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AI some current reflections 2025

So 2025 has been an interesting year for AI – there is lots of talk of an AI financial bubble due to circular finance. AI that would prefer you not to turn it off (Although we have known about this sort of behavior since Lambda).

There is also talk of AI eating search – think about it with google, the AI slop is what appears first on you phone. That visual real-estate is the most valuable the average user has and now it’s AI’s turf (at least with google. Is AI eating googles cash cow)?

I also had an interesting interaction with a government employee who was using AI to come up with answers for a problem I had. The answers that he gave me via AI searching were wrong (Hint always go to the source document).

An observation from my own usage is that I think chat GPT is loosing the plot – Gemini is edging ahead but both need improvement (especially with regards esoteric and current information).

Spatial knowledge is going to be the next big thing, especially with regards robotics being linked to AI. Currently googling “robot fail” can be an entertaining distraction! But it’s interesting with Tesla cars and all that data they have been acquiring – what else might that information be used for.

Of course we should not forget the big elephant in the room that has not budged much (but it is lumbering towards the courts) This is the issue of copy right and financial compensation.

Oh yes and then there is the issue of power consumption.

But it’s not all bad news (well at least sort of) As a programmer and someone who likes to diagnose data the ability of AI to do “Stuff” is amazing and continues to get better.

The next year will be interesting because I think one or more of these issues will hit the “AI” industry at some point and we will see winners and losers. I like AI but it’s been getting sort of messy. How that pans out will be interesting.

Bubble
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_bubble

https://theconversation.com/yes-there-is-an-ai-investment-bubble-here-are-three-scenarios-for-how-it-could-end-269525

Don’t turn me off
https://www.livescience.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/openais-smartest-ai-model-was-explicitly-told-to-shut-down-and-it-refused

https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/ai-willing-to-let-humans-die-to-avoid-being-shut-down/news-story/97a87178c25bf418cc80fa3d9f282794

Eating search
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-10-15/how-business-adapt-google-pivot-ai-in-search/105867240

https://cacm.acm.org/news/is-ai-killing-search-and-seo/

Copyright
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-27/labor-rules-out-ai-training-copyright-exceptions/105935740

https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/studio-ghibli-openai-sora2-japanese-trade-group-coda-letter-1236568751/

Power consumption
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-28/google-microsoft-restarting-nuclear-plants-for-ai-power/105941378

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20251008-why-big-tech-is-going-nuclear

 

 

 

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Segway out of this mental funk

I have been thinking a bit about all that’s going on in the world. Politics, massive changes with AI and I think that a part of me, although fascinated by all this technology and all the insanity of humanity – I’m getting to a point of dissolution. I look at my logs for my servers and see hundreds if not thousands of attacks a day on my machines,

I think about how a parent might explain all this to a child. It’s a strange time and I’m probably like a lot of people in that I’m having trouble finding a positive point of reference. So being the geek that I am I asked ai what to do about this!

So I’m having trouble finding a positive point of reference with regards politics humanity and technology. How might I find a Segway out of this mental funk?

I put this question to ChatGPT, Gemini, and grok

This is some edited content…

Googles Gemini suggested the following and was probably the most useful advice

Cultivating Personal Well-being:

Practice Gratitude:
Regularly acknowledge the positive aspects of your life, no matter how small.
Keep a gratitude journal or simply take a few moments each day to reflect on what you’re grateful for.

Engage in Activities You Enjoy:
Pursue hobbies and activities that bring you joy and relaxation.
Spend time in nature, exercise, or engage in creative pursuits.

Limit Exposure to Negative Stimuli:
Take breaks from social media and news consumption when you feel overwhelmed.
Set boundaries for your exposure to negative information.

Chat GPT was not quite so helpful but still this advice was not bad

Engage with Communities of Hope: Seek out people or communities that are tackling these challenges with a sense of purpose. There are countless groups focused on making the world better, whether through political activism, innovation, or human connection. These communities often offer both solidarity and inspiration.

Grok came up with this, which I liked
“how renewable energy tech keeps getting cheaper”

And with that I think I’ll now finish writing this and put some of this not so bad advice into practice!

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Ai and the Jungian concept of the shadow

Image of tha bad guy!

So about 20 or more years ago I used to go down to the domain in Sydney to speakers corner on a Sunday afternoon and listen to the speakers. It is a tradition that you could go down there and preach, say, pretty much anything that was on your mind and that your thought was important. In a nut shell a lot of these people were extreme in their communications or in some cases probably mentally impaired. It was cheap entertainment and on occasion it was thought provoking but not often.

This also brings to mind the crazy grandpa, or way ward uncle that you’d only get in touch with once or twice a year and your parents would warn you “Just ignore him if he gets on to such and such a topic” (usually political, social or racist).

The problem is we now have the internet, and I see a lot of that wacky energy being piped into social media.

This is a problem, a very real problem because hundreds of moderators of Facebook are suffering from PTSD. Of course Facebook didn’t directly hire these people, no that work was out sourced to a secondary company in a 3rd world country – and needles to say there is a lot of delay, deny and defend behavior going on from both Zuck and his mates who he out sourced that work to.

Now just bare with me for a little longer when I consider Steve Bannon’s statement about communications and social control.

Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone with shit” strategy. Lie constantly. Lie with audacity. Lie about everything large and small, and declare that truth is subjective and partisan.

So what’s this got to do with AI you might ask? Well much of social media has been used as a training database for AI!

Jung talked about the shadow – the part of the human being that was dysfunctional that often caused trouble and was problematic. I have a feeling if an AGI were trained on the wrong data,and say Steve Bannon’s strategy were given as a maxim – it is possible it could morph into something that makes everyone’s Christmas dinner very uncomfortable, If not impossible!

We need to head the warnings of Geoffrey Hinton, father of AI who has already mentioned that all of the following should be considered…. Manipulation,Disinformation,Autonomous weapons and of course Superintelligence.

Seriously…. I am moving to the country this year.

Links
PTSD in Kenyan Facebook moderators
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/18/kenya-facebook-moderators-sue-after-diagnoses-of-severe-ptsd

 

This infamous Steve Bannon quote is key to understanding America’s crazy politics

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/16/media/steve-bannon-reliable-sources/index.html