
Like it or hate it, AI is not some over-promised or flash in the pan technology that will never go anywhere. We're already seeing amazing things it can do and we've barely scratched the surface.
I humbly suggest the database and algorithms would be far more rigorous than that.
And who would review them? Certainly you don’t suggest doctors start learning how to program?
Remember black Nazis generated by AI? Oh those smart engineers sure accounted for all possibilities
Friend, you don't seem to understand AI. Doctors and the Medical world at large would be a critical component in such an undertaking. They are today in such applications as Epic.And who would review them? Certainly you don’t suggest doctors start learning how to program?
Remember black Nazis generated by AI? Oh those smart engineers sure accounted for all possibilities
Interestingly, I was on a team that built an application that ran the biggest non-profit in California, Family Bridges. I learned so much from those wonderful people over the 20+ years we worked together.
Here is the 60 Minutes segment showing the AI robot in my OP. Go to the 5:20 point if you are interested.
And just think, nerds like me had NVDA stock long ago because we liked their video cards.
Tech is evolving, changing, at an incredible rate. How does one keep up?
The stuff I have been exposed to has been rendered old school, but can still be a foundation for learning.
I talk to young people in my life about tech. My only goal is to incite their curiosity.
Of course I cannot speak to other areas, but attending all the free lectures and seminars around here reminds me we are but a spec of stardust in our Universe. Stanford and Berkeley are well known, but the local Community Colleges like De Anza and Foothill are wonderful as well.
What's really funny is programming will soon be dead and replaced with AI's natural language interface and capabilities.
In February 2024, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at the World Government Summit in Dubai that coding is no longer a viable career for young people due to the rapid adoption of AI. He also said that people won't need to know how to program in the future because of AI advances. Huang predicts that AI will make traditional coding unnecessary and democratize programming.
Guess I retired just in the nick of time...
I appreciate the kind words. Thank you.
I can’t help believing the people having the times of their lives building AI, will someday regret it when AI comes for THEIR livelihoods.
Tech is the disrupt-er. Always has been. Winners and losers. That's life.
I can only suggest that the old ways have to die to make way for the new.
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^This. History is FILLED with old jobs being lost and new jobs being created as new technology changes the way we live. Getting mad about it is like getting mad at the sky for being blue, it's an inevitable change as humans advance.
I understand enough to know that no government body or a body of doctors and PHDs will be able to control the billions of lines of code AI system of that caliber would use.
Could it be a helpful tool to the professional doctors, absolutely. But for anyone to think that a normal person can just use it to diagnose and treat themselves is quite foolish IMO.
But that’s just me, I’m sure there will be millions of people that will trust AI fully.
Oh there are plenty under 60 (usually woman) who enjoy sharing their conversations with everyone else in the grocery aisle. I'm always so tempted to just butt in and say hi to whomever is on the other line.
I understand those who are more dependent on computers/IT/etc for their living and overall quality of life are more accepting of all the hoopla and promises of whatever the newest thing is coming out of technology/etc.
At 53, with my life experiences of listening to promises from IT/Tech/Software/etc for 30+ years, I know to believe hardly any of it, know that anything that is garnering attention of most of the population / media / etc., isn't going to come to the fruition that is promised, isn't going to benefit me as advertised and will take much longer, cost much more and be less beneficial overall.
Just yesterday, I was dealing with some health insurance mess where I needed to straighten out which company was supposed to pay for what, as my employer changed providers in mid-year last year and I had a procedure 6 days after the change. I was on the phone with an extremely helpful lady for an hour and forty minutes with her dealing with several claims. I was asked at the beginning of the call by the auto-answering software to stay on the line and take a survey.
The survey asked me to rate the experience 1-10. I was trying to rate everything a 10, but the software thought I was entering 1. So I just did 9 for everything. They then asked me to leave a message at the end as to why I did not rate everything a 10. I explained to them their magnificent software developer beautifully and skillfully crafted their software so that I could not leave a 10 rating....
THESE are the people programming AI. Think about it.
Meanwhile, I filled out a form late yesterday about 4:30 pm for information on a local co-op shop space. I got a text message from the owner at 6:45 pm telling me he'd like to call me later in the evening. I also got an email saying a REAL HUMAN would be in touch.
This man knows how to run a business and respond to inquiries.
The thing I think about is along these lines: ONCE it really gets it down, perfect or near perfect - many companies will pay BIG DOLLARS to have AI.
Not there yet.
Not there yet.
Show me a construction company that self-performs most of the work they do that has 200,000 skilled tradesmen on their payroll on a regular, weekly basis.
Show me a company with 200k skilled tradesmen that large companies call that respond within hours to an emergency with skilled tradesmen, not "project managers", not sales reps, not mid- or upper-level management or low-level office people to "investigate" the issue.
Show me a company with 200k skilled tradesmen that small companies, who are lucrative with big pockets, call for everyday needs.
Let me guide your memory back to when many companies cared about their future business, their reputation, etc., like the one I work for still does -
If the person answering the phone "was sick that day", there were plans in place to have others answer the phone. These "others" were also highly respected, regarded and knew what the company did, knew what many co-workers' responsibilities were and could deliver a message to the appropriate person.
If the person answering the phone was new and didn't know exactly what to do, she would have been instructed to ask someone.
These are common-sense responses to simple, elementary tasks that used to get handled without 90 minutes of disorganization that happens today in most places.
Oh how far we've come with all this education in the US....