Most current AI tech is 90 percent marketing, says Linus Torvalds

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Alfonso Maruccia

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In a nutshell: Linus Torvalds never minces words when asked to comment on open-source support or the latest technology trends. The Finnish software engineer recently joined an open-source focused event, where he had a thing or two to say about AI technology and "intelligent" algorithms.

Torvalds said that the current state of AI technology is 90 percent marketing and 10 percent factual reality. The developer, who won Finland's Millennium Technology Prize for the creation of the Linux kernel, was interviewed during the Open Source Summit held in Vienna, where he had the chance to talk about both the open-source world and the latest technology trends.

The outspoken technologist said that modern generative AI services are an interesting development in machine learning technology, and that they will eventually change the world. At the same time, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the "hype cycle" which is fueling too many AI-related initiatives and contributing to Nvidia's impossibly high market evaluations.

Everyone and their dog is currently talking about AI, or sticking some AI-based cloud service together, or funding an AI-focused multi-million startup somewhere in the world. Torvalds hates the hype cycle so much that he doesn't even want to go there. The developer is essentially ignoring everything AI, though things will likely change in a drastic way a few years from now.

In five years, Torvalds said, generative algorithms and machine learning tech will become much more useful and interesting. At that point, the entire world will be able to understand how AI can actually be used and what types of daily workloads it can "accelerate."

The Linux creator isn't alone in his distrust for modern AI capabilities, with Baidu's CEO recently stating that 99 percent of today's "AI companies" will soon go the way of the (digital) dodo.

ChatGPT and similar services are great as a pure technology demonstration, Torvalds conceded, and they are obviously already used in many areas and for different workloads. "But I really hate the hype cycle," he said, and we couldn't agree more.

During his Vienna interview, Torvalds said that development in the open-source community is now mostly driven by large companies rather than single developers. He reinforced his idea about computer security, especially when dealing with faulty hardware components. Torvalds also said that he prefers the C programming language over Rust, although the latter has been specifically designed to make memory-related bugs and software security issues a thing of the past.

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Most current AI tech is 90 percent marketing, says Linus Torvalds

 
He says alot. He don't know much about hardware at all. He barely can build his own PC but he can code like a maniac.
 
There is a good reason marketing is taught in best schools. So many good companies failed because they could not present their product in the right way.
 
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gdavid65 said:
I agree with Torvalds .. AI crash coming soon.. after which it normalises into more realistic expectations.
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Not with Blackwell AI GPUs sold out for 12+ months and companies almost begging for GPUs.
AI is nowhere near crashing. More and more companies goes AI.

Expect AI boom to continue for a few more years minimum.
 
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The Linux community in general isn't developing consumer AI products. It's all embedded solutions or scientific research. This "everyone needs an AI assistant" is the dumbest implementation of AI. If it wasn't for Microsoft then AI assistants wouldn't be the face of AI. There is lots of cool stuff going on with AI and it's kinda sad that most of the money and marketing is around AI assistants like ChatGPT.

But lots of people are betting in AGI so maybe we'll see. AGI could change humanity so let's hopenthat come sooner rather than later.
 
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Arthurik_jan said:
Congratulations, we're all VERY impressed at how good you are at gambling ... eh I mean making informed decisions and how rich you're getting! Don't spend it all on one GPU.
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It not gambling when I do informed decisions.
Some gets rich, others don't - That is just life.

Some will cry and whine, others will make dime.

If you are scared, you will never get rich. Adapt please.
 
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It's such a minor part of his interview, basically a minute in a 50 minute interview, and a question he would likely had prefer not asked. I think that the only reason this becomes an article is because AI hype also affects the media, and that's also the reason the question was asked.
 
I look forward to the AI bubble bursting and Nvidia having to prioritize gamers again... at least for the small amount of time until they find their next fad to jump to. Ugh...
 
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Ai is the New Crypto Bro Moment and that bubble already burst. When will the Ai bubble burst is anyone's guess but I'd say sometime around 2030 or a bit later as the VC's are already getting cold feet about the damn hype and the money is going to dry up unless the startup has a solid business plan and a marketable product instead of the "Pie in the Sky" that the Ai hype has created. Well lots of fools will have Pie on them instead of in them from that.

Like Torvalds, I expect some of the Ai work to be useful but quit shoving it in my face all the time or I'm breaking out the Scythe 3000 and going all Grim Reaper on them.
 
VemigoAmigo said:
Not with Blackwell AI GPUs sold out for 12+ months and companies almost begging for GPUs.
AI is nowhere near crashing. More and more companies goes AI.

Expect AI boom to continue for a few more years minimum.
Click to expand...
At least that's what you'd like to think. Positive returns are not guaranteed, as with any investment, whether you like that fact or not.
 
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VemigoAmigo said:
It not gambling when I do informed decisions.
Some gets rich, others don't - That is just life.

Some will cry and whine, others will make dime.

If you are scared, you will never get rich. Adapt please.
Click to expand...
You're new here, so let me give you some advice my friend.
Hard work, meticulous planning and financial success does not go over well here.
Getting what you want because you can easily afford it is not a popular luxury.
It won't be long until some broke dude says you "have more money than brains".

And mark my words, it will be from people that didn't flinch at putting a $1500 - $2000 GPU on a credit card. Or would, if they had a credit card.
 
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Everyone knows it's overhyped and for now has many less practical uses than the 'pie in the sky' everyone promises and imagines, but that's the initial 'hype cycle' that gets money flowing like crazy and makes many people and companies very rich, like blockchain/crypto and any fad. It's just people making money on hot air, what can you do. It will burst and cool down and 'we'll see who was naked when the tide goes down', and then it will keep growing into real uses more organically.
 
Theinsanegamer said:
Again you make a fool of yourself with assumptions. Stay salty.

And post your portfolio. Pictures are worth 1000 words. Prove you're making the money you say you are. Because anyone can google "top earners in S&P" and then claim that's all they bought and they definitely did not lose anything on anything else in their portfolio.
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Stop feeding the troll :)
 
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Another huge economic tech sector implosion reminiscent of .com is just around the corner. As impatience and disillusionment sets in surrounding the failure of AI to deliver in the short run all that was hyped and as meaningful applications of the technology continue to elude the consumer, investors will pull out and there will be a crash. This will leave us with the same old handful of tech giants still in the AI game and charting its course.
 
yRaz said:
The Linux community in general isn't developing consumer AI products. It's all embedded solutions or scientific research. This "everyone needs an AI assistant" is the dumbest implementation of AI. If it wasn't for Microsoft then AI assistants wouldn't be the face of AI. There is lots of cool stuff going on with AI and it's kinda sad that most of the money and marketing is around AI assistants like ChatGPT.

But lots of people are betting in AGI so maybe we'll see. AGI could change humanity so let's hopenthat come sooner rather than later.
Click to expand...
And there was a $10 million bet against AGI.
It's all a big con based on neural nets which are a statistical model and nothing like a neuron. Whoda thunk it.
 
We need Linus to tell us AI isn't ready for the mainstream yet? That's funny. Stop giving this man a platform to say lame trash.
 
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gdavid65 said:
I agree with Torvalds .. AI crash coming soon.. after which it normalises into more realistic expectations.
Click to expand...
Do we all live on the same planet? When was the last time anything important was kept in the oven until it was ready for public use with little to no issues that everyone was thankful for?

Dude said AI is the future (and it is), just not right now (which is obvious).
 
AI is mostly about population control through security camera feeds analysis. It won't stop anytime soon except if people start rebelling, which sadly doesn't seem to be anytime soon neither. But let's hope, as things change very fast these days. The other uses of AI will obviously continue to grow too. Only utopian gamers can think otherwise, but we share the same hope for other reasons.
 
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