BougieBirdie

The Canadian government estimates there are 235,000 Canadians who experience homelessness. A 2020 study suggests that there are 1.3 million unoccupied homes in Canada

Something tells me a 0.2% population decline (approximately 80,000 people, although they estimate 670,000 homes won’t have to be built) isn’t going to be a magic bullet solution.

edit: My math was off by an order of magnitude, which means the real numbers are more outlandish 🙃

A lot of the criticism comes with AI results being wrong a lot of the time, while sounding convincingly correct. In software, things that appear to be correct but are subtly wrong leads to errors that can be difficult to decipher.

Imagine that your AI was trained on StackOverflow results. It learns from the questions as well as the answers, but the questions will often include snippets of code that just don’t work.

The workflow of using AI resembles something like the relationship between a junior and senior developer. The junior/AI generates code from a spec/prompt, and then the senior/prompter inspects the code for errors. If we remove the junior from the equation to replace with AI, then entry level developer jobs are slashed, and at the same time people aren’t getting the experience required to get to the senior level.

Generally speaking, programmers like to program (many do it just for fun), and many dislike review. AI removes the programming from the equation in favour of review.

Another argument would be that if I generate code that I have to take time to review and figure out what might be wrong with it, it might just be quicker and easier to write it correctly the first time

Business often doesn’t understand these subtleties. There’s a ton of money being shovelled into AI right now. Not only for developing new models, but for marketing AI as a solution to business problems. A greedy executive that’s only looking at the bottom line and doesn’t understand the solution might be eager to implement AI in order to cut jobs. Everyone suffers when jobs are eliminated this way, and the product rarely improves.

“We can’t force our people to work, so let’s call on someone who can!”

This decision sucks.

As a general rule, I don’t like to ask for help when I’m out shopping. More of a “get your shit and get out” shopper. No fancy cheese for me, I guess.

There’s a ton of people this affects too. Like, what about refugees who aren’t confident speaking English? People with anxiety disorders? The non-verbal and other disabled people?

And never mind the people who can’t ask for help, what about the trend to keep stores understaffed on a skeleton crew? How can you ask an employee to unlock the frickin’ cheese if there’s no employees to find?

I really hate this trend of treating customers like criminals. I just want to eat - so selfish of me, but I’m afraid I’ve gotten used to it.

I also have a USB stick on my keys. Mostly I keep books I’m reading, favorite movies, stuff like that. Then when I’m hanging out with friends later and we’re talking about what we’re watching I have it all ready to share.

Well as long as Bill says it’s cool, I guess I don’t have to form my own opinion

Bob Loblaw lobbed law bomb: logged on Bob’s law blog