The reality of how much damage AI mania is doing to our ability to run institutions effectively.
Not that most of us can DO anything about it, but at least this is validation that we're not crazy and the world really is running full tilt over a cliff. It's really refreshing to have someone describe this in plain language, with specifics. Someone on the ground, not an outside commenter: This was a terrible mistake. It backfired in the most predictable way imaginable – every lukewarm client that saw the chatbot in action, even with us telling them that it was not going to accomplish what they wanted, wanted to buy it immediately. Every other consideration, including millions of dollars that we could plausibly help them achieve by non-AI means, was swept aside. It was like a dark and terrible force seized control of their limbs, plunged their hands into their own chests, and presented their still-beating credit cards to us in grim supplication. We were so mortified by the inexplicable shift in energy that we (wisely) declined to take the money and ended the sales process, and soon thereafter removed Cortex from our list of demonstrations.
