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  • 19
    I don't get what you're trying to say here. Maybe some more clarity is needed.
    – starball
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 20:39
  • 13
    It's not really clear what you're saying here ─ are you claiming that SE, Inc. has been bought by an AI company who is now intentionally running into the ground? Or that it is pre-emptively running itself into the ground in order to make itself more appealing to be bought by an AI company? This doesn't really make sense, because if SE, Inc. will run itself into the ground then there's no need for an AI company to buy it in order to do that.
    – kaya3
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 20:40
  • 4
    Go figure what?
    – Levente
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 20:42
  • 2
    Moderators are saying they deal with a very large number of what they have concluded to be AI-generated answers. Instruct them not to be so hard on such answers and it's clear what the result will be, and in particular it must surely be clear to senior executives at this company, who one can assume are not stupid. The result will be that AI-generated answers build towards taking over. Who's that profitable for? This website does not exist for community. It exists for profit.
    – tell
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 20:44
  • 1
    @kaya3 - It makes perfect sense. SE does seem to be running the human side of its world-leading EQ&A operation into the ground. I'm suggesting that that's a means, not an aim in itself.
    – tell
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 20:47
  • 1
    What is it a means to? It doesn't make the company more attractive to a buyer, even if the buyer does want SE to be destroyed. They won't pay to destroy it if it is already destroying itself for free.
    – kaya3
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 20:53
  • I think you are missing my point. It's unlikely that the company is destroying itself - or to be more exact, destroying the human-intelligence EQ&A service it has built up, largely using volunteer labour - for free. Its owners and senior execs would be stupid if that were the case. Is it likely they're so stupid?
    – tell
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 20:55
  • So, I seem to have read somewhere that the tendencies of AI potential were not suddenly recognized only in November 2022, when ChatGPT got published. That early insights were available to some circles earlier than that. Tim Urban posted about exponential AI acceleration back in 2015. I wonder, when in summer 2021 Prosus decided to buy SO/SE, had they been entirely clueless about the role AI was going to play? Or did they make their decision in awareness of the potentials in AI development? What was / is Prosus' plan?
    – Levente
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 20:59
  • Why is this happening?
    – Levente
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 21:03
  • 2
    Ah, thanks for that info. I thought SO/SE was still privately owned. But still, I think I'm on the right lines and the same applies to the current owners, who AFAICS aren't big AI players.
    – tell
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 21:06
  • 5
    @Levente and tell: checking out the SO blog entry, Is this the AI renaissance? (Ep. 564): 1) yeah, Prosus has known about AI and its workings for years. They also have their own AI team. They have purchased Udemy, CodeAcademy, and other learning sites. I posit that "the writing's on the wall": Prosus is going to be using these sites' data for its own search/learning system that they can possibly hugely monetize. Soon, no more "volunteers" needed...
    – leanne
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 22:08
  • The majority of education in the hand of one monopolistic provider. What could go wrong? We are so done, so, so, so done.
    – Levente
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 22:11
  • @Levente: monopolistic and money-hungry! Plus, if international companies are, like US companies, beholden to their shareholders... who cares how it's done, as long as the shareholders are happy
    – leanne
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 22:14
  • Thanks, @leanne. So Prosus (owned by Naspers ) do know about AI then. Interesting that they own a big chunk of Tencent which owns Wechat.
    – tell
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 22:20
  • 2
    ChatGPT is definitely a step forward in AI technology, but unfortunately a lot of unskilled people think it has a powerful brain, it does not. Currently it is mainly an artist with words, an electrical parrot so to say. If it gives for example an answer to a question regarding law, it cites non-existing laws, if it is asked to solve programming challenges, it imports non-existing classes. It can copy a bit, just like people sometimes imitates people, with mixed results. Eventually tools improve, but currently the level is insufficient.
    – willeM_ Van Onsem
    Commented Jun 21, 2023 at 21:20