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Ask HN: To what extend have you stopped or limited your use of AI?

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41–50 of 61 posts

Re: Ask HN: To what extend have you stopped or limited your use of AI?

#41
post #38

I stopped using AI for code, everything it gives me requires manual checking and editing to work but now I have the overhead of not having the deep understanding I would otherwise have had if I figured out things myself from the start. I also stopped using AI as a sort of replacement for quick google searches in general, but I didn't go back to using google because now I feel those results are too shallow. I been try…

AI is like a calculator. We don't degrade because we use it. We just spend more time thinking, not doing routine calculations.

> AI is like a calculator.

...that confidently tells you "1+1=2.71828182845904523536"

Re: Ask HN: To what extend have you stopped or limited your use of AI?

#42

I personally do not use LLMs (knowingly) at all, largely for environmental reasons. The improvements are, to me, not worth the attrocious energy use. I will happily pay 20% or whatever more in both money and time. I also have no interest in technology that impedes my skill development. I do not want to use anything that makes me a worse writer over time. YMMV, I am answering the OP not evangelizing. Counter arguments…

> YMMV, I am answering the OP not evangelizing. Counter arguments will be ignored. Reminds me of the Monty Python Arguing sketch.

No it doesn't

Re: Ask HN: To what extend have you stopped or limited your use of AI?

#43
post #37

AI is like a calculator. We don't degrade because we use it. We just spend more time thinking, not doing routine calculations.

Hard disagree. I trust my calculator implicitly to be correct +/- rounding. I distrust AI to the point I have to confirm every little "routine" thing it's thinking. At least they've started putting links/references, so that makes it easier

Re: Ask HN: To what extend have you stopped or limited your use of AI?

#45
post #39

I don't use AI at all, primarily because I believe its harmful and I am quite mindful of things. I've observed colleagues who have used it extensively, I've often been a late adopter for things that carry unspecified risk; and AI was already on par with Pandora's box in my estimation when the weights were first released; I am usually perceptually pretty far ahead of the curve naturally (and accurately so). Objectivel…

I see AI the same way we see calculators: they don’t make us worse at math, they just offload repetitive computation. The core question is not “are we degrading,” but rather: are we thinking better with better tools? Personally, I use AI only to reduce boilerplate and explore alternatives — the decision-making and abstraction stays on me. If someone starts thinking less because of tools, the problem isn't the tool —…

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Re: Ask HN: To what extend have you stopped or limited your use of AI?

#46
post #39

I don't use AI at all, primarily because I believe its harmful and I am quite mindful of things. I've observed colleagues who have used it extensively, I've often been a late adopter for things that carry unspecified risk; and AI was already on par with Pandora's box in my estimation when the weights were first released; I am usually perceptually pretty far ahead of the curve naturally (and accurately so). Objectivel…

I see AI the same way we see calculators: they don’t make us worse at math, they just offload repetitive computation. The core question is not “are we degrading,” but rather: are we thinking better with better tools? Personally, I use AI only to reduce boilerplate and explore alternatives — the decision-making and abstraction stays on me. If someone starts thinking less because of tools, the problem isn't the tool —…

This is misplaced circular fallacy, but to each their own. I value my life, and by extension my mind quite highly.

Those that seem to use these tools become dumber in ways they do not notice. In much the same vein I become smarter in relative retrospect just holding to my guns and shielding my exposure.

If you use a tool, whose primary consequence of use is that you become damaged and less each time you use it, and this happens in most cases in a way where you cannot recognize it happening. How do you ever stop? If you cannot know how to safely use it, and you cannot recognize the mechanism or issue, what is left?

If it alters your ability to perceive things, you certainly can't decide something if you don't recognize the need to decide.

If the factors required for that decision to come about are outside your perception, where the connections for a correct decision no longer exist, there isn't anything you can do.

You take an old argument that its just a tool, saying the choice is with the person who is responsible, not the tool, and yet the person doesn't or more likely cannot notice, or recognize the damage happening.

Its a very rare person who is capable of introspection at such a subtle degree. There is also no informed consent of the danger so all those children being force fed this stuff as GenAI when the data finally is in; well I don't want to think about a future like that, where there may be no future at all for them.

The decision-making process requires things that you may not have anymore, and while you may continue to think falsely that you do and are still capable of that but you've been blinded and when that happens, you've definitionally entered a state of delusion. Quite a lot of delusional people don't realize they've gone off the deep end, its a perceptual deficit.

Who knows maybe it will go so far as delirium as the debasement progresses and you unravel as a sentient person.

We all have psychological blindspots, and there is one blindspot above all others that we have no defense against; called distorted reflected appraisal.

There are some things where the issue is directly with the tool, not how its used.

Re: Ask HN: To what extend have you stopped or limited your use of AI?

#47

I don't use AI at all, primarily because I believe its harmful and I am quite mindful of things. I've observed colleagues who have used it extensively, I've often been a late adopter for things that carry unspecified risk; and AI was already on par with Pandora's box in my estimation when the weights were first released; I am usually perceptually pretty far ahead of the curve naturally (and accurately so). Objectivel…

This is super interesting, could you share some examples? Plenty of philosophers are with you in that technology doesn't just exist as a "tool" but actively affects the ways in which we perceive and relate to the world, and understand ourselves.

What are some ways in which you have seen the perceptual abilities of coworkers erode over time?

An efficiency oriented logic makes us think that we're getting the work done "faster", and it "feels" like faster time to market, but in reality you experience a slowdown and a decline in quality...

PS: my own dependance on Wispr (a speech to text dictation tool) changed the way I write / interact with computers - my over-reliance meant I didn't proofread the title, and the "EXTEND" sticks out like a sore thumb...

Re: Ask HN: To what extend have you stopped or limited your use of AI?

#48
post #6

Extent. The word you're looking for is extent. Sorry. Word nerd.

You are correct! Sadly I can't go back and edit. If this was an LLM, I would just start a new chat without the typo. A new context forgives the sins of the past.

Funny that I'm exploring the impacts of over-dependance/reliance on AI tools, and made a mistake because of the same. Will certainly proof-read after using speech to text!

and yes, extent*

Re: Ask HN: To what extend have you stopped or limited your use of AI?

#49

The more I use something the more I become both a hater and lover. I use AI a LOT and I have a love hate relationship with it. Therefore, it’s actually something I value daily. If I only love something or hate something it’s shallow and meh.

Tell me more about this love hate relationship! What was the moment when you fell in love? And what are the moments that culminate in hate? What are the contexts in which you use AI that make the love persist?

Re: Ask HN: To what extend have you stopped or limited your use of AI?

#50
post #15

I haven't limited my AI use. In fact, it has increased. It still feels experimental, and I often use it even when it does not save time, simply to avoid effortful thinking. That concerns me. I believe we are heading toward a world where AI offers easy mental shortcuts for nearly everything, similar to how cheap carbs became widespread in our diets. I do not yet know how I will deal with that. For now, I am just a kid…

Interesting - what are the kinds of tasks that make up 'effortful thinking'? Do feel like you're now putting in "effort" towards other kinds of thinking / work?

I am curious if using AI has changed the fundamental ways in which you view "effort" and "value" from pursuing a piece of work.

Are there are new kinds of challenges that come up when you're using some new AI tools?

I find the analogy to candy particularly interesting. The default comparison being that "too much of it is bad for you". Do you feel that you are putting on "cognitive weight" as a result of using AI?

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