The AI "Revolution": If This Is Really True, What The ____?

 The AI Revolution has hit a speed bump. After the endless, pounding touting of this "miracle" digital drug, push back has begun. Apparently a considerable slug of our neighbors have grown suspicious of its purported benefits. Those who have already been displaced by their company's use of AI have expressed anger and opposition.

On the one hand, we might recall the Luddites of the 19th century. It was the flowering of the Industrial Revolution. Machines - inventions of human beings - proliferated and made what was once slow and tedious labor quick and much more profitable - without the need for all those human eyes, ears, hands, feet. People were thrown out of work. And so some formed groups who went around smashing the machines. You can read about it.

But the comparison to AI may be apples to oranges. While the machines were proven workable and did indeed provide efficiencies in production, AI has yet to prove itself in the same way. Perhaps some AI programs have provided some efficiencies, but many have not only fallen short, but have indeed resulted in the opposite.

For example, as one who runs a small business, tech support from various sources that business rely on have deteriorated significantly. Computers, Internet, web hosts, credit card companies - you name it - that once selectively provided decent support now present AI hurdles that require spending huge amounts of wasted time going through the motions of satisfying the computer generated voices that claim to be helping and mostly don't. Perhaps the most disappointing example has been Apple.

Starting up my small business 18 years, ago, I chose to use Apple products for computers and phone. Their products were superior (and still are, more or less), even better their tech support was excellent, above and beyond what was available elsewhere - a godsend to a sole proprietor. They didn't eliminate the need for professional tech support, but they could handle their own stuff without having to constantly bring in your tech guy. No more.

The same in spades for all the other vendors we deal with, which never were very good, but now are a time-wasting disaster. 

It all begins with AI and extends through the obvious lack of experience and training for the humans you eventually reach - a subject for another time. 

So being a skeptic of this AI "Revolution" would seem a natural and logical response to what's been offered to us so far by the AI promoters, no?

(Oh, and let's not forget services like ChatGPT. Have you ever asked inquired about something in an area in which you have expertise and found its answer wanting: either it's partially inaccurate or downright wrong. And if you experienced this, did you ever wonder what it's served up to you in areas in which you have no expertise, and therefore no ability to judge its accuracy? Just sayin') 

In any case, we'll finish up with some selected quotes from various sources that spurred today's thoughts. 

First this that calls into question the increase in efficiency AI is supposed to provide: 

AI has been presented as a labor-saving miracle. But many businesses report a different experience: “work slop” — AI-generated content that looks polished yet must be painstakingly corrected by humans. Time is not saved — it is quietly relocated.

Next, the claim that AI can and has removed the need for human labor:

This suggests that AI has not removed human labor. It has hidden it — behind algorithms, interfaces, and automated output that still requires correction.

We are not replacing work. We may only be concealing it.

Finally, this from an author who has written a book critiquing the whole AI "miracle.":

AI may appear efficient, but it operates strictly within the limits of its training data: it can replicate mistakes, miss what humans would notice, and often reinforce a consensus version of reality rather than reality itself. Once AI becomes an administrative layer — managing speech, research, hiring, and access to capital — it can become financially embedded into institutions, whether or not it produces measurable productivity.

As I explore in the book Staying Human in the Age of AI at that point, AI does not enhance judgment — it administers it. And then we should ask:

Is AI improving society — or merely managing and controlling it?

Some food for thought. But if all this is true regarding the AI "Revolution," what the_____?