Tag / india

by mohdahmer

The AI Wars ft. ChatGPT, Bard & What Not – What Changed in 2023 ?

DISCLAIMER : I did try to generate “THIS” blog post in ChatGPT – lets just say the results were a bit underwhelming – they lacked the emotion, humor, irreverance and general smugness of a know it all human. Like John Connor once said “I won’t give up the fight against Skynet. Not ever.”

For the uninitiated the collective consious of the internet has been wowed, bets have been placed on what AI platform is going to replace just about everything under the sun ( jobs, coding, sex?) – You could use this as a primer to understand whats going on – or maybe skip this wall of text and ask Bing Search Chat – What is microsoft calling it anyway ? (mera blogging career shuru hone se pehle khatam ! )

Did we not see this coming ?
We have been living in an AI world for a while now – remember when Google Search started autocompleting your searches – like a rectangular embodiment of a mansplaining spouse. That was one the first “Aha!” moments for me personally – you see i had just broken up and was really missing someone speaking over me in an annoying high pitched way (does this qualifies as misogynistic?). Next came Youtube & Netflix gently prodding you and “suggesting” content you might like – god forbid you misclicked on a video of a sparsely dressed model.

Netflix in fact took it a step further – Did you know they change the thumbnails on the fly for different users ? – they could show the same title “thumbnailed” (is that even a word – it is now! ) differently to users depending on their learned preferences

And then shit hit the proverbial fan (“you should never start sentences with AND” – the rebel in me could never comply – heres a middle finger 🖕🏽 to the generic schooling pedagogy 🤤). Millions of hours were spent swiping on TikTok – quickly followed by similar hawas ka nanga naach (naked dance of lust – shit sounds better in hindi *shrugs*) on Reels & cloned ad nauseum on every “Social” media app worth its salt. The algorithms on these short form video apps ALREADY know a lot about you – it keeps throwing stuff which would keep you hooked – depending on what topics you linger on. Doesn’t this limit user agency and/or user discoverability ? Its a mobile sized echo chamber which endlessly confirms your biases. What these algorithms are scarily good at is getting a “handle” about the user. You can legit form a mental picture of a users likes and preferences by swiping through their social media feeds. Honestly “Social” media feels like a misnomer these days – there are more people actively stalking and lurking on it than people actually being social!

And in the Blue Corner –
ChatGPT has entered the Chat ? Very Punny. OpenAi now holds the record for gaining a million users in just about 5 days. Its blowing peoples mind – has put an end to overpaid copywriters who pump out generic blogs day in day out. Stuff that Microsoft (owns 49% of ChatGPT) is already doing – AI assisted code writing, integration with Bing Search – the Redmond based Microsoft is also furiously working to integrate generative AI shit into Microsoft Word, Excel AND PowerPoint. Phew.

In the Red Corner –
Google is threatened – a slew of blog posts 1 , 2 and a full on announcement in Paris about how they going to be tackling the rise and rise of Open AI. All that hasnt stopped the stock prices from tanking (probably a good time to buy ? – this isnt investment adivce!).

What’s certain is that a whole lot is about to change about the world. The biggest change is probably coming to traditional education – i’m genuinely jealous of people who are going to be “studying” in Schools and Colleges in the age of AI. It’s going to get even more insane when generative audio and video become the norm – imagine having to explain a complex concept to somebody – now imagine how easy it would be if you could ask an AI to generate a simple “How To” animation – The G-SPOT will be found ! Hold on to your lady parts because it doesnt stop there..

**thank you for using BlogGpt – to generate full sized blogs which dont abruptly end please upgrade to our premium ultra pro max plan which costs only 9.99$ a month**

Until next time – Will there even be a next time – BlogGPT sounds like a good deal tbh ..

People worry that computers will get too smart and take over the world, but the real problem is that they’re too stupid and they’ve already taken over the world.

Pedro Domingos

PS. the title image is totally AI generated – thanks DALL-E

by mohdahmer

Starting Up is Kind of Sexy – S1E2

Hold up, didnt you write a post saying that this was absolutely unsexy and all sorts rubbish disguised as a blog post – well New Year New Me folks or as the kids say these days “mah life mah rules” ( wait.. do kids really say this ? smh )

So how does something unsexy become sexy in the six odd months that it took me to “write” this – its not like an assistant director comes along and quips – “Sir, thoda aur glamour chahiye” and proceeds to strip off a couple of articles of clothing from an already scantily clad item girl ( thats peak objectification right there – my analogy game seems to be weak AND sexist at the same time – note to self – stop watching bollywood movies )

For many starting their own company is a way to be your own “boss” – AS IF! (side note – this couldnt be farther from the truth – suck it up and continue working for your corporate overlords if you think otherwise ). What makes all the unsexy part of it worthwhile – and i dare say pushes it into the zone of sexiness – ( i actually paused for a minute here – im usually typing away like an over eager puppy) – is the number of people you inspire – colleagues, relatives & anyone for that matter. Any modicum of success that you may achieve is immediately used as ammo by the people who like reminding their kids about “Sharmaji ka ladka”. I’ve actually had people hunt down my number from the internet – they proceed to explain to you on how they are starting their own venture and/or how their kids are super inspired by you ( 9/10 times its in your chosen domain only 🤷🏾‍♂️ ). It’s oddly therapeutic to watch your company take a life of its own – there comes a point where it just functions without needing you at all 🥲. Allows you to write inane pieces of advice on the internet masquerading as blogs.

It’s uniquely satisfying to read amazing things said about your company, getting big name clients on board ( not going to name drop) – and in the process make some money. The cherry on the cake is always the fact that nobody REALLY believes that you could do it. Honestly. No body really believes – not even yourself – well at least i didnt. Cut to 7 years later – we have 3 stores nationwide – and are number one in e-commerce for our category ( it is a pretty niche category though – whatever it takes to be number one eh ?) . Knowing what i know NOW about business – i would never think that shipping super duper high end custom build PCs across the country would be a good idea – it even reads ridiculously typing it out.

Its pretty sexy the work we do, I could’ve said we do pretty awesome work – but i CHOOSE to write sexy. As with all the wrong things, habits & fetishes i have in my life at the moment – i blame the internet. “Sexy” is often misused to the point of being a parliamentary substitute for the word “Fuck” (and that my friend has instantly made this blog post not safe for children – sorry shaktiman) – we do a fucking great job btw. Which brings me to the next thing i want to get off my chest (brain?) – Its kind of sad how the internet has compressed the collective vocabulary of the world , along with razor thin attention spans – i squarely put the blame on cat videos and gold digger pranks. The absolute rubbish content which i consume these days is not even funny and is infact borderline sad (well technically some of it IS funny – rubbish nonetheless)!

What’s really sad though – is how nobody cares about written content any more – I’ve had wet-dreams of becoming an author, a famous “blogger” – pen is mightier than the sword kind of bull-shit. I mean imagine if i was saying these things about startups – WHILE i was twerking in hot pants – how many views would that get ? (please dont picture that – instead PictureThis – its awesome the work we do here 😀 )

Do drop a comment – and let me know if this assortment of random characters held your feeble attention span for longer than a fucking cat video.

Until the next time i have absolutely nothing better to do,

-BHAI

by mohdahmer

Starting Up is not Sexy.

I follow my fair share of thread-sharers, productivity ‘hackers’ and general ‘Warikoos’ on the internet. I rarely if ever hear about the ‘other side’ – All the content thats ever written, recorded or spoken about enterpreunership is skewed toward how amazing it is to start a business, how entreprenurship changes lives and is all things sexy. Its about these ‘insights’ and ‘truths’ which have life altering and transformative effects on you – follow me for more threads like this, 19 year olds compiling random threads – ad nauseam. It gets a bit tiring really.

Entrepreneurship is not about burning through truck loads of investor money, its not about getting the next round of funding or firing 100’s of people over zoom calls. Our modern day “disruptors” have given a lot of us (entrepreneurs) a bad rep.

DISCLAIMER : Personally, im not too fond of this term “StartUp” – when does a business cease to be a startup ? Got to search a thread for that one – do comment if you happen to know =)

Entrepreunership is frustrating, thankless, humbling, stressful and SOMETIMES rewarding – its basically Eldenring / Dark Souls in real life. Why would someone want to put themselves through all of that – if im super honest – at times I still search for that answer. The ‘answer’ is different every time i wander down that path. Its the small wins. Its about getting to the summit of the mountain which seemed an eternity away. Its that amazing review or feedback that a paying customer writes. Sometimes its just taking a step back and watching all the cogs in your machine run exactly like you thought they should. Its about watching your team mature over the years and totally nailing it. Its a lot of things. Its NOT about the money – thats never the answer.

It does teach you a lot though – its a roller coaster like no other. The high-highs and the abysmal lows. I’ve learnt patience, public speaking, listening (its a skill), motivation (when i look back – its a miracle how i managed to motivate myself). Its a crash course in being the best version of yourself – incrementally – every single day. I would barely recognize myself from the time i was a regular employee. The most satisfying part about doing what i do is – there are days when i pleasantly surprise myself.

I do speak with a fair bit of personal experience – 7 years and 3 running concerns later – I find myself looking into the mirror, with a whole lot of silver in my hair than ever before. I like it – i do realise that i may be forever un-employable in the traditional sense. Wouldnt have it any other way.

In the interest of catering to the low attention span of the reader – I will end this here – to be continued.

Until the next time.

MB.