The first reason was actually mainly just that I didn’t really know what features Discourse AI can do. I’ve seen some of it around Meta but didn’t really know otherwise.
But this is answered for me now with this page 
If I hadn’t seen that though, I wouldn’t know what it could do.
It might be the case for a lot of other people as well, but I don’t know.
Just the mere mention of “AI” turns off most people in our community, and polarizes the rest. For our case, paying money to big business bringing big data to the next level with crazy levels of energy consumption and global surveillance is… against all our values.
Open source and self-hosted could mitigate this but then again… The main features we would use it for is better search and better suggestions. And do we really need to rely on “AI” for that? Aren’t there improvements in content databases and search & suggest algorithms that work locally for the same cost and energy consumption, without becoming an active player of the big AI game?
I might use AI if it were solely used as built-in “proof reader” tool for example. Or maybe even translation tool
Nothing is stopping me from using Discourse AI; indeed, I rather think it is now one of the most fantastic parts of the entire application.
However, as I work as an educator and AI researcher/engineer, I would like to offer my humble perspective on this matter as I work closely with people outside of this proverbial “AI bubble.” In my experience, people are hesitant to use/implement AI for three main reasons:
In reality, all of these dilemmas can be mitigated with decent prompt engineering coupled with education on the subject so it isn’t a flaw on the part of Discourse whatsoever. Perhaps, however, if the company made an “AI for Dummies” crash course specific to the Discourse AI plugin, then perhaps the rate of adoption and comfort would both grow. AI has a lot of buzz now so many people want to use it even if they don’t know how or what for.
Nonetheless, my intuition tells me that this set of features will be driving Discourse’s popularity in the near future as it is simply ingenious and so finely integrated into the system. Truly nice work!
I find this quite a strange phrasing - and I note it not as a criticism, but because it echos the thread title: “What is stopping you from trying out Discourse AI?”
In both cases, it feels like there’s a presumption that AI is obviously a good and valuable thing, and somehow someone is not seeing that.
But I see it differently: today’s “AI” is a bubble of fascinating technologies, very appealing to people who like the newest things for their own sake, and possibly of value here and there - but in no way instrinically valuable in their own right.
The question has to be about what the benefits are - what will make things better, in this case better for forum members or perhaps forum admins.
Which brings me to
Or to put it another way, the sheer unreliability of today’s offerings. For all that they sometimes help, in summarising or suggesting, they all too often go wrong. An unreliable summary? An unreliable sentiment analysis? That can only make for a worse experience!
I have a little sympathy for someone who is employed to push AI, or employed to integrate it into a product - that’s the nature of employment, sometimes the roles are themselves misguided.
But I really don’t see the presumption that this is a great thing which will help all forums. Some forums, maybe. Tell us where the value is supposed to be, and include the costs of that value being delivered unreliably.
My point is that AI can improve very many things and in my experience some of my clients want to enhance their business or operations in some way but aren’t sure how to precisely do that. I do not at all think everyone should try to use AI, as that is merely falling into the current hype trap.
Definitely not inherently valuable, which I didn’t imply. As with most technologies, it can be overused and underdeliver, or just outright abused.
I’ve yet to experience this “sheer unreliability.” Perhaps it depends on what you’re trying to achieve? Very general and complex tasks still can lead to unreliable results, that’s true. Again, adequate know-how on prompt engineering and applications of this technology are a must in order to mitigate this — so my point remains.
I appreciate your sympathy, however, I don’t require it 
. I am self-employed, with no need to try to “push” AI for people who don’t need it, and it is indeed quite presumptuous of you to presume that someone or their work is misguided simply as a result of a mostly unfounded opinion of a topic that seems to be foreign to you based upon how to write about it.
I’ve developed AI systems which automatically detect and segment brain tumors and provide treatment risk analyses. I don’t think patients who benefit from such advancements would agree that such a role is “misguided.” Some of us research AI for the benefit of humanity and not just to make a quick buck.
Again, I didn’t presume that it would help all forums and I rather believe that it may be foolish for admins to adopt it “just because” without any domain knowledge and end-goal in mind.
Side note:
I do humbly encourage you be a bit less discriminatory and a bit more informed in your future responses on the matter of AI, or at least don’t take someone else’s responses out of context then accuse them of being misguided and try to offer your sympathies 
EDIT:
Forgot to add that Discourse adding more options for customizations (for example: the ability to properly prompt engineer the topic summarizer) would mitigate many risks. They’re already going this direction via personas and the ability to choose which models to use, etc.
Apologies, I’ve been stewing about this thread since it started, and happened to use your contribution as my stepping-off point. I mean nothing specific or personal in my observations.
For me, to use AI in discourse, as @Saif is interested to know, I would need to know the value proposition. At present my forum is working well, and the costs are under control. To add something, which has a monetary cost, I would need to know what the benefit is. It’s not that anything is stopping me from trying out AI.