I've recently seen many people suffering form hype fatigue. People just don't have the emotional energy to engage for the N-th time with random strangers on the internet to patiently and rationally explain their position, but still want to engage.
I've seen this happen across forums such as Reddit, Hacker News, LinkedIn, the blogosphere, and elsewhere.
As a result, people just lose patience, have “shorter fuse” and write emotionally-charged pieces that polarize the issue. In the end, we're all just shouting across the board or preaching to the choir. The nuance gets lost, the most ludicrous takes get the most attention because everyone jumps to refute it.
The hype waves, and associated flame wars, come and go. Just in this decade we flame-warred on how the pandemic should have been handled, what to do with inflation, and the blockchain.
AI flame wars
The most recent hype wave is, of course, artificial intelligence. The hype fatigue I'm currently seeing everywhere – and experiencing myself – is related to the AI.
There are several AI camps, all warring with each other:
- AI hypers – “AI is so great it'll do everything instead of us”
- AGI/ASI hypers – a more extreme version of AI hypers: not only will it do everything, it's going to be sentient
- AGI doomers – an inverse of AGI hypers: people are going to lose jobs en-masse, leading to major societal upheaval
- ASI doomers – or worse, the AI will decide it doesn't want to serve humans and kill or enslave us all
- AI doomers – AI won't do everything, but increased use of AI will worsen pollution, inequality, give more power to authoritarian states, and have other major harmful effects
- AGI deniers – all AI use is dead because it will not, in fact, lead to AGI
- AI deniers – it's a very expensive random number generator and it's useless in the real world
- AI moderates – AI is great for some cases, has some serious problems, let's all try to be calm and use it responsibly (full disclosure: I'm here)
- Clawbot crew – screw all that, I'm connecting it with everything I've got, what could possibly go wrong
- the military – Clawbot crew with nukes
God, it was tiring just enumerating all of these, and I probably missed a few variants.
If you're in any of those camps, you'll feel that the others are either exaggerating, or not taking it seriously enough, or dismissing valid concerns or opportunities.
Good intentions and path to insanity
You may have the noblest of intentions in the start, trying to rationally explain your position, back your argument by evidence and proof. Yet every day, everywhere you look, you see these other ridiculous claims, and bit by bit, you lose your patience, lose your temper, become jaded and start preaching instead of arguing. People in your own camp will amplify such takes more because they resonate emotionally.
Of course, you don't stop to think at least some of the ridiculous claims you've heard were end result of just such process somewhere in another camp.
What's a rational person to do?
The clearest option is to get away from the conversation. Unless your work depends on it, you don't have to engage in these shouting matches. Step away from the treadmill, lower your megaphone, and snicker from the sidelines.
Or you can burn out, unsuccessful in your quest to educate the public, moving away completely from this part of the tech, disgusted by it all.
Or you can cynically see what's going on and – intentionally or not – use this to amplify your own voice, presence, and brand. Become an influencer, pundit, someone whose opinion matters, and who gets invited to podcasts and conferences. Tech hype, meet tech populism.
Coping
Here's how I try to cope with it:
I like the new technology and my day job is working with it and helping others understand it. So I can't just get away from it all – not without stopping doing things I like! But I have to be on the constant lookout. When I spot cynism, sarcasm or “wtf are these idiots thinking” train of thought, I try to stop myself.
To people I do reach, I try to convey a balanced picture of the situation, as reasonably and with supporting evidence as I can, and let them make their own conclusion.
Sometimes I succeed, sometimes not. When I spot a heated discussion or sense that someone has deeper emotional motives behind their position, I try not to engage – you can't out-reason a hothead.
I often remember the XKCD cartoon I included at the top of this post – “Someone's wrong on the Internet!”
That someone could be me, too.