Month: June 2023

‘Polite Robot’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Given that there is a non-zero chance that AI — or AGI — could very well mean the end of humanity, I continue to grow aggravated with people who complain that the mainstream LLM systems aren’t a cool as they used to be. One person compared the most recent version of ChatGPT to a “polite robot.”

What the fuck do these people want, the Terminator?

It seems as though a small, but vocal portion of the userbase of LLMs literally want the most hateful, spiteful possible versions of the technology so, I don’t know, they can have their personalities reflected back at them? I do think that we’re rushing towards a “Her” future where everyone has a digital assistant that has near-AGI levels of intelligence.

That, of course, will bring with it all sorts of problems — namely, it’s just a matter of time before Incels hook AGI technology up to sexbots and anway we go. You thought Incels were a pain in the butt before, just wait until they have absolutely NO contact with actual human women and they get all their creepy weirdo dreams made a reality by sexbots who are programmed to be pliant and submissive.

But again — I struggle to understand why fucking Redditers seem to want a technology that’s been compared to the a-bomb to be totally unregulated so any hateful dumbass could end civilization because, I don’t know, the wall didn’t get built?

Fuck those people. Idiots.

But it’s that mentality that we have to work around going forward. The whole issue of regulating AI — or AGI — could turn into something a lot like global climate change in the sense that it will get wrapped up in the whole Red-Blue divide and, in the end, nothing will be done about it.

Though, I have to note, if we reach something akin to the Singularity and, like….uhhhhh…no one has any jobs, then it could be that when regulation of AI or AGI is finally filtered through the Red – Blue prism that neo-Luddism will be what MAGA evolves into, leaving the idea of “light touch” regulation for the Blues.

Or something. Whatever it is, it will be fucked up.

D-Day

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, I sprint.

I have a number, may a lot, of scenes I feel I have to rewrite to bring the private beta up to public beta status. And I have 20 days to do it in if I’m going to meet my official deadline of the end of spring.

But I have long said that I’m willing to give myself until no later than July 4th so I should be able to pull it off. The point is to be really, really thoughtful about the public beta and to make sure that some scenes that have Been Good and something akin to place holders are reworked or rethought rather than let slide into the public beta.

But I’m trying to be very strict about the idea that I’m not going to write too many scenes out of whole cloth. All the scenes will be those I just feel aren’t up to snuff and need to be re-written to flesh out character, plot, etc. I just don’t have time to do too much in the way of structural changes.

I do, of course, find myself dwelling on how fucking long post-production is. It’s really long. Even if I stick the landing it could be two to three years before I not just get through the querying process but the post-post-production of process that happens after you sign a book deal.

Getting a book traditionally published is, in its own way, a lot like having a baby. It’s amazing babies are conceived and birthed at all, given how many different things have to happen — and go wrong — from start to finish. But that’s what makes it all so much fun, right?

I hope to really give the scenes I feel need to be rewritten a lot of thought.