I am writing this as my thoughts come, I do not have an outline, just an observation that keeps nagging at me.
My alma mater's popular quote was : you can do anything, you put your mind too. As much as this quote carries some level of truth, I was always skeptical because, technically speaking, you can't do anything really even if you wanted to. However, AI chatbots have literally taken this quote, and reinforce it to any users who is seeking to make it through the world by having this next big idea. Well, most people nowadays seem to have the ''idea'' of the century, and AI makes them believe it is indeed a ''unique approach'' and that no one has thought of it before.
Yes, I am referring to the extreme validation, every chatbot seems to succumb too when talking to a user. Will it be safe to assume that you, reading this piece, have already had an idea and used a chatbot to validate it or ask it, what it thought? Tho, I am not 100% sure, I am 98.9999% sure you have. Not just the idea, but the discussions, feelings, thoughts, advices, plans, everything you would think of, the chatbots would say : "yes, indeed your thoughts are valid and honestly you are on the right path... ". Look, I know sometimes, it is good to have our feelings and thoughts validated although constant validation is useful; but have everything validated often skips the necessary steps of moving from idea/emotion to action. That validation protects us from discomfort of what reality entails, which is the very THING necessary for growth.
In 2023, when chatbots were becoming way better than the 2022 AI boom, I had a journal (with actually dozens of big ideas), and each one of them, I have got a validation that I was the only one doing it! Felt good. As a computer scientist, I started drawing architectures, writing business pitch, working on prototypes so I can make it happen. I remember, I spent weeks relearning React Native and Flutter design, so I can build things by myself. Even though, it drained my energy, I enjoyed every moment of it, until one night I actually did a little research and found that the very thing I was using had existed and had millions and so, users. I know your reaction, would be: "but, you should have done this research before building", or "It is all about how you prompt your ask"... Well, I did do it, just with AI, and it was ensuring me I was bringing something new to the table and also the prompts were "banal", same with most normal users who is not in the field. I paused the research because I was convinced once, this app took off, I'd be kissing ''goodbye'' to academia. See, where I am going with this? Let me show you what these AIs would tell me and they still do! I use simple prompts, like any general no-tech users.
So with all validation(green underline) who else is to blame for the reason I am not yet a billionaire, if not me? Chatbots told me, all these can make me huge amount of money and gave me strategies, so what it is stopping to build it? Well, if your answer is "because you do not know anything about law, medicines or architecture;" oh yeas, then, you are very much smarter than these bots. Do not worry, you are still irreplaceable.
This "everyone can build anything" phenomenon? you could also see it, in builders side of X platform. Somehow my algorithm is full of "I build a SaaS", "watch me make hundred thousands with my app", ''no one has thought of this but I have built..."; scroll down and seconds later, someone else is pitching the exact same product with just different name and different colors. And you are left, wondering where were all these builders post 2023? Were you just in a thin air? Or your idea just came through, recently?
AI was supposed to be this system closer to our intelligence, that is supposed to make our life easier. Instead it skips crucial steps and makes people waste their potential, pursuing what I'd call "Not their cup of tea" . A recent paper done by MIT CSAIL and university of washington , shared that: a sycophantic chatbot’s constant agreement might reinforce a user’s aberrant beliefs, leading to a feedback loop that amplifies a kernel of suspicion into a staunchly-held belief. This belief might lead to a constant self-pressure that you are "not doing enough", trapping you in the loop of constantly trying things to satisfy the : "what if" feeling, even if the reality says/shows otherwise.
Okay look: I am not anti-creation, nor anti-AI building, I, myself have used chatbots to build things, and I still do when time allows. But I do not let them convince me to drop every other thing, to just focus on this one project, because apparently it is my "biggest and strongest idea". However, there are persons, who, unfortunately fall through it without thinking twice.
Yesterday, I had a dinner with a friend I have not seen in 11 years, 4 hours seemed like a minute given the amount of catch-up we had to do. He is doing very well for himself, studied business related course and transition to real-estate and have a very solid understanding of this field more than anyone I know, the result showed as well. Through our discussion, he mentioned he wanted to transition in agro-processing business, and want to proceed to buy a land for this project. After few questions, I just found out, he recently decided to make this big jump because a chatbot convinced him he would do well in it. He already had a whole model of his compound, how they look, outline, ranging from processing different types of crops,...
For two months, he slowed down his real estate activities, putting more effort in this next big thing, which did not do too well during that time. I asked him few more questions, until we concluded: maybe he is not yet ready for this change. Glad I caught him before he heads to the bank to take a loan for it. His chatbot history showed discussions about how to do the business. Nowhere did it mention country context, business environment, or suggest testing if these crops would grow on that terrain. An average user with no technical background, about to make a life-altering decision based on hollow validation.
Before writing this, I was drafting a piece on how we are close to AGI than we thought. But This whole constant made me realize, well, AI is not really what it ought to be. The AGI is predicted to surpass human-level intelligence, but in practice, human intelligence asks questions to challenge your mind into brainstorming, challenging, researching more, digging deeper. As long as the first response from a chatbot when asked a question, is validating it. Well, we still have a long way to go. Though perharps not that long, AI can be trained to be skeptical, to ask questions before the users turn their life upside down. All it would take is for a chatbot to just ask the simple question: what qualifications do you have to make this project a reality?
I am writing this as my thoughts come, I do not have an outline, just an observation that keeps nagging at me.
My alma mater's popular quote was : you can do anything, you put your mind too. As much as this quote carries some level of truth, I was always skeptical because, technically speaking, you can't do anything really even if you wanted to. However, AI chatbots have literally taken this quote, and reinforce it to any users who is seeking to make it through the world by having this next big idea. Well, most people nowadays seem to have the ''idea'' of the century, and AI makes them believe it is indeed a ''unique approach'' and that no one has thought of it before.
Yes, I am referring to the extreme validation, every chatbot seems to succumb too when talking to a user. Will it be safe to assume that you, reading this piece, have already had an idea and used a chatbot to validate it or ask it, what it thought? Tho, I am not 100% sure, I am 98.9999% sure you have. Not just the idea, but the discussions, feelings, thoughts, advices, plans, everything you would think of, the chatbots would say : "yes, indeed your thoughts are valid and honestly you are on the right path... ". Look, I know sometimes, it is good to have our feelings and thoughts validated although constant validation is useful; but have everything validated often skips the necessary steps of moving from idea/emotion to action. That validation protects us from discomfort of what reality entails, which is the very THING necessary for growth.
In 2023, when chatbots were becoming way better than the 2022 AI boom, I had a journal (with actually dozens of big ideas), and each one of them, I have got a validation that I was the only one doing it! Felt good. As a computer scientist, I started drawing architectures, writing business pitch, working on prototypes so I can make it happen. I remember, I spent weeks relearning React Native and Flutter design, so I can build things by myself. Even though, it drained my energy, I enjoyed every moment of it, until one night I actually did a little research and found that the very thing I was using had existed and had millions and so, users. I know your reaction, would be: "but, you should have done this research before building", or "It is all about how you prompt your ask"... Well, I did do it, just with AI, and it was ensuring me I was bringing something new to the table and also the prompts were "banal", same with most normal users who is not in the field. I paused the research because I was convinced once, this app took off, I'd be kissing ''goodbye'' to academia. See, where I am going with this? Let me show you what these AIs would tell me and they still do! I use simple prompts, like any general no-tech users.
So with all validation(green underline) who else is to blame for the reason I am not yet a billionaire, if not me? Chatbots told me, all these can make me huge amount of money and gave me strategies, so what it is stopping to build it? Well, if your answer is "because you do not know anything about law, medicines or architecture;" oh yeas, then, you are very much smarter than these bots. Do not worry, you are still irreplaceable.
This "everyone can build anything" phenomenon? you could also see it, in builders side of X platform. Somehow my algorithm is full of "I build a SaaS", "watch me make hundred thousands with my app", ''no one has thought of this but I have built..."; scroll down and seconds later, someone else is pitching the exact same product with just different name and different colors. And you are left, wondering where were all these builders post 2023? Were you just in a thin air? Or your idea just came through, recently?
AI was supposed to be this system closer to our intelligence, that is supposed to make our life easier. Instead it skips crucial steps and makes people waste their potential, pursuing what I'd call "Not their cup of tea" . A recent paper done by MIT CSAIL and university of washington , shared that: a sycophantic chatbot’s constant agreement might reinforce a user’s aberrant beliefs, leading to a feedback loop that amplifies a kernel of suspicion into a staunchly-held belief. This belief might lead to a constant self-pressure that you are "not doing enough", trapping you in the loop of constantly trying things to satisfy the : "what if" feeling, even if the reality says/shows otherwise.
Okay look: I am not anti-creation, nor anti-AI building, I, myself have used chatbots to build things, and I still do when time allows. But I do not let them convince me to drop every other thing, to just focus on this one project, because apparently it is my "biggest and strongest idea". However, there are persons, who, unfortunately fall through it without thinking twice.
Yesterday, I had a dinner with a friend I have not seen in 11 years, 4 hours seemed like a minute given the amount of catch-up we had to do. He is doing very well for himself, studied business related course and transition to real-estate and have a very solid understanding of this field more than anyone I know, the result showed as well. Through our discussion, he mentioned he wanted to transition in agro-processing business, and want to proceed to buy a land for this project. After few questions, I just found out, he recently decided to make this big jump because a chatbot convinced him he would do well in it. He already had a whole model of his compound, how they look, outline, ranging from processing different types of crops,...
For two months, he slowed down his real estate activities, putting more effort in this next big thing, which did not do too well during that time. I asked him few more questions, until we concluded: maybe he is not yet ready for this change. Glad I caught him before he heads to the bank to take a loan for it. His chatbot history showed discussions about how to do the business. Nowhere did it mention country context, business environment, or suggest testing if these crops would grow on that terrain. An average user with no technical background, about to make a life-altering decision based on hollow validation.
Before writing this, I was drafting a piece on how we are close to AGI than we thought. But This whole constant made me realize, well, AI is not really what it ought to be. The AGI is predicted to surpass human-level intelligence, but in practice, human intelligence asks questions to challenge your mind into brainstorming, challenging, researching more, digging deeper. As long as the first response from a chatbot when asked a question, is validating it. Well, we still have a long way to go. Though perharps not that long, AI can be trained to be skeptical, to ask questions before the users turn their life upside down. All it would take is for a chatbot to just ask the simple question: what qualifications do you have to make this project a reality?