The Next Hot Job in Silicon Valley Is For Poets (washingtonpost.com) 58
An anonymous reader shares an article on Washington Post: As tech behemoths and a wave of start-ups double down on virtual assistants that can chat with human beings, writing for AI is becoming a hot job in Silicon Valley. Behind Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana are not just software engineers. Increasingly, there are poets, comedians, fiction writers, and other artistic types charged with engineering the personalities for a fast-growing crop of artificial intelligence tools. A new crop of virtual assistant start-ups, whose products will soon flood the market, have in mind more ambitious bots that can interact seamlessly with human beings. Because this wave of technology is distinguished by the ability to chat, writers for AI must focus on making the conversation feel natural. Designers for Amazon's Alexa have built humanizing "hmms," and "ums" into her responses to questions. Apple's Siri assistant is known for her wry jokes, as well as her ability to beatbox upon request.
robbot form comcast chat (Score:3)
Hi
Bob: robot wait that can't be right.
robot: that is my real name and I'm a real person.
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[...] a community of the most uptight libertarian hipsters to ever exist.
You confusing San Francisco with Silicon Valley. The two communities are 50 miles apart. Alas, the news media always show a picture of San Francisco when talking about Silicon Valley.
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[...] a community of the most uptight libertarian hipsters to ever exist.
You confusing San Francisco with Silicon Valley. The two communities are 50 miles apart. Alas, the news media always show a picture of San Francisco when talking about Silicon Valley.
Aren't two of the three companies mentioned based in Washington? Sure there are Silicon Valley offices, but I know Amazon at least does the majority of their development in Seattle.
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I know Amazon at least does the majority of their development in Seattle.
Amazon Lab126 is located in Silicon Valley.
Amazon Lab126 is an inventive research and development company that designs and engineers high-profile consumer electronic devices. Lab126 began in 2004 as a subsidiary of Amazon.com. Since then, we have worked to produce hardware and software for devices like Fire tablets, Kindle Voyage, Amazon Fire TV, and Amazon Echo.
http://www.lab126.com/ [lab126.com]
Irony, defined. (Score:2)
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As AI puts lawyers, doctors, and other highly paid professionals out of business ... suddenly liberal arts majors are in high demand. At what point did I fall down that rabbit hole?
...it's almost as if there's some tangible, real-world value in a liberal arts education that's been neglected in tech circles through years of derision and mockery...
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[...] tangible, real-world value in a liberal arts education [...]
It's called being a well-rounded human being.
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It's called being a well-rounded human being.
In other words, fat.
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In other words, fat.
Many fat engineers are not that well-rounded.
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As AI puts lawyers, doctors, and other highly paid professionals out of business ... suddenly liberal arts majors are in high demand. At what point did I fall down that rabbit hole?
...it's almost as if there's some tangible, real-world value in a liberal arts education that's been neglected in tech circles through years of derision and mockery...
No, I'm pretty sure that can't be right...
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That would be the 'A' in 'STEM' [ufl.edu].
This is perfect... (Score:2)
... I've always wanted Patrick Stewart to be my personal assistant.
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I've always wanted Patrick Stewart to be my personal assistant.
Patrick Swayze.
Woohoo! (Score:1)
I'm already looking forward to a new set of Shakespeare's sonnets.
Ode To Silicon Valley (Score:3)
Who landed a job for her stanzas
But all joy departed
The moment rent started
To burn massive holes in her pantses
perl haiku contest (Score:1)
I never forgot the perl haiku contest a few yrs ago. My favorite one cuz it made me laugh for a week.
http://developers.slashdot.org... [slashdot.org]
fp.pl? (Score:5, Funny)
by CptChipJew ( 301983 ) Alter Relationship on Friday January 23, 2004 @12:24AM (#8062958) Homepage Journal
open(heart_to_perl);
content-type: haiku/firstpost;
or die "i fail it";
Not AI (Score:3)
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Right, to be AI it has to have some magic. The moment you can actually write it down in code it stops being AI.
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AI == "That which we can not do well on a computer yet."
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Yeah, the system should program itself and not be told what to say. It is not like humans ever get any instruction from other humans... oh wait!
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What's the difference?
Does that mean ending phrases with "So..." ? (Score:2)
Good news for humanity? (Score:3, Interesting)
For ages and generations an artist (writer, composer, singer, dancer, painter, what have you) had to be either independently wealthy or have a rich sponsor to create.
Cheap replication (coupled with strong copyrights and intellectual property laws) have helped, but it still requires a strong business acumen in addition to artistic talent for an artist to prosper.
If, indeed, computers and robots [medium.com] take up more of the drudgery in the next industrial revolution, the creative jobs may proliferate... And I don't mean simply people majoring in Arts, who then "sell out" to earn more [insidehighered.com] — the actual artists. People, who want to be musicians today, but are (mediocre) programmers instead, because music does not pay... Maybe, it will?
Supposedly, AIs will be able to create art [wired.com] too, but I suspect, people will eventually treat such creations — deservingly or not — the way art-reproductions are treated today.
(To spoil the impression this post may have created in your mind, I'll point out, that this all may happen just as the people pushed to STEM by government [ed.gov] enter the workforce...)
I think it's more likely (Score:2)
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Sure. But the art of computer programming is not for everyone either. And yet, countless thousands of mediocre programmers are reasonably well-off because of demand. A similar spike in demand may explode the ranks of artists. And, sure, many will be quite mediocre — but, perhaps, not quite as many. Because business acumen will not be as important for "living off it",
Have poets changed recently? (Score:1)
"Poetry is nobody's business except the poet's," wrote Philip Larkin, "and everybody else can fuck off."
Poets like Walt Whitman don't exist any more. Did they suddenly change recently and become pro-human? Or are they still hostile elitists who despise ordinary Americans?
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Did they suddenly change recently and become pro-human? Or are they still hostile elitists who despise ordinary Americans?
Absolutely not. They're actually hostile elitists who despise everyone, including themselves. And they like it. Which only increases their self-loathing.
Poets (Score:5, Funny)
Isn't that a coincidence - today is POETS day
Piss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday
Wait.. (Score:2)
...are you telling me you can be successful without a STEM degree?? Unpossible!
Also, this pretty much double's down on the common wisdom that programmers suck at being human or relating to humans and can't translate 'human' into code. As much as their Aspie little hearts wish they could.
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...are you telling me you can be successful without a STEM degree?
How do you define successful? I consider myself to be successful by living a modest lifestyle in Silicon Valley. My brother, 30 miles away in Morgan Hill, considers me a loser because I don't have a big house, multiple cars and designer jeans.
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I consider you a loser because you have unresolved issues with your brother's success.
Let's consider my brother's success. Neither he nor his wife can retire because the mortgage is underwater and they can't sell the house. They're still paying off the down payment borrowed from his wife's 401K. They lease one car and own two trucks. Their credit cards are maxed out from buying designer jeans. They're not happy despite having it all.
Let's consider my success. I'm socking away 20% or more of my income into savings by living a modest lifestyle by not having it all.
Conclusion: The appearance of
Comedians? (Score:2)
That explains a lot of the work coming out of Redmond.
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Stand-up philosophers (comedians) are BS artists. Microsoft needs plenty of those.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082517/quotes?item=qt0445853 [imdb.com]
Watchmen (Score:2)
Man, now I want to go back and read the Watchmen graphic novel again.
How about limmerics (Score:1)
There once was a man from Nantucket...
Hey, if we can teach the Microsoft bot bad things in a few days, imagine what we could do with a full-time job!
My Poem Application for Amazon (Score:2)
Robot Haiku (Score:1)
Scary thought for the day: (Score:2)
http://qz.com/657433/donald-tr... [qz.com]
No, the article does not condone him. Just explain his method and style fits more with poetry than logic.
How about just killing the AI? (Score:2)
Unless it helps us and actively seeks out the productive redeployment of the displaced, just kill it.
Since AI is being used against humans (due to its job destruction speed being faster than any same-level human creation speed), there is no place for it in this day and age.
To be a great writer (Score:2)
A young lad wanted to be a great writer when he grew up. To write things that millions of people would actually read. Things that would make the think, make them cry, make them howl with range.
So he got a job writing Excel error messages.
(Substitute something more modern for Excel if you like, but that is how I heard it originally.)
History repeats itself (Score:2)
This is funny because my first job in San francisco was for a software robot company; the founder had exactly that idea: we make the chatterbot, and then we hire a room full of English Majors to program the chatterbots.
So we had a room full of people who knew nothing about computers, essentially programming using a weird, proprietary scripting language. It was a disaster. Eventually they were programming frameworks and math libraries in chatterbot script.... it was spaghetti to the ceiling.
The company went