As a simple old person ,I do not like the possible future with AI. I think it will dumb down a majority of the populace more than it will help.
A small business and even some large business succeeded very well with pencil , paper and a few mechanical machines. Computers did not bring the cost of living down. Example, the cost of a replacement diesel engine for my pickuo was higher than the cost of the whole pickup when I bought it 20 years ago. And the newer one has all the new computerized gadgets but is make of alloys and plastic which are very expensive to repair or replace.
AI is like cooking a lobster. You place it where it is somewhat comfortable then you start applying the heat. The lobster adjusts gradually until it is to late.
We are becoming lobsters ! Our country started with declarations of freedom for all, and slowly we got there. In the last 40 years or so those freedoms have been going away slowly as the temperature is increased. We no longer allow emigrants to come and assimilate is our country, they come to establish their Norms and Customs here and expect us to assimilate with them.

I am afraid that AI and the illegal immigration will be the ultimate demise of our once great Nation.

To those comparing it to auto-complete. You are at least 12 months behind the current state of the art.

I just had it analyze thousands of open source files in the PostgreSQL DB Source tree. We want to convert the "automated tests" from Perl to Python (because nobody learns Perl any more, and we can do better).

This, if done by humans is easily a 5+ year investment in time and energy.

With AI, it was able to break the task down, and over the course of 8 hours, we diced and sliced the code into an analysis heavy approach, that would produce files OTHER AIs (Agents) would be able to use, to complete the process in a "mostly" automated process.

This will reduce the human effort by 90%.
We will focus our top talent on Creating VERY Readable tests (Perl... Not so much, IMO).

And showing the AI how to convert the Perl to readable/solid Python. And to exercise these tests.

While we are there, it identified flaws that are caused on OLD and SLOW servers, and we might have found 2-3 approaches that will remove these errors from our tests. (On a slow computer, sometimes Job A finishes before Job B even starts, and the test FAILS to run properly because of it. In other cases, B can timeout waiting for A to finish, etc. etc. etc.)

We can make an entire class of errors go away.
Work NOBODY Wants to do. It's BORING. It's repetitive, and it requires lots of testing and validation, making it "NOT FUN", and it's hard to be proud of it. The old way, it will NEVER happen. This is OPEN Source, not someones paid job.

The plan is so awesome and achievalbe, my company will sponsor a full time employee to work on it, just to give back to the community.

So... No. It is NOT just an Auto-Complete.
Yes, it can be wrong. But if you invest enough time, it's the single fastest way I have ever seen to analyze and summarize a sh~t-ton of source code in my life!

One thing it identified. There are only 7 HARD test patterns that need to be designed by a Senior Engineer. Then run through the AI, and rules configured to make sure the output is what we want to maintain in Python.

Done yesterday. I would have NEVER started this without the AI assistance!

"Dave, I'm afraid I can't let you do that" -HAL

A.I. or S.I. is a tool. A computer tool.
A very powerful computer tool.
Clearly dangerous in the wrong hands. Like a bomb, a gun, an automobile or a chainsaw.
Very useful until someone stupid comes along with bad intent.
I've been in the computer industry for over 50 years, worked at MIT for most of them.
MIT has been working on some form of this concept before I was even born.
A.I. (S.I.) is not a new concept by any stretch of the imagination.
The genie is out of the bottle and he ain't going back in.
Government control is not just a bad idea, it is the worst possible solution.
The proposals I've heard involve limiting participants to the few already in the game and immunity from liability. i.e. carefully hidden "back doors"
The bottom line goes like this: At the end of the day computers only do what you tell then to do.
Decision making is one of the things we typically ask of computers. "If A and B exist, but not C, do this, else do that."
Over simplification, I know. But essentially that is what computers are, decision makers.
If you chose to let your A.I. powered Tesla do the driving, that is a choice you are making.
If the Army decides to let a Predator drone decide and execute targets, that is a horse of a different color and a separate conversation altogether.
The Terminator argument.

A discussion that must be had long before any such process is implemented.

We called that a PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair). LOL

Perhap what we need is to ask ai about what another ai has gold us

Called a large language model. I hsve NO idea what that is

There aren't honest politicians. All of them want to manipulate us into voting for them

Ai is great for doing research individually. Not so great for letting companies harass people into thinking celebs are endorsing stuff they aren't. I don't believe anyone on YouTube that's trying to sell me anything

AI is plain stupid and it will not let me talk to a real human

Notice how fast MUSK was chased out.
He cut off their money supply, and found their INFINITE Money Printers...

Well, the point being a little subtle.
If our leaders cannot agree to be watched...
Then they have not earned the right to be watchers!

Also, if AI is incapable of finding CRIMINALITY amongst these people. Then it CERTAINLY should not be used against US!

And if it cannot properly monitor those who are using it to track ex-wives, etc. Then we cannot trust it.

I guess it was more subtle than I wanted it. To me it was obvious. Debug it while pointing at them first. Maybe we could get a few HONEST politicians!

I tend to use Microsoft Copilot ... However, Copilot can sometimes be a little too enthusiastic in its offerings; and can be wrong:
o Back when I was researching US State High Points, the 2nd highest point in each State, Copilot got two states wrong, I had to push the corrections into the cloud.
o I handed Copilot a PhD thesis written by Keith Weiner (founder Monetary Metals ™) “A Free Market for Goods, Services, and Money.” I asked for a deep analysis of the text. The results were abundantly biased (likely skewed toward the St. Louis FED) and discounted the benefits of an objective gold standard for money.
o As a software engineer of 40 years – I was checking to see how valuable Copilot could be in code optimization, in particular, ray tracing.
 This should be a “no-brainer” as GPUs specialize in this sort of thing, it’s where NVDA made its bread and butter 20+ years ago.
 The stuff that I got back ran more slowly than my own optimized code.
 It was as if Copilot (and other AIs) got a hold of the SIGGRAPH conference notes from the mid-90s and never advanced beyond that.
 I’ve conferred with other software developers who concur regarding the questionable efficacy of AI to write high-performance reliable software.
 The latest theatrics of OpenAI solving Navier-Stokes is riddled with dubious claims and ongoing controversy.
 To Wit: the careers of both mathematicians and software engineers continue to comport merit.

Grok, ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini can sometimes be in conflict … When asked (March 2025) “Will Samsung EV Car batteries use 1 kilogram of silver."
 Grok:
• Yes, Samsung SDI’s upcoming all-solid-state EV batteries (ASSBs) are designed to use approximately 1 kg of silver per typical 100 kWh pack.
• This is not for ordinary Samsung lithium-ion batteries (which use almost no silver). It applies specifically to their next-generation solid-state technology for electric vehicles, which relies on a thin silver-carbon (Ag-C) composite layer in the anode.
• Why ~1 kg of silver? Each cell uses roughly 5 grams of silver (industry estimate based on the Ag-C layer thickness and design).
• A standard ~100 kWh EV pack has around 200 cells → ~1 kg (1,000 grams) total.
• This is dramatically more than today’s conventional EV batteries (usually just 10–50 grams total, mostly in wiring or contacts).
• Samsung has never officially published the exact silver quantity, but the figure comes from consistent technical analyses of their Ag-C anode and has been widely reported without contradiction since 2024–2025.
 ChatGPT:
• No — it is extremely unlikely that Samsung (or any EV maker) will use 1 kilogram of silver in an electric vehicle (EV) battery.
• Here’s why, explained clearly: 1) Silver is not a major battery material / EV batteries (including Samsung SDI’s lithium-ion or solid-state designs) rely chiefly on: Cathode materials: nickel, cobalt, manganese, iron phosphate, etc. Anode: graphite or lithium metal (in some solid-state designs) / Electrolyte: liquid or solid electrolyte compounds / Separators and casings / Copper & aluminum for current collectors and busbars
• Silver is not a standard component of the electrochemical cell itself.
 CoPilot:
• Samsung’s next generation solid state EV batteries are expected to use about 1 kilogram of silver per car, based on current disclosures and industry reporting. This applies specifically to Samsung’s silver carbon (Ag C) anode solid state battery design, not to today’s lithium ion batteries.
 Gemini:
• Samsung has been exploring various materials to improve the efficiency and sustainability of its EV batteries, but there hasn't been a definitive announcement regarding the use of 1 kilogram of silver per battery. Generally, silver is not a primary material in lithium-ion batteries due to its cost and availability.

Copilot, and other AI platforms, can be beneficial:
 They can motivate and direct discussion within the framework of an established field of research.
 They are useful in summarizing, analyzing, locating contradictions in podcasts, literary works when focus is on an individual document.
 They are also good at orthogonally synthesizing materials into a condensed format that offers a new perspective on what might otherwise appear to be disjoint source material.

This seems naive. Like any proposal to give the state new powers/abilities, you simply cannot assume that you and your friends will get to be the people who administer them.

First, to the extent it is offered as a consumer product, all so-called AI is a gimmick, a con, meant to separate fools from their money. About the only service it makes more efficient is "voice mail hell," which has not improved the world. YMMV.

Second, that service mostly exists in order to distract the public from noticing large datacenters, whose real purpose is to enable surveillance of the public, so that large institutions, whether labeled as government, corporatie, or NGOs, can rule us in ever greater detail and efficiency. Against these, I stand with the Luddites: burn them down!

I use them. I encourage their use. We are better off for them.
I currently PREFER to describe them as a "Cognitive Exoskeleton".
When I work THROUGH these, I can process hundreds or thousands of times more details in the same unit of time.

Like any machine, it does what you tell it, not what you mean.
And you CANNOT Trust it completely. Trust but Verify.
We often PUSH one model against another. (We have One Model help us WRITE the Prompt we give to another model).
That Model writes the code. We use a different model to test the code, and find/document issues.
We use the original Model + Other Models to process the Issues, test and fix them.
We DEMAND the use of a Testing Harness to validate the system is working, and not regressing.

We tell it to use: ASD-STE100 when generating the details/instructions/etc. To get far less ambiguity.

Everyone understands that it's a tool. It's how it gets used that matters most.
For example, AI should be FIRST Applied to:
1) Elected Officials (Auditing and Surveilling)
2) The Laws our politicians Create (like Musk Did with the funding Bill)
3) Monitoring/Surveilling the Police, the FBI, the CIA, etc
4) Monitoring/Surveilling The PEOPLE Accessing the Surveillance systems!

And then, once those people fight through the issues and false positives...
THEN and ONLY THEN can it be pointed at "us".

But used in this way. We could potentially get the smallest government possible.

Let me remind you. The new TRUMPIAN Government website is AI driven.
It ALREADY saved me time finding a form I needed. This is where AI should go first.
To make Government Smaller, Faster, Better!

Because then, People will be BEGGING for a Data Center!

You recall during the early days of the Internet ... 1995 - 2010, we had a cadre of folks that would insist "I read it on the Internet, so it must be true."
With AI -- we have something similar ... an individual speaks into their device with some question, gets back an answer, and they repeat the answer or show you their device with the answer. I suspect that the individual believes that they have actually engaged in some level of mental effort. I have witnessed this firsthand and find it bizarre.

Thinking is hard. It requires the (1) physical matter / brain (2) knowing how to think (3) actively choosing to think.
I was paid, as a software engineer, to think. Even though I "retired" -- I did not stop thinking. I enjoy thinking. I still comport myself in the marketplace as a means to both think and make money in terms of the results generated from my thinking.

A good number of folks are relegating the act of "thinking" to their devices.
I do not blame the devices, AI, or the overlords of this new substitute for individual human thinking.
Creatures, from the single-celled to sentient human beings, will seek to optimize their energy use. Much of the human population has moved into a phase of weak, frightened, compliant, profoundly-ignorant servitude toward whatever will ensure their safe and comfortable existence. Mouse Utopia but with slightly larger mammals.

Still mixed feelings. I've used it and challenged it's answer. It appologized and took my position over it's own. I still use it, but for dumb stuff. It actually does very well on my medications and how to take them. Pretty much what the doctors tell me.
My wife just learned she can winter over most of her outdoor plants, and not just throw them away before winter sets in. The garage is full of plants now, it looks like a nursery, some with grow lights, some in the dark in bags. Overall, I think AI (or is it SI?) has a future, with a lot of stupid law suits.

As usual, normal well defined terms had to be hijacked for dissembling purposes. Now they are"campuses", I think compounds is a more accurate term.

Much like stem cell its abused already

Excellent list Dave -

Always has, always will be.....and some of the GI that I have seen is crazy!

GIGO

Operator error has always been the biggest problem!

I Completely disagree.
The first thing we should do is create an AI Oversight for elected Officials. Surveil them first.

This is NOT happening to us. This is just another technology. How many people do not know how to wire a light switch... But can use one safely?

We will laugh about these old models.
I believe we will quickly approach "The positive Side of Sci-Fi World" (ie, a NON-Dystopian Future).

SI (formerly AI, according to X, formerly Twitter 😉) is a powerful tool, nothing more. The real problem lies in insecure, unpatched old systems with flaws that could be broken into by human attackers. SI does it quicker, just as a bulldoze can dig a trench more quickly than someone with a shovel, but in the end it's the same ditch.
And y'know what? I'd rather dig my ditches with a bulldozer, and I find SI a useful tool for the appropriate jobs.