The end of physical media is neigh


Very sad news for me personally.  Honestly this struck me as hard or harder than hearing about the death of a beloved artist.   With the advent of machine learning and AI controlling our music listening we are becoming a world without any control at all over our music or movie culture.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/lg-stops-making-blu-ray-players-marking-the-end-of-an-era-limited-units-remain-while-inventory-lasts

erik_squires

LLM is built by absorbing human language and creativity and spew it out like the Bill Gates steak improper to human needs...

Not true. Gates' meat is inferior. However, AI improves human language and creativity for most people. A PhD had an equivalent of his doctoral thesis produced in an hour. A normal person can write something and have AI rewrite it in the style of Shakespeare in seconds. I had Gemini graphically lay out the floor plan of my new house with a four-sentence prompt. Also, AI is now learning from synthetic data.

Regarding your statement about intelligence, no one is claiming AI is intelligent yet. That's what AGI is, and no one is claiming to have reached it. But AI is already smarter in several areas than all but the smartest of humans.

I started programming the Internet in 1995, and I'd say we're at the 1997 level of AI. Once you understand LLMs and how transformers work you understand why it's growth will be exponential. I look at AI as an improvement of human intellect. Imagine one human who knows every piece of information that has ever existed and doesn't forget any of it, and multiply that by millions of AI agents.

Regarding "art", it will make movies far cheaper and suggest plots that people won't think of because it recognizes patterns far better than any human. As far as music, it already generates better music than today's bland monotonous pop music.

I see AI's potential as an improvement in all but three ways. And they are very big. I don't know how people will make a living, and from all my study of post-labor economics I don't think anyone does. I don't know how many people will find fulfillment in place of jobs and hobbies made insignificant by AI. And I think ASI is an existential threat.

There's no use complaining about AI. It's not going to stop or pause because no country or entity is going to risk others jumping ahead of it. We are no longer in an arms race. We are in an intelligence race.

@ghdprentice 

I'm right there with you. Literally, just before reading this thread, looked at my CD collection and said to myself I need to get rid of that. Same for my Oppo 105 and all my DVDs, Blurays, etc.

Physical media remains the gold standard for visual and audio fidelity unless you own a Kaleidescape. I envision a future where physical media retains its value, much like the resurgence of vinyl records. While we can debate whether streaming surpasses analog, the choice ultimately lies with the individual. If you love a particular format, that’s all that matters. I enjoy the versatility of digital formats with Roon/Qobuz alongside my Oppo, Kaleidescape, and vinyl setup. I've even dabbled with setting up a local streaming server—though rewarding, it’s undeniably a labor-intensive endeavor.

AI is better at accurately applying facts, logic and linguistics than people.

As always, garbage in, garbage out. YMMV.

So it can be used or abused.  It’s a powerful tool so consequences of abuse can be massive.