Notices by Christopher Mims (mimsical@mastodon.social), page 3

At the other end of the spectrum, knowledge workers who perform a large number of tasks that can't be automated, are still going to be using all kinds of AI assistants in the not too distant future. (Plenty of them already are.)

Today's GPTs are way more capable at some things than is immediately apparent. They are starting to become plain-language programming environments.

Hence all the custom GPTs in the OpenAI GPT Store.

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Something real is going on here and it will profoundly alter the landscape of employment for millions of people -- there are 100 million 'knowledge workers' in the U.S. alone!

The only way to fully understand what's coming is to play with these AIs yourself. There's both less here than the zealots would have you believe, and way more than the critics argue.

(gift link)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/jobs-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-openai-cea961d5?st=43o4w9gbeuhh30g&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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I spent the past two weeks using generative AI in every aspect of my life, both personal and professional.

At the end of my total immersion, here's my verdict:

The last time I had an experience this eye-opening and transformative was when I bought my first smartphone.

(gift link)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/jobs-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-openai-cea961d5?st=wrosu8uv2tej8c8&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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I'm looking for people who were laid off from "big tech" and landed somewhere that's not that. This isn't for a particular piece for the WSJ, yet. I just want to listen and understand what stories there are here that need to be told. If you're this person or know one, I'd love to hear from you.

X's massive bot problem, in one chart, made by @o_simardcasanova

https://o.simardcasanova.net/data-illustrates-that-x-formerly-twitter-has-a-serious-bot-problem/

I don't mean to be glib about what LLM-powered chatbots and AI-powered answer engines could do to the internet.

Research by Ethan Mollick and others shows that when people ask an AI for answers, they *do not click on links* those answers are referenced from.

This is extremely bad for a lot of publishers.

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BUT it's also clear that since AIs can't function without human inputs, much depends on pending court cases and future legislation. If AI companies are forced to license human-generated content, that could be good for a lot of publishers -- maybe even better than the old ad-supported model.

ALSO the rise of AI spam means authentic and verified content will be higher value in the future.

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It’s the End of the Web as We Know It

And I feel... fine?

AI is eating the web from the bottom up, with AI-generated spam, and from the top down, through the replacement of search with AI and AI-powered "answer engines"

But look, the web has been enshittifying for a long time. Maybe this yields the kind of disruption we need?

this week's column (gift link)

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https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/its-the-end-of-the-web-as-we-know-it-2ab686a2?st=ba0hp8fxnytl78x&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Prediction: Face computers like Apple's Vision Pro will become a norm -- if not the norm -- for that most mundane but essential of tasks: Office work.

For all Apple's talk of "spatial computing," the discoveries of the early adopter's of Apple's take on them, all point to their primary utility being mundane but -- at the right weight and price point -- subtly transformative:

They'll supplant the many screens we rely on already.

my latest:

https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/apples-new-face-computer-is-for-work-788e2750

So, this is bad:

40% of workers 30 and up say they feel burned out at work (48% for those under 30!)

https://futureforum.com/research/future-forum-pulse-winter-2022-2023-snapshot/

It's January. You know something you can try this month, if you want to see some immediate (and long-term) changes in your life?

A digital detox.

But here's the thing. The way we're normally told to do these is nonsense, and it doesn't work.

There is a better way. I wrote about it this week.

The short version: Stop relying on willpower. Start figuring out how to create absolute barriers to distractions.

Here's a gift link (lmk if it doesn't work for you)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/tech-addiction-smartphone-dumbphone-light-phone-1be0652e?st=hhukpoj1069eo6a&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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Recently I was yelled at on the internet for making this mistake and you know what? The people doing the yelling were right, and the result is I changed my behavior & my thinking.

I share this 'cause journalists (like the old me) talk about the pandemic like it's just another convenient way to describe a point in time & I now recognize how unhelpful that is.

https://mastodon.social/@coral@code4lib.social/111579240077415175

So guess who is paying to rebuild properties all across the nation when they're destroyed by climate change-driven extreme weather?

You are.

You, the taxpayer.

As one source put it to me, we're socializing the cost of rebuilding where we probably shouldn't.

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Part of what's going on is that regulators can't keep up with the rate at which our climate is changing and the degree to which it's leading to increased payouts.

They're trying to keep policies affordable for regular homeowners and business owners.

But what they're finding out is, sometimes they can't.

Increasingly, some properties are so at risk that the only alternative is the state-funded insurer of last resort.

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🧵 Something profoundly important (and scary) is happening.

Climate change is finally starting to break through the financial firewalls Americans and our government have put up, and affecting where people can live -- now and in the future.

There's an unlikely driver of this new reality:

The insurance industry.

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gift link:

https://www.wsj.com/business/entrepreneurship/climate-change-ai-california-texas-insurance-1d993873?st=pdr27dxahvmgcsp&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

“If you had to pick a canary-in-the-coal-mine industry to measure the extent to which climate change is real, I think insurance is probably the best one I can think of. The balance sheets—they’re not going to lie.”

Climate change is the fundamental driver behind insurers abandoning California, Florida and more than 200 zipcodes elsewhere in the U.S.

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the internet

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/instagrams-favorite-new-yorker-cartoons-in-2023

The only thing you really need to know about the entire OpenAI drama just passed is that it's the dumbest thing ever.

It's essentially a religious debate. Two factions battling over how many angels can fit on the head of a pin -- that is, how fast we should achieve artificial general intelligence, a thing that is absolutely not happening anytime soon.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-accelerationists-come-out-ahead-with-sam-altmans-return-to-openai-a249605c

by New Yorker cartoonist Ellis Rosen

"By the way, I'm a member of Congress and you're not"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fo_yD8r3w4