Charles Bartlett.net

Category: Technology

  • AI Musical Job Chairs

    AI Musical Job Chairs

    A compelling post about an unfortunate situation. To be honest, the word ‘unfortunate’ isn’t the right word and doesn’t do justice.
    If AI lives up to the hype and expectations… and for those of us working with the tools every day… there is no reason to think it won’t. The next 3-5 years are going to be a very brutal game of musical job-chairs.

    At every company, the music will stop, and 20-30% of employees will not have a desk chair to sit on. Because companies do not have a choice. Companies will have to invest in AI and cut labor costs to remain competitive.

    This has always been the endgame of automation.

    And I absolutely believe AI automation is the right path for society. A person should never be doing a job that a machine can do. Unless it is for fun or some other entertainment value.

    But make no mistake, AI will break the economy. Businesses need paying customers to survive. Eventually the Tech industry will have to begin worrying about that. And some already are. It’s why several well-known tech industry leaders are calling for a Universal Basic Income.

    And that is the part that worries me. I don’t know how deep the pain has to reach before governments take action. Will cities have to burn down? Will data centers and corporate headquarters be physically attacked by mobs? How many homes will be foreclosed on before governments take action?

    I don’t know what will be the catalyst to initiate radical change. But it’s coming.

    We are entering the next evolution of our economy, beyond our current Information economy, where the basic needs of survival will be disconnected from the traditional definition of a ‘job’ that provides economic value in the marketplace.

  • AI Illustration

    AI Illustration

    The Dall-E AI image generator is steadily getting better.

    It’s not perfect. Some proportions are off. Some lines are subtly unnatural or incorrect. Not to mention clearly wrong items.

    But… it is a very remarkable illustration. And Dall-E produced it in 15 seconds.

  • You Need Better Search

    You Need Better Search

    I believe you should try Kagi Search for your web search results. I am only beginning to use it so I don’t have a solid opinion about it. But, based on their stated objective, I am optimistic about it. Updates to follow.

    Kagi Inc. is a company created with the mission to humanize the web. Our goal is to amplify the web of human knowledge, creativity, and self-expression.
    Kagi was founded in 2018 by Vladimir Prelovac in Palo Alto, CA (USA). Kagi’s advisory board consists of Raghu Murthi and Dr. Norman Winarsky. Our team is a fully remote team operating on all continents.
    Kagi has been completely self-funded since its inception.

    https://help.kagi.com/kagi/company/#about

    Although there is a Free plan, Kagi is a paid search engine. That’s a good thing. During your next Google search, just stop and look at the page. And recognize that 2/3s of it is paid placement.

    Then ask your self, is the display of the information on the page actually helping me. Or am I fighting it to find what I want to see?

  • The Real R2D2

    The Real R2D2

    Decades after watching Star Wars as a boy I got to see the real R2. The truly amazing thing is that each of us has our own R2-unit that follows us everywhere we go.

    We refer to them as “phones”. But they calculate your navigation, remind you of important information, and perform a wide range of tasks including translation. An indispensable that makes like much easier, and you more capable.

    If you want a glimpse of where we are going, pay attention to Science Fiction movies

  • Double Asteroid Redirection Test

    Double Asteroid Redirection Test

    DART is one of the most important things NASA is working on today. It’s not urgent. But developing the technology and know-how to keep an asteroid from slamming into the Earth is definitely one of the most important things.

    The first launch of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test will happen on September 26, 2022, at 7:14 p.m. EDT. We will receive results from the test about 38 seconds later.

    Check the DART website for more information about the mission and how to watch the test.

  • The Greatest Photographic Image Mankind has Ever Produced

    The Greatest Photographic Image Mankind has Ever Produced

    The Hubble Legacy Field image is the greatest photographic image mankind has ever produced because it is the culmination of human and scientific pursuits since the beginning of our existence. Everything we have ever done has got us to the point of producing this image.

    For more information please visit the home page of the Hubble Space Telescope

    The Hubble Legacy Field combines observations taken by several Hubble deep-field surveys. In 1995, the Hubble Deep Field captured several thousand previously unseen galaxies. The subsequent Hubble Ultra Deep Field from 2004 revealed nearly 10,000 galaxies in a single image. The 2012 Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, was assembled by combining ten years of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observations taken of a patch of sky within the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field.