Dumb and dumber
From what I have seen since I started using computers (KC85/3, Z1013, ZX Spectrum, C-64...) in the 1980s, computer users have been dumbed down to computer consumers since about 1995, when Microsoft published Windows 95 with promises of everything being "really easy" and the assurance (at least in some areas of this planet) that you "don't really need to learn" anything.
About 30 years later most people write in their resumes/job application: "IT skills: Word, Excel, Photoshop". It does not matter the least whether those people know anything about text processing, spreadsheet calculations or photo retouching. Important is that they think they can operate that software and that it is the only software they can use to do a certain job, so either they or their employer needs to buy/rent it.
People who actually understand text processing, spreadsheets etc can also use other, often better software, but that would be bad for business. So even schools and universities stopped teaching principles and have degraded themselves to drug dealers, offering pupils/students their first fix, to make sure they won't go elsewhere.
If you think it can't be that bad, about 20 years ago a faculty in a technical college complained to our network group (who was also responsible for all computer classrooms), that we hadn't installed SPSS. She wanted to teach SPSS and couldn't find it on her computer in that room. The colleague had installed it of course. But he had cleaned the desktop of all but the basic icons, as we always did. She couldn't find her software, because its icon was not on the desktop. Yes, she was teaching.
But why do I bring this up now? Because I think that the "AI market" will have to employ the same methods to make profits. "Hey, look what can be achieved with a few words/clicks! No need to learn all that stuff! Everyone is a superman now!"
I was reminded how bad it already is when I came across this article explaining how to use NotebookLM (apparently the latest and the greatest from Google) to create study guides (seriously? Something with text???) from a YouTube video. Look at the steps necessary. Oh, the challenge! And this will very likely get worse...
How to Create YouTube Video Study Guides with NotebookLM - KDnuggets https://www.kdnuggets.com/how-to-create-youtube-video-study-guides-with-notebooklm
Add Your YouTube Video
First, pick the video you want to make a study guide for. After you pick the video, you need to add it to NotebookLM. Here’s how to do it:
Log into your NotebookLM account and start a new project
In the upload field, choose YouTube as the source of your data
Copy and paste the YouTube video URL into the field
NotebookLM will automatically retrieve the video transcript for analysis
Generating the Study Guide
Once the transcript is uploaded, NotebookLM creates helpful study materials for you.
#computer #literacy #llm #ai
