Comment by rezonant | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rezonant | Hacker News Reader

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> Are there really thoughtful, mature people who think that Open AI is in any way positive?

Anyone who thinks the AI developments are entirely positive and willfully ignores the downsides [information authenticity, spamming, abuse of copyright by the AI companies, the list goes on] might as well fall into that crypto/NFT cohort for me.

> The most pro-Microsoft opinions I've seen have mostly been related to VS Code.

I think it just stems from the fact that "new" Microsoft releases a lot of code as open source, and isn't out trying to sue everyone who looks at their intellectual property the wrong way.

> Personally I don't get it - it's basically functionality-equivalent to IntelliJ

As a heavy VS Code user, I don't really consider it a replacement for other IDEs. It just so happens that the "heavy" IDEs have always done a pretty poor job serving the frontend/backend Javascript stacks- which are the world VS Code was built for. I think of VS Code as "the IDE for Typescript" the way I think of IntelliJ as "the IDE for Java".

You can certainly adorn VS Code with plugins and write Java in it, and you can certainly install some plugins in IntelliJ to do Javascript in it. But these won't be the ideal experiences.

What is the relationship between (I assume you mean generative) AI, which is the foundation for many useful new technologies, and NFT/crypto, which usually amounts to nothing more than a pyramid scheme style investment opportunity?

Your sentiment toward generative AI ("the foundation for many useful new technologies") is exactly the same that the crypto/NFT bros have towards crypto/NFT. So far generative AI has shown a couple niche use cases and a lot of surface level demos that don't actually work in the real world. Honestly it's hard to tell the current AI hype apart from all the other fads, tho this one at least feels like it will go somewhere

Well, as a developer in a small team it has made my work significantly easier, so personally I am already directly enjoying the benefits. It has supercharged my capacity to pick up new languages and technologies.

Besides that, it will have a huge impact on non-trivial things like the design industry and data interaction. Being able to programmaticly handle abstract decision making is a big one as well.

It frankly baffles me that people can describe the current AI boom as a fad, when a simple extrapolation of the current technologies will show you what an enormous impact it is going to have in the coming years...

> It frankly baffles me that people can describe the current AI boom as a fad, when a simple extrapolation of the current technologies will show you what an enormous impact it is going to have in the coming years...

In fairness, I do see _some_ possible value in AI (though much less than the superfans do) - but you must admit that this exact sentiment was being expressed by cryptobros a couple of years ago.

I was never bullish on Crypto currencies, but GenAI is another story.

It’s worth looking at who the detractors are: People, creatives especially, feel genuinely threatened by generative ML models. The recent writers strike, specifically addressed it. Nobody that I saw felt threatened by crypto currencies in the same way.

Even at the foundational level, crypto currencies/“smart” contracts/NFTs are additive to the economy, they are a new, different and discreet, whereas AI is disruptive/transformative it is a new way of doing something that people already do. I still can’t pay my bills with crypto or even deposit it at traditional financial institutions, but artist are already using genAI as a tool, today.

Very helpful perspective, thank you!

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