The gambling trope is so tired. AI development doesn't involve luck to any appreciable degree, certainly not more than hiring people to do a job can be considered "gambling" (you never know what you're going to get!).

It's just paying to get stuff done, which is how it's always been, since the dawn of man.

▲

pllbnk 22 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

For most people who are not doing their day to day jobs it's just a prompt of their idea roughly sketched out and a miracle happens - LLM fills in the blanks. Every time it's different but it works, sometimes even better than initially expected. That's why the addiction and gambling. Gambling is a lot of things, not only flashing lights or play sounds. Some people claim prediction markets isn't gambling either, though that doesn't change the fact.

▲

stavros 16 minutes ago | parent [-]

How is this different from hiring a designer, telling them "make me a website" and then waiting to see if they resolve the uncertainty into something you like or not?

I tell LLMs what to do in pretty high detail, and they do it. With LLMs I have much less variance than with coworkers.

▲

js8 12 minutes ago | parent [-]

It is different because for humans, it takes time to produce some result, while AI does it instantly. So if you tell a programmer to do X, you have a week for your adrenaline to cool off. If you tell AI, it will do it in minutes.

	▲	stavros 7 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I don't think the difference between a designer and a slot machine is that one gives you results more slowly, "therefore it's not gambling". If you're making the argument that LLMs are gambling simply because they're faster than humans, I'd like to see some evidence.

▲

js8 16 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> certainly not more than hiring people to do a job can be considered "gambling"

Actually it's quite possible that being a business manager/owner is actually addictive (having power over people), we just don't recognize it as such.

▲

stavros 15 minutes ago | parent [-]

All gambling addiction is addiction, not all addiction is gambling.

▲

js8 7 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Then you miss the point - AI use is being compared to gambling because it is addictive, partly due to same mechanism - the results (and rewards) are somewhat random, but it makes you feel as if you're completely in control of the outcome.

	▲	stavros 6 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, that hasn't been my experience. The outcome, for me, is extremely consistent. I ~never have to "reroll" by wiping work and doing it again.

▲

cindyllm 9 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

▲

mrbungie 24 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

The gambling part is because of the (hopefully emergent and not purposefully designed) intermittent reinforcement due to the limits. You don't get that with regular hires.

	▲	stavros 18 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Really? All the hires I've seen had an 8-hour/5-day limit, or you had to pay through the nose for extended usage outside that window. Where do you get your 24/7 hires from?