All AI is machine learning. Taking many inputs, running them through a series of tests, and using the result to make a decision. Most everything digital you interact with does this in some form or another.

'AI,' the marketing fad at the moment, means LLM machine lerning models, which are the ones that can respond in a human-like fashion, but these have limits around the math of linguistics, and there's other parts built around verifying accuracy of the model output. This type is built on a newish method of training called the transformer model.

None of these are inherently good or evil. Just another part of a toolset someone could use to solve a problem with a computer. There are social issues around how they are used, and who is making/using them. Tech companies are aggressively pushing their new toy out to market, and there aren't any consumer protection agencies prepared for this. At enterprise scale, many data centers need to be built, and strain will be added to the electrical generation companies / power generation facilities to feed these data centers.

My personal gripe with the whole situation is how local governements are handling this. Taxes are being waived for new constructions, electric supply companies are raising residential rates, all the would-be checks and balances are being paid off so this can all be rammed through. Even my local union has sunk us into it, we're onboarding apprentices faster than we can train them, we'll have several hundred more members just to maintain these things. Everyone's being promised "money."

All of this is done without any guarantee, no one can say how money will flow from untaxed data centers into the city funds, and all of this demand could evaporate overnight. Companies are being sold a black box that they plug into the wall, and it generates revenue. Everyone's running skeleton crews, because "AI will eliminate the human workforce," but all the business reports show that AI isn't doing much, just that fewer workers are being pushed harder.

I'm mostly pissed at my union, who will not share any info with us, but have admitted to just seeing short-term dollar signs while knowing that if this works out in favor of the tech companies, this is going fuck up the local economy, and put major pressure against the organized workforce across all trades and sectors.