I’m finding the allure of AI is particularly strong for people who have risen to positions of power where they had to stop doing the work themselves. Instead, they had to work through other people to get bigger projects done.
The allure is that you can just say what you want done, and it does it. If it’s done it “wrong” you can just tell it it’s wrong and not have to worry about arguing the technical differences. As such you feel like you get closer to what you wanted, rather than somebody else’s take on what you wanted.
The things is, when you are removed from the code, you can only work at a high level. That person you asked to do something is considering 10 other low level concerns that you didn’t consider. I think Linus’s recent patch series is a good example. He saw a potential optimisation, did a proof of concept but missed a race condition. He’s now handed it over to the person that normally works in that area and knows the details. Can the optimisation actually work? Who knows?
I find myself asking the same 3 questions when considering whether or not to use an AI tool.
Is it a straightforward task where I can save significant time with a tool?
Can I verify the results?
If the tool AI makes a mistake, or if I am not thorough enough in verification, is the risk of failure low?
I’m a firm believer is using the right tool for the right job. Most of the AI’s people are using are not designed for the things they are using them for, and I don’t see many practical uses for generative LLMs. I will acknowledge that there are purpose built AIs to be used as a tool, but even then most of them tend to do a below average job. We’re also seeing a lot of algorithmic driven models being labeled as AI, similar to calling something a “smart” device.
I think there’s another question you need to keep in mind. “Am I finding it harder to convince myself to do the work when it’s important enough?”
Even with the small amount of LLM dabbling that I do on low importance tasks, the hump I have to get over to actually write code myself is getting higher. I’m considering a blanket exclusion of the tech because of it.
I’m finding the allure of AI is particularly strong for people who have risen to positions of power where they had to stop doing the work themselves. Instead, they had to work through other people to get bigger projects done.
The allure is that you can just say what you want done, and it does it. If it’s done it “wrong” you can just tell it it’s wrong and not have to worry about arguing the technical differences. As such you feel like you get closer to what you wanted, rather than somebody else’s take on what you wanted.
The things is, when you are removed from the code, you can only work at a high level. That person you asked to do something is considering 10 other low level concerns that you didn’t consider. I think Linus’s recent patch series is a good example. He saw a potential optimisation, did a proof of concept but missed a race condition. He’s now handed it over to the person that normally works in that area and knows the details. Can the optimisation actually work? Who knows?
I find myself asking the same 3 questions when considering whether or not to use an AI tool.
Is it a straightforward task where I can save significant time with a tool?
Can I verify the results?
If the tool AI makes a mistake, or if I am not thorough enough in verification, is the risk of failure low?
I’m a firm believer is using the right tool for the right job. Most of the AI’s people are using are not designed for the things they are using them for, and I don’t see many practical uses for generative LLMs. I will acknowledge that there are purpose built AIs to be used as a tool, but even then most of them tend to do a below average job. We’re also seeing a lot of algorithmic driven models being labeled as AI, similar to calling something a “smart” device.
I think there’s another question you need to keep in mind. “Am I finding it harder to convince myself to do the work when it’s important enough?”
Even with the small amount of LLM dabbling that I do on low importance tasks, the hump I have to get over to actually write code myself is getting higher. I’m considering a blanket exclusion of the tech because of it.