When ChatGPT exploded onto the scene on November 30, 2022 (hard to believe that was less than 2 years ago!), the idea of AI “alignment” was suddenly a big deal. That means “alignment with human values.”
I thought: “wouldn’t it be nice if humans were aligned with human values”?
Even some values that seem uncontroversial, like “tell the truth,” are things that most people agree with but nobody actually does. Sorry, Jim-Bob, when your sister said “your new glasses are cool” what she actually meant was “your new glasses make you look like a dork”.
The Elephant In The Alignment Room
When ChatGPT exploded onto the scene on November 30, 2022 (hard to believe that was less than 2 years ago!), the idea of AI “alignment” was suddenly a big deal. That means “alignment with human values.”
I thought: “wouldn’t it be nice if humans were aligned with human values”?
Even some values that seem uncontroversial, like “tell the truth,” are things that most people agree with but nobody actually does. Sorry, Jim-Bob, when your sister said “your new glasses are cool” what she actually meant was “your new glasses make you look like a dork”.
According to the Stack Overflow’s Workplace Satisfaction Survey, 80% of professional programmers are unhappy. But the problem isn’t AI, and it’s not coding.
Many developers start off their day with a “stand-up” meeting, which is considered a standard part of an Agile development methodology.
Unfortunately, many companies do a pale cargo-cultish shadow of a stand-up, which wastes everyone’s time and saps the energy out of the team.
The problem with stand-ups as practiced by many companies is that people don’t actually know what the stand-up is for.
A few years ago, software engineering was a pretty great job market.
Then, in 2022, tech companies laid off 165,269 employees. In 2023, they laid off another 264,220 employees. So far, in 2024, they’ve laid off 124,517 employees.
It used to take very little time to find a new tech job, and now most of us have friends who have been looking for a new job for months, or even more than a year.
“Intelligence is knowing that Frankenstein is not the monster. Wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein is the monster.”
“Eat rocks,” said Google’s AI, apparently confusing people with ostriches. Meanwhile, Apple decided the best way to sell iPads was to literally crush musical instruments. Welcome to the wacky world of AI marketing, where billion-dollar companies with genius-level employees somehow keep making decisions that would embarrass a sleep-deprived intern.
These facepalm-inducing moments aren’t just amusing anecdotes; they’re symptoms of a larger problem in the tech industry: a critical lack of wisdom.
Let’s face it–the internet is a giant distraction engine.
Ever gone online to check the weather and somehow ended up watching a whole documentary about monarch butterfly migration? It’s like going to the store for milk and coming home with a live chicken.
The internet is designed to capture your attention and hold on to it like a puppy with a rope toy. And while that’s great for advertisers, it’s not so great for your own productivity or your precious and limited free time.
Once upon a time, a scorpion needed to cross a river. He couldn’t swim, so he asked a frog he found by the riverbank for a ride on his back. The frog was hesitant at first. “What if you sting me?” he asked. The scorpion reasoned, “If I sting you, we both would drown!” So, the frog agreed, thinking it made sense.
Halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the frog.