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I sat behind someone on a plane who was using ChatGPT to write the materials and remarks for a sustainability and climate conference. (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago* by to c/fuck_ai@lemmy.world
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I tried to post this to Reddit but for some reason it keeps getting removed by filters. I normally just lurk on Lemmy but I decided to make an account because I’m so over that stupid platform.

ANYWAY

Last night on my flight home I noticed that the person in front of me was using ChatGPT. I got nosy so I looked closer and found out that they were actually using ChatGPT to write the content for a program of a sustainability and climate conference. They specifically included a section about “dirty” energy sources and the harm that results from energy producers supplying data centers. I was floored.

I am not sure if this was the final product or just a draft, but I find it pretty gross and ironic that the AI that is fueling the climate crisis and responsible for the rapid development of data centers that are doing irreparable damage to local communities and ecosystems is being employed to create the materials for a sustainability conference. Maybe start with looking in the mirror first?

I looked up the company, and turns out this program might be part of a Keynote Livestream that is featuring the Mayor of San Fransisco lol.

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[–] 55 points 2 months ago (12 children)

I wonder what responses I get for saying this, but nowadays both (as in zoom conference vs in person conference) is possible and both has upsides and downsides.

Online conferences are great to just listen to a specific talk, but other than that in person conferences are just a nicer experience. You can more freely just chat with other scientists, often there is a social evening where you randomly meet people you may not have thought about contacting before.

Now, should you travel around the globe every year several times just for that? Probably not. But in some fields there is one big conference every other year and it hugely benefits you as a scientist to attend these. Sometimes that means travelling from Europe to Oceania.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I see some people already taking issue with it in the comments, but I have also been to conferences that helped create partnerships that would not have happened otherwise. I'm not trying to suggest it's worth the emissions or anything, but I agree that being physically present is more conducive to making those connections.

    I think a helpful thing would be if people stopped sending people that are just doing it to check it off a list and be done with it. The idea that attending a conference in and of itself is some kind of development is wrong, and people should only go if they're actually interested in participating in the exchange of ideas.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago*

    People doing presentations almost invariably have a façade on and what they're saying is either carefully vetted to avoid giving offense and/or is done with the purpose of projecting a very specific impression and/or generating a very specific response.

    When it comes to making up your mind about somebody and their ideas, watching a presentation at a conference it's just slightly better than watching a politican on TV, which is about the most staged, carefully managed image of a person you can get.

    IMHO, even as difficult as it is for introverts, the best way to discover good people with open minds and interesting ideas is when casually chatting with other equally anonymous attendees and that's not something possible via video-conference.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    this made me realize I've only ever been to conferences (in either supply chain or data) because a job made me and I've only ever seen it as a chore. Even attending talks is only to be able to take notes, type notes and send them to colleagues as part of work.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago

    I always see it as a chance to find a better position than what I’m currently in. When business people talk about networking, these conferences are where the initial contact happen.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    Now I'm curious about what you'd think about VR conferences, wouldn't something like that combine the benefits of both, a more personal remote experience without the need of transporting everyone to a center?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago* (3 children)

    Now imagine trying to teach every 60 year old who is an expert in their field how to use VR. Or how to make them accessible to low vision/blind people, or people with motion sickness. Or even just making the equipment needed to attend available to every audience member.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    Fun fact, we have a mixed reality (guided) tour of the city. People can borrow some 3D glasses and walk around and see how the streets looked in 1887. And I regularly see a lot of random 60yo people walk around like zombies with those glasses. So it's obviously possible. Though I suspect there's a difference between people who paid money for it / are willing. And people who have to do something (for work).

    And it's probably uncomfortable to wear them for extended time, like a 6h conference track.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    How many people with those issues are traveling to this convention though? Besides motion sickness and physical disability, there's not much limiting those who can already afford the travel and ticket cost as they could also afford a $300 VR headset. Or perhaps a better solution is that it could be done at the same time as the in person convention to grab a additional audience and to lessen the physical costs and load overall. Sorry if my rambling sounds dumb, it was just an idea I didn't think fully through that I just thought talking out would give me better perspective on.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    Adding greater possibility of virtual attendance could be a cool change assuming it is viable from a cost perspective

    But folks who are not able to use VR in some way or another, be it disability or technological illiteracy, are still valuable parts of the conversation on climate change, so trying to do it all that way seems iffy to me

    On the discussion more broadly, personally I find communication via video call about a million times harder than in person. I get that thats not the case for everyone but the communication is literally the entire point of having a conference like that. Trying to do it all over zoom seems like a good way to handicap thw effectiveness of conferences on a really important subject.

    Maybe thats cause I have some auditory processing issues, maybe its because of social anxiety or neurodivergence and feeling dependent on lots of social information thats hard to read via video call to understand what people are communicating, but I think that kinda just adds to the accessibility being functionally important point, I imagine there are lots of neurodivergent folks in research. But maybe video calls are much easier for other people 🤷🏻‍♂️

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