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   Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Nov-2025 03:23:25 JST Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees

   Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies.

   • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Nov-2025 13:00:12 JST Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees

     in reply to

     Machine learning (umbrella term, I know) is a useful, sometimes transformative tool in the hands of trained researchers who understand how to deploy it and critically assess the results.

     A chatbot is not useful in the same ways (though underlying technologies may be, in other contexts).

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 23-Nov-2025 13:00:12 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     @mcnees Honestly get rid of "machine learning" too. It's a marketing term like "AI", intended to bedazzle non experts. Unless you're qualified to elaborate more on the specific methods involved, call it "statistical analysis".

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     Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Nov-2025 16:04:43 JST Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees

     in reply to

     Lumping them together as “AI” gives readers the impression that a single class of tool is discerning novel protein structures, teasing subtle patterns out of mountains of LHC data, writing a student’s History 101 paper for them, and arguing that a ketamine-addled billionaire could post up Shaq in his prime. No.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Nov-2025 16:05:29 JST Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees

     in reply to

     This is a marketing trick that helps the Sam Altmans of the world steal Machine Learning valor to prop up a bunch of gross plagiarism machines that have all our worst biases and failings baked in.

     Do not help them!

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Nov-2025 03:50:02 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • Aaron

     @hosford42 @mcnees What I mean is that "ML" is just automating the process of doing that statistical modelling. It's not "learning". Calling it "learning" is explicitly anthropomorphizing it for the sake of marketing (bedazzling the people who are the sources of your funding).

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     Aaron (hosford42@techhub.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Nov-2025 03:50:03 JST Aaron

     in reply to

     • Rich Felker

     @dalias

     I would argue this particular point. Most of what I do for a living as an ML engineer/researcher is *not* statistical analysis. There's plenty of both in the mix, but they are not the same. If you were to call it "statistical modeling", I might be more inclined to agree with you.

     @mcnees