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Comment by Kiro | Hacker News Reader

> it’s a useful technology that is very likely overhyped to the point of catastrophe

I wish more AI skeptics would take this position but no, it's imperative to claim that it's completely useless.

I've had *very* much the opposite experience. Very nearly every AI skeptic take I read has exactly this opinion, if not always so well-articulated (until the last section, which lost me). But counterarguments always attack the complete strawman of "AI is utterly useless," which very few people, at least within the confines of the tech and business commentariat, are making.

Maybe I'm focusing too much in the hardliners but I see it everywhere, especially in tech.

If you’re talking about forums and social media, or anything attention-driven, then the prevalence of hyperbole is normal.

Where’s all the data showing productivity increases from AI adoption? If AI is so useful, it shouldn’t be hard to prove it.

Measuring productivity in software development, or even white collar jobs in general, let alone the specific productivity gains of even things like the introduction of digital technology and the internet at all, let alone stuff like static vs dynamic types, or the productivity difference of various user interface modalities, is notoriously extremely difficult. Why would we expect to be able to do it here?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_paradox

https://danluu.com/keyboard-v-mouse/

https://danluu.com/empirical-pl/

https://facetation.blogspot.com/2015/03/white-collar-product...

https://newsletter.getdx.com/p/difficult-to-measure

I found the last section to be the most exciting part of the article. Describing a conspiracy around AI development, not being about the AI, but the power that a few individuals will gain by building data centers that rival the size, power, and water consumption of small cities, which are will be used to gain political power.

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