AI does not exist but it will ruin everything anyway
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN people point to it as a clear, skeptical take on AI hype and the risks of unreliable AI classification, such as in mushroom foraging books.
What it is
Physicist and YouTuber Angela Collier argues in this hour-long video that AI as commonly described does not really exist. She covers the limits of the tools, biased datasets, and why they should not be used to make decisions.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2023 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec zzzeek · 2023-09 · on “Mushroom pickers urged: Avoid Amazon foraging books, appear to be written by AI”
AI would be used (unsafely) to classify mushrooms, this exact prediction at 17:09 in Angela Collier's excellent "AI does not exist but it will ruin everything anyway" video, which I recommend for anyone interested in the subject: [this video]
Cites zahlman · 2024-08 · on “Should I learn Python with GPT?”
It's important to understand that large-language models like ChatGPT do not "think" about the prompt and do not in any meaningful sense "understand" the result they give you. No matter how sophisticated they get, fundamentally they are still computer programs - systems for choosing words (and code fragments) that look right next to each other, according to some inferred rules. They are not driven by will or consciousness. You might be able to get ChatGPT to "tell" you (produce textual output) that it's intelligent and has feelings, but this is just as meaningless as if a book were titled "I am Intelligent and Have Feelings". Or as Angela Collier puts it, AI does not exist ( [this video] ). Such p
Cites dist-epoch · 2026-04 · on “Mercurial Dyson – a plan for the disassembly of planet Mercury”
Somehow I new before clicking that it was going to be Angela. Two years ago: AI does not exist but it will ruin everything anyway [this video]