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Not everyone is using AI for everything

gabrielweinberg.com

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Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#161
post #44
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be because there are less Swift projects to train with. But I've seen Claude write crazy code in Python and JavaScript, too

I do not know about crazy, but certainly sub-optimal. For example a loop over DB query results instead of modifying the code to work with a single query.

I found that asking it to refactor for performance and safety often addresses these issues.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#162
post #143
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…

I understand the pressure to get employed from your perspective, but differences in opinion should be voiced out and typically aren't the thing leading to rejection from the company. It's common that engineering leads seek out people with different backgrounds and views to work on the same team. If anything, answering truthfully will make you stand out from others who've responded in a generic, heavily hedged way.

I would hope this is true both in the context of LLMs and more broadly, but I think this is especially not the case for LLMs. It's hard to take the idea that companies are trying to hire people with reservations about LLMs seriously when many companies have LLM use mandates. It is counterproductive in the eyes of the employer to hire employees that will be combative on LLM from day one.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#163
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Would being truthful improve my chances of being hired?

If whoever is hiring is actually good at their job: yes.

That is of course assuming that they're looking for some long-term stable team member.

A skilled interviewer smells dishonesty.

However, and to be fair, whether and how they act on it depends on the specific situation.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#164

> AI has gotten so good that despite any misgivings, “everyone is using A.I.” In my experience, it's a mixed bag. I wrote this comment[0], yesterday. It reflects my current work, and how I am integrating an LLM. I have used it for two parts of my project: 1) The backend (PHP), and 2) The frontend (Swift) It has been a huge help, in both, but #2 is a cautionary tale. It really needs adult supervision, in developing na…

Well Apple just released a bunch of Agent Skills. I tried it on my macOS apps and I noticed some improvements codewise and updated some deprecations I didn’t know existed in Swift.

Looking forward to that.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#165
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replying as a hiring manager since this might help other post-grad job seekers: - Any long-winded answer to a question is immediate out and has been for years. - Not having used agents and not being able to comment on what to do and what not to do with them is immediate out since early this year.

> Not having used agents and not being able to comment on what to do and what not to do with them is immediate out since early this year. From all the tech that we have, agents are really not that hard to learn on the job. They're also not a magical silver bullet.

True, but please don't give job seekers false hope with this statement. I commonly see 60 - 180 applicants for one open position. Good luck finding a hiring manager who wants to take a bet instead of going with proven experience.

I think upskilling is the right move in this environment and it is dead simple: Invest a couple of days to show initiative, learn agents yourself and be able to speak from true experience.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#166

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

I am seeing similar things in just regular tooling and development. Things that can be solved deterministically or what would have been a simple CLI 5 years ago are now an LLM integration. Instead of using the LLM to create deterministic tools, we are using LLMs to replace them. It's completely backwards and I don't know why people (especially high ranking people in my company at least) seem to think that this is the…

>I am seeing similar things in just regular tooling and development.

Yes, and we're also seeing lots of companies claiming they're using "AI" and it's just deterministic under the hood.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#167

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

models will get smarter, this wont be an issue

Intelligence, which I assume to be a synonym for "smart" requires the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge from experience.

These models do not have any experience. They're not sentient. And are in no way capable of being "smart", let alone becoming "smarter".

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#168
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Germany relevant in this?

Acknowledging that my perception might be skewed because there are still a ton of social safety nets in place. The same might not be true everywhere.

Last time I was in Germany I saw what appeared to be homeless children

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#169

> AI has gotten so good that despite any misgivings, “everyone is using A.I.” In my experience, it's a mixed bag. I wrote this comment[0], yesterday. It reflects my current work, and how I am integrating an LLM. I have used it for two parts of my project: 1) The backend (PHP), and 2) The frontend (Swift) It has been a huge help, in both, but #2 is a cautionary tale. It really needs adult supervision, in developing na…

I’m going to guess you are better at frontend than backend.

The classic AI Gell-Mann effect.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#170
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…

Replying as a hiring manager since this might help other post-grad job seekers: - Any long-winded answer to a question is immediate out and has been for years. - Not having used agents and not being able to comment on what to do and what not to do with them is immediate out since early this year.

> Any long-winded answer to a question is immediate out and has been for years.

Why?

If the winding path is actually interesting and gives you insights into how the person works, why would that be a bad thing?

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