DjangoCon US 2023: Don't Buy the 'A.I.' Hype

In my 2023 talk at DjangoCon US, I implore y'all not to buy into the "A.I." hype.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

– George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.

Congratulations, technologists! We have reached a new record for the height of the peak of inflated expectations with the hype surrounding “A.I.” If you believe the recent press, “A.I.” is going to be capable of everything, with some even talking of immortality.

It is wonderful to be excited about new technology available to us, but this is at a level I have never seen in my career. There have been numerous lessons from the past that illustrate why we should avoid these levels of hype.

Is “A.I.” going to change everything? I don’t buy it, and in this talk, I’ll explain why.

[przemyslawpodczasi]

The greatest irony of "Dunning-Kruger Effect" from the talk is that this is not Dunning-Kruger Effect, but nobody read the paper, everyone just repeat the chart

[chawaphiri]

I thought he was going to give a view that was going to say these things will have no impact. But he chose to say we need to be careful with how we use these things (LLMs). Which makes sense. It was a good talk

[MisterDevel]

An incredibly mature talk on such a hot topic. Bravo sir! 👏

[wonseoklee]

Fair point. Exactly happened on crypto hype a few years ago. Sometimes we need to step back and see what is really happening.

[BajoranEngineer]

I was like "How did you get your talk up so fast!" As always, incredibly impressive, engaging and fun. Love you, friend! <3

[JamesJosephFinn]

Absolutely and utterly brilliant. I've been saying the same thing—albeit less eloquently—to anyone with ears. Whether they hear or not is another matter.

[Nirex_]

Very thoughtful talk, helps one see more of the world's real problems.

[thePocketWatch]

"Facts are not discovered, facts are not created, facts are simply acknowledged. A truth on the other hand, is almost the opposite. Truths are those things that are not simply acknowledged, but must be discovered, or created."

[Karim-ikij]

I don't think it's all hype but we are way too soon in the game.

[adam]

Can't help but notice the video yelling the truths on this has very few likes and views.

[BruceWayne]

A minor correction on the AI pie diagram. Current AI isn't just 1/6th of the approach. They currently use Machine Learning, NLP, Decision Making (to an extent), Object Recognition, and Robotics is being integrated with it now. This means that only 2.5 of the 6 pieces of the AI puzzle aren't being done currently, though they are working on it.
Additionally, while I agree that AI is currently over-hyped, I think the presenter is incorrect when he compares current AI to the 3D-TV, and other tech that went no where. There's a key difference here. Current AI, even in its limited state, improves the rate at which you can work, it reduces costs, and makes some mundane tasks easier. Anything that reduces costs, or makes life easier is not a fad that is going to go away. It may not live up to the hype, but it's not going to disappear either.

[Pwj]

I also feel the "A.I" hype is overrated because the Tech Industry is becoming stagnant.

Just watch an episode of "Silicon Valley" and it gives you an idea of how the different tech companies are so competitive, but can be so not independent in thinking and just bickering over who has the better version of '"the new thing".

[Nirex_]

Though I don't think it does Deep learning justice to compare it to web3... I think it's more comparable to some tech like the Internet or the C programming language.

[Pwj]

FTX should be the biggest "Red Flag" that tech is dead

[dankal]

When it comes to stock investing, you may be right. When it comes to the way "AI" (i would rather say Machine Learning) is and will be changing the world in near future - you are wrong. Chat-GPT may be overhyped, but remember that there are tons of ML applications that flourish and people don't know about.

[TracFone-xnfj]

AI is a bigger deal than any of those tech fads you listed. Hype and irresponsible uses aside, the underlying machine learning tech is transformative in a way that the metaverse and blockchain never could have been even if they were as big a deal as the techbros made them out. Machine learning solved the protein folding problem. Machine learning found improved sort algorithms that are already merged upstream in the LLVM libc++ library. The previous code was hand tuned assembler and hadn't changed in ten years. Machine learning has come up with matrix multiply and hashing algorithms that beat the best humans had been able to do. While searching for new chemical synthesis paths for some existing pharmaceuticals, a machine learning algorithm produced 40, 000 new potential chemical weapons, some predicted to be more toxic than VX (it also independenly invented VX).

None of the other tech hypefests in our lives involved technology powerful enough to do these things. AI/ML is different.

I do agree with you that turning loose these LLMs trained on god knows what random internet data was the height of irresponsibility. But any powerful new tech is going to be abused by the unscrupulous.

[jwmeirose]

this was a very powerful video until you sidetracked into second life a bit too deeply, then picked up, but bogged down n FTX, MS, etc. sorry.

[robroy]

This video is not going to hold up well. I already use AI to enhance so much of my work and life. He is so wrong on this one. Anyone who listens to him is going to be left behind. This technology is still in its infancy and it has many challenges, but it's well on its way to disrupt almost everything.

[zacharydaniels]

As a person who fully believes the hype, i did enjoy this talk. Downplaying AI's current state is like downplaying a flu pandemic. Exponential Tech is difficult to comprehend, and comparing it to past tech after decades of Moores law is a mistake.

[csbarathi]

Well, the people who jumped into the hype train of blockchain were wrong.
Many of them are staying away from the AI hype