Lugh

Part of me hates the privacy implications of this, despite Google's promises. AI intimately integrating with your personal data seems the way of the future. I have to admit the FOMO is real here! Especially as I use Google Docs a lot, it's one of my main tools for work.

EDIT/UPDATE I've just had a look at the TOS for this, and its a big no from me. It wants to use your conversations with Bard as part of future training data. Needless to say those conversations include the results its pulled from interrogating your email and documents. Yikes! No thanks.

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/resources/1015/flower-power-nasa-reveals-spring-starshade-animation/

The flower-shaped petals are part of what makes the starshade so effective. “The shape of the petals, when seen from far away, creates a softer edge that causes less bending of light waves,” said Dr. Stuart Shaklan, JPL’s lead engineer on the starshade project. “Less light bending means that the starshade shadow is very dark, so the telescope can take images of the planets without being overwhelmed by starlight .”

I've been following this issue (AI replacing jobs) for so many years, it's fascinating to see it finally go mainstream. What's especially striking to me is the bland summary at the end. It completely misses the implications of what the poll is talking about. The issue with AI and jobs is that AI as an employee will be cheaper than us. Thus, in a market-based economy we won't be able to compete with it. As we move to AGI, which presumably will be able to do all jobs - where does this leave our current economic system?

I wonder how many will be left buying new internal combustion engine cars in 2030?

Some people tend to get very Henny Penny/Chicken Little about news like this. For me the obvious take away is that the less creative people have a handy new tool to make them more creative.

Amazed to see scooters and 3 wheel vehicles make such a difference. Bad news for the petro-states. At the rate this is growing - how soon until 3-4 million barrels a day?

I've been paying attention to this issue for several years. 2023 seems a bit of a turning point. The issue was relatively dormant before, but finally seems to be breaking through into public consciousness. Hollywood writers shape a lot of public opinion & narrative. When the strike finishes, it will be interesting to see how AI is portrayed in TVs & movies going forward. Presumably the writers will spend more time exploring concerns.

Anecdotal I know, but I've noticed a significant amount of people opposed to the new AI Art generators on job-replacement grounds. I understand their worries, but ultimately if a future AI/AGI can do all work, were going to need some other solutions to how we organize our societies.

Although it will probably taken next-generation space telescopes to analyze exoplanet atmospheres, current tech is tantalizingly almost there.

The problem with this is that lithium needs vast amounts of water to mine and process and the western US doesn't have any to spare.

The BYD Seagull sells for $11,300, but that's in China.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2023/04/28/could-shanghais-little-byd-seagull--be-the-electric-car-europe-needs/

In fairness to China, they have a pretty good record of setting out space plans and sticking to them. Assuming re-useable rockets become widespread, getting to space should be much cheaper. Using the solar system's legrange points (as they propose here) has long been recognized as key to being able to regularly travel around the solar system.