cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/technology/p/1903357/should-handymen-use-ai-to-fix-your-electric-outlets-new-mozilla-project-says-yes
In an obscure post, a Mozilla MLE announced a ClawBot ripoff specifically targeted at at tradespeople (electricians, plumbers, roofers, handymen) for help with administrative tasks like scheduling, explaining invoices, etc.
What is their project, ClawBolt? According to their website, it's a compilation of
- A flaky AI agent you run on your computer
- A Telegram chatbot to remotely control it
- A connection to OpenAI to parse all of it
This sounds like a dangerous project to target at tradesmen, doesn't it? AI marketing tells people that AI is smart and safe and powerful when it is anything but. If Facebook's top AI safety genius nearly destroyed her own email inbox, how will a plumber fare?
One of the features of ClawBolt is "memory," something that will store and possibly corrupt questions and answers like "What's Mrs. Johnson's address?" and "My hourly rate is $95".
But it gets worse: ClawBolt documentation says it can scan images to "get help identifying fixtures"
Remember the memes making fun of AI's inability to make wiring diagrams?
I can only imagine how bad this could make things for tradespeople - in addition to violating customer privacy, getting gaslit by a non-deterministic "memory" machine, and potentially breaking their work computers.
The problem, much like the problem with relying on evolution to unfuck the anthropocene mass extinction event, is that the response rate of the feedback mechanism is far too slow. By the time an AI-reliant contractor ends up personally experiencing the "find out" result of their particularly stupid brand of "fucking around", they will have potentially caused irreparable damage to the lives of —and potentially caused the deaths of— hundreds of otherwise-reasonable people.