Not everyone is using AI for everything • Hacker News Board

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#361

Post by JohnnyMarcone » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 8:06 PM UTC

spoaceman7777 wrote: post #270

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…

"Response rates for this data collection were relatively low, both for the United States and for several other participating countries. There is evidence that procedures implemented to reduce bias associated with nonresponse have done so, and that the data are representative of the population. However, readers should be aware of the potential for bias and use caution when interpreting PIAAC results."

These stats don't pass the smell test. About a third of people in the US have a bachelor's degree, but only 13% can pass level 4/5 literacy challenge? If you dig into the sample questions, they are not hard. A level 4 task has the person read a short article and pull out the criticisms of some products.

I know not everyone with a bachelor's degree is 'smart' but it's hard to believe 2/3rds couldn't pass level 4/5.

Also 13% have a master's degree, does that mean those 13% are the only people passing level 4/5?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_...

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#362

Post by knollimar » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 8:06 PM UTC

simonw wrote: post #152

furyofantares wrote: post #142

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.

I just interviewed a guy and all three interviewers asked him functionally the same question. He hedged 3 times and we just wanted an honest answer...

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#363

Post by FromTheFirstIn » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 8:08 PM UTC

rao-v wrote: post #300

Google search is AI by any definition now, and yes everyone is using google search and by a sort of transitive property …

Search isn’t generative AI. There are a lot of people arguing in this thread that actually everyone is using generative AI without engaging with the source material at all. Why do you think that is?

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#364

Post by calf » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 8:11 PM UTC

AvAn12 wrote: post #239

I think the gap is because 1. For coding, Claude is amazing - mainly because of its curated skills and because massive amounts of working code has already been carefully labeled over the last decade or so via GitHub. And because with any Turing complete language, there is only so much one can do. But 2. For most other things, LLMs are fairly underwhelming. Research is usually mediocre. Try being rigorous and repeat y…

I didn't understand your comment about Turing complete languages, could you explain that part please?

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#365

Post by krainboltgreene » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 8:16 PM UTC

serial_dev wrote: post #336

simonw wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That subreddit is likely an echo chamber. You would not judge what people think about politics by only reading comments on a Hasan Piker video (or only on a Nick Fuentes video).

Hasan Piker's political project polls extremely high (universal healthcare, abortion access, and more), so actually you could understand American voter politics by reading Hasan's comments amusingly enough.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#366

Post by Lerc » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 8:18 PM UTC

My initial response to reading this headline was to think that noone is saying that they were. Yet the author starts off with a link to a pretty good example of some dumb hyperbole.

I guess that goes with the notion that for any really idiotic take you can think of, there's going to be someone out there confidently promoting it.

In general, most claims of 'everyone is...' means "Most of the people around me that I observe are..."

Which might mean they are not around other perspectives, or it might mean they just are not observing other perspectives.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#367

Post by bjt » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 8:19 PM UTC

Good piece, but I think there's a missing angle to it. He cites a study showing how often people say they "use AI", and a little over 50% use it less than once per week.

If we're just talking about AI chat interfaces, sure. But I think the way that AI usage is going to grow isn't mostly by getting more chat engagement. It's about baking AI features into software that people already use.

For example, suppose you asked the same people "How often do you search on Google?" I am willing to bet the numbers go up a lot. And all of those people are "using AI" in a very real sense, they just don't think about it when it's baked in.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#368

Post by __natty__ » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 8:21 PM UTC

A year or two ago people were concerned that Google was losing its battle to OpenAI. Today Google puts heavy emphasis on AI search. Most common folks are now using them. I know in a minute or two many Kagi, DDG or other alternatives will reply, but these people were never a core part of Alphabet's user base. I'm an AI sceptic to some level, but it's hard to deny that "most" people are using AI (as an LLM or in other forms) to some extent today despite we like it or not.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#369

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 8:23 PM UTC

lilbigdoot wrote: post #359

wesselbindt wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm nowhere near that level of experience, although I've done both as well. I'm more backend oriented. And my experience has been the opposite. When I ask for backend code, footgun after footgun appears on my screen. With frontend code, much less of an issue, as far as I can tell. Part of me believes this is because I'm less skilled at frontend, and I don't bat an eye when the LLM plops down yet another useMemo (I've…

I wonder if it's expertise gives you ability to see flaws and push the LLM past its acceptable point. I haven't really used LLMs much for coding (sabbatical before LLMs got good at coding, now looking for work) but I found with chats that they are great at exploring well trodden territory but as soon as you go a little bit off the beaten path they flail horribly

I suspect that you have an excellent point.

They both do acceptably (but PHP better), as long as I don't push hard. The Swift that I get is ... meh, usually.

However, my PHP server, by design, is extremely conservative. It's meant to run on cheap shared hosting. I don't push the edges. The LLM seems to do a great job of respecting that, while still giving me good, modern, code.

The swift, on the other hand, has highly optimized UI (which also means that I'm not using SwiftUI). It shits the bed, when I push it.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#370

Post by bicx » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 8:27 PM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #68

bicx wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which LLM though? Models can still be significantly different in their capabilities.

That's likely. I generally use ChatGPT (latest), but as a chat interface (not an agent). I suspect that I might get better stuff from Claude (maybe).

As a Claude Code user, you almost certainly will. Even using the same OpenAI model with an agent like Codex will likely perform better. An agent can test and iterate on its own solution until it meets the defined success metrics. If you’re working within an existing code base, having preexisting code to demonstrate similar implementations also significantly improves the quality of results, and that’s something an agent can dig into as part of its solution process. I haven’t used ChatGPT in a while, so maybe it’s more sophisticated than it used to be, but I think you’ll see much better results with the latest agent tools.