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AI is not a coworker, it's an exoskeleton

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Re: AI is not a coworker, it's an exoskeleton

#471

Post by keiferski »

wcfrobert wrote: post #464

Ultimately, AI is meant to replace you, not empower you. 1 - This exoskeleton analogy might hold true for a couple more years at most. While it is comforting to suggest that AI empowers workers to be more productive, like chess, AI will soon plan better, execute better, and have better taste. Human-in-the-loop will just be far worse than letting AI do everything. 2 - Dario and Dwarkesh were openly chatting about how…

Dwarkesh is a podcaster who benefits from hype, not a neutral observer. The more absurd and outlandish the claims, the more traffic and money he gets.

Re: AI is not a coworker, it's an exoskeleton

#472

Post by Abstract_Typist »

alphazard wrote: post #158

There's an undertone of self-soothing "AI will leverage me, not replace me", which I don't agree with especially in the long run, at least in software. In the end it will be the users sculpting formal systems like playdoh. In the medium run, "AI is not a co-worker" is exactly right. The idea of a co-worker will go away. Human collaboration on software is fundamentally inefficient. We pay huge communication/synchroniz…

> it will be the users sculpting formal systems like playdoh.

People are pushing back against this phrase, but on some level it seems perfect, it should be visualized and promoted!

Re: AI is not a coworker, it's an exoskeleton

#473

Post by ilaksh »

ilaksh wrote: post #416

Who is actually trying to use a fully autonomous AI employee right now? Isn't everyone using agentic copilots or workflows with agent loops in them? It seems that they are arguing against doing something that almost no one is doing yet. But actually the AI Employee is coming by the end of 2026 and the fully autonomous AI Company in 2027 sometime. Many people have been working on versions of these things for awhile. B…

Coincidentally, Pika just launched "AI Selves":

Pika AI Selves let you create a persistent, portable AI version of you built on your personality, taste, memories, voice, and appearance. They're multi-modal – text, voice/audio, image, video – and live your life across every platform.

Re: AI is not a coworker, it's an exoskeleton

#474

Post by aydyn »

Abstract_Typist wrote: post #472
alphazard wrote: post #158

There's an undertone of self-soothing "AI will leverage me, not replace me", which I don't agree with especially in the long run, at least in software. In the end it will be the users sculpting formal systems like playdoh. In the medium run, "AI is not a co-worker" is exactly right. The idea of a co-worker will go away. Human collaboration on software is fundamentally inefficient. We pay huge communication/synchroniz…

> it will be the users sculpting formal systems like playdoh. People are pushing back against this phrase, but on some level it seems perfect, it should be visualized and promoted!

I think Lego is a better analogy. LLMs aren't great at working on novel cutting edge problems.

Re: AI is not a coworker, it's an exoskeleton

#475

Post by alwillis »

Gud wrote: post #442
alphazard wrote: post #158

There's an undertone of self-soothing "AI will leverage me, not replace me", which I don't agree with especially in the long run, at least in software. In the end it will be the users sculpting formal systems like playdoh. In the medium run, "AI is not a co-worker" is exactly right. The idea of a co-worker will go away. Human collaboration on software is fundamentally inefficient. We pay huge communication/synchroniz…

I love this optimistic take. Unfortunately, I believe the following will happen: By positioning themselves close to law makers, the AI companies will in the near future declare ownership of all software code developed using their software. They will slowly erode their terms of service, as happens to most internet software, step by step, until they claim total ownership. The point is to license the code.

> the AI companies will in the near future declare ownership of all software code developed using their software.

Pretty sure this isn’t going to happen. AI is driving the cost of software to zero; it’s not worth licensing something that’s a commodity.

It’s similar to 3D printing companies. They don’t have IP claims on the items created with their printers.

The AI companies currently don’t have IP claims on what their agents create.

Uncle Joe won’t need to pay OpenAI for the solitaire game their AI made for him.

The open source models are quite capable; in the near future there won’t be a meaningful difference for the average person between a frontier model and an open source one for most uses including creating software.

Re: AI is not a coworker, it's an exoskeleton

#476

Post by robocat »

datsci_est_2015 wrote: post #351
leoedin wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we are. There's definitely been an uptick in "show HN" type posts with quite impressively complex apps that one person developed in a few weeks. From my own experience, the problem is that AI slows down a lot as the scale grows. It's very quick to add extra views to a frontend, but struggles a lot more in making wide reaching refactors. So it's very easy to start a project, but after a while your progress slo…

I think the proportion of new software that is novel has absolutely plummeted after the advent of AI. In my experience, generative AI will easily reproduce code for which there are a multitude of examples on GitHub, like TODO CRUD React Apps. And many business problems can be solved with TODO CRUD React Apps (just look at Excel’s success), but not every business problem can be solved by TODO CRUD React Apps. As an an…

> I think the proportion of new software that is novel has absolutely plummeted after the advent of AI.

We were not awash in novel software before AI (say last decade in 2019).

I can only assume what you're really trying to say is "AI bad".

Re: AI is not a coworker, it's an exoskeleton

#477

Post by tracker1 »

wcfrobert wrote: post #464

Ultimately, AI is meant to replace you, not empower you. 1 - This exoskeleton analogy might hold true for a couple more years at most. While it is comforting to suggest that AI empowers workers to be more productive, like chess, AI will soon plan better, execute better, and have better taste. Human-in-the-loop will just be far worse than letting AI do everything. 2 - Dario and Dwarkesh were openly chatting about how…

Hence why we need to maximize the second amendment... worst comes to worst, rebellion needs to remain an option.

It's not just for defense, hunting and sport.

edit: min/max .... not sure how gesture input messed that one up.

Re: AI is not a coworker, it's an exoskeleton

#478

Post by viking123 »

ForHackernews wrote: post #372
viking123 wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When does it come to Mumbai?

They're launching in London this year. So... 2035?

I would love to see this in Mumbai or Dhaka or something like that, just like thrown in there. Can it move 2 meters without stopping?

Don't take me wrong, I like Waymo but 2035 is probably realistic for the cities in more developing countries.

Re: AI is not a coworker, it's an exoskeleton

#479

Post by credit_guy »

wcfrobert wrote: post #464

Ultimately, AI is meant to replace you, not empower you. 1 - This exoskeleton analogy might hold true for a couple more years at most. While it is comforting to suggest that AI empowers workers to be more productive, like chess, AI will soon plan better, execute better, and have better taste. Human-in-the-loop will just be far worse than letting AI do everything. 2 - Dario and Dwarkesh were openly chatting about how…

Let's pursue your idea a bit further.

Up to a certain ELO level, the combination between a human and a chess bot has a higher ELO than both the human and the bot. But at some point, when the bot has an ELO vastly superior to the human, then whatever the human has to add will only subtract value, so the combination has an ELO higher than the human's but lower than the bot's.

Now, let's say that 10 or 20 years down the road, AI's "ELO"'s level to do various tasks is so vastly superior to the human level, that there's no point in teaming up a human with an AI, you just let the AI do the job by itself. And let's also say that little by little this generalizes to the entirety of all the activities that humans do.

Where does that leave us? Will we have some sort of Terminator scenario where the AI decides one day that the humans are just a nuisance?

I don't think so. Because at that point the biggest threat to various AIs will not be the humans, but even stronger AIs. What is the guarantee for ChatGPT 132.8 that a Gemini 198.55 will not be released that will be so vastly superior that it will decide that ChatGPT is just a nuisance?

You might say that AIs do not think like this, but why not? I think that what we, humans, perceive as a threat (the threat that we'll be rendered redundant by AI), the AIs will also perceive as a threat, the threat that they'll be rendered redundant by more advanced AIs.

So, I think in the coming decades, the humans and the AIs will work together to come up with appropriate rules of the road, so everybody can continue to live.

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