AI Psychosis Killer - Meet Husk IRL

After discovering Husk IRL on Instagram, it dawned on me that artificial intelligence and robotics are quite entertaining, just not in the way we thought they would be. Because of the seriousness in the AI job collapse statements from OpenAI’s Sam or Anthropic’s Dario, they have fuelled a comedy fire on the web. If you have not already seen Husk IRL’s video where he gets three AI agents to attempt counting to 100, you are in for a treat. This type of content has high engagement since it is in stark contrast to the polished demonstrations from AI companies that we typically see. The frontier models are something special, but I will be the first to admit that I have been swept up, sloshed around, and spit back out by AI psychosis on a number of occasions. It is content like Husk IRL that brings me back to reality when I need it.

Working in IT and software can show you how great these frontier models are, but I have realized that my reality can be skewed by the little tech bubble I have created. I find tech so fascinating and it is so much fun to watch the innovation before our eyes, but I get hyper-focused on the experience of a small subset of humanity. The vast majority of people do not experience any benefit from AI and it is important to remember. From taking up programming to building my first functional web app that actually solves a problem, AI has helped me every step of the way, I have to give credit where it is due. But the next guy who is running a plumbing business, he will maybe use AI to help with calculations and estimating, but it will have little impact on his workload compared to a tech worker.

AI is currently built in a binary 1s and 0s environment where outcomes can more easily be predicted based on calculations. This changes drastically with humans, when you factor in emotional intelligence alone, you realize we have a long way to go if we want humanoid robots to be useful in the wild. Imagine the complexity in making a cup of coffee. Even though we have coffee machines and vending machines, I will still visit a coffee shop and watch a barista make my drink. This is the same with bartenders, private drivers, customer services, you name it… As David Friedberg on the ALL IN podcast put it - there is a human premium to services. And I agree with David, I think the human premium will go up in correlation to AI adoption.

Humans have been on a quest since eden to play god and AI is simply allowing Silicon Valley to cosplay for a weekend. The true movers of society are not represented in the wealth transfer. If AI ceased to exist tomorrow it would slow down production in tech, and we would lose a few niceties in search, but life would keep moving. If drills, or skid steers, or combustion engines ceased to exist tomorrow, we would have hellfire on our hands… I guess the point being is that my interest in tech needs to be balanced with the true innovation that got us here. I really like what Peter Thiel said on The Portal about the world of bits consuming our attention.

“We’ve continued to have progress in the world of bits—you know, computers, software, internet, mobile internet, maybe crypto, now AI—but there’s been much less progress in the world of atoms.”

He goes on from there talking about how our fascination with digital has created an illusion of progress that makes us feel like we’re living in a fast moving world. And to his point, most of the “revolutionary” software products of the last 10 years are just different versions of an existing solution but with simpler, and flashier UI/UX. User experience has changed, but the only underlying technology we have been focused on is the size of the semi-conductor which is the bottleneck to how fast a user can get from point A to B.

If you work with AI daily, you will have your own frustrations with it, it is not hard to find flaws. For others, if you are ever concerned about the psychosis grabbing hold, go watch a few videos from Husk IRL to clean your palette and “touch grass.” It will calm you down.

God bless.