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Generative AI Vegetarianism

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Re: Generative AI Vegetarianism

#41

Post by Svoka »

I personally wouldn't be so categorical - AI in useful capacity feels like was around just for a little while, certainly not long enough to have any conclusive long reaching effects like the claim.

It is also uncertain where this technology would land, because two years ago I wouldn't believe what is AI capable today.

I applaud your bravery but it sometime feels like sticking to kerosine lamp when electrification is happening, just because they got to fall some trees to build the lines.

I am not saying that this would be as impactful, but it the first thing over my lifetime which feels like it. And I lived through adoption of internet and handheld revolution. Life is changing so rapidly that fear of being left behind is very real. Especially seeing as much change as any person over 40, that is crazy.

Re: Generative AI Vegetarianism

#42

Post by frutiger »

throwaway307053 wrote: post #34

I admire you taking personal responsibility and actively refusing to support systems you see as wrong and harmful. But, echoing what others have said, as a vegan and previously vegetarian of many years, I think there's probably a better way to describe this than "AI Vegetarianism". Both so that people take it more seriously, and to avoid adding even more confusion to the already misunderstood topics of vegetarianism/…

> as a vegan

How does one know if a stranger is vegan?

Re: Generative AI Vegetarianism

#43

Post by ryandrake »

I know a lot of late-career people opting out. Just chilling and doing great work as usual, waiting a few years for this all to blow over. The ones who work where AI is mandatory are just setting aside some time every week to do the bare minimum token-spending needed to appease the AI metric gods.

If the AI boosters are wrong, it'll peter out in a bit, and we'll all be back to business as usual. If the AI boosters are right, and "not using AI" makes you unemployable, well, I guess we'll just either pick up the tools or retire.

Re: Generative AI Vegetarianism

#44

Post by nopinsight »

bendmorris wrote: post #40
nopinsight wrote: post #30

Given the capabilities of upcoming LLMs, I suspect that by mid-2027, most competent companies, outside specific niches, will not hire and might fire any non-senior “generative AI vegetarian” software developer. Note: I agree with others that another term should be used instead of ‘vegetarian’. “LLM vegetarians” do not hold the same moral values as vegetarians.

Believing in the capabilities of _upcoming_ LLMs that you have never actually used shows that you buy into marketing and hype very easily. No one really knows what the future will look like and there's an equally plausible one where post-subsidy token economics become impossible to justify for most use cases.

There are reasons, based on machine learning related theory, that justify the belief.

Economics will likely sort itself out through optimizations, which are also highly plausible.

Re: Generative AI Vegetarianism

#46

Post by duskdozer »

beloch wrote: post #22
dvrp wrote: post #12

Vegetarianism is such a bad label lol Just say GenAI-free; organic software (written by organic agents as opposed to silicon-based ones); or, literally anything that actually means what you wrote.

At least they didn't go with "AI Veganism". It might be better to shoot for terms that have more positive associations. e.g. Someone might claim to be a fan of "soul code" (i.e. Code made by people with souls and not LLM's). Soul food is pretty tasty after all.

Negative associations? I'm not vegan myself but it's definitely a positive thing from my perspective.

Re: Generative AI Vegetarianism

#47

Post by ryandrake »

c54 wrote: post #29
simonw wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes "organic software" better than vegetarianism?

Not GP but I like that “organic” implies that it came from a living organism. “Organic content” both carries the idea of specificity of consumption and also the idea that the content was produced by a living organism. The association maps directly onto what OP is referring to. “Vegetarian” works insofar as it borrows the context of specificity of consumption, but only directly implies consuming non-animal products, w…

I think it was a mistake to apply a label to the normal, default case of food that comes from living organisms. We should have just called it food. The label should have been "inorganic" or something, for the unnatural, non-default case.

Same for software. We don't need to justify a new "human made" label. Just call that stuff software. They should need to differentiate their "AI made" software with a label.

Re: Generative AI Vegetarianism

#49

Post by bluefirebrand »

ryandrake wrote: post #43

I know a lot of late-career people opting out. Just chilling and doing great work as usual, waiting a few years for this all to blow over. The ones who work where AI is mandatory are just setting aside some time every week to do the bare minimum token-spending needed to appease the AI metric gods. If the AI boosters are wrong, it'll peter out in a bit, and we'll all be back to business as usual. If the AI boosters ar…

I wish I was far enough in my career to make this choice. Unfortunately I am smack in the middle of it, I have a good 20-25 years left.

I wish I could retire and never bother with AI again

Re: Generative AI Vegetarianism

#50

Post by weikju »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #49
ryandrake wrote: post #43

I know a lot of late-career people opting out. Just chilling and doing great work as usual, waiting a few years for this all to blow over. The ones who work where AI is mandatory are just setting aside some time every week to do the bare minimum token-spending needed to appease the AI metric gods. If the AI boosters are wrong, it'll peter out in a bit, and we'll all be back to business as usual. If the AI boosters ar…

I wish I was far enough in my career to make this choice. Unfortunately I am smack in the middle of it, I have a good 20-25 years left. I wish I could retire and never bother with AI again

> I wish I could retire and never bother with AI again

Don't worry, if AI is going to get as good as they say, all 7.2 billion of us (the 99%) will be forced to retire one way or another.

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