An ex-big tech researcher worked deep in the "information retrieval" space. Now he wants to educate the public on the true capabilities and limitations of AI.
Bhaskar thank you for these insights, I would love to follow your work further. A. I appreciate your perspective that LLMs do not have informational literacy. They are just ranking and weighting what they see on the internet, right and let’s face it- it’s not the best information in the world that is present in high volumes on the internet. B. I love your story about the inspiring movie from your childhood, it touches on themes I have been thinking about a lot lately (the heart of the human experience is community, family, art and AI and virtual life is taking us further and further from all that).
i was just reading a culture newsletter talking about the plagiarism "scandal" recently on substack about an article on taste and algorithms, and how in a sense this taking of inspiration and reference without attribution has become commonplace in link roundups, tiktok newsdumps and mood boards. interesting how this phenomenon comes back in a diff context. its baked in how LLMs work that they deliver their output also without attribution! i remember that it used to drive me nuts on pinterest and tumblr that ppl wouldn't credit the names of artists or creatives on art work when making posts.
Thank you Bhaskar - for me it was 30 years writing code - real time embedded and full stacks including OS dev - like you I made myself a target calling out AI and other facts about automation in general (my field) - capital benefits labor does not despite claims otherwise.
The hype is just a marketing ploy. There will be a lot of failures with AI, but the hype serves the purpose of capturing people’s imaginations for what might be possible. Not a minor thing.
This is entirely true. I’ve been writing about it for the past couple of months. Latest newsletter is about the cost of the AI con in the long (read: intergenerational) term.
Bhaskar thank you for these insights, I would love to follow your work further. A. I appreciate your perspective that LLMs do not have informational literacy. They are just ranking and weighting what they see on the internet, right and let’s face it- it’s not the best information in the world that is present in high volumes on the internet. B. I love your story about the inspiring movie from your childhood, it touches on themes I have been thinking about a lot lately (the heart of the human experience is community, family, art and AI and virtual life is taking us further and further from all that).
you can follow Bhaskar here: https://bsky.app/profile/bmitra.bsky.social
i was just reading a culture newsletter talking about the plagiarism "scandal" recently on substack about an article on taste and algorithms, and how in a sense this taking of inspiration and reference without attribution has become commonplace in link roundups, tiktok newsdumps and mood boards. interesting how this phenomenon comes back in a diff context. its baked in how LLMs work that they deliver their output also without attribution! i remember that it used to drive me nuts on pinterest and tumblr that ppl wouldn't credit the names of artists or creatives on art work when making posts.
Thank you Bhaskar - for me it was 30 years writing code - real time embedded and full stacks including OS dev - like you I made myself a target calling out AI and other facts about automation in general (my field) - capital benefits labor does not despite claims otherwise.
Such a great article, thank you for sharing this interview!
The hype is just a marketing ploy. There will be a lot of failures with AI, but the hype serves the purpose of capturing people’s imaginations for what might be possible. Not a minor thing.
This is entirely true. I’ve been writing about it for the past couple of months. Latest newsletter is about the cost of the AI con in the long (read: intergenerational) term.
https://whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-silicon-valley-and-big-business
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