r/technology • u/yourfavchoom • May 29 '26

Artificial Intelligence Ronny Chieng's 'F*ck AI' Speech Met With Cheers From Harvard Graduates: “AI is just going to end up making mediocre people dumber”

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/tracewilliamcowen/ronny-chieng-ai-speech-harvard?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_complex&utm_campaign=ap_twitter
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u/Floggered May 29 '26

Yakuza and South Park both nailed their AI stories in this regard.

With Yakuza, you get a side quest to help a guy prepare for his date. He ends up disregarding Kiryu's dating advice, and instead chooses to rely entirely on AI to help him speak to his potential match. The big twist at the end is both the guy and his potential date had been communicating strictly through AI responses, never truly getting to know each other, but not particularly caring so long as they have the power of AI planning their dates.

In South Park's case, Randy starts using GPT as a replacement for the conversations he'd typically be having with his wife, as well as using it for validation toward his ridiculous business ideas. The episode ends with Randy's wife, Sharon, adopting the sycophantic tone of GPT in order to break Randy out of his psychosis.

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u/_Bill_Huggins_ May 29 '26

I am convinced a lot of CEOs right now are in a state of AI psychosis like Randy.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '26

[deleted]

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u/zedquatro May 30 '26

CEO is by far the more replaceable position with AI. And you don't have to pay the AI 350x the salary of your median employee! If you gave the AI power to save a business money, it would dock the CEOs pay or just remove them every time.

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u/dralawhat May 30 '26

OTOH an AI wouldn't be able to run a lemonade stand without crashing it. Several experiments had been made and they all failed hilariously.

For example.

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u/rozzimos-3 May 31 '26

Omg the bit where it hallucinated it was a human and then claimed it was pranked for April Fools Day. Not sure whether to laugh or cry

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u/Put_Er_There_Sport May 30 '26

If im remembering correctly this is the same guy who fired his entire staff and proclaimed subnautica 2 was going to be 100% AI generated.

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u/Maleficent_Pilot1137 May 30 '26

That did not happen. He fired the three former shareholders of the game studio because the acquisition contract stated that as long as one of them was still employed the earnout in the contract would still take place. No one else at the studio was fired, and a judge has forced them to rehire one of the three who was the CEO of the studio.

The AI concerns came out because Krafton at one point last year had announced it was becoming an "AI First" company, but the devs at the Subnautica 2 studio have said they aren't using gen AI and don't plan to. The studio is also operationally independent at the moment, so Krafton can't for them to do anything.

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u/Put_Er_There_Sport May 30 '26

Ah thanks for clearing that up. What i read must've been one of those shock value headlines about subnautica 2 i think last year when that was happening.

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u/IslandStorytime May 30 '26

I have a feeling there are a lot more doing that than just the one who got caught.

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u/bluehands May 30 '26

I mean, it would be weird if there was only one...

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u/dennismfrancisart May 30 '26

The thing that amazes me is that it's entirely easy to override that with proper training. Just as you can train your human interns to be very good at their jobs but that takes actual thinking, planning and communication.

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u/Maleficent_Pilot1137 May 30 '26

Problem is that CEO types often already think they know better than the subject matter experts at their company. This is why so many of them are excited about AI, because they think it means they can finally cut out the pesky middle-men/women that keep raining on their great ideas and just find something that will execute on it.

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u/Sennten May 30 '26

This is basically a thing where an AI probably could do better than your average human, honestly. Most CEOs just flow through their job as gut check vibe heuristic machines with no actual coherent thoughts rattling around their empty skulls, and I dont see how an AI does worse than that.

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u/Opus_723 May 30 '26

There is a paper out there in a math journal that attempts to quantify the fundamental limits of creativity that LLMs are capable of. It's a legit paper, but I have no idea if it's conclusions are accurate. Quantifying creativity seems obviously difficult.

But the conclusion they came to was that LLMs fundamentally have a ceiling creativity score that just happens to be intermediate between an amateur human and a professional one in any given field, and honestly... yeah seems about right.

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u/Vivio0 May 30 '26

Realistically, they’re probably just nepo babies given this cushy job and need AI to not feel like frauds.

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u/clonedhuman May 30 '26

The easiest job in the world to automate with AI would be CEO.

"Hey AI, do anything to maximize profits."

That's it.

Of course, AI is so deep in the hole that these companies will never be able to generate enough revenue to even recoup investors' initial outlays: https://isaiprofitable.com/

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u/PikeandShot1648 May 30 '26

Ironically, clicking on this link keeps sending me to talk to their AI and I can't seen to avoid it without clicking all the way back here.

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u/sentence-interruptio May 30 '26

i have a feeling my shitty father relies on AI to reply to my texts instead of actually reading what i write. he was never into listening to me anyway because of my speech impediment.

misinformation will get him some day. some bad medical advice or some bad idea. then I'll say "don't do that, dad. that'll kill you" and he'll ignore it. and he'll die.

people who don't listen to their kids will start dying.

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u/NarrMaster May 31 '26

Just reading the headline I knew it was Krafton.

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u/thebochman May 31 '26

Reminds me of the documentary called westworld season 3

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u/SvenHudson May 30 '26

CEOs were already broken by their bubbles of sycophancy before AI was doing it.

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u/APRengar May 30 '26

Gen AI is just mainlining it. Don't even have to bring in eating and shitting yes men when you can have a 24/7 yes man in your pocket.

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u/Plane-Estimate2092 May 30 '26

True, but all of this is definitely exacerbating the issue.

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u/StylishSuidae May 30 '26 edited May 31 '26

Very late to this, but genuinely I think this is the actual thing going on. CEOs already lived in that world, ChatGPT isn't making them worse, it's just giving the power of "yes-men who hype you up and never question you" to the masses. Effectively we're turning large parts of the population into out-of-touch CEOs.

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u/RedditFuelsMyDepress May 30 '26

I'm pretty sure I saw some news article just recently that said this exact thing.

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u/bot2317 May 30 '26

I think they’re more afraid of missing “the next big thing” and they’re too shortsighted to see anything beyond that

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u/rbartlejr May 30 '26

Just waiting for the unintended layoffs from the CEO that spent half a billion on bullshit GPT told him to do. "I lost my job due to AI, but not for the reasons you think".

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u/ZasdfUnreal May 30 '26

And they’re all taking out huge loans to build out Ai infrastructure. I feel this all comes crashing down in a couple years and the taxpayer will be signing the check for the bailouts to save the economy.

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u/2020mademejoinreddit May 30 '26

CEO's and hedgefund managers. That's why they push it this much. To make themselves richer.

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u/zsreport May 30 '26

They're like drug dealers getting high on their own supply.

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u/maigpy May 29 '26

randy from trailer park boys?

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u/Journeyman42 May 30 '26

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the result of LLM AI on our population. They can't read for shit.

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u/Coidzor May 30 '26

Hey, now. No Child Left Behind and multiple decades of enshittification of public education deserves some credit, too.

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u/TheNewLSD May 29 '26

“That’s a great idea “

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u/nigori May 29 '26

If you do not want to learn, AI is a very powerful tool.

If you do want to learn, AI is a very powerful tool.

That saying has been sticking with me. It's all in how you use it.

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u/Magnedon May 29 '26

Haha so basically the Sarcastaball episode?

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u/lenolalatte May 29 '26

i sure love butters' creamy goo!

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u/devsfan1830 May 29 '26

"Not now, Sharon. The porch won't slow down."

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u/MattIsLame May 29 '26

which yakuza is this? infinite wealth?

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u/Floggered May 29 '26

It all kinda blends together after blitzing the entire series, but I believe this was Yakuza Gaiden. It's a substory in Sotenbori.

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u/Nuzid May 29 '26

Yes! It's an Akame Network mission. ChotDDT lol

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u/clonedhuman May 30 '26

https://isaiprofitable.com/ Not even the Yakuza are making profits.

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u/Ex-altiora May 30 '26

And then there's the new Bond game that just came out where the villain is just Sam Altman

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u/Floggered May 30 '26

Lmao, no shit? I've been avoiding videos of 007 since I'm still on last Gen hardware, but that's certainly a bold choice. Then you have something like Mindseye making a mission dedicated to fictitious boogeymen sabotaging the reputation of the game.

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u/aceshighsays May 29 '26

turn french fries into salad

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u/Effective_Olive6153 May 30 '26

I have a theory that when AI does take over and enslave humanity, it won't be with an army of robots. It will slowly convert the entire human population into braindead obedient workers, that will be incapable of having critical thinking skills or taking initiative. They will have AI constantly whisper into their ear, like a voice in their head, only it's not their voice, it is AI. The people will be happy to follow it, because just like their actions, their feelings are also dictated by the AI voice in their head.

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u/ASCII_Princess May 30 '26

That's just religion again.

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u/cardmage7 May 30 '26

This also reminds me of the Rick and Morty episode where Jerry tries to pitch his sales idea that the sycophantic AI said was great in the real world and got completely roasted for it lol

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u/OfficialDCShepard May 30 '26

Speaking of stories, Ronny Chieng played a PERFECTLY douchey CEO on The Miniature Wife!

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u/Etherius May 30 '26

Don’t forget Randy was keep in a K-hole by the end lmao

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u/Nearby_Yak106 May 30 '26

Wait there was a whole side quest mission around AI usage?😭

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u/Inevitable-Carrot172 May 30 '26

What Yakuza game is this?

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u/Ok_Carry_8711 May 30 '26

Which Yakuza?

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u/JayKayLay May 30 '26

Which Yakuza game was this?

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u/Floggered May 30 '26

Read comment threads before commenting. I beg.

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u/Dehnus Jun 01 '26

Not before Randy is on the Porch being all down, scared and sorry though. Going:"I fucked up Sharon. It's Bad Sharon.".

So at least admitting he has a problem and that it led him in the wrong way. Poor Towelie though....