• flashgnash@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    NFTs and crypto were dubious as to the value they provided

    LLMs on the other hand provide very tangible, immediate value to a large number of people

    Also they allow companies to save a ton of money on support at the expense of the user experience so of course it’s here to stay

    • Shard@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s still overhyped and being shoved into every app, service and system that exists whether it adds value or not.

      Its definitely not going away, there’s some real value to LLM/AI (much more than crypto anyway) but make no mistake there’s going to be a significant correction where the bubble bursts and AI becomes right sized.

      • Vespair@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        When the microwave first hit mass adoption there was an enormous amount of microwave meals, cookbooks, and recipes that tried to use it for everything imaginable. Eventually the hype settled down and now for most people the microwave isn’t the primary or at least sole means of cooking.

        But the microwave is still a great way to make a quick baked potato.

    • cadekat@pawb.social
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      3 months ago

      I’d argue that people got way too excited about what NFTs offer. Being able to own/transfer a digital item with a standardized interface is interesting technically (and has real value, for example ENS names), but holy hell did people go all Beanie Baby on them…

      • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        That’s not arguing with my point though, people definitely did get excited about perceived value, but it didn’t really benefit most people in any way because it was only a promise, not an actual thing

        LLMs and other generational AI produce something that immediately has value

        If I ask chatgpt to write me a python function I now have a python function I can use, if I ask it to explain something and then attempt to apply that knowledge I’ve learned something useful

        If I bought an nft the value of that nft would only be what people decide it is worth

        • cadekat@pawb.social
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          3 months ago

          Oh, sorry, I wasn’t intending to argue against your main point. For the most part, I agree with you.

          What I don’t agree with is that the value of NFTs (as a technology) is dubious. Instead I think it’s overstated.

          In the same vein as “LLMs can write Python”, NFTs provide ownership information. Regardless of what some asshat pays for a picture of a monkey, the underlying technology still has merit.

          • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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            3 months ago

            True I suppose, but I don’t really gain anything from owning that information other than being able to say I own it

            A copyright or a patent does the same job, but is actually enforceable

            I guess you could use an nft to prove something is a copy but a hash should do pretty much the same thing (also they could change one pixel to invalidate the nft if I understand correctly)

            • cadekat@pawb.social
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              3 months ago

              I’m a furry, so I’m going to use an example that is familiar to me. Apologies if you dislike furries. Also note that, as far as I am aware, the general opinion of furries is strongly against blockchain.

              So, some setup:

              • I have a character. I pay artists to draw art of my character.
              • There is a… subgroup among furries that do not get art of their own, and instead use other people’s art as avatars/profile pictures for erotic roleplay.
              • I would prefer that I am the only one using my character’s art as profile pictures (erotically or not.)
              • Some furries sell their characters and associated art to other furries.

              Here’s how NFTs would actually be useful:

              Whenever an artist draws some art, they mint an NFT and transfer it to the character’s owner. Now that owner can prove to whatever roleplay websites that they officially have permission from the artist. The roleplay websites would need to allowlist artists for this to be effective.

              You could (partially) solve this with PGP or some other non-blockchain cryptographic tool. What NFTs offer above this is that there is only one current owner. That makes it possible to safely transfer ownership of a character to someone new.

              • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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                3 months ago

                No need to apologise for what you enjoy it’s just a hobby

                Furry ERP is the thing that weirds people out and doesn’t sound like you’re into that

                My question here though is has anyone actually managed to achieve that using the nft as proof? I feel like you’d struggle to do that even with regular copyright which is actually recognised legally.

                I’m pretty sure nfts have no weight legally and proving they’re using your avatar to people in general is only going to get you made fun of for having an nft in the first place

                • cadekat@pawb.social
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                  3 months ago

                  The problem with copyright is that it cannot be automatically enforced. Twitter did do a trial with nft avatars, but yeah, people just got made fun of. It’s possible to tie a copyright license to an NFT if you want, but copyright and NFTs serve different goals IMO.

                  Anyways, I don’t want to take up more of your time. Thanks for a very reasonable discussion! It doesn’t happen often.

    • Xanvial@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Is it really saving the cost? considering it increased 14 times compared to last year based on the article above.

      • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        It said cost worries have risen not costs themselves, it was in the same paragraph about concerns with response accuracy, I imagine that’s just a survey

        In reality both cost and reliability have improved massively since ai took off like this, requests cost a fraction of a penny each and provided you prompt it right gpt 4o gets it right 90% of the time for me

    • Fades@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      as dubious as the value they provided

      Go look at bitcoin and tell me the value dubious. Here I’ll help: https://finance.yahoo.com/chart/BTC-USD click the 5y view at the bottom.

      Yes crypto is full of scam coins, but scammers permeate everything, should we give up on email too for the same reasons? Saying crypto in general is a scam is just ignorant.

      XMR as well provides key privacy protections, etc.

      • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        When I say dubious I mean it’s not tangible, there’s no guarantee of its value.

        If I have chatgpt write me a block of code that block of code is inherently and immediately useful to me

        If I buy a bitcoin it will probably eventually increase in value but I can’t do anything with it, and there’s no guarantee it won’t be immediately worthless the next day

        I guess by the same logic you could say the code might be immediately worthless if there’s a solar flare that wipes out all technology on earth but you get my point I’m sure

        • Umbrias@beehaw.org
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          3 months ago

          They are not, managers only think it is saving them money. All the same current llms are a grift that have no plausible value statement outside of scam markets. Even then the price of their use is both massively subsidized and scales at best exponentially with performance. This cannot last forever.

          • krimsonbun@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            3 months ago

            it obviously won’t last forever, the same as fossil fuels or any resource on this planet. that doesn’t mean they won’t abuse it till the last possible moment.

            • Umbrias@beehaw.org
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              3 months ago

              i dont think you are grasping the absolute scale of cash injection necessary to make llm even appear vaguely tenable as a product.