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Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?

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Re: Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?

#201

Post by doug_durham »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #98
vrganj wrote: post #18

AI is fine . The hype is annoying. What's even worse though are the incredible amounts of money and energy that are being thrown at it, with no regard for the consequences, in times of record inequality and looming climate apocalypse. AI is the red herring that'll waste all our attention until it's too late.

> AI is fine. The hype is annoying. I'm finding the detractors worse than the hype, because it seems like a certain subset of detractors [0] formed their opinion on AI in late 2022/early 2023 when ChatGPT came out (REALLY!? Over 3 years ago!?) and then never updated their opinions since then. They'll say things like "why would I want to consume X amount of energy and Y amount of water just to get a wrong answer?" In…

On reddit there are two sub-Reddits that are mirrors, /accelerate and /betteroffline. The people in the subs go there for dopamine hits. One for how AI is going to transform their lives and lead to a work-free future. The other how AI is worthless and how everyone (except them) is being fooled. They are the same people with opposite views. The people in either sub don't recognize this.

Re: Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?

#202

Post by slopinthebag »

xvector wrote: post #165
arcxi wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This very comment is measurably more harmful than any AI criticism that annoys you - someone will read this and assume it's appropriate to accept whatever bullshit Claude generates at face value, with terrible consequences. In contrast, what harm do those detractors cause? They don't generate as much code per hour?

By that logic we should all live in air-filtered bubbles. Anyone denying this is causing harm . After all, people might die if you let them out of their air-filtered bubble! The "harm" (if you can call it that) is clear, detractors slow the pace of progress with meaningless and incorrect hand-wringing. A lack of progress harms everyone (as evidenced our amazing QoL today compared to any historical lens.)

That's a pretty poor straw man - the issue is the amount of harm caused, not that there is a potential for some minuscule amount.

Also we need detractors because if we race into any technological advance too quickly we may cause unnecessary harm. Not all progress is without harms, and we need to be responsible about implementing it as risk-free as possible.

Re: Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?

#204

Post by xvector »

delbronski wrote: post #172

AI is starting to look like a net negative for humanity. I remember the early days of OpenAI. I was super excited about it. There was a new space to uncover and learn about. I was hopeful. Now I have this love/hate relationship with it. Claude Code is amazing. I use it everyday because it makes me so much more efficient at my job. But I also know that by using it I’m contributing to making my job redundant one day. A…

> But I also know that by using it I’m contributing to making my job redundant one day.

I don't see how this is the case if you're anything more than a junior engineer... it unlocks so many possibilities. You can do so much more now. We are more limited by our ideas at this point than anything else.

Why is the reaction of so many people, once their menial work gets automated, "oh no, my menial work is automated." Why is it not "sweet, now I can do bigger/better/more ambitious things?"

(You can go on about corporate culture as the cause, but I've worked at regular corporations and most of FAANG. Initiative is rewarded almost everywhere.)

> Does anybody really buy the BS that this will all make the world a better place one day?

Why is it BS? I'm shocked that anyone with a love and passion for technology can feel this way. Have you not seen the long history of automation and what it has brought humanity?

There is a reason that we aren't dying of dysentery at the ripe age of 45 on some peasant field after a hard winter day's worth of hard labor. The march of automation and technology has already "made the world a better place."

Re: Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?

#205

Post by slopinthebag »

xvector wrote: post #179
JoshTriplett wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a hail mary dash towards AGI. If we get computers to think for us, we can solve a lot of our most pressing issues. All but one of them simultaneously, in fact. The one being left out: wanting to keep existing.

What are you talking about? AGI is practically a prerequisite for transhumanism, and, well, not dying. If you want to "keep existing" AGI happening is probably your only hope.

I highly doubt OP was talking about immortality

Re: Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?

#206

Post by xboxnolifes »

jarjoura wrote: post #140
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AI is fine. The hype is annoying. I'm finding the detractors worse than the hype, because it seems like a certain subset of detractors [0] formed their opinion on AI in late 2022/early 2023 when ChatGPT came out (REALLY!? Over 3 years ago!?) and then never updated their opinions since then. They'll say things like "why would I want to consume X amount of energy and Y amount of water just to get a wrong answer?" In…

You do realize though that using Claude Desktop to "search" through confluence is like paying a world class architect on the hour just to give you some tips on how to layout your small loft to maximize sunlight. This is such a perfect example of the mania behind this rollout. There's no way you can make the financials work here compared to JetBrains spending the same millions spent on AI infrastructure and instead bu…

> You do realize though that using Claude Desktop to "search" through confluence is like paying a world class architect on the hour just to give you some tips on how to layout your small loft to maximize sunlight.

If I could pay a world class architect $1.50 to give me tips on how to maximize sunlight in my loft I would.

Would it be nice if confluence just had a robust search that had a one time cost and then benefited everyone thereafter? Sure, but that's not the current reality, and I do not have control over their actions. I can only control mine.

Re: Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?

#207

Post by dijit »

xvector wrote: post #165
arcxi wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This very comment is measurably more harmful than any AI criticism that annoys you - someone will read this and assume it's appropriate to accept whatever bullshit Claude generates at face value, with terrible consequences. In contrast, what harm do those detractors cause? They don't generate as much code per hour?

By that logic we should all live in air-filtered bubbles. Anyone denying this is causing harm . After all, people might die if you let them out of their air-filtered bubble! The "harm" (if you can call it that) is clear, detractors slow the pace of progress with meaningless and incorrect hand-wringing. A lack of progress harms everyone (as evidenced our amazing QoL today compared to any historical lens.)

that’s a stretch and taking a measured approach to change is valid

Re: Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?

#208

Post by mikkupikku »

amelius wrote: post #173
_doctor_love wrote: post #153

This might sound like snark, but I truly don’t mean it that way. I think what’s interesting about AI, and why there’s so much conversation, is that in order to be a good user of AI, you have to really understand software development. All the people I work with who are getting the most value out of using AI to deliver software are people who are already very high-skilled engineers, and the more years of real experienc…

This is really not true. There are stories of people who had no background in software engineering who now write entire applications using AI. And I have personally seen this happen.

Smart people can hit the ground running if they're freed from the need to first learn the intricacies of a new language. We're going to see an explosion in the number of people writing software as clever people who invested their time in something other than learning to program are now able to write software for themselves.

Re: Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?

#209

Post by plagiarist »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #151
vrganj wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we wanna go full-on Marxist analysis it is an attempt of the capitalist class to finally rid themselves of their dependence on labor and their pesky demands like sick leave and fair wages. Through that analysis, one can also explain why the managerial caste is so obsessed with it - it is nothing less than an ideological device. One can also see this in the actual deification happening in some VC cycles and their b…

Yeah. Oftentimes get crickets here when I talk along those lines. Can't tell if apathy, learned helplessness, or obliviousness. Regardless, devs seem like an extremely docile labor group based on how they react to this and other economic pressures.

We will all be shocked at the rug pull after it has finished training on all our high-quality feedback for code it has written.

Re: Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?

#210

Post by d675 »

tapoxi wrote: post #22

It's a black box that thinks for me, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, sometimes it times out. I am extremely skeptical of AI products anyone builds. It's just using one black box to build scaffolding around another black box and then typically want to charge money for it. I don't see any value there.

depends on if they're selling you an AI wrapper or if they built something useful.

Also, depends on who target user is.

AI can be used to build deterministic software

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