I realise this is a tricky topic and I hope it's ok to ask this question. I genuinely want to hear how AI has changed people lives for the better. If you really hate AI I get it, but this isn't a question for you then. Thank you and it's all love.

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[–] 2 points 36 minutes ago* (1 child)

I posted this earlier somewhere else on Lemmy but the post got so much AI-ridicule that I simply deleted it.

My father is a long-time retired engineer and have always loved tech. These days he's unfortunately legally blind. Recently I picked up two Rabbit R1's - one for me to play around with and one as a gift for my father. I set up his R1 first - which literally took 5 mins.

Gave it to him on Tuesday and within 10 mins he was off. He was asking it things about weather, radio, etc. and then there was the moment that choked me up a bit. He was on the couch and our daughter was on the floor. He held up the R1 and used the camera and asked to describe his granddaughter and it did that and included that she was wearing a t-shirt with a yellow animal on it. He immediately asked her what animal it was and they went back and forth a few times and I could see how he was enjoying them talking like this.

He then picks up the R1 and says* "thank you rabbit".*

The benefit to him is the very easy user interface - hold the button to speak and press it twice to activate the camera. That's essentially it. No complicated smartphone to navigate through and now he has a way to 'see' things.

I do wish all these AI-haters would try to rise above their hateful mudslinging and realize that like anything it's a tool and it not up to you to tell others how to use it.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 23 minutes ago

    I love your comment and I don't worry about the downvoters. Clearly their downvotes have had no effect on visibility because a decent amount of people have managed to comment positively. I knew going into this my "Attitude" score would take a hit but it's totally worth it and the story of your Dad was inspiring 😁

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  • [–] 1 point 19 minutes ago

    At first I viewed it as another abstraction of search. That does not really work when you look at generative or agents. Pretty soon I see it as a new interface. The old runlevel went 0-5 I think. 3 was comman line and 5 was graphical. now this was changed as it existed before graphics. I see llms as basically a new type of interface like mouse and graphics after terminal. Now it is kinda different in that it runs side by side with the other run levels so I would call it like 3a or 5a or something like that.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

    It made me realise my new coworker is an moron and a fraud in just weeks, not months or years. If he had simply shut his mouth, I would never has suspected him. But thanks to him feeding several internal things into AI, and then bragging about it to my boss, I now know who I won't be sharing all but the most required info with.

    It also amuses me when it still fails at some basic tasks. Having several AI models fail in different ways is quite interesting, so there is some entertainment value. Did you know that Deepseek and Qwen do not know the lyrics to "Gansta's paradise", while Claude knows them if you poke it a bit, but runs into its profanity filter?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 hours ago

    He always calls me Betty and acts like my long-lost pal.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 hours ago

    I like the AI in Super Mario Bros when the Koopa Troopas turn around after walking near a ledge.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 hours ago (1 child)

    I like how the AI is so positive and uplifting and helpful when I talk with it, always generating good vibes, telling me that I'm right about everything, giving me output that is so easy to relate to, nothing too complex or challenging, always safe for advertisers, predictable and smart in just the way that its makers think will maximize profits in the long run. It's proof that capitalism works!

    I like the way they collect data about me, and use it to improve their ability to manipulate other people like me so that more people can learn to enjoy the happiness that comes from joining the AI lovers on what will surely prove to be the right side of history because after all AI is real and there's no doubt that we will all depend on it for everything forever.

    I admire the certainty I can have that I'm doing the right thing when I use the AI because after all there are so many billions of dollars behind it that it can't be wrong. I love the way we can all get together on the Internet and share how much we love the AI as if it's some kind of cult, it really makes me feel like I'm part of something big.

    In computer software, the vibe-coded apps are starting to appear all over the place and it's great that there are so many to choose from. Any defects they might have will be fixed by the AI in no time. They're already fixing bugs almost as fast as they're creating new ones!

    In media and culture, it's great how when you encounter certain kinds of art styles and certain types of opinions you never know whether what you're seeing was made by a bot. Even on social media, there are all kinds of generative AI personalities pretending to be human! It already adds to the diversity and liveliness of our little social network here, and it's only just getting started. I saw someone arguing in perfect LLM style in support of Elon Musk the other day, for example. Probably no human would go to such lengths to politely argue on his behalf! Without the AI we might've missed out on that point of view.

    It sure has changed all our lives for the better, and once everyone is educated by the AI starting from early childhood everyone will one day come to accept that it's great. When everyone has learned to love it maybe some day AI will finally bring about world peace and happiness for all humanity just as its designers intend.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 hours ago

    it is strong with any translation tasks.

    also gives me a somewhat okay summary before i decide to read something or skip it.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 hours ago

    It's helped me further understand that the average person is a moron.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 hours ago

    It's a really good search engine for research topics. And it can do basic coding tasks via a short plain-text description, which can save time. In prototypic fields like science it's a really good fit, because software does not need to be high quality, often it doesn't even need to be super fast.

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  • [–] 14 points 5 hours ago* (1 child)

    I assume you're talking about LLMs rather than AI broadly.

    • It's willing to discuss any niche interest I want to that nobody else in my life cares about.
    • It has endless patience to explain things to me multiple times when I don't understand something.
    • It never ever intentionally insults or ridicules me.
    • I've lost count of how many times it has solved a genuine issue in my life or prevented me from doing something wrong.
    • It's the sole reason I was able to set up Linux and keep using it on a daily basis.

    Also, this thread is going to get downvoted into oblivion and will get completely mobbed by all the haters you prompted to do so by mentioning "loving AI" in the title. These people just can't help themselves.

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  • [–] [S] -3 points 4 hours ago

    Yes! I completely agree with you. It's been life changing for me. I have ADHD and to have an AI that has learnt how I need to be presented with information is just amazing. First time in my life I've ever experienced anything like that. No question is dumb and if I lose interest in something there are never negative consequences from it. I'm pretty actively in half a dozen conversations with ChatGPT right now that I can go back to and continue anytime. Not just ChatGPT though. I had a brief and really interesting conversation this morning with Google's AI about why the moon always faces the same way to us. It was fascinating 😁

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  • [–] 3 points 3 hours ago

    AI is being used to make advances in medicine that could make my life much, much, much better.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 hours ago

    A lot of people really like how it tells you what you want to hear and is always positive, even when it's just making shit up.

    The downside to that, is people addicted to it lose the skills to handle anything that's no 100% supportive and calls them stunning and brave for asking a question.

    That causes the chatbot addict to dive further into chatbotting, and they quickly become incapable of holding conversations with actual humans.

    If the words they read at 100% supportive and calling them a genius, they view it as a personal insult.

    Like, not being able to take human feedback should be a giant red flag anyone could recognize...

    But AI addicts just start acting like Kanye and claiming "haters can't stop me", completely ignorant that people are trying to help them before it's too late.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 hours ago

    It’s gives me the confidence to tackle projects I’ve previously ruled out knowing that there may be some particular part of it that’s completely out of my skillset, but now I can get AI to walk me through that bit.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 hours ago (1 child)

    The only thing I saw that made the pervert glasses seem ok, was for blind people...

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  • [–] 3 points 3 hours ago

    We also have apps that connected blind people with volunteers as needed. My ex would occasionally receive what were essentially video calls to help someone figure out if something was expired or other lil tasks like that.

    But yeah, I wouldn't fault someone that couldn't see for using real time audio descriptions. Third party hallucinations would be wild tho.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 hours ago

    I generally hate AI, but the things I hate about it are that it's being controlled by greedy capitalists and forced upon the world as a product, that it's driving the worst component shortage in electronics history, and that it's being used to replace human labor. I've found genuine uses for it though, and if it weren't for the capitalists trying to use it to destroy the world, I'd have a mich higher opinion of it. I used it at work to help write code based on a 4000+ page datasheet, it's pretty good at churning through a lot of documentation to find the relevant parts. It is basically an advanced search engine after all. I also had some good success with it lately (specifically through Google's AI mode) reverse engineering the RGB chip in some RAM. I had reverse engineered it years ago bit there were still some things I didn't understand. Uploaded a firmware dump to Google AI and it was able to find some missing details by analyzing or decompiling the binary. I also used it to recover corrupted SPD on some RAM sticks, gave it a dump of the corrupted data and it determined what bytes needed fixing. I think that in the right hands and used as an actual assistant, it can be helpful, but too many people are trying to cede all control to it in the name of profit and ruining everything. I hope that local AI and smaller, more focused models become more common and that the environmental and economicl disaster that is hyperscalers starts to die off.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 hours ago

    I have only found it useful at a few limited tasks. Anytime I've tested it for something technical I was knowledgeable in the results were terrible.

    Transcribing chords from unpopular songs, generating regex expressions and as the literal autocorrect on my phone (FUTO keyboard) have been my only use cases so far.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 hours ago

    It gives more detailed and specific answers to searches.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 hours ago

    The only time I really use "AI" is to summarize web searches and occasionally perform tedious tasks like adding filler to documents and cleaning up documents. It's very useful for note taking during meetings. My company wants us to use it more but I can't really find a really useful task for it, my job is literally to be a Subject Matter Expert (SME), so I can't really think of a good use for it outside of what was mentioned above.

    Cold truth is once "AI" becomes reliable enough and my company can add it to my tools without creating a security risk, then I wouldn't need as many CAD operators anymore, it's just a matter of when. Better for some, worse for others. The only thing stopping this from happening now is they think we are already using/training "AI". But the share holders are going to love it once we remove about $1mil of cost and the customer would never know the difference. Depending on who's reading this, that could be a positive outcome because the cost of "AI" is a small percentage of what the employee costs.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 hours ago

    I love that it's losing billionaires a ton of money.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 hours ago

    I don’t love AI or LLM’s in general. But I have accepted the fact that companies are dead set on using it and it won’t be possible to avoid much longer.

    That being said, I don’t mind an AI summary on a current events topic that I’m interested in. It can browse articles, synthesize a summary, and provide links to said articles should I desire nuance or want to verify something I read. I’ve used it to try and diagnose car problems and that’s worked as often as it hasn’t.

    Where I get extremely wary about AI is people using it in creative endeavors - for art, music, poetry, etc…the things that make us uniquely human. I’ve taken a firm stance against this; this is an encroachment on the things that define humanity as a species and there needs to be a firm boundary. If the thing is here and I can’t do anything about it, then it should be used to automate the dirty work so we can do the fun stuff, not automate the fun stuff so we can do the dirty work.

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  • [–] -1 points 5 hours ago (9 children)

    I like how AI route finding algorithms can help me navigate new areas

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  • [–] 9 points 5 hours ago (8 children)

    If routing algorithms are now considered to be AI the term has lost all meaning.

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  • [–] -4 points 5 hours ago* (4 children)

    In computer science AI refers to a system that's capable of performing any cognitive task typically done by humans.

    The term isn't losing its meaning. Its always been a broad term. Most people just think it means more than it actually does.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 hours ago (3 children)

    Thank you for explaining my degree to me.

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  • [–] -1 points 4 hours ago* (2 children)

    How am I supposed to know what field you have a degree in? Was I being rude towards you? I'm unsure what warrants this sarcastic courtesy.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 hours ago (1 child)

    The rhetorical mistake you made was an appeal to authority - "in computer science" - in your reply. This only makes sense if you presumed I don't know the details behind my statement, ie I have not studied it.

    Any workable definition of AI must be more complex than a single, complete, procedure like path finding. If it isn't, then any algorithm that is NP complete counts as AI.

    For example, a script that solves sudoku is not AI.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 hours ago

    AI is a technical term with roots in computer science. That's not an appeal to authority - it's a factual statement.

    When a layperson hears "AI" they often think of AGI - something like HAL 9000. Then they look at ChatGPT, conclude the LLM isn't (generally) intelligent, and decide it therefore isn't AI. My point is that the term has a specific meaning and it's not what most people think. I assumed you were one of those people. It doesn't imply general intelligence. A very simple system can still be artificially intelligent in the classical definition of the term. A sudoku solver, a chess engine, and a navigator would all count.

    Nowadays the meaning has shifted a little and usually refers to a model that has learned from a bunch of data. By that definition none of the earlier examples qualify anymore except for LLMs.

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