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AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

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Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#121

Post by jimbokun »

jasonlotito wrote: post #55
neals wrote: post #15

I had to code something on a plane today. It used to be that you couldn't get you packages or check stackoverflow. But now, I'm useless. My mind has turned to pudding. I cannot remember basic boilerplate stuff. Crazy how fast that goes.

Others have addressed other aspects of this, but I want to address this: > I cannot remember basic boilerplate stuff. I don't know exactly what you mean by boilerplate stuff, but honestly, that's stuff we should have automated away prior to AI. We should not be writing boilerplate. I'd highly encourage you to take the time to automate this stuff away. Not even with AI, but with scripts you can run to automate boilerp…

Lisp macros had pretty much solved the boiler plate problem decades ago.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#122

Post by jimbokun »

marliechiller wrote: post #105
acedTrex wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this was me you couldn't waterboard this info out of me.

Why? Is this is because of shame or fear of losing your job?

Because the info is no longer in their brain.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#123

Post by sweezyjeezy »

awongh wrote: post #16

I think it's clear to me that AI will be both things: 1) as in the article it's a contraction of work- industrialization getting rid of hand-made work or the contraction of all things horse-related when the internal combustion engine came around but- it will also be 2) new technologies and ideas enabled by a completely new set of capabilities The real question is if the economic boost from the latter outpaces the los…

Well this is HN so a lot of us are pretty terrified of your 1). We went from 'you have a good job for the next couple of decades' to 'your job is at extreme risk for disruption from AI' in the space of like 5 years. Personally I have a family, I'm a bit old to retrain, but I never worked at a high-comp FAANG or anything so I can't just focus on painting unless my government helps me (note - not US/China). That's extremely anxiety-inducing, that a vague promise of novel new things does not come close to compensating.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#124

Post by gilleain »

malfist wrote: post #97
fendy3002 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my 7th years of professionally programming node, not even once I remember the express or html boilerplate, neither is the router definition or middleware. Yet I can code normally provided there's internet accessible. It's simply not worth remembering, logic and architecture worth more IMO

Einstein famously refused to learn people's phone numbers, stating that he could look them up in the phonebook whenever he needed it. I don't think there is that much value in memorizing rarely used, easily looked up information.

Agreed, it interests me how much some people emphasise knowing facts - like dates in history or dictionary definitions of words.

Facts alone are like pebbles on a beach, far better (IMO) to have a few stones mortared with understanding to make a building of knowledge. A fanciful metaphor but you know ...

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#125

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

bdangubic wrote: post #68
jasonlotito wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Others have addressed other aspects of this, but I want to address this: > I cannot remember basic boilerplate stuff. I don't know exactly what you mean by boilerplate stuff, but honestly, that's stuff we should have automated away prior to AI. We should not be writing boilerplate. I'd highly encourage you to take the time to automate this stuff away. Not even with AI, but with scripts you can run to automate boilerp…

I read the "boilerplate" in that comment as "basic" meaning "I don't know how to center a div" or "I do not know how to remove duplicates from a collection"

Does anyone know how to centre a div?

Last time I looked there were at least seven ways to do it.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#126

Post by foldU »

zemo wrote: post #7
Zealotux wrote: post #4

I'm currently looking for sort of niche clothes for an event and it's the first time I had to give up on buying online because of the sheer amount of AI-generated pictures. Going to a physical store was just a much better experience, I can't recall the last time this happened, almost all sellers on Etsy are using AI for their pictures.

full disclosure I work at Whatnot but that sort of thing is a large part of the appeal of Whatnot to me, that people are showing off the stuff live on stream and you can ask questions about it

This sounds like a really unpleasant shopping experience to me.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#127

Post by falcor84 »

neals wrote: post #15

I had to code something on a plane today. It used to be that you couldn't get you packages or check stackoverflow. But now, I'm useless. My mind has turned to pudding. I cannot remember basic boilerplate stuff. Crazy how fast that goes.

Maybe it's my memory issues, but I personally could never remember basic boilerplate. 30 years ago I would spend half of my time in Borland's help menu coupled with grepping through man pages. These days I use LLMs, including ollama when on a plane. I don't feel worse off.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#128

Post by sweezyjeezy »

anthonypasq wrote: post #111
damnesian wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to understand, when essential human nature is so predictable? Sure, we will do novel things with it. But society in the main will use to it exploit labor. same as it ever was.

are you under the impression life was better before capitalism?

That's a false-dichotomy. Capitalism was good for artisanal workers before the industrial revolution, and then it became pretty goddamn bad for them. We're worried we're staring down the barrel of that right now - just saying 'well it was even worse before capitalism' does nothing for us.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#129

Post by pixl97 »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #44
jemmyw wrote: post #8

The question it raises is if this is the fake surge, the one we see, what is the real one we don't see? Renewable energy comes to mind. Robotics too but maybe that's too tied up with AI.

I firmly believe that Renewable energy, the Solar+battery+EV stack, not LLMs, really is the biggest technology transformation of our times. Renewable energy really is surging, just it's on a longer timeline and unlike LLMs, it doesn't benefit venture capitalists to hype it. In fact many existing sectors deliberately downplay it. But we are in the middle of it. Robotics? lights-out operations in automated factories ar…

>Robotics? lights-out operations in automated factories are already a thing, so I don't know if they're the "next thing".

Eh, I do think this is kind of underestimating the changes in robotics that are occurring. LLMs incorporated with other ML kernels extend the capabilities a long way. That and the amount of computing power now usable to train robotics is far far larger.

Re: AI could be the end of the digital wave, not the next big thing

#130

Post by Jcampuzano2 »

sweezyjeezy wrote: post #123
awongh wrote: post #16

I think it's clear to me that AI will be both things: 1) as in the article it's a contraction of work- industrialization getting rid of hand-made work or the contraction of all things horse-related when the internal combustion engine came around but- it will also be 2) new technologies and ideas enabled by a completely new set of capabilities The real question is if the economic boost from the latter outpaces the los…

Well this is HN so a lot of us are pretty terrified of your 1). We went from 'you have a good job for the next couple of decades' to 'your job is at extreme risk for disruption from AI' in the space of like 5 years. Personally I have a family, I'm a bit old to retrain, but I never worked at a high-comp FAANG or anything so I can't just focus on painting unless my government helps me (note - not US/China). That's extr…

I'm 33 and I feel sort of lucky that I'll still potentially have time to retrain. I'm fully prepared to within the next 5 years or so (and potentially much less) I'll probably need to retrain into a trade or something to stay relevant in any sort of field.

Many people claim its going to become a tool we use alongside our daily work, but its clear to me thats not how anybody managing a company sees it, and even these AI labs that previously tried to emphasize how much its going to augment existing workforces are pushing being able to do more with less.

Most companies are holding onto their workforce only begrudgingly while the tools advance and they still need humans for "something", not because they're doing us some sort of favor.

The way I see it unless you have specialized knowledge, you are at risk of replacement within the next few years.

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