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Everyone in Seattle hates AI

jonready.com

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Re: Everyone in Seattle hates AI

#241

Post by pesus »

treis wrote: post #207
pesus wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, tech deserves its bad reputation in SF (and worldwide, really). One look at the dystopian billboards bragging about trying to replace humans with AI should make any sane human angry at what tech has done. Or the rising rents due to an influx of people working on mostly useless AI startups, 90% of which won't be around in 5 years. Or even how poorly many in tech behave in public and how poorly they treat serv…

There's a long list of things that have "replaced" humans all the way back to the ox drawn plow. It's not sane to be angry at any of those steps along the way. GenAI will likely not be any different.

It is absolutely sane to be angry at people's livelihoods being destroyed and most aspects of life being worsened just so a handful of multi-billionaires that already control society can become even richer.

Re: Everyone in Seattle hates AI

#242

Post by kentm »

hoppersoft wrote: post #103

This person crafts quite the straw man! > This belief system—that AI is useless and that you're not good enough to work on it anyway—hurts three groups I don't know anyone who thinks AI is useless . In fact, I've seen quite a few places where it can be quite useful. Instead, I think it's massively overhyped to its own detriment. This article presents the author as the person who has the One True Vision, and all us sk…

This person wrote a blog post admitting to tone-deafness in cheerleading AI and talking about all the ways AI hype has negatively impacted peoples' work environment. But then they wrap up by concluding that its the anti-AI people that are the problem. Thats a really weird conclusion to come to at the end of that blog post. My expectation was that the end result was "We should be measured and mindful with our advocacy, read the room, and avoid aggressively pushing AI in ways that negatively impact peoples' lives."

Re: Everyone in Seattle hates AI

#243

Post by jfalcon »

MicrosoftShill wrote: post #136
nickff wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the distinct impression that Seattle was somewhat divided over 'big tech', with many long-term residents resenting Microsoft and Amazon's impact on the city (and longing for the 'artsy and free-spirited' place it used to be). Do you think those non-techies are sympathetic to the Microsofties and Amazonians? This is a genuine question, as I've never lived in Seattle, but I visit often, and live in the PNW.

I've lived in the Seattle area most of my life and lived in San Francisco for a year. SF embraces tech and in general (politics, etc) has a culture of being willing to try new things. Overall tech hostility is low, but the city becoming a testbed for projects like Waymo is possibly changing that. There is a continuous argument that their free-spirited culture has been cannibalized by tech. Seattle feels like the comp…

I'm sure the 5% employee tax in Seattle and the bill being introduced in Olympia will do more to smooth things over than some quirky blipvert will.

I think most people in Seattle know how economics works, logic follows: while "techbro" don't work is true: if "techbro" debt > income: unless assets == 0: sellgighustle else sellhousebeforeforeclosure nomoreseattleforyou("techbro") end else "gigbot" isn't summoned and people don't get paid. "techbro" health-- due to high expense of COBRA. [etc...] end end

Re: Everyone in Seattle hates AI

#244

Post by senordevnyc »

averyvery wrote: post #144
bccdee wrote: post #41

> Engineers don't try because they think they can't. This article assumes that AI is the centre of the universe, failing to understand that that assumption is exactly what's causing the attitude they're pointing to. There's a dichotomy in the software world between real products (which have customers and use cases and make money by giving people things they need) and hype products (which exist to get investors excite…

Yeah, "Engineers don't try" is a frustrating statement. We've all tried generative AI, and there's not that much to it — you put text in, you get text back out. Some models are better at some tasks, some tools are better at finding the right text and connecting it to the right actions, some tools provide a better wrapper around the text-generation process. Certain jobs are very easy for AI to do, others are impossibl…

I’ve been an engineer for 20 years, for myself, small companies, and big tech, and now working for my own saas company.

There are many valid critiques of AI, but “there’s not much there” isn’t one of them.

To me, any software engineer who tries an LLM, shrugs and says “huh, that’s interesting” and then “gets back to work” is completely failing at their actual job, which is using technology to solve problems. Maybe AI isn’t the right tool for the job, but that kind of shallow dismissal indicates a closed mind, or perhaps a fear-based reaction. Either way, the market is going to punish them accordingly.

Re: Everyone in Seattle hates AI

#245

Post by Fordec »

mr_toad wrote: post #156
pjmlp wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In European consulting agencies the trend now is to make AI part of each RFP reply, you won't go through the sales team, if AI isn't crammed there as part of the solution being delivered, and we get evaluated for it. This takes all the joy away, even traditional maintenance projects of big corps seems attractive nowadays.

I remember when everything had a have the word ‘digital’ in it. And I’m old enough to remember when ‘multimedia’ was a buzzword that was crammed into anywhere it would fit.

You know what, this clarifies something for me.

PC, Web and Smartphone hype was based on "we can now do [thing] never done before".

This time out it feels more like "we can do existing [thing], but reduce the cost of doing it by not employing people"

It all feels much more like a wealth grab for the corporations than a promise of improving a standard of living for end customers. Much closer to a Cloud or Server (replacing Mainframes) cycle.

Re: Everyone in Seattle hates AI

#246

Post by hectdev »

Freak_NL wrote: post #214
hectdev wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say it is like that. No one HAS to use AI. But the shared goal is to get a change to the codebase to achieve a desired outcome. Some will outsource a significant part of that to AI, some won't. And its tricky because I'm trying not to appeal to emotion despite being fascinated with how this tool has enabled me to do things in a short amount of time that it would have taken me weeks of grinding to get to and i…

> No one HAS to use AI. Well… That's no longer true, is it? My partner (IT analyst) works for a company owned by a multinational big corporation, and she got told during a meeting with her manager that use of AI is going to become mandatory next year. That's going to be a thing across the board. And have you called a large company for any reason lately? Could be your telco provider, your bank, public transport compan…

It isn't a universal thing. I have no doubt there is a job out there that that isn't a requirement. I think the issue is the C-level folks are seeing how more productive someone might be and making it a demand. That to me is the wrong approach. If you demonstrate and build interest, the adoption will happen.

Re: Everyone in Seattle hates AI

#247

Post by w4yai »

rr808 wrote: post #205

There has always been a lot of Microsoft hate, but now its a whole new level. Windows now really sucks, My new laptop is all Linux for the first time ever. I dont see why this company is still so valuable. Most people only use a browser now and some ios apps, there is no need for Windows or Microsoft (and of course Azure is never anyone's first choice). Steam makes the gamers happy to leave too.

Gaming.

Re: Everyone in Seattle hates AI

#248

Post by themafia »

Instead of admitting you built the wrong thing you denigrate a friend and someone whom you admire. Instead of reconsidering the value of AI you immediately double down.

This is a product of hurt feelings and not solid logic.

Re: Everyone in Seattle hates AI

#249

Post by mips_avatar »

chankstein38 wrote: post #54
mips_avatar wrote: post #2

Author here if anyone has thoughts

Howdy! I personally don't really understand the "point" the article is trying to make. I mostly agree with your sentiment that AI can be useful. I too have seen a massive increase in productivity in my hobbies, thanks to LLMs. As to the point of the article, is it just to say "People shouldn't hate LLMs"? My takeaway was more "This person's future isn't threatened directly so they just aren't understanding why people…

I guess in conclusion I'm saying that it's hard to build in Seattle, and that's really unfortunate.

Re: Everyone in Seattle hates AI

#250

Post by cwillu »

toast0 wrote: post #33

> After a pause I tried to share how much better I've been feeling—how AI tools helped me learn faster, how much they accelerated my work on Wanderfugl. I didn't fully grok how tone deaf I was being though. She's drowning in resentment. Here's the deal. Everyone I know who is infatuated with AI shares things AI told them with me, unsolicited, and it's always so amazingly garbage, but they don't see it or they apologi…

It's like porn: use it privately if you have to, but don't make it my problem.
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