AI's Pogo-Stick Grift
9 months ago
- #technology ethics
- #automation
- #AI critique
- AI's pogo-stick grift: The article critiques agentic AI, comparing it to past automation failures, where AI promises seamless integration but often demands unrealistic world adjustments.
- Self-driving cars: Initially promised as autonomous solutions, they now require societal changes, illustrating the 'pogo-stick problem'—products that only work in ideal conditions.
- Agentic AI challenges: The technology struggles with navigating the unstructured internet, prone to errors and hallucinations, and demands standardized APIs, a challenge similar to the semantic web's unfulfilled promises.
- Market manipulation: Companies like Amazon and airlines manipulate prices and data, making it difficult for AI to perform accurate comparison shopping without comprehensive, real-time data access.
- Legal and ethical issues: The article highlights how companies sue those attempting to collect and analyze pricing data, further complicating the transparency needed for effective AI operation.
- Historical context: The auto industry's invention of terms like 'pedestrian' and 'jaywalker' to shift blame is paralleled with AI's current demands for world adaptation to its limitations.
- Future of AI: The piece concludes with skepticism about AI's ability to deliver on its promises without significant, unrealistic global cooperation and standardization.