But, what is it bad at?

Ben Affleck ‘gets’ AI. Great perspective in the video below.

With technology, it is often more important to consider what the new thing doesn’t do well or where the experience is lossy in ways that matter.

The AI tech (and hype) reminds me a lot of the transistor revolution that was predicted to replace the tube amps used (and loved) by guitar players. Didn’t happen. Then, digital modeling was going to replace tube amps. Didn’t happen. Then came the digital captures and impulse responses that would replace tube amps. Still didn’t happen.

Why?

Because the experience of hearing and feeling sound as it is amplified by tubes and moves through air is a big deal to guitar players. It is part of the experience and is impossible to mimic cost-effectively (some would say ‘at all’) with non-tube technology.

But, what did happen was that digital technology became one of the tools used alongside tube amps by many guitar players. It has carved out a niche in the guitar player market and continues to evolve. That said, decades later, the forecasts of doom for the guitar tube amp market continue to be wrong.

Contrast that to televisions where tubes were replaced in short order with virtually no one clinging to the past.

Again, why?

Because, unlike guitar amps, the tube component added nothing to the experience worth clinging to in TVs. Further, tube technology did (does) have serious downsides, including heat, weight, replacement costs/headaches, etc.

So, as stated above:

With technology, it is often more important to consider what the new shiny object doesn’t do well or where the experience is lossy in ways that matter.

(Ben laying down some truth on AI. He gets it better than most in the tech industry!)