+1 for stating that the technologies themselves are not the grifts.
LLMs are fantastic tools. Quantum Computing will have meaningful uses.
The grift is the marketing and the dumb C-Suites that fall for it.
To answer your real question though, I need an AI that will actually convert a basket of dirty laundry into a stack of neatly folded clean clothes. That shit will be revolutionary.
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capitalism
The renewable energy industry. The tech is good and getting better rapidly. Costs continue to drop, consumer grade solar is becoming widely accessible.
This to me is the most exciting thing. And not just solar, but also modular nuclear power, fusion power, battery tech. The PRC is at the forefront of this green revolution.
Sure, they can lobby state legislatures to legalize balcony solar. Yet if I try to go around and convince those legislatures to legalize balcony fission, they look at me like I’m crazy! 😀
Blockchain had potential in use cases beyond currency replacement and speculative assets. AI has actual use cases as a high quality chatbot. Instead these things were hyped and marketed as things beyond their actual capabilities.
Quantum as it is currently doesn’t seem like a grift, but is just a susceptible to being manipulated and marketed as one as soon as there’s a remotely market viable version of it.
The problem isn’t lemmings or luddites, the problem is lying capitalists hoping to sell something that doesn’t exist or isn’t stable.
Yup they have their uses, but what happened here is like in a world where hammer is not invented yet, but the invention of the hammer causes every single industry to start using hammer for all their existing process without considering whether they are appropriate or not.
All technology from this point on will be a grift, because the grifters have all the power.
Seriously
Gene therapy and stem cells.
There is one from Japan about regrowing teeth, and then the one (forget where) about a 4 hour gene therapy treatment that basically cures issues some people have around cholesterol.
Although maybe the first one might turn into a grift. Like honestly, if I could GMO in/ Stem cell in like, just one alligator tooth into my grill, I might just.
AI is not a grift but it is very much a dangerous rudderless ship right now.
Quantum computing is also not a grift.
Hell I feel dirty saying this but you could argue blockchain is not a grift either.
The problem in all these things is the people not the technology.
It’s worth remembering the hype cycle when it comes to these things.
The honest question is where are we with AI in its current state?
People say quantum computing is a grift?
The other two are are only “grifts” because capitalism has shoved them into things that have no business involving them and breeds opportunistic get rich quick mindsets around the technologies. So any time you hear them mentioned it’s more than likely to be a grift. They are fine in certain niches and very stupid everywhere else, like every other technology.
people will say QC is a grift when it eventually becomes commercially viable(Just look at the second level comments here)
Computer vision enabled selective weeding of farms is an emerging technology that represents a real opportunity to reduce herbicide usage.
Similarly the use of aerial or terrestrial drones to carry out farming tasks or surveillance is becoming more viable as prices drop.
In medicine mRNA vaccines are quite new and doing cool work.
Alternative chemistry batteries like lithium sulfur appear promising and are getting closer to commercial viability. Sodium based battery chemistry has a lot of research interest and looks promising where cost is a bigger factor than energy density.
Phytoremediation is as ever tantilising and increasingly seeing real-world pilot programs.
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it’s emerging as something actually used.
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wasn’t there a recent fiasco regarding some company called donut and their so called solidstate battery?
I’m sure in any exciting space there will be unethical people.
Fire.
None of them really, they were all novel technology ideas snd advancements that every company and their mom adopted because it became the next silicon valley investment money printer.
Blockchain started out as a decentralized network concept that’s still useful today.
AI started out as a tensor statistical concept that’s still useful today.
People say QC is a grift because every silicon valley giant has invested heavily into it because they want to be the first if it becomes viable. It’s just what they do. They throw money into everything and if they get something successful, they pump it as much as they can before it dumps.
Even FOSS software isn’t invulnerable. Half of AWS’s SaaS platforms are just automated FOSS software running on their cloud infrastructure without so much as a hint of donation or development into the project itself. They just want money, they don’t care how they get it.
We’re very stuck with LLMs etc but the current shit is very much a bubble. It mostly reminds me of the dot com era but the money was far less frantic.
Holy loaded question batman! Yeah I’m not gonna take this seriously with you just making these sweeping assertions with no evidence.
The assertion that lemmy users call Blockchain and AI a grift is not without evidence(just browse around on any thread related to the topic) people calling QC a grift is more nuanced and something I have picked up on, you could make the case when ‘it happens’ lemmites would call QC a grift.
The first two are grifts and I have yet to see anyone say quantum computing is going to be a grift anywhere, so because of your other comment I’m going to assume you’re just someone who likes crypto and AI and are mad that people are pointing out how they are grifts with huge environmental and social problems
I think Fire and Stick have a long future ahead of them still. Also a big fan of Wheel and Stardew Valley.
