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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

#251

Post by laichzeit0 »

throwatdem12311 wrote: post #146
mikert89 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

models will get smarter, this wont be an issue

They say this every time. Just wait for the NEXT model bro THEN everything will be be fixed. Ok wait maybe not the next one but surely the one after! Hasn’t happened yet and there is no evidence it will.

This all reminds me of in the 90s when the Borland C++ compilers and Turbo Pascal shit came out and everyone was still hand rolling assembler because the optimising compilers were so bad. I thought Opus 4.6 was pretty good, basically a step change. The stuff I got out of Fable before they blocked it was nearly alien. If things keep improving, I don’t see humans writing code in 2 to 3 years except maybe super niche areas. This will all go the way that optimising compilers did. No amount of resistance, anger or denialism will change that.

I’d actually love it if LLMs could skip the slow high level lanaguages entirely and just churned out some weird LLM bytecode that was closer to the metal. I don’t want to read it or understand it at all. Here’s my spec, build it and notify when done. I want to ship stuff not build or dick around with code. Basically like when I go to a shop because I want a table, I don’t care if some carpenter “crafted” it or a machine mass produced and spat it out. It’s cute, but most people just want stuff and don’t care how it’s built.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#252

Post by alexjplant »

mikert89 wrote: post #117
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

models will get smarter, this wont be an issue

The Claude web UI popped a modal up a few days ago advertising their new model to me. It was full of HTML tags that were escaped or otherwise not rendered so that the text was literally

  Included in your plan limits until Jun 22 

Fable takes 2x the usage of Opus.
   Switch models when a message is flagged When safety measures flag a message, automatically switch to a different model to keep chatting. When off, your chat will pause instead.  Learn more
...and this was presumably generated with the flagship model from the world's most prestigious LLM company.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#253

Post by gombosg »

ablob wrote: post #56
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #24

> 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'd like to add that there is almost no way of "running away" from it. If I search for anything on the internet I am almost guaranteed to be handed pages and pages of AI generated content. In lieu of that I found that directly prompting for an answer tends to yield better results nowadays. Not because it's good per-se, but because having control over the prompt beats having little to no control over it though search…

I think this is where the circle closes with the "dead internet theory"... you go to Reddit, and see bots commenting on posts created by bots.

Then you go on to search for something, and find only results that are clearly AI generated pages and come to the conclusion that directly prompting some LLM is better than reading an AI slop page that's output by the same AI for slightly less specific prompt.

My concern is that this will only get worse over time - which is great for companies selling AI tokens and bad for society and whoever wants to interact with other humans over the internet.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#254

Post by simonw »

mawadev wrote: post #246
jacobgold wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"They at best turn on the TV to watch netflix or look at the phone to send messages on whatsapp. If all of that went away tomorrow, they'd be inconvenienced at best and then go on with their day to day life." I'm not saying it is a good thing, but this is completely out of touch with how dependent (most) people are on these technologies.

I'd say its just businesses and governments that are dependant, most people can get by just fine

A lot of people are genuinely stranded if their phone runs out of battery. How do they pull up a map, or call an Uber, or phone someone to pick them up?

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#255

Post by simonw »

leptons wrote: post #105
jdw64 wrote: post #28

I only use AI for software development. For writing, I don't use it at all except to translate source materials. So yes, AI is only for software development in my case. The real question is whether I have any value outside of software development. Sometimes I get the feeling that AI is replacing the value I have in society.

I have no doubt that as AI gets more expensive, my employer would lay off more developers to pay for more AI tokens, until there are very few developers left. And the hilariously sad part is, the current developers keep training the AI to do their job. Eventually I expect they will lay off almost all the developers. It really feels like we're going to be stabbing each other in the back just to be the last one to get…

What are they doing to train AI to do their job?

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#256

Post by ejpir »

moregrist wrote: post #234
vibe_that_works wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I love that we’re already talking about “proven experience” for a technology that’s essentially 15 months old, arguably only broke into the mainstream 3-6 months ago, has an unclear RoI for many companies, and seems to be changing quickly in both cost and “best practices.” You’re more or less admitting that you’re playing trendy tech lottery. Which is fine, but maybe not generalizable to the whole industry.

15 months, 15 months ago, is not the same 15 months now. You'd be ignorant to think this a trend that will just fade. If we look at that has happened the last 15 months, it'll keep getting bigger and better. Hopefully not more expensive though.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#257

Post by tisdadd »

d_silin wrote: post #238
pesus wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This a very condescending and privileged comment. The job market is much different when you're just starting out, and it's especially brutal these days for new grads.

It is not. I made that choice in the past and will do it again. "Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes"

I believe that I must be truthful because of my faith, though I understand people feeling pressure otherwise. I have had to quit places that I found lying to part of the employees before.

It is very sad to me that people do feel that pressure, and how the current job market is.

On topic with the article, I would love to be able to trust AI with more, but have found that I have some useful moments with it, but more because of Internet search not being how it used to be for quality.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#258

Post by jazz9k »

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…

As if most people have a choice in the matter.

To be honest, I don't think I would want to work with or hire you, based on your response here.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#259

Post by simonw »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #79
jdw64 wrote: post #28

I only use AI for software development. For writing, I don't use it at all except to translate source materials. So yes, AI is only for software development in my case. The real question is whether I have any value outside of software development. Sometimes I get the feeling that AI is replacing the value I have in society.

I don't think AI has any real value for software development, personally. The quality just isn't there, unless you invest so much effort that you may as well have written it yourself. But the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent, and even though I think the industry will get over the idiocy of having LLMs write software, there's no telling how long that will take. So it's a scary time to work i…

As of ~8 months ago the quality is most definitely there, for almost every form of programming I've experienced.

If you're working in some vanishingly rare domain then maybe it's not yet, but most coding challenges are very much in the wheelhouse of the current frontier models.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#260

Post by monkpit »

d_silin wrote: post #238
pesus wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This a very condescending and privileged comment. The job market is much different when you're just starting out, and it's especially brutal these days for new grads.

It is not. I made that choice in the past and will do it again. "Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes"

You should really examine your situation and beliefs if you think this isn’t a privileged position to be in.
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