Ben Zhao

Yeah, what a great question. I mean, it may not be surprising, but as a computer science professor, I actually have these kind of conversations relatively often. This past quarter, I taught many second year and third year computer science majors, and many of them came up to me in office hours and asked very similar kind of questions.

They said, look, I really want to push back on some of these harms. On the other hand, look at these job opportunities. Here's this great golden ticket to the future, and what can you do? It's fascinating.

They said, look, I really want to push back on some of these harms. On the other hand, look at these job opportunities. Here's this great golden ticket to the future, and what can you do? It's fascinating.

They said, look, I really want to push back on some of these harms. On the other hand, look at these job opportunities. Here's this great golden ticket to the future, and what can you do? It's fascinating.

I don't blame them if they'd make any particular decision, but I applaud them for even being aware of some of the issues that I think many in the media and many in Silicon Valley certainly have trouble recognizing. There is a level of ground truth underneath all this, which is that these models are limited. There is an exceptional level of hype like we've never seen before.

I don't blame them if they'd make any particular decision, but I applaud them for even being aware of some of the issues that I think many in the media and many in Silicon Valley certainly have trouble recognizing. There is a level of ground truth underneath all this, which is that these models are limited. There is an exceptional level of hype like we've never seen before.

I don't blame them if they'd make any particular decision, but I applaud them for even being aware of some of the issues that I think many in the media and many in Silicon Valley certainly have trouble recognizing. There is a level of ground truth underneath all this, which is that these models are limited. There is an exceptional level of hype like we've never seen before.

That bubble is in many ways in the middle bursting right now. Why do you say that? There's been many papers published on the fact that these generative AI models are well at their end in terms of training data. To get better, you need something like double the amount of data that has ever been created by humanity.

That bubble is in many ways in the middle bursting right now. Why do you say that? There's been many papers published on the fact that these generative AI models are well at their end in terms of training data. To get better, you need something like double the amount of data that has ever been created by humanity.

That bubble is in many ways in the middle bursting right now. Why do you say that? There's been many papers published on the fact that these generative AI models are well at their end in terms of training data. To get better, you need something like double the amount of data that has ever been created by humanity.

And you're not going to get that by buying Twitter or by licensing from Reddit or New York Times or anywhere. You've seen now recent reports about how Google and OpenAI are having trouble improving upon their models. That's common sense. They're running out of data and no amount of scraping or licensing will fix that.

And you're not going to get that by buying Twitter or by licensing from Reddit or New York Times or anywhere. You've seen now recent reports about how Google and OpenAI are having trouble improving upon their models. That's common sense. They're running out of data and no amount of scraping or licensing will fix that.

And you're not going to get that by buying Twitter or by licensing from Reddit or New York Times or anywhere. You've seen now recent reports about how Google and OpenAI are having trouble improving upon their models. That's common sense. They're running out of data and no amount of scraping or licensing will fix that.

And then, of course, just the fact that there are very few legitimate revenue generating applications that will even come close to compensating for the amount of investment that VCs and these companies are pouring in. Obviously, I'm biased doing what I do, but I thought about this problem for quite some time. And honestly, these are great interpolation machines.

And then, of course, just the fact that there are very few legitimate revenue generating applications that will even come close to compensating for the amount of investment that VCs and these companies are pouring in. Obviously, I'm biased doing what I do, but I thought about this problem for quite some time. And honestly, these are great interpolation machines.

And then, of course, just the fact that there are very few legitimate revenue generating applications that will even come close to compensating for the amount of investment that VCs and these companies are pouring in. Obviously, I'm biased doing what I do, but I thought about this problem for quite some time. And honestly, these are great interpolation machines.

These are great mimicry machines, but there's only so many things that you can do with them. They are not going to produce entire movies, entire TV shows, entire books to anywhere near the value that humans will actually want to consume.

These are great mimicry machines, but there's only so many things that you can do with them. They are not going to produce entire movies, entire TV shows, entire books to anywhere near the value that humans will actually want to consume.

These are great mimicry machines, but there's only so many things that you can do with them. They are not going to produce entire movies, entire TV shows, entire books to anywhere near the value that humans will actually want to consume.

And so, yeah, they can disrupt and they can bring down the value of a bunch of industries, but they are not going to actually generate much revenue in and of themselves. I see that bubble bursting. And so what I say to these students oftentimes is that things will take their course and you don't need to push back actively. All you need to do is to not get swept along with the hype.