In an obscure post, a Mozilla MLE announced a ClawBot ripoff specifically targeted at at tradespeople (electricians, plumbers, roofers, handymen) for help with administrative tasks like scheduling, explaining invoices, etc.
What is their project, ClawBolt? According to their website, it’s a compilation of
- A flaky AI agent you run on your computer
- A Telegram chatbot to remotely control it
- A connection to OpenAI to parse all of it
This sounds like a dangerous project to target at tradesmen, doesn’t it? AI marketing tells people that AI is smart and safe and powerful when it is anything but. If Facebook’s top AI safety genius nearly destroyed her own email inbox, how will a plumber fare?
One of the features of ClawBolt is “memory,” something that will store and possibly corrupt questions and answers like “What’s Mrs. Johnson’s address?” and “My hourly rate is $95”.
But it gets worse: ClawBolt documentation says it can scan images to “get help identifying fixtures”
Remember the memes making fun of AI’s inability to make wiring diagrams?
I can only imagine how bad this could make things for tradespeople - in addition to violating customer privacy, getting gaslit by a non-deterministic “memory” machine, and potentially breaking their work computers.
This is so stupid.
It’s just an AI for assisting with various stuff tradespeople don’t necessarily know. It’s not designed to do the job of actual tradespeople.
It might be stupid but it’s not like it’s a safety issue or anything and if it were they are fully unqualified for their trade anyways.
It’s a whole lot of nothing, except a waste of money for Mozilla and everyone else involved.
If the AI is dangerously wrong in the things you know, how dangerously wrong is it in the things you don’t know? And will you realize it when you see it?
If an actual electrician AI existed (and not this administrative task AI) it might be dangerous for normal people to use it. But if an actual authorized electrician uses an AI to do unsafe work they are a terrible electrician and shouldn’t be an electrician in the first place.
Why is everyone assuming tradespeople are terrible at their jobs and apparently unable to spot unsafe instructions about their own profession?
But you said:
If they don’t know/realize the AI is wrong why would they double check? That’s the problem with these systems.
I mean it’s accounting and admin stuff. So it’s not dangerous. Worst case scenario is that they loose money or I guess it’s theoretically possible that they “accidentally” commit tax fraud or something but that is obviously their own fault and it’s not really dangerous.
Because I’ve seen enough farmers and handyman work to know that a LOT of people think they know what they’re doing. Or know just enough to be dangerous.
So it’s not an AI issue then? It’s yours countrys inability to certify electricians and plumbers properly.
Someone that’s dangerous without AI is dangerous with AI. Someone that knows how to do their job isn’t dangerous with AI.
No, it’s overconfidence in abilities.
Overconfidence in what exactly, invoices? Who gives a shit! Stop acting like improper invoices or some other admin shit is in anyway dangerous. This is just fear mongering
Who said anything about invoices? You’re not even making a coherent argument anymore.
Did you not read the fucking post?
It’s not an AI designed to do electrical work, plumbing or whatever. It’s for admin work like dealing with invoices. This has been my point the this entire time so I don’t get what you are referring to? Is your context window full or what 🤣
Look up “deskilling.”
Do you seriously think any tradespeople will just forget how to do their job just because of some stupid accounting and admin task AI?
I sure do. And engineers. And doctors.
How will they get worse at the part of their job the actually matters if they got an AI that helps them with invoices?
Oh piss off with this “its just administrative tasks bro, it’s just meant to replace secretaries bro.” Nobody believes that garbage.
You think “accounting and admin stuff is not dangerous?” That those tasks don’t “actually matter?” Please tell the IRS that excuse when it files your taxes wrong, and let me know what they say.
In my experience ai can’t distinguish between a 5-15p and 6-20r, how useful could it be for an actual electrician
Did any of you read the actual post? It’s not designed to do electrical or plumbing work or whatever. It’s to “help with administrative tasks like scheduling, explaining invoices, etc.”
If an AI is used by an electrician and it results in them doing unsafe work. They are a terrible electrician that would do unsafe work without AI and should lose their license yesterday.
You don’t need to be an electrician to install a plug in Britain, in fact they sometimes sell appliances without plugs in Britain, so your excuse is irrelevant.
Heh fuck me dead. Ai famously is terrible at basic arithmetic. It would be suicidal to use it for invoices.
It’s the same in Sweden and so what? I doubt this AI will be generally available or at least that the public would like to use an AI designed for invoices and shit to wire a plug.
And in Sweden at least, you are only allowed to wire a plug if you know what you are doing.
Why would it be better at those tasks ?
I don’t fucking know. But saying it’s dangerous is fucking ridiculous.
It is a safety issue