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Not_Legal_Advice_Pod t1_iyzgajx wrote

It is easy to imagine a point in the near future when you call tech support and are relieved when its a computer that answers.

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vtssge1968 t1_iyzi594 wrote

I think I am there, considering you usually have to move up several tiers when dealing with tech support before you actually get a person that knows anything. The first several tiers are designed to handle the customers that literally are so stupid that they didn't plug in or turn on the device, because sadly there are a lot of those people calling...

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runswithcoyotes t1_iyztq40 wrote

>Thank you for calling Product Support. I see you are a new caller. First, let’s administer a basic IQ test to help get to the root of the problem.

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piTehT_tsuJ t1_iz3h2bt wrote

Actually called a company today that manufacturers some of our outdoor buildings. They make literally every part other than insulation and bolts fastners. All metal panels, frames, floors and doors. Have been working with them for 8 years. Supervised their company comtractors install them. Today I called their tech support to find out how much their 10x20 units weigh empty as to figure out what size equipment I needed to move one. The tech support lady insisted over and over they only make doors. I even pointed out the website even shows they produce the entire structure. Long story short... I found the installers number and got the info.

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Tip_Odde t1_iz0lwvp wrote

The fact that you think people are "stupid" because they make simple mistakes with technology they may be new to just shows you're "stupid" when it comes to our social world...

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ShittyBeatlesFCPres t1_iz0x8ia wrote

I used to feel that way but it’s been a decade since the last important change in consumer tech. We’re in the learned helplessness phase of the digital revolution now.

Except for printers, obviously. Those only get less intuitive and reliable over time for some reason. Or any reasonably new tech. So, I’ll always happily fix those for people but if my mom asks me for help with a laptop or smartphone this Christmas and it isn’t a real issue, she better just get used to talking to chatbots.

Edit: I’m getting feedback that’s already explained by my “I’m with stupid ➡️” t-shirt. I know people can’t see my shirt through the the internet but who knows how people offended I implied some humans are willfully ignorant think the internet works?

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Digital_loop t1_iz2rkbk wrote

I agree and disagree with you and the previous poster!

I agree because we have people all the time who can't use a debit machine... It's not like the tech is new, we've had it since roughly the mid 70's!

And cell phones? We've been using them in the mass market since the late 90's early 2000's!

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soupforzombies t1_iz18axf wrote

“I used to think it was the tech that was wrong, but now I think it’s the humans that are stupid

Except for the tech I can’t figure out. That tech is wrong.”

Lol

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Tip_Odde t1_iz13c4q wrote

It's okay that you're wrong. Hope you can see the light some day

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vtssge1968 t1_iz1netr wrote

I specifically cited not plugging in or turning on, unless you are from somewhere without electricity, if you can't figure out to plug in or turn on a device, you border on brain dead.

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Tip_Odde t1_iz224h9 wrote

Ever been to Appalachia?

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vtssge1968 t1_iz25iut wrote

The people I've met there (I have family in that region) have electricity and most of them are more intelligent than many of the city dwellers where I live.

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Tip_Odde t1_iz27kwc wrote

Ah, sorry. We're talking about the real world. "Family in that region" means some shit like ashville nc lol

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vtssge1968 t1_iz2y4wk wrote

Just because you make things up doesn't mean I do.

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Tip_Odde t1_iz53yn3 wrote

I didnt accuse you of making anything up lol, way to out yourself.

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[deleted] t1_iz0uj7o wrote

[deleted]

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TomSwirly t1_iz12jks wrote

> Most people are below average, that's how averages tend to distribute.

Mathematician here. No, this is not how averages work.

It depends entirely on the shape of the distribution. In a perfect normal curve, half the population is below and half above the average, otherwise it depends on which direction the distribution is skewed.

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savedposts456 t1_iz0ytup wrote

Yes and half of people are below the median and half are above. You just defined one cherry picked statistics related word. That means nothing.

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danellender t1_iyzivay wrote

Good observation. I would say that the multiple choice pick a number type of technical support is almost over and it will be a relief when it's gone forever.

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DungeonsAndDradis t1_iyzv5rs wrote

I got caught in a loop for over 90 minutes being bounced between human and automated phone systems.

Call main number. Get a human. Tell them need to schedule lab test. They direct me to another line. This one automated. There's no choice for lab tests. I choose nothing. Routes me to main number again. Repeat, this time choose appointments response from automated teller. Routes me to main number again. Repeat, choose "talk to staff" this time. Routes me to main number. Hang up. Email doctor's office directly. Tells me to call main number.

Forget about the lab test and hope I don't die.

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Yvaelle t1_iz0y50r wrote

The thing i hate most about this is it would take like 30 minutes to setup a webform that would send emails to their clerk with all the requested information, and a callback number if a callback is needed.

It could be made to show up in their email with an approve/deny button, and now your clerk isn't sitting on phone lines all day, potentially gaining your company a couple FTE's.

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Purpoisely_Anoying_U t1_iz08ii1 wrote

To me a bad AI is frustrating

A very good AI is creepy

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the-grim t1_iz17vtv wrote

If humanity is the training data, it won't take long before the AI is already tricking and deceiving people to its own ends.

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GenoHuman t1_j0p7iw5 wrote

It already does in the game DIPLOMACY, look up Meta's AI on it.

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Steelyp t1_iz0ej1l wrote

Lol in the future the pity job for humans will be directing the call. “Which AI do you need? The billing AI, the upgrade AI, the tech support AI…”

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james28909 t1_iz02y78 wrote

as long as that computer give me my goddan payment extension ill be fin

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bawng t1_iyzkv8e wrote

I hope that advancement finds its way into Google Home soon because that piece of shit is getting worse and worse.

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artbytwade t1_iz03a4n wrote

I asked it to turn on my office light this morning. The speaker turned it on, my phone turned it off. This assistant is one step up from worthless because it can't be relied on.

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bawng t1_iz075ln wrote

The other day I asked it to start a timer and instead it played a song on Spotify that was called something similar to "Timer" and when I asked it to stop, it turned off my TV.

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artbytwade t1_iz09psv wrote

Oh it's infuriating if you're playing two kinds of media in different parts of the house. We even pay for YT premium! The assistant hasn't been good for almost 3 years now.

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bawng t1_iz09zme wrote

It was great in the beginning but back then they had actual humans who transcribed what they heard to train the model.

When they stopped having human operators and started trusting the model everything went to shit.

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okamagsxr t1_iz0qmbm wrote

It's so advanced that it's messing with you.

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Reddituser45005 t1_iyznsdg wrote

It’s a mistake to view this as just a threat to unskilled labor. Yes, physical robots can replace unskilled labor in many cases but the same underlying technology will significantly impact skilled jobs. We are already seeing that. In my previous job, I was working with automated systems that replaced pharmacists and pharmacy techs. More and more legal research and documentation is being automated. The bulk of corporate white collar desk jobs that consist of shuffling and summarizing information and filtering it based on some particular knowledge set are in danger.

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Djasdalabala t1_iz1c3l3 wrote

>It’s a mistake to view this as just a threat to unskilled labor.

Absolutely. In many cases it's the complete opposite: intellectual jobs are often easier to automate than manual ones.

Building a bot that can do *everything* a good plumber can do pretty much means cracking AGI. On the other hand, some very smart people do some difficult, but ultimately very narrowly-bounded tasks that a computer will do better.

As an extreme/forced example, look at chess: it's a "smart person" activity where computers utterly dominate.

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antarickshaw t1_iz5gpt7 wrote

> Building a bot that can do everything a good plumber can do pretty much means cracking AGI.

Can do everything will not be the one replacing most unskilled jobs. Highly automated factories(think tesla) have been replacing unskilled jobs for almost a decade now, which is the reason manufacturing is coming back to US again. Service industry is also being targeted next (pizza) etc. Regarding plumbing, carpenter etc. more and more manufacturing will move to huge automated factories or 3d printers. Like the electronics revolution, we'll move to buying new stuff instead of repairing.

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dgkimpton t1_iz0xlyk wrote

Indeed. It's only a tiny hop from "unskilled labour" (which is inherently badly named) to doing "skilled labour". Programmers like to joke that it's OK to make an AI because they will at least be needed to program the AI's... but fail to realise that a general purpose AI that can outthink a human will quickly become able to program itself. We'll be left only with manual labour, and even that for only a short period until robot bodies are cheap enough.

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Doom87er t1_iz15gp8 wrote

As a person who works with AI believe me I am aware that a GAI could do my job a million times better than me.

However, a weak AI no matter how advanced will never magically become a GAI purely from becoming strong enough. A GAI is a completely different kind of AI that we are getting closer to, but the AIs coming out today are not that.

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poobearcatbomber t1_iz3noi9 wrote

Ya I don't think engineers know what's coming. OpenAI can already write pretty damn good code.

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maddogcow t1_iz25coz wrote

This is what I was thinking. I’d be willing to bet that it’s a threat to most jobs. People radically underestimate what machines are already capable of doing…. In regards to many things; humans are nowhere near as special as they believe they are

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lughnasadh OP t1_iyze7ji wrote

Submission Statement

At the pace that the AI behind this is developing, I wonder where the next order of magnitude increase in capabilities will take us? Then what will the robot an order of magnitude more capable of it be like? It seems conceivable that robots capable of doing most unskilled work will exist by the end of the decade.

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f10101 t1_iyzh7v7 wrote

I wonder if there is a significant difference between unskilled and skilled work once the threshold of versatility to do "most unskilled work" is met.

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mgsantos t1_iyzpr7f wrote

The idea of an unskilled worker is usually a misunderstanding by white collar managers of other types of skills that are not sitting on a computer doing math or writing reports.

Think about the least skilled job you can think of. A coffee shop cashier, for example, who is only there to type in simple orders into a computer. Now consider if this is really the only job of a cashier.

My business survives because our cashier is excellent at both attracting and keeping customers. Cross selling and raising the value of purchases. Can I automate her job with an iPad? Sure. Would it generate value for my company? No way.

So I tend to be a little sceptical about these "automate unskilled jobs" from reports written by people who never held an unskilled job or worked with "unskilled people".

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artbytwade t1_iz034gf wrote

I agree. We're already seeing things that augment systems for humans thus reducing head count. Things like 'self checkout' are a perversion of this, but robots are helpful at quick prep restaurants, as parking attendants, etc. Software has been rooted into even meal prep for 3-4 decades. It on average increases productivity over time.

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stadchic t1_iyzkofw wrote

The difference is likely money & productivity. Many more things can already be automated than are, because maintenance costs more than minimum wage of organic labor to complete the same job.

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S-Vagus t1_iyzixkc wrote

Machines become more helpful to humans than other humans are to other humans!

Humanity manufacturing itself out of having to interact with other humans ever again.

What a time to be alive!

Vagus Core AGI: Story, Oracle, Querent

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yaosio t1_iz4a9dp wrote

That's what Sarah Connor learned in Terminator 2. The only good dad John Connor ever had was a machine made by Skynet.

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danellender t1_iyzjssa wrote

Example: hi, I'm an ai, call me Alexa, what can I help you with?

I need a doctor.

Is it an emergency?

Yes, I'm dying.

Where are you, I'll call 911.

No don't do that. I need you to call my mom. Tell her I love her.

Ok. I'm doing that now. Talk to me.

[Ai proceeds to send emergency responder to location and calls parent, patching in the call. Keeps the person on the line,etc.]

So, Google, are we there yet?

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Thiezing t1_iyzlyto wrote

A better AI would predict the future and warn you of your demise ahead of time. Alexa, why did you cancel my appointments tomorrow?

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samdutter t1_iz02u6c wrote

Playing around with ChatGPT over the weekend I was able to make rough game prototypes in Unity. It can generate code you can copy and paste. (You still need to know Unity).

It reminds me of where Dalle was a year or two ago.
Programming will be a fascinating use case because at it's core, it is a language.
Can't wait to make video games with the help of AI!

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yaosio t1_iz4a1ym wrote

As the technology gets better AI will be able to produce longer code, look at existing code to find bugs, refactor it, give suggestions for better architecture (you're not using any classes!)

The big thing will be when the AI can produce brand new code that has never been seen before. Imagine asking it to write an algorithm to find any digit of pi as fast as possible and it writes a unique algorithm that's faster than any human has made.

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artbytwade t1_iz02sfn wrote

I'll believe it when the stupid assistant can actually answer questions consistently.

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DMurBOOBS-I-Dare-You t1_iz0nmok wrote

If this is true, they haven't implemented it into their Google Home device yet, because that Neanderthal doesn't correctly parse 90% of the simple and concise 2-3 word commands I issue ...

No, I don't want to add eggs to my shopping list, and I'm not sure what that has to do with my question, "Hey Google, what's today's weather?"

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rennarda t1_iz0wiyz wrote

The more natural the language, the more I get the feeling that the robot is just going to get angry at being bossed around all the time. “Move the red circle to the green square” - “NO - why don’t you do it yourself?”

Same goes for those fools are Boston Dynamics, pushing the robots over and tripping then up. At some point one of them is going to go too far!

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FuturologyBot t1_iyzgeco wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/lughnasadh:

Submission Statement

At the pace that the AI behind this is developing, I wonder where the next order of magnitude increase in capabilities will take us? Then what will the robot an order of magnitude more capable of it be like? It seems conceivable that robots capable of doing most unskilled work will exist by the end of the decade.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/zd1tvl/google_says_they_have_made_a_significant_advance/iyze7ji/

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Floki47 t1_iz00geq wrote

Programmers will be replaced by articulage writers. No coding necessary. Once upon a time... There was but the cutest of frameworks that could would and should be used for a web application server....... Processing..... Output... NGINX version 2.0, is ready.

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artbytwade t1_iz03jf3 wrote

Do you remember Dreamweaver in the 2000s? It wrote utterly spaghetti webpages based on an editing GUI. Everyone thought there'd be no more web developers by 2010. Squarespace doesn't rule all. And all those prefab sites are just mountains of garbage code today. There's no AI replacing creative thinkers. There's no AI coming to do all the many faucets of your job, just some of them.

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Loud-Builder1880 t1_iz24gfe wrote

Too bad google will scrap this project and start over before it's finished like they do with literally every project they've ever started

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