I tried using AI. It scared me.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it for the argument that we cannot tell whether AI is early or late on its sigmoid curve until hindsight.
What it is
Tom Scott describes trying ChatGPT to fix his Gmail labels and being unsettled by how capable it was. He argues that we cannot know where we are on the technology curve, comparing it to Napster.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2023 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends neom · 2023-02 · on “The AI Bubble of 2023”
Tom Scotts video today re where we are on the AI's impact to society curve was interesting : [this video] I think he's probably right that we're very early on the adoption curve. (even though I always get downvote and call a dumbass when I mention it here, I still think progress in quantum computing (predictive) and AI go hand in hand towards AGI.)
Recommends ortusdux · 2023-12 · on “Ask HN: Why is it taken for granted that LLM models will keep improving?”
I enjoyed Tom Scott's YT video monologue about this. To summarize, he postulates that most major innovations follow a sigmoid growth curve, wherein they ramp up, explode, and then level off. The question then becomes, where are we on this curve? He concludes that we will probably only know in hindsight. [this video]
Recommends shagie · 2023-12 · on “The Singularity Is Nigh!”
I tried using AI. It scared me. - Tom Scott [this video] I'm also gonna recommend Accelerando - [LINK] As an aside, I'd also recommend Glasshouse (also by Charles Stross) as an exploration into the human remnants post singularity (and war)... followed by Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams... > “I and my confederates,” Aristide said, “did our best to prevent that degree of autonomy among artificial intelligences. We made the decision to turn away from the Vingean Singularity before most people even knew what it was. But—” He made a gesture with his hands as if dropping a ball. “—I claim no more than the average share of wisdom. We could have made mistakes.” for a singularity averted approach of
Recommends chii · 2024-10 · on “Headstart accelerates software development by up to 100x with Claude”
> get an LLM that can write production code reliably it depends on what that user wanted the code to do, and how important it is. For example, an average, non-technical user could use this to generate a script to sort out their email, or a script for automation in MS Office VBA. Just because it's not perfect, doesn't mean it doesn't have a good use, and won't improve. Tom Scott's video[0] makes a very good argument: we don't know where we are on the technology curve. [0]: [this video]
Cites a_wild_dandan · 2024-02 · on “Sora: Creating video from text”
Tom Scott elaborated on this experience last year.[1] We should form a support group to commiserate. [1] [this video]
Cites ortusdux · 2025-05 · on “Human coders are still better than LLMs”
> I think the big question everyone wants to skip right to and past this conversation is, will this continue to be true 2 years from now? I don’t know how to answer that question. I still think about Tom Scott's 'where are we on the AI curve' video from a few years back. [this video]