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Not everyone is using AI for everything

gabrielweinberg.com

291–300 of 565 posts

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#291
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think honesty is still probably correct - if you're struggling to figure out how to hedge. I think you'd rather have good odds at some companies and 0% at others, rather than abysmal but non-zero odds at all companies. And as an added bonus, you might get hired at a company where you're actually a good fit, rather than one you weasled your way into, and get to pay rent, food bills, and other expenses through employ…

It's pretty easy as an interviewer to spot when a candidate is hedging on a question, and it's the kind of thing that might get discussed in the post-interview debrief. "Wouldn't give a straight answer on question X" isn't an instant no-hire, but it's not a positive signal.

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Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even “unprivileged” people are moral actors that can take their high road at personal cost.

When I was starting out in my career it was "take the first job offer that comes along or starve/become homeless" so no, sometimes the personal cost would be unreasonably high to expect of anyone This effectively does mean that I was not a moral actor at the time

Naw that’s cope. You make your choices, own them.

Would you have stolen or murdered to avoid being homeless? Would that have been a morally blameless act?

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even “unprivileged” people are moral actors that can take their high road at personal cost.

What do you think privilege is?

A vague word that can be spun to your own perspective based on a tower of other vague words and personal values.

I don’t think we’re talking about slaves are we?

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would being truthful improve my chances of being hired?

It's funny cause I just interviewed some people last month and I asked the same exact question. And the answer to your question is probably. The technology is so new that I expect people to have a variety of different opinions. From the 3 people I interviewed, all of the answers are very similar which is along the lines of: Kinda, but we need to be careful of using it, privacy, hallucination, etc. All very safe answe…

It sounds like you're an AI-happy employer though. What if their truthful answer was that they never tried to use LLMs and refuse to because they waste water or because of an overconfident view of their own skills, or they don't want to help a clanker steal their job? These are all popular beliefs that can easily come from following the right crowd rather than forming their own opinion. In fact, from what I usually hear of people's opinions, they almost never come up with them themselves, you can practically predict people's opinions on some topics just from what they look like (what social group they belong to) or what other unrelated opinions they've already told you.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#295

It's important to factor in just how many US adults are basically illiterate nowadays. As of 2023, 27% of American working-age adults were at a PIAAC Literacy Level of 1 or below, out of a total of 5 levels. This has gotten drastically worse in the past 10 years as, in 2013, Level 1 and below was only 17%. Full scores for 2023 are: % Level 1 or below: 27% Level 2: 29% Level 3: 31% Level 4/5: 13% For reference, Level…

I lurk on the teachers subreddit and get shown videos by teachers on TikTok and the impression I get from that algorithmic bubble is that the kids can't read any more - reading comprehension in particular is terrible. Lots of anecdotes of kids who can't read a few paragraphs and then answer questions about what was in them.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, i have a colleague, he is the "AI-is-for-everything-let-me-check-Claude-first": Regardless which task is handed to him, he "discusses" it first with Claude and very often comes back with like "The AI said... X"

I have one too. He'll say "Claude says this:" and pastes a screenshot of some Claude Code output. Most of the time it's wrong, or makes assumptions that won't hold true. Or it comes up with some overcomplicated solution and I'm like "This is like a 10 line change, right here". These people just destroy their ability to read and understand the systems they're working with. I actually see it as them making themselves r…

...and now think about Claude being shutdown by the gov... :-D

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#297
post #290
post #254

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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?

The cellular phone network doesn’t require the internet to work.

It does require the phone to have battery charge.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#298

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.

A "satisfactory looking answer" was what I got yesterday when I queried Google about a Pyodide question. It produced some code in html format that was supposed to work, but failed on execution. The AI generated result was incorrect and it was only 30ish lines of code that was supposed to print "hello world" to the console.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#299
post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I'm not sure the point you're trying to make. This was true before cell phones too. People didn't carry maps everywhere.

What's the difference between then and now?

Pay phones, basically? Physical maps being available in public places more readily?

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