Not everyone is using AI for everything • Hacker News Board

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#11

Post by simonw » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:34 PM UTC

Bit of an odd decision to build an entire article around a clickbait headline from July 2025. Talk about a strawman.

That aside, this piece is interesting and ties together some useful numbers and studies.

I hadn't seen the recent Microsoft paper showing:

> 30 percent of the US working-age population is using AI [...] with at least 90 minutes of usage time in a given month.

I'm honestly impressed at how high that number is! That's a lot of adoption for a technology (LLM chatbots) that didn't exist four years ago.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#12

Post by embedding-shape » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:34 PM UTC

sriram_malhar wrote: post #3

Anyone who does a Google search gets a satisfactory looking answer as the very first entry. I daresay most people don't go beyond that, not even the entries on the first page, let alone go to the next. I argue that this is at the level of everyone for everything.

> Anyone who does a Google search gets a satisfactory looking answer as the very first entry.

Google has search results still? I don't use Google much anymore (thanks Kagi), but this is what ends up showing for me, I don't even see any search results anymore: https://i.imgur.com/eHIA2Df.png It seems like it's 50/50 on page reload if the LLM-reply UI expands automatically or not, which covers my entire screen. I guess Google is doing some A/B testing perhaps.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#13

Post by embedding-shape » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:35 PM UTC

Kuyawa wrote: post #6

[flagged]

Useful reminder to new developers, anyone who label themselves as a "10x programmer" and brags about that, is someone you probably want far away from any collaborative projects or organizations where long-term productivity actually matters.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#14

Post by camdenreslink » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:37 PM UTC

variety8675 wrote: post #2

I've noticed several companies replacing deterministic systems in their support flows with a LLM version that is slower and worse. Many interfaces simply aren't better with AI added

The real best case scenario is using LLMs to help build deterministic systems. Instead of asking an LLM to do some task that you know will be repeated, instead ask the LLM to build a program (Python script or whatever) to do the task.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#15

Post by QuantumNomad_ » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:38 PM UTC

romanovcode wrote: post #5

variety8675 wrote: post #2

I've noticed several companies replacing deterministic systems in their support flows with a LLM version that is slower and worse. Many interfaces simply aren't better with AI added

As a contractor who built a lot of predictive systems and workflows in last three years I can tell you that quite often there is a specific request to put AI into it even when it is not needed and would objectively make the system worse, slower and more expensive. The AI psychosis is a real thing.

So then, do you put AI into it anyway because they asked for it, or do you tell them that you won’t do that?

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#16

Post by KellyCriterion » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:39 PM UTC

sriram_malhar wrote: post #3

Anyone who does a Google search gets a satisfactory looking answer as the very first entry. I daresay most people don't go beyond that, not even the entries on the first page, let alone go to the next. I argue that this is at the level of everyone for everything.

What Im question is how is Google increasing Price-per-Click each year if people are clicking less and less on the links below the AI search result

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#17

Post by al_borland » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:39 PM UTC

variety8675 wrote: post #2

I've noticed several companies replacing deterministic systems in their support flows with a LLM version that is slower and worse. Many interfaces simply aren't better with AI added

My management is pushing for us to come up with ideas on where we can use LLMs in our product. The whole team has been very resistant for this exact reason. Anything we can think of will only make things worse, and we’ve already been told anything above a 1-2% failure rate is unacceptable. If anything we need more structure and standards to hit that, not less.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#18

Post by Robin_Message » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:40 PM UTC

aocallaghan17 wrote: post #9

Reminds me of this article: https://www.theverge.com/podcast/917029/software-brain-ai-ba... Software engineers are definitely in a bit of a bubble here. Are we just early adopters who see the value sooner, or does it uniquely benefit software engineering, or do we just like cool automation and we're deluding ourselves that this adds value beyond the cost?

I've been thinking about this, and I think software is uniquely knowledge work that has the most defined structure and least personally interaction. Hell, some of the software I write is for machine to talk to other machines. It's not surprising such a closed system is so amenable to AI, and other knowledge workers are not getting the same benefits.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#19

Post by cwnyth » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:41 PM UTC

romanovcode wrote: post #5

variety8675 wrote: post #2

I've noticed several companies replacing deterministic systems in their support flows with a LLM version that is slower and worse. Many interfaces simply aren't better with AI added

As a contractor who built a lot of predictive systems and workflows in last three years I can tell you that quite often there is a specific request to put AI into it even when it is not needed and would objectively make the system worse, slower and more expensive. The AI psychosis is a real thing.

Where I work, management hasn't considered integrating AI at all, yet some clients are very vocal about it being the future and worry we are going to be left behind. Most people just don't care, and I worry the squeaky wheel will eventually get the grease.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#20

Post by JCTheDenthog » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:42 PM UTC

camdenreslink wrote: post #14

variety8675 wrote: post #2

I've noticed several companies replacing deterministic systems in their support flows with a LLM version that is slower and worse. Many interfaces simply aren't better with AI added

The real best case scenario is using LLMs to help build deterministic systems. Instead of asking an LLM to do some task that you know will be repeated, instead ask the LLM to build a program (Python script or whatever) to do the task.

Or just write it yourself?