The other inventions would have quite the adoption rate if they were similarly subsidized as current AI offerings. It's hard to compare a business attempting to be financially stable and a business attempting hyper-growth through freebies.

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a_wild_dandan 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> The other inventions would have quite the adoption rate if they were similarly subsidized as current AI offerings.

No, they wouldn't. The '80s saw obscene investment in AI (then "expert systems") and yet nobody's mom was using it.

> It's hard to compare a business attempting to be financially stable and a business attempting hyper-growth through freebies.

It's especially hard to compare since it's often those financially stable businesses doing said investments (Microsoft, Google, etc).

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Aside: you know "the customer is always right [in matters of taste]"? It's been weirdly difficult getting bosses to understand the brackets part, and HN folks the first part.

	▲	ben_w 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> Aside: you know "the customer is always right [in matters of taste]"? It's been weirdly difficult getting bosses to understand the brackets part, and HN folks the first part. Something I struggle to internalise, even though I know it in theory. Customers can't be told they're wrong, and the parenthetical I've internalised, but for non-taste matters they can often be so very wrong, so often… I know I need to hold my tongue even then owing to having merely nerd-level charisma, but I struggle to… also owing to having merely nerd-level charisma. (And that's one of three reasons why I'm not doing contract work right now).
	▲	dmbche 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I don't think you understand the relative amounts of capital invested in LLMs compared to expert systems in the 80s. And those systems were never "commodified" - your average mom is forcefully exposed to LLMs with every google search, can interact with LLMs for free instantly anywhere in the world - and we're comparing to a luxury product for nerds basically? Not to forget that those massive companies are also very heavy in advertising - I don't think your average mom in the 80s heard of those systems multiple times a day, from multiple aquaintances AND social media and news outlets.

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elevatortrim 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Most people are using LLMs because they fear that it will be the future and they will miss out if they do not learn it now although they are aware they are not more productive but can’t say that in a business environment.

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Nebasuke 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They really wouldn't. Even people who BOUGHT VR, are barely using it. Giving everyone free VR headsets won't make people suddenly spend a lot of time in VR-land without there actually being applications that are useful to most people.

ChatGPT is so useful, people without any technology background WANT to use it. People who are just about comfortable with the internet, see the applications and use it to ask questions (about recipes, home design, solving small house problems, etc).

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ascorbic 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The lack of adoption for those wasn't (just) the price. They just weren't very useful.