Advertisement Voice (0:02)

Time is valuable. That's why Lowes blueprint takeoffs turn blueprints into quotes faster. Bring us your plans and we'll generate itemized material lists to make quoting easier so you can get back to building. Plus. At the Lowe's Pro desk, you get access to thousands of building materials not sold in store. And when your order's ready, we'll deliver everything to the job site. Improving is easy At Lowe's, a password manager should be the first security purchase you make for your team. Why? Because compromised passwords are the number one way bad actors attack companies, and small businesses are their favorite targets. But unlike a lot of security challenges, passwords actually have a pretty simple solution. 1Password lets you manage all your business's credentials so you can feel confident that your data stays secure as your company grows. Find out more at 1Password.com SL special offer and start securing every login well,

Isaac Saul (1:01)

the holidays have come and gone once again, but if you've forgotten to get that special someone in your life a gift, well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday offer of half off unlimited wireless. So here's the idea. You get it now. You call it an early present for next year. What do you have to lose? Give it a try@mintmobile.com switch limited time

Advertisement Voice (1:21)

50 off regular price for new customers upfront payment required 45 for 3 months $90 for 6 month or 180 for 12 month plan taxes and fees. Extra speeds may slow after 50 gigabytes per when network is busy.

Isaac Saul (1:30)

See terms.

Advertisement Voice (1:36)

From executive producer Isaac Saul.

Isaac Saul (1:40)

This is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, a place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host Isaac Saul, and on today's episode we're going to be talking about whether AI can do my job. That's right. This month the artificial intelligence discourse hit a new fever pitch. It started with a viral post on X titled Something Big Is Happening, which racked up tens of millions of views. The post was written by Matt Schumer, the CEO of the AI personal assistant company hyperrite. It's long, but the piece is worth your time if you get the chance. The thrust of the post is artificial intelligence is improving much faster than most anyone seems to understand, and the rate of improvement is accelerating. AI's capability has exploded in the last six months, Schumer says, and people who played with AI tools two years ago or 12 months ago or six weeks ago have no idea how much better they are today. To make his point, Schumer described how he a programmer is basically not needed for any of the programming tasks anymore. He gives the AI instructions, it codes something, it writes its own tests, it runs those tests, and then it fixes the mistakes it finds. He just sits back and watches. Millions of white collar jobs are on the verge of being wiped off the map, Schumer argues, among them journalism and content creation, legal analysis, software engineering, financial analysis, medical analysis, and customer service. Schumer's piece headlined a wave of alarming AI news, including new safety reports about artificial intelligence recognizing when it was being tested and adjusting its behavior. More resignations from people who work on safety at major AI companies. One safety researcher at Anthropic wrote an open resignation letter alluding to unethical AI development practices, then moved back home to England to write poetry. The combination of Schumer's posts and other AI news set off yet another wave of panic across the Internet from people who believe the AI apocalypse is imminent. The number of people who are skeptical of the impact AI is going to have on our world seem to be dwindling to the vanishing point. I think it's basically Freddy DeBoer and me left. Still, I thought Schumer's piece was interesting. Even though he has an obvious incentive to hype up AI, a sector he's heavily invested in, and even though he said AI literally helped him write the piece about how great AI is, it got my attention, as you might have picked up. I also thought it was pretty deeply flawed. One thing I've noticed, and Tangle's own Ari Weitzman has articulated this well, is that computer code is a very structured language, and software is a defined problem space with a lot of defined patterns. So software people tend to think everything is a pattern. As a result, AI being really good at software tasks makes tech experts overestimate how well it can do everything else. The truth is that the rest of our lives and our work are saturated with a lot more disorder, unpredictability, and humanness. So much so that I don't think AI applications will always or even often be able to account for all the possible variations. Schumer, for instance, lists journalism as a job in trouble thanks to AI. Not that our industry needs any more trouble. And it's true that AI can read documents quickly and do incredible research and even write clean copy and edit. It will probably eliminate or reduce the need for some research and editing jobs. I definitely call on my team for research assistance less often with the help of something like ChatGPT, where I can upload PDFs and ask it to pull out specific phrases or answer specific questions. Though right now it isn't close to good enough for the work we do at Tangle, and we're literally hiring for a research oriented role as we speak. But you know what AI can't do? It can't work a source over for years on end. It can't, doesn't and won't ever bear witness to live events. It can read, but it still can't feel the energy in a room, or taste a perfect glass of bourbon, or smell a burning body. It reminds me of the famous Good Will Hunting scene in which Robin Williams character chastises Matt Damon about being such a smartass, how he can probably list every known fact about Michelangelo, but he can't describe what the Sistine Chapel smells like. He's never been there and sat in the room I say this as somebody who has experimented a ton with the latest versions of ChatGPT that Schumer is writing about. I can feed it limitless writing from my archives and then have it write a take about a new current event story. I've tried actually, because if it were good, it would save me hours of work every day. But it is always useless, at least for print. Not sometimes. Always. Why? Because the AI still can't predict when certain emotional elements of a story drive me away from a previously held position. Because it doesn't know what happened to me that week, or what stories I've read about the topic at hand, or an experience my grandmother had that my family always talked about that informs my view on, say, antisemitism or Israel. It just predicts where I'd land on an issue based on what I've written before, which is actually not a great way to understand humans, who are always moving in new and different directions. It just doesn't know. AI evangelists think humans are discrete collections of neurons storing processes and thoughts and learning. But I think that is wrong. We are all constantly changing every day, every second, thanks to new inputs and new experiences. So yes, I buy that AI will be able to read documents faster than your typical lawyer. But can it build a relationship with a client or look at a jury and guess what argument might move them to guilty? Or know when to cross the line with a judge and when to step back? I don't think so. And those limits to me are so under discussed in this dialogue that it kind of discredits everything else. We'll be right back after this quick break. A well Built Wardrobe is about pieces that work together and hold up over time. That's what Quince does best. Premium materials, thoughtful design, and everyday staples that feel easy to wear and easy to rely on even as the weather shifts. Quince has the everyday essentials I love with quality that lasts organic cotton sweaters, Polos for every occasion, lighter jackets that keep you warm in the changing seasons. The list goes on and on. Quince works directly with top factories and cuts out the middlemen. So you're not paying for brand markup, just quality clothing. As I sit here recording this advertisement Right now I'm wearing my Quince cashmere hoodie. It's one of my favorite pieces out of their winter and fall collection. It's ridiculously soft and it does not cost a fortune. So if you want to, you can go refresh your wardrobe with Quince right now. Go to quince.comtangle for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.comtangle free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.comtangle