Not everyone is using AI for everything

Post by emodendroket » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 4:14 PM UTC

hypfer wrote: post #82

acc_297 wrote: post #72

On the post-grad job hunt right now - I note that most employers will ask in a technical interview or whiteboard interview "how are you using LLMs?" It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. I've been responding with a sort of long winded answer about how 'there is…

> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. Have you considered just answering truthfully? Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading? T…

Post by pjmlp » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 4:14 PM UTC

al_borland wrote: post #17

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.

Post by satvikpendem » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 4:15 PM UTC

hypfer wrote: post #82

acc_297 wrote: post #72

On the post-grad job hunt right now - I note that most employers will ask in a technical interview or whiteboard interview "how are you using LLMs?" It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. I've been responding with a sort of long winded answer about how 'there is…

> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. Have you considered just answering truthfully? Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading? T…

Post by pjmlp » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 4:16 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.

Post by variety8675 » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 4:16 PM UTC

jacobgold wrote: post #64

camdenreslink wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Making systems fully deterministic ignores the entire purpose of having agents involved. IMHO the best of both worlds option is agents working with deterministic CLIs. Where the agent does the reasoning (and text generation) but uses CLIs to carry out all of the actions (issuing refunds, unblocking accounts, or whatever). It's possible to get very reliable and consistent work out of agents when they're using well wri…