this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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[–] FireRetardant 127 points 2 months ago (12 children)

Or even like modern wifi. I saw a vacuum with wifi capabilities. Do I really need to check my vacuum battery level from my phone?

[–] aeronmelon 96 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If you don't pay your monthly vacuum fee, Hoover will turn it off remotely.

[–] FireRetardant 42 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Unlock more power for an extra $4.99/month*

*warranty period reduced by 1 week per use of MaxPower mode

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 months ago (7 children)

I saw a Bluetooth toothbrush that send reports to your phone on how good you brushed your teeth, like wtf?!

[–] mrfriki 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It also send reports to they corporate overlords. Most probably anyway.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh I'm sure your health insurance would love to know the condition of your teeth to increase your rates.

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[–] Sgt_choke_n_stroke 110 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago (1 children)

AI isn't a product for consumers, its a product for investors. If somewhere down the line a consumer benefits in some way, that's just a side effect.

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[–] Boozilla 79 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is so spot on. I use AI all the time, but the hype and "we should AI all the things" is ridiculous.

I blame it on bullshit jobs. Too many people have to come up with weekly nonsense busywork tasks just to justify themselves. Also the usual FOMO. "Guys, we can't fall behind the competition on this!"

[–] errer 36 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Yep. I have middle management above me gleefully cheering the fact that ChatGPT can write their reports for them now. Well guess what, it can write those reports for me, the actual person doing the real work, and you are now redundant.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

As a person with a useless boss who does almost nothing and (of course) gets paid more than me, I like this take! Let AI report on workers and watch productivity (and profits) soar!

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (15 children)

I work for a fairly big IT company. They're currently going nuts about how generative AI will change everything for us and have been for the last year or so. I'm yet to see it actually be used by anyone.

I imagine the new Microsoft Office copilot integration will be used only slightly more than Clippy was back in the day.

But hey, maybe I'm just an old man shouting at the AI powered cloud.

[–] pennomi 32 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Copilot is often a brilliant autocomplete, that alone will save workers plenty of time if they learn to use it.

I know that as a programmer, I spend a large percentage of my time simply transcribing correct syntax of whatever’s in my brain to the editor, and Copilot speeds that process up dramatically.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

problem is when the autocomplete just starts hallucinating things and you don't catch it

[–] pennomi 30 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If you blindly accept autocompletion suggestions then you deserve what you get. AIs aren’t gods.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

AI's aren't god's.

Probably will happen soon. SMBC has so many comics on the subject

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[–] Jesus_666 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

A friend of mine works in marketing (think "websites for small companies"). They use an LLM to turn product descriptions into early draft advertising copy and then refine from there. Apparently that saves them some time.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It saves a ton of time. I've worked with clients before and I'll put a lorem ipsum as a placeholder for text they're supposed to provide. Then the client will send me a note saying there's a mistake and the text needs to be in English. If the text is almost close enough to what the client wants, they might actually read it and send edits if you're lucky.

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[–] vatlark 55 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So you are saying that AI today is like Bluetooth today

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I use Bluetooth all the time for speakers and headsets, also the PlayStation 3 controller was Bluetooth, so would that not mean AI will be a top of the line tool in 2 years? I personally don't use it for anything at the moment, but in 2003 Plantronics released Bluetooth headsets for corporate environments (IP phones usually still used to this day).

Seems like more of a we aren't sure where this tool is most useful yet, but it will be used by many people around us.

[–] vatlark 15 points 2 months ago (4 children)

That's very fair. I don't like how unpredictable Bluetooth is when you have multiple peripherals and multiple hosts paired to eachother and all within range of eachother.

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[–] Resol 51 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I remember seeing a DankPods video about a rice cooker with quote-unquote "AI rice" technology. Spoiler alert: there is no AI in there.

So... it's not even putting it in something where it's not useful, it's straight up false advertising.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (3 children)

a simple "if" "then" algorithm

Corporate: (☞゚ヮ゚)☞ Is this AI?

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They've been claiming things like rice cookers had AI for decades, so at least this isn't part of the current AI hype.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Give me Bluetooth rice or give me death

[–] Resol 12 points 2 months ago

Bluetooth rice should be blue and also should make your teeth blue (because blue tooth, get it?)

I suck at comedy.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I was in an auto parts store yesterday and saw that you can buy a can of that stuff to fix your AC and the damn can has Bluetooth capabilities. So no, we’re still not done putting Bluetooth where it doesn’t need to be.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (8 children)

This reminds me I'm into season 5 of Burn Notice and Sam said at one point, "I'm on Bluetooth if you need me". It was a weird reminder that once upon a time people were paid to advertise just... Bluetooth, because that's a brand name. These days it's just everywhere.

The product placements in that show are not exactly subtle. Excellent show though, I did not expect it to hold up so well.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So. You would have to be what 5 meters max to talk to him? What does that even mean?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Boomers learned what Bluetooth was because they started making AirPod-style single ear headsets for cell phones. Everyone called them “a Bluetooth”.

So if you said “I’m on Bluetooth” it means you’d have your big clunky EarPod on, ready to answer a call at a moments notice.

A former fucking spy wouldn’t be caught dead using early Bluetooth for sensitive conversations though (and probably not current BT either). Considering every other segment of that show is a “here’s a hack to show how fragile the house of cards of modern society is, and how spies just navigate through it with impunity”, it’s pretty funny they leaned into this one.

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[–] kinsnik 38 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Or like the blockchain 5 years ago

Or like VR 10 years ago

Or like 3D 15 years ago

It is the hot new thing that you have to use for the VCs to fund your company and for investors to buy your stocks, regardless of the actual utility. AI does seem to have at least more possibilities of usage than those technologies, but it also have an incredibly higher possibility of misuse that is being completely ignored by these companies

[–] radiohead37 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It was always clear that VR, 3D, blockchain were fads. But AI is already useful as is. The hype may not be as high in the future but AI is here to stay.

[–] slimarev92 27 points 2 months ago (5 children)

VR is also around, it's possibly the most popular it's ever been. It's still a small niche compared to its initial promise.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I strongly disagree. 3D, VR and blockchain have limited use. They were just extremely overhyped. It's the exact same now with AI. It has uses, yes, but you don't need it in your toothbrush.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago

Like bluetooth. So, not particularly good even for the applications it's supposed to be used for

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer 32 points 2 months ago

Makes me feel a little better. In 2024 I Can't get a "Windows ready" Bluetooth dongle to be recognized by my still supported Windows computer.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (7 children)

To be fair, we only know where Bluetooth is useful because we put it in a lot of places where it wasn't useful

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[–] baatliwala 19 points 2 months ago

That scene in Better Call Saul with the investment guy permanently on his BT earpiece was such a wave of nostalgia for me, used to see those everywhere in the 2000s with a little blue light on them flashing.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (11 children)

is it just me who hasn't ever had any bluetooth problems?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

Quite possibly. I don't think I've ever had any Bluetooth device work without hiccups. My old earbuds used to disconnect or lose pairing all the time. A couple of game controllers I have only worked intermittently for years. My phone is always losing connection in our car. I've ironed out some of the problems, but I've never had Bluetooth just work for me.

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