My calculator can do math for me, but I need to know how to use the calculator, the operations, rules in math, and basically, well, know math. My calculator is a good tool.
“IA” can “craft” a magic result without you needing to known anything about what the tool is helping you to accomplish. In a perfect world IA can be used to automate the most tedious part of any job (scaffolding, auto generated code for APIs, color grading, laso tool, etc) but in this world people use it as an excuse to not learn what they are trying to do. “IA” is a bad tool. Is not helping you, is doing it for you.
Never in human kind has existed a “tool” that does things for you without the need of any input or knowledge of the tool itself. “Engineer” comes from “who operates the machine”, “IA” operates itself. I don’t think there exist a real comparison with that “IA” does, but it’s effects are clear, and are not good.
I can think of plenty of tools that will do something for you even if you understand nothing about the tool, how it works, or the domains it is helfpul with.
I can plug a drill in a socket, put a random bit on and drill a hole without any knowledge of how a drill is supposed to work. But my hole won’t be straight, will be too deep ir too shallow, too large or too small, and I might have drilled straight into a pipe. I don’t understand how drilling works, I still drilled, but the outcome is shit.
I can mix a bunch of flour, eggs, sugar and chocolate in a bowl, then put it in an oven at max temperature on a random heat method and wait half a day. I’ll have a bunch of coal, not a cake. I used an oven without any idra how an oven works, it did something for me. It’s shit, but it did something for me.
Anyone can put the key in a car and start pressing random pedals to figure out how it works. Eventually anyone will get it… If you’re not dead before then or you didn’t total your car. Without understanding anything about a car, I did manage to move it and go somewhere. But I damaged some things in the way.
I could go on and on with as many tools as you want. But I doubt you’ll keep reading.
LLMs in software development are the same: If you understand how to steer it, if you understand software engineering, it will have fantastic results. If you don’t, it will have shit results. The only difference is that it is much harder to understand the insides of how an LLM model works, as that is another specialty. But just like you don’t need to understand how an oven actually works to use it, you don’t need to understand how an LLM actually works to use it.
Edit: Another great example is a camera. Anyone can take a picture, but without a good understanding of photography, most people’s pictures will be shit. And the vast majority of users do not understand and do not hace the knowledge to understand how a camera works.
You can know a hole is not straight. You can see it. Besides, if your house is built by someone that doesn’t know how a drill works, well, it’s going to crash down over you. Then why are we accepting works of people that can’t and doesn’t know how to properly use the tool?
Now, both of your examples have a person having to use the tool and know how to use it… IA is having the drill doing a hole by itself and just say “good enough”. The house will crash down.
My point stand against both your examples. Both requires a human doing the work and the human to know how to use it to be useful. If the difference between a surgeon and a butcher is precision and knowledge, why are we allowing the butchers in on everything?
“IA” at best is a tool and at worst is a substitute. A “tool” that doesn’t ask anything from you is not a tool.
I stand by it’s not a tool. It’s a substitute. But even by labeling as a tool, why should accept works from people that doesn’t know how to use it and when? By following your examples we can’t trust anyone claiming “I did this” with an “IA” until we or a professional inspect it, and since you can’t inspect the absurd volume of things “IA” spits, the only solution left is ignore it all. Either you trust blindly on the guy that says he knows how to use the drill and risk your house falling down, or only accept works of a professional, and if you only take the job of professionals then what’s the use for “IA” then?
30 years ago when I was in school, cheating was rampant. There’s going to be about 15-20% of people who understand when they are cheating themselves, and the rest won’t and never have.
My calculator can do math for me, but I need to know how to use the calculator, the operations, rules in math, and basically, well, know math. My calculator is a good tool.
“IA” can “craft” a magic result without you needing to known anything about what the tool is helping you to accomplish. In a perfect world IA can be used to automate the most tedious part of any job (scaffolding, auto generated code for APIs, color grading, laso tool, etc) but in this world people use it as an excuse to not learn what they are trying to do. “IA” is a bad tool. Is not helping you, is doing it for you.
Never in human kind has existed a “tool” that does things for you without the need of any input or knowledge of the tool itself. “Engineer” comes from “who operates the machine”, “IA” operates itself. I don’t think there exist a real comparison with that “IA” does, but it’s effects are clear, and are not good.
I can think of plenty of tools that will do something for you even if you understand nothing about the tool, how it works, or the domains it is helfpul with.
I can plug a drill in a socket, put a random bit on and drill a hole without any knowledge of how a drill is supposed to work. But my hole won’t be straight, will be too deep ir too shallow, too large or too small, and I might have drilled straight into a pipe. I don’t understand how drilling works, I still drilled, but the outcome is shit.
I can mix a bunch of flour, eggs, sugar and chocolate in a bowl, then put it in an oven at max temperature on a random heat method and wait half a day. I’ll have a bunch of coal, not a cake. I used an oven without any idra how an oven works, it did something for me. It’s shit, but it did something for me.
Anyone can put the key in a car and start pressing random pedals to figure out how it works. Eventually anyone will get it… If you’re not dead before then or you didn’t total your car. Without understanding anything about a car, I did manage to move it and go somewhere. But I damaged some things in the way.
I could go on and on with as many tools as you want. But I doubt you’ll keep reading.
LLMs in software development are the same: If you understand how to steer it, if you understand software engineering, it will have fantastic results. If you don’t, it will have shit results. The only difference is that it is much harder to understand the insides of how an LLM model works, as that is another specialty. But just like you don’t need to understand how an oven actually works to use it, you don’t need to understand how an LLM actually works to use it.
Edit: Another great example is a camera. Anyone can take a picture, but without a good understanding of photography, most people’s pictures will be shit. And the vast majority of users do not understand and do not hace the knowledge to understand how a camera works.
You can know a hole is not straight. You can see it. Besides, if your house is built by someone that doesn’t know how a drill works, well, it’s going to crash down over you. Then why are we accepting works of people that can’t and doesn’t know how to properly use the tool?
Now, both of your examples have a person having to use the tool and know how to use it… IA is having the drill doing a hole by itself and just say “good enough”. The house will crash down.
My point stand against both your examples. Both requires a human doing the work and the human to know how to use it to be useful. If the difference between a surgeon and a butcher is precision and knowledge, why are we allowing the butchers in on everything?
“IA” at best is a tool and at worst is a substitute. A “tool” that doesn’t ask anything from you is not a tool.
I stand by it’s not a tool. It’s a substitute. But even by labeling as a tool, why should accept works from people that doesn’t know how to use it and when? By following your examples we can’t trust anyone claiming “I did this” with an “IA” until we or a professional inspect it, and since you can’t inspect the absurd volume of things “IA” spits, the only solution left is ignore it all. Either you trust blindly on the guy that says he knows how to use the drill and risk your house falling down, or only accept works of a professional, and if you only take the job of professionals then what’s the use for “IA” then?
People taking shortcuts is not new.
30 years ago when I was in school, cheating was rampant. There’s going to be about 15-20% of people who understand when they are cheating themselves, and the rest won’t and never have.