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Ask HN: Go deep into AI/LLMs or just use them as tools?

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Re: Ask HN: Go deep into AI/LLMs or just use them as tools?

#61

Post by karmasimida »

risyachka wrote: post #52
loveparade wrote: post #8

I come from a more traditional (PhD) ML/DL background. I wouldn't recommend getting into (1) because the field is incredibly saturated. We have hundreds of new, mostly low quality, papers each day. If you want to get into AI/ML on a more fundamental level now is probably the worst time in terms of competition. There are probably 100x more people in this field than there are jobs, and most of them have a stronger back…

If there indeed were 100x people more than jobs the salaries would tank. And this is not the case at all with AI/ML salaries being much higher than regular devs

I don't think so, unless you work for Top AI companies or teams in big tech.

Re: Ask HN: Go deep into AI/LLMs or just use them as tools?

#62

Post by bloppe »

AI is a scientific discipline. Software development is an engineering discipline.

Do you like science? Then dive deep into LLMs. Be ready for science, though. It involves shooting a thousand shots in the dark until you discover something new. That's how science gets done. I respect it, but I personally don't love doing it.

Do you like engineering? That's when you approach a problem and can reason about a number of potential solutions, weigh the pros and cons of each, and pick one with the appropriate trade-offs. It's pretty different from science.

Re: Ask HN: Go deep into AI/LLMs or just use them as tools?

#63

Post by xgb84j »

When learning new stuff I consider 2 things: - How much fun is the actual learning? - Can I actually apply what I am learning?

So I would learn things that are either fun for you to learn or things that you can directly apply.

For AI this means you probably should learn about it if you are really interested and enjoy going through build-your-own-NN tutorials or if you have good chances of switching to a role where you can use your new skills.

Edit: Basically investing anything (also time) is risky. So invest in things that directly pay off or bring you joy regardless of the outcome.

Re: Ask HN: Go deep into AI/LLMs or just use them as tools?

#64

Post by qsort »

eric-burel wrote: post #58

Hi, I am working in making the term "llm developer" more popular in France and train people to this new job. We will need a bunch of them in the months/years to come to implement advanced AI systems after companies manage to properly pick and set up their AI platforms. Currently people would tend to involve data scientists into this job, but data scientists are often less versed into the software engineering aspect,…

Isn't this what originally data engineers were supposed to be? I get that the role has probably become "clicks buttons in the Azure GUI", but the "good" ones are basically backend developers that specialize on data stacks.

The data scientist roles have had a similar drift in my experience. They used to be "statistician who can code" or "developer who knows some stats", what we got is "clicks buttons in the Azure GUI".

Re: Ask HN: Go deep into AI/LLMs or just use them as tools?

#65

Post by blueboo »

To build great AI products you need to be a fluent, deeply engaged user AND understand how they work and how to bend them to your use case beyond simple prompting.

We’re in a funny moment. Right now, AI tech is so powerful and capable that people are categorically underestimating their value and systematically underusing them — whatever the hype is signalling. If the tech froze right now, there’s decades of applications to mine.

Lots of great products being built on that thesis. The strategy is: unlock more of their present capability, harness that for a wider audience’s use case.

In that way you do both — leverage the tools, and in becoming an expert user, you can find yourself a vendor of very valuable guidance — and a builder of desperately sought-after products.

Re: Ask HN: Go deep into AI/LLMs or just use them as tools?

#66

Post by nssnsjsjsjs »

amelius wrote: post #50
jillesvangurp wrote: post #34

Depends on what you want to do. But my 2 cents are that like all new technology, LLMs will become a commodity. Which means that everybody uses them but few people are able to develop them from scratch. It's not different from other things like databases, GPU drivers, 3D engines for games, etc. That all involves a lot of hardcore computer science and math. But lots of people use these things without being hindered by…

But the question is what mindset will allow you to put yourself ahead of the rest. Because I suppose the OP doesn't want to end up as just another mediocre programmer.

There are a lot of paths to become T shaped.

Re: Ask HN: Go deep into AI/LLMs or just use them as tools?

#67

Post by apwell23 »

nssnsjsjsjs wrote: post #66
amelius wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the question is what mindset will allow you to put yourself ahead of the rest. Because I suppose the OP doesn't want to end up as just another mediocre programmer.

There are a lot of paths to become T shaped.

> become T shaped.

my middle manager buzzwords this 26 times a day. triggers me.

Re: Ask HN: Go deep into AI/LLMs or just use them as tools?

#68

Post by apwell23 »

risyachka wrote: post #52
loveparade wrote: post #8

I come from a more traditional (PhD) ML/DL background. I wouldn't recommend getting into (1) because the field is incredibly saturated. We have hundreds of new, mostly low quality, papers each day. If you want to get into AI/ML on a more fundamental level now is probably the worst time in terms of competition. There are probably 100x more people in this field than there are jobs, and most of them have a stronger back…

If there indeed were 100x people more than jobs the salaries would tank. And this is not the case at all with AI/ML salaries being much higher than regular devs

> 100x people more than jobs

there aren't 100x 'top shelf' ml engineers.

There aren't a lot of jobs self taught ml programmers like there are for self taught python programmers.

Re: Ask HN: Go deep into AI/LLMs or just use them as tools?

#70

Post by apwell23 »

antirez wrote: post #21

My 2 centes: 1. Learn basic NNs at a simple level, build from scratch (no frameworks) a feed forward neural network with back propagation to train against MNIST or something as simple. Understand every part of it. Just use your favorite programming language. 2. Learn (without having to implement with the code, or to understand the finer parts of the implementations) how the NN architectures work and why they work. Wh…

> Learn how to use AI effectively for coding. This is absolutely non-trivial, and a lot of good programmers are terrible LLMs users (and end believing LLMs are not useful for coding).

I've been asking this on every AI coding thread. Are there good youtube videos of ppl using AI on complex codebases. I see tons of build tic-tac-to in 5 minutes type videos but not on bigger established codebases.

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