https://faulttolerant.substack.com/p/unoptimized-7-smoke-and-mirrors-and
"If you’ve spent any time around the worlds of cryptocurrency, NFTs, or
artificial intelligence, you’ve probably come across David Gerard.
An author, technology journalist, and longtime Wikipedia editor, Gerard first
gained widespread attention for his relentless reporting on the cryptocurrency
boom in
Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain and
Libra Shrugged, books that
dissected the promises — and frequent absurdities — of blockchain culture.
Rather than chasing every new technological trend, he’s made a career out of
asking an unfashionable question:
Does this actually work?
Today, he applies that same skeptical lens to generative AI through
Pivot to
AI — a daily newsletter, YouTube channel, and podcast whose tagline — “It
can’t be that stupid, you must be prompting it wrong” — captures both its
sarcastic humor and its central argument.
While much of the technology industry races to predict AI’s inevitable future,
Gerard spends his time examining what companies are actually building (if
anything), what the economics look like, and where the marketing diverges from
reality.
Spoiler: It diverges a lot.
We spoke about why every technology bubble seems to tell the same story, why AI
has proven far more durable than crypto hype, and why he believes “AI” has
always been less a technical term than a marketing one."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
