Fuck this shit, why does every fucking thing need an LLM?

  • AnEilifintChorcra@sopuli.xyz
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    4 months ago

    Am I out of touch?

    a writing assistant was one of the most requested features in our recent survey

    Apparently, I am. People actually want this

    For Proton Mail, 59% of respondents want an easier way to send end-to-end encrypted emails to non-Proton users, while 29% want a writing assistant for proofreading, grammar, and composing emails.

    Nothing I hate more than not giving a link to the repo

    Scribe relies on open source code and models, and is itself open source and therefore available for independent security and privacy audits

    Not on their support page specifically for it either

    Had to got to Reddit and look at their comments to find out they’re using Mistral

    https://reddit.com/comments/1e68sof/comment/ldsbs24

    We built Scribe in r/ProtonMail using the open-source model Mistral AI to empower anyone in need of email productivity to use a privacy-respecting alternative to r/ChatGPT or r/GeminiAI that:
     ❌ doesn’t log or save prompts
     ⛔️ doesn’t use your data for training
     🔎 open-source code that anyone can inspect
     🖥️ can be run locally, so your data never leaves your device
     
    See the official announcement here: https://proton.me/blog/proton-scribe-writing-assistant

    https://huggingface.co/mistralai/Mistral-7B-v0.1/discussions/8

    Hello, thanks for your interest and kind words! Unfortunately we’re unable to share details about the training and the datasets (extracted from the open Web) due to the highly competitive nature of the field. We appreciate your understanding!

    • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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      4 months ago

      Apparently, I am. People actually want this

      Thank you for recognizing this. It gets quite frustrating in threads like these about new AI tools being deployed when people declare “nobody wants this!” And I try to explain that there are actually people that do want it. I find many AI tools to be quite handy.

      I tend to get vigorously downvoted at that point, as if that would make the demand “go away” somehow. But sticking heads in sand doesn’t accomplish anything except to make people increasingly out of touch.

      • notabot@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        I think that the point is it’s entirely pointless building something like this into the email system. It should be a separate system that you can choose to use if you want it. Building it in just opens questions about exactly what they’re doing with your data, despite their assurances.

      • AnEilifintChorcra@sopuli.xyz
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        4 months ago

        For me the issue here is, why put so much time and energy into basically rebranding an LLM. I’ve seen LLMs running on RPi and android phones. Why not write a blog post showing how to run LLMs locally with existing tools for the best privacy instead and put more focus on their existing services. It just seems like they’re jumping on the AI bandwagon and charging a premium for an already freely available LLM.

        I see some benefits of AI like quality tts when using OSM and stt when transcribing/translating audio but other things like Googles AI answers and Microsofts Copilot leave me scratching my head wondering why consumer would want this

        • unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org
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          4 months ago

          Probably because at the end of the day:

          1. Most people don’t have the tools or desire to figure out how to run an LLM locally.
          2. What if I run a local LLM on my PC and I leave my home? Do I now need to learn how to deploy a VPN at home so I always have access? I could do this, but I don’t want to. Oh, you know a model that runs on Android? What if I have an iPhone?
          3. Proton is a for-profit business that surveyed their customers and got feedback that customers wanted a writing assistant. This one seems the most important.
    • themurphy@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      Yeah, and if that’s the case, it seems like people just hate AI for the sake of it now.

      LLM’s are actually good at some things. Just not everything.

      • GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        LLM’s are actually good at some things.

        Just look at the most recent ecological reports about it and combine them with the AI industry growth plans. You’ll get an interesting perspective.

        • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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          4 months ago

          A lot of work has been going into making AIs more energy efficient, both in training and in inference stages. Electricity costs money, so obviously everyone’s interested in more efficient AIs. That makes them more profitable.

          • GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            Still you can’t improve it that much. It’s like blockchain. Computers always consume a lot of power, no matter how efficient they are.

            • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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              4 months ago

              Funny you should mention blockchains. Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain after Bitcoin, switched from proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake validation system two and a half years ago. That cut its energy use by 99.95%. The “blockchains are inherently a huge waste of energy” narrative is just firmly lodged in the popular view of them now, though, despite it being long proven false.

              • GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml
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                4 months ago

                But that’s really good! And also means that cloud based AI is even worse than blockchain in terms of environmental impact.