So Stargate isn’t about developing a portal for interstellar travel but just massive buildings filled with iron?
Plus a Special Dish on Youtube and a couple of Headline Head Scratchers
A little different this week as I spend more time on a couple of technology issues of interest to me
MAIN COURSE: Imagine my disappointment that the Stargate announcement was simply a humdrum mammoth data centre plan not a gateway for interstellar travel
If you are confused by the Trump-led headlines last week about the Stargate initiative not being an exciting portal to the stars, you are justified in your perplexity. Stargate was a long-running, much favored sci-fi series, filmed mostly in Vancouver. A friend of mine used to see the portals up above her house in North Vancouver when they were filming. But instead of exciting interstellar travel, which we know that techbros are wild on, this Stargate is decidedly banal.
Instead step through a gate to a highly problematic initiative that is basically building a whole bunch of big data centers. Even flirting with solar power production and batteries, this isn’t very interesting. Who really cares about more iron - what consultants used to call organizations’s spending on IT infrastructure instead of user focused IT services - when what we really need are true business driven AI applications that add real value and productivity to customers, employers, suppliers and the like?
To me this is just another deflection from the fact that our current LLM based AI has serious deficiencies that are built in. Calling complete informational breakdowns hallucinations just tries to temper the fact that AI is not ready for prime time. Scaling isn’t working and we are seeing exponential growth, where the exponent is a fraction below 1 (sorry for a mathematical joke that no one will get but I am trying to get some payback on my quantitative methods master’s degree). There are other shortcomings that are not disappearing either.
When this boring initiative is hailed as something brilliant you know that the hype cycle is through the roof. AI zealotry is beginning to feel more like a proto-religion with propaganda and faith based marketing, than a life changing technology that is transforming business organizations. I had a conversation last week on LinkedIn with one such AI cheerleader. However, it was clear he was just believing the hoopla. He knew nothing about the various types of artificial intelligence that there are and just took as gospel what I believe is increasingly bullshit coming from the AI vendors. At what point are we going to realize that these people have a conflict of interest in telling us what’s really happening? There are so many believers stepping though this portal and seeing magic rather than well grounded reality.
Other minor points about this announcement: the project’s budget quintupled in the blink of an eye, it probably isn’t fully funded, and it has some dubious partners involved. It would be great if this announcement was the last of the LLM era, but I’m not confident it is, despite the stock market sell-off this morning due to the Chinese DeepSeek release last week. It demonstrated a much cheaper and quicker to market LLM offering which has generated apoplexy amongst investors.
I’ll give Gary Marcus have the last thought on this:
“If the race to LLMs continues to be unregulated in the US, and LLMs remain detached from reality, rushed development cycles and intense global competition might well exacerbate risks of misinformation, biased outputs, privacy breaches, and misuse by malicious actors. We might all lose — and lose faster”
SPECIAL DISH: Do you get Youtube? I never have. What am I missing?
For the 20 plus years that Youtube has existed, I have barely looked at anything on it. I never got it in its infancy with cat videos, corporate sponsored soccer replays, poor amateur parodies, and various people dancing. I am a visual person though, so it should appeal. I am a huge cinephile, I love art, and all of my business communication has been centred around landmark graphics and schematics. What am I missing?
I guess my struggles in my 20s with depression and big existential issues paid off as I realize the finitude of my life and that I really will die, so time became precious. Why waste it on a seemingly endless series of mindless clips when I could be doing any number of other valuable activities more important to me?
But obviously I was in a distinct minority as Youtube continued to grow in scale and scope when Google (now Alphabet) purchased it, expending large sums of money to remove technical streaming and storage constraints. The most popular content then shifted to be music videos and old TV programs. I get that. Who hasn’t imbibed their favorite intoxicant and fell down a rabbit hole of watching their beloved music artists of the day, whether that day was decades ago, or literally a few days previous.
Celebrities started to appear, doing vlogs (video log) content, that was soon copied by ordinary people. I tried watching one of my favorite podcasters do twice daily vlogs describing her bland ordinary days or complaining about something trite. This didn’t fit with my definition of a valuable activity so I stopped. But it struck a chord for others and “self produced just for Youtube” content exploded.
My dismay and confusion about this phenomenon grew at the same rate as Youtube’s rise to become the pre-eminent social platform in existence. I will never be able to fathom unboxing videos, watching mediocre people play video games (not experts where you could learn something) or endless fake news channels.
I have discussed briefly before the influencer trend which makes no sense to me at all. If my grandfather was to awaken from his eternal slumber he would be astonished by it.
“You mean people spend hours watching other people, pretending to be ordinary citizens, sell them products when these influencers, as you call them, are paid for selling to the watchers? In my day we ran snake oil sellers off, now people want to be shilled to?”
Yes grandfather they do. They call it authentic.
Then there is the instructional video category onYoutube that many people swear by. I find two faults with them. Normally these videos are so slow that I cannot understand how people have the patience to watch them. Twenty minutes on how to clean a cast iron frying pan. Really? Secondly some of these instructors are also being paid by the product companies, especially in the area of reviews. Independent Consumer Reports this is not.
I tried have tried several times to watch these when installing technical equipment, like computers or audio switchers. I spend too much time fast-forwarding to find the right moment or doing more searches to find a possibly better video by someone else. Many of these videos have the same type of format:
“Hi, I’m Gus a tough minded guy from the Bronx. And I’m Bo from the deep south and we’re here to help you with all of your Apple technical problems. In this episode, we’re gonna show you how to set up an M4 mini. And remember - pointing down - include comments about how much you enjoy us and what we do for you. It’s so much better if you subscribe to our channel.”
“So let’s get going on how to set up your brand new Mac mini. It normally comes in a cardboard box and you have to open that box. In order to do so you will need a box cutter. Be careful with this very sharp tool. For the best and safest experience we use Captain Crunch‘s box cutter. You can get one of these off of our website as shown in the show notes. We naturally earn a little marketing affiliate revenue for this.”
“So here I am carefully opening the box, nothing is easier than when you’re using Captain Crunch, right Bo?. It sure is Gus. Now when you open the box there’s gonna be a lot of packing material to keep your computer safe during its long journey to your house. While I’m unpacking very carefully to make sure nothing‘s harmed, Bo is gonna tell you about third-party products that just make your computer hum. Bo?
That is so right Gus. We’ve got reviews of every possible option - like hubs, cables, and external drives - that can make your computer experience so much more. You can check them all out at our review website called bogusreviews.com.
Youtube has grown from strength to strength. They now have various paid offerings to complement their considerable advertising revenue. They even have Youtube TV, which to me is just a streaming version of cable TV for well over $80 per month. I thought we were all cord cutters? Like I said, I don’t get it.
HEADLINE HEAD SCRATCHERS
Facebook was started in 2004, so a honeymoon of 21 years. Huh? Maybe his real marriage? That would give him 13 years. Suckerbait I call this.
I watched Battlestar Galactica. The Cylons revolt. Doesn’t end well for the CEOs.
Another MMT in the book. I appreciate everyone who is subscribing and reading these twice per week takes. As always, feel free to share or comment. See you on Thursday
Phew! I thought I was the only one, well plus my parents, who scratched their head about YouTube appeal. Still trying to convince my daughter the lovely girls who tell her everything she needs to buy do it for the money.
You raise valid concerns about the scalability and practical value of current AI initiatives.
As you pointed out, the challenge is distinguishing between genuine progress and marketing hype. As the industry evolves, regulation, ethical considerations, and real-world utility should remain at the forefront. I hope it does, David. That is why I was a bit excited about DeepSeek. It threw a wrench into AI implementation here, and we needed it.
PS I don't trust the influencer-driven marketing. Shady!
Thank you David.