The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Random Chat Thread...

[The Sandman]

IT Unemployment Rises to 5.7% as AI Hits Tech Jobs​

Artificial intelligence continues to impact the technology labor market​

“Jobs are being eliminated within the IT function which are routine and mundane, such as reporting, clerical administration,” Janulaitis said. “As they start looking at AI, they’re also looking at reducing the number of programmers, systems designers, hoping that AI is going to be able to provide them some value and have a good rate of return.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/it-unemployment-rises-to-5-7-as-ai-hits-tech-jobs-7726bb1b?reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

 

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[amp0193]

It's more about perceptual warfare. It's more about spiritual warfare.

It's not about public safety.

It can be both things simultaneously, not either or.

Although I think the attempts at public safety are more or less futile in the long run.


Just like lack of gun laws result in more gun violence, but are also an anti-tyranny measure as you said.


I think few things in life are all good or all bad. Including regulation of AI.

Big AI companies pooping their pants. Open source AI will free the masses from the gatekeeping expert class.

This was more or less my takeaway from the release of Deepseek.

Creating AI LLMs is a shitty business model, and all these venture funded companies are going to collapse once there are no more investors willing to prop up the increasingly dizzying valuations.

There is no secret sauce, there is a ceiling to output quality that cannot be solved with “more compute” (or we would have had GPT-5 a long time ago). Competitors are converging to the point where this is little differentiation. And it’s getting cheaper and cheaper to train the models.

LLMs will become a free commodity that no one can control or monetize, just like “the internet”.

It’ll just be a tool in the toolbox of humanity for good and for terrible.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

As someone who has a new book coming soon, this is insane.

Looks like I'll be able to clone my voice, and narrate the audiobook via AI.

Free Text to Speech & AI Voice Generator | ElevenLabs

Create the most realistic speech with our AI audio tools in 1000s of voices and 32 languages. Easy to use API's and SDK's. Scalable, secure, and customizable voice solutions tailored for enterprise needs. Pioneering research in Text to Speech and AI Voice Generation.

elevenlabs.io

In terms of workflow, audiobook production is terribly expensive and time consuming.

Narrating: If the book is 10 hours long, it will require about 15-20X the time to narrate, so a ten hour book would likely take me around 200 hours to actually get recorded.

Production: In the past, it would take me about 3 hours per each finished hour.

The same project, if I hire out and do not narrate, would run about $3-$6K.

The entire thing puts me in a quandary because I LOVE to NARRATE my books, but the time involved is punitive.

 

[MTF]

As someone who has a new book coming soon, this is insane.

Looks like I'll be able to clone my voice, and narrate the audiobook via AI.

Free Text to Speech & AI Voice Generator | ElevenLabs

Create the most realistic speech with our AI audio tools in 1000s of voices and 32 languages. Easy to use API's and SDK's. Scalable, secure, and customizable voice solutions tailored for enterprise needs. Pioneering research in Text to Speech and AI Voice Generation.

elevenlabs.io

In terms of workflow, audiobook production is terribly expensive and time consuming.

Narrating: If the book is 10 hours long, it will require about 15-20X the time to narrate, so a ten hour book would likely take me around 200 hours to actually get recorded.

Production: In the past, it would take me about 3 hours per each finished hour.

The same project, if I hire out and do not narrate, would run about $3-$6K.

The entire thing puts me in a quandary because I LOVE to NARRATE my books, but the time involved is punitive.

While I haven't used the clone my voice feature, I've used their hyperrealistic voices for narration. It's still a ton of work as the narration, to make it more "human-like," is varied. And that means weird intonation, wrong pronunciation, and things like that. It'll be inconsistent and super frustrating to clean it up.

 

[StrikingViper69]

As someone who has a new book coming soon, this is insane.

Looks like I'll be able to clone my voice, and narrate the audiobook via AI.

Free Text to Speech & AI Voice Generator | ElevenLabs

Create the most realistic speech with our AI audio tools in 1000s of voices and 32 languages. Easy to use API's and SDK's. Scalable, secure, and customizable voice solutions tailored for enterprise needs. Pioneering research in Text to Speech and AI Voice Generation.

elevenlabs.io

In terms of workflow, audiobook production is terribly expensive and time consuming.

Narrating: If the book is 10 hours long, it will require about 15-20X the time to narrate, so a ten hour book would likely take me around 200 hours to actually get recorded.

Production: In the past, it would take me about 3 hours per each finished hour.

The same project, if I hire out and do not narrate, would run about $3-$6K.

The entire thing puts me in a quandary because I LOVE to NARRATE my books, but the time involved is punitive.

I used one of their default voices to narrate a book a couple of years ago. I had to go through and touch up the pronunciation (and some of my grammar), but it was a ton faster than doing it myself. I got the entire book edited in an hour or two a day for just over a week.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

While I haven't used the clone my voice feature, I've used their hyperrealistic voices for narration. It's still a ton of work as the narration, to make it more "human-like," is varied. And that means weird intonation, wrong pronunciation, and things like that. It'll be inconsistent and super frustrating to clean it up.

I used one of their default voices to narrate a book a couple of years ago.

By the time I'm ready to use it, which just might only be in 6 months time, I'm sure it will be 10X better than it is now, and a 100X better than when you used it. Things are moving at the speed of light!

 

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[StrikingViper69]

By the time I'm ready to use it, which just might only be in 6 months time, I'm sure it will be 10X better than it is now, and a 100X better than when you used it. Things are moving at the speed of light!

100% . I might redo it at some point. It was pretty good, but it was a little clunky in places.

 

[Antifragile]

I use Grok.

New v3 just came out. It's substantially better. With the "Deep search" it goes through the internet articles and produces surprisingly good content. You could not get that with Google search. Zero chance. The best way I can explain it is if google finds only what is easy to find, AI digs deeper into the body of text, pulls out the one key item you need and gives it to you. It's similar to having a financial analyst pour over reports and producing a summary.

It does take time to learn to give it proper instructions. I bet programmers can do a great job with it intuitively, the rest of us... we aren't as clear in our instructions.

Overall, the last two years the leap was so massive, I can hardly believe it.



P.S. Asking Grok who spreads most misinformation on X/Twitter ... Grok says it's Elon Musk. Hilarious!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I use Grok.

New v3 just came out. It's substantially better. With the "Deep search" it goes through the internet articles and produces surprisingly good content. You could not get that with Google search. Zero chance. The best way I can explain it is if google finds only what is easy to find, AI digs deeper into the body of text, pulls out the one key item you need and gives it to you. It's similar to having a financial analyst pour over reports and producing a summary.

It does take time to learn to give it proper instructions. I bet programmers can do a great job with it intuitively, the rest of us... we aren't as clear in our instructions.

Overall, the last two years the leap was so massive, I can hardly believe it.



P.S. Asking Grok who spreads most misinformation on X/Twitter ... Grok says it's Elon Musk. Hilarious!

Every week I'm amazed how fast things are evolving.

I keep saying that we are underestimating how this thing will change/impact culture -- it isn't a fax machine, it's on par with the invention of automobiles, powered flight, and the internet itself.

Think how the Internet/smartphones changed EVERYTHING.

That's AI.

 

[Antifragile]

Every week I'm amazed how fast things are evolving.

I keep saying that we are underestimating how this thing will change/impact culture -- it isn't a fax machine, it's on par with the invention of automobiles, powered flight, and the internet itself.

Think how the Internet/smartphones changed EVERYTHING.

That's AI.

I completely agree. If there’s ever been a moment when we can be certain that an innovation is here to stay and truly transformational, it’s now—and that innovation is AI.

Even as someone older, not a "tech-savvy" 20-year-old, I’m fully dedicated to integrating every possible AI tool into our business. We’re just at the beginning. It’s still early. Yet, I’d bet 99% of people don’t grasp just how massive this shift will be.

 

[Xeon]

AI is amazing.

I have a photo of some screws and wall mounting rivets/accessories on a table, but I don't know the names of most of these stuff, so I upload the pic to ChatGPT and it told me all I need to know.

I'm going to start uploading my expenses spreadsheet for the past 2 years and get it to analyze everything for me and make recommendations based on that.

 

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[Panos Daras]

I’ve got two questions for all the power users out there:

1. Is Grok 3 actually worth paying for, and how does it compare well with GPT Pro Plan?
2. Have you used n8n for automation and building AI agents? Is it good value for the money?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Is Grok 3 actually worth paying for, and how does it compare well with GPT Pro Plan?

I've been playing with it today (for the first time per some recs here) and I might bite the bullet and pay for it.

Thus far it has impressed me.

 

[Xeon]

How does Grok 3 compare against DeepSeek?

 

[Wouter]

Grok 3 is impressive. Feels on par, if not better than Claude to me.

 

[ShoddySector4276]

Grok 3 is impressive. Feels on par, if not better than Claude to me.

Compute is super heavy though. As I understand it, its 100x compute of Deepseek and only twice as good. Scaling law reaching a wall??

 

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[AceVentures]

How does Grok 3 compare against DeepSeek?

It's almost 1 for 1 with deepseek. Probably 10% better.

 

[Bounce Back]

Paid for Recraft.ai last night for making vector graphics. Wow is all I can say. Such an asymmetrical value prop.

I tried some about 9 months back and they sucked compared to this. Nice crisp svgs. I was just about to pay someone about $50+ each svg for some mvp level in game icons I am working on and this makes them for pennies on the dollar and plainly states you own the copyrights / commercial use.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Grok 3 is impressive. Feels on par, if not better than Claude to me.

I officially paid for it.

What made me a believer is that was able to follow my instructions.

For example, "Never use the phrase: Here's the kicker."

Then ChatGPT uses it on its next output.

ChatGPT likes to ACT like it follows instructions, but doesn't.

 

[MTF]

I officially paid for it.

What made me a believer is that was able to follow my instructions.

For example, "Never use the phrase: Here's the kicker."

Then ChatGPT uses it on its next output.

ChatGPT likes to ACT like it follows instructions, but doesn't.

I started using it now more often since it was recommended here and started comparing results. Grok is way, way, faster and way more comprehensive than ChatGPT. I also feel like it gets more current information.

 

[Antifragile]

One more +1 for Grok3

It's a beast.

I get a lot of emails, I fly through them deleting many. The ones that give me the most trouble are those where someone I respect shares a big report with me. It's clearly useful for me to read it. But I can't read them all. Now with Grok I can just throw in a few commands and I get the insight I need within 3 minutes vs 30-60 minutes if I read the whole thing. If I then want to read the whole thing - great, I can. But in the meantime it saves me hours of sorting.

 

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[Bounce Back]

One more +1 for Grok3

It's a beast.

I get a lot of emails, I fly through them deleting many. The ones that give me the most trouble are those where someone I respect shares a big report with me. It's clearly useful for me to read it. But I can't read them all. Now with Grok I can just throw in a few commands and I get the insight I need within 3 minutes vs 30-60 minutes if I read the whole thing. If I then want to read the whole thing - great, I can. But in the meantime it saves me hours of sorting.

This sounds very neat. Would you mind elaborating on your setup? Like is it api driven?

Do you then have to find the email it tells you seemed important or do you have it wired up to respond to?

 

[Antifragile]

This sounds very neat. Would you mind elaborating on your setup? Like is it api driven?

Do you then have to find the email it tells you seemed important or do you have it wired up to respond to?

I am not tech-savvy at all.

So my "set up" is taking a link or the file of the said report and instead of scanning it, I post it to Grok and do a "deep search" with my own text commands. It's that simple.

Think of it like having an intern - the quality of my instructions will determine the quality of their output back to me. And it saves me time on what I decide to read (more importantly, what I decide not to read).

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Grok.ai helped me put this together...

GOLD! Thread 'Passive Monthly / Quarterly Income: My Favorite Money System Assets...'

Feb 25, 2025

I was over on Telegram chatting with @ZackerySprague about assets that yield monthly and quarterly dividends.

I thought it would be cool to post some of my favorites that I've invested in over the years, including some of them I currently own as well.

If you're looking to get a taste of passive, money-system dynamics, you can buy any of these assets and have your brokerage account automatically deposit the income into your bank account.

Or if you really want to go old school, have them send you a monthly check. I was doing the monthly check for YEARS and just recently stopped...

• MJ DeMarco
• bonds dividend stocks etf investing money system paycheck pot
• Replies: 115
• Forum: Investing, Crypto, Personal Finance

• 
• 
• 

Normally this type of post would take me an entire day to gather up the info.

The last time I tried it with ChatGPT, it would struggle to follow my instructions or find the info.

 

[MTF]

I almost completely transitioned to Grok in the span of two days. Compared to ChatGPT, it's like consulting with a super capable top player vs consulting your slightly deaf, slightly buzzed uncle.

And I'm using a free version of Grok and a paid one of ChatGPT.

 

[Panos Daras]

Today, with 0 coding experience I managed to create a to do list app that can add things to the calendar, using Cursor AI and 3.7 sonnet in 20 minutes. Things are going fast.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Compared to ChatGPT, it's like consulting with a super capable top player vs consulting your slightly deaf, slightly buzzed uncle.

My wife has been using ChatGPT and thinks the results are like gospel.

I keep trying to tell her that it likes to sound like an expert in everything, but in reality, it's a pathological liar and will make shit up to appease you.

She didn't really listen until I said, "Hey, it has the personality of your ex-boyfriend."

Now she understands.

 

[The Sandman]

AI cracks superbug problem in two days that took scientists years

The lead researcher has told the BBC he was so astounded he assumed his computer had been hacked.

www.bbc.com

AI cracks superbug problem in two days that took scientists years​

 

[Lou7]

ChatGPT made an error while I was asking for a code. He lied 3 times in a row. Deep seek got it right the first time.

It was not a big code. It had like 900 product's SKUs...

 

[heavy_industry]

I keep trying to tell her that it likes to sound like an expert in everything, but in reality, it's a pathological liar and will make shit up to appease you.

ChatGPT made an error while I was asking for a code. He lied 3 times in a row. Deep seek got it right the first time.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that ran into this problem.

After becoming aware of this, I told it to update memory with the directive:

"If you are not 100% confident about the veracity of the answer, stop making shit up and just tell me the truth."


^ Always cross-reference anything you learn from AI or read online.

It used to be "knowledge is power". But in today's world of information overabundance, it's more about your ability to discern right from wrong and index the data you hold in your head according to validity, importance, and relevance.