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Comment by joshstrange | Hacker News Reader

The comments in this thread are depressing, I expected much better from HN.

The AI features are but 1 minor aspect of this release, they are optional, you can change the URL to point to a local LLM, yet people are pretending like all your data is going to be sent to OpenAI if you update.

I’m not sure if people are being intentionally daft or are just not reading anything past the word “AI” (which, again, isn’t even listed as the top feature of this release).

If you don’t want to use it, don’t put in an API key. It’s not like you are going to accidentally enable it.

iTerm2 is one of the most solid pieces of software in use on a daily basis. To the point that I often forget it’s not a default/included app. It has a million configuration options and it makes complete sense for them to /offer/ /optional/ AI/LLM features.

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Depends on the vantage point. Have you worked in any regulated industries? I can see iTerm joining internal software ban lists because of its AI integration (even if it's off by default).

Security departments of these corps are constantly pleading with their staff to "please stop sharing corp data with LLMs, you're not allowed to do that", all the while staff feel under pressure to deliver faster, and reaching for whatever tools are available.

The temptation to use it will be irresistible to many, especially juniors/temps competing for limited positions and promotions.

From a regulated corp point of view, why would they risk it, and rely on individual staff conscience, knowledge, and ability to estimate risk? Better to neutralise the risk from the outset by banning use of the software. Plenty of other terminals where this can't be enabled at all by any over-excited staff.

Following that logic, regulated industries would be going after anything resembling Microsoft Office with a flamethrower. It would be product suicide for any piece of software, like e.g. Microsoft Office or Microsoft Windows, to offer even optional AI capabilities.

Yes, and the Fortune 500 et al. are all telling Microsoft that they will be forced to do anything required to protect their businesses, including ceasing all business with Microsoft.

Microsoft needs to tell their shareholders to fuck off and quit backseat driving, but Satya Nadella is just yet another CEO who trades profits today for the end of the company tomorrow.

The mistake you're making is assuming that large companies make logical decisions.

It’s a terminal emulator and it has access to a local shell. Your scenario trusts the junior/temp with a shell.

If someone wants to use ChatGPT with their terminal it is not really much of a roadblock to use the LLM's web interface and copy/paste between that and the terminal.

I'd expect then that if the security department is worried about people obeying a "don't use unauthorized LLMs" policy to be blocking access at the network level.

If you work in one of those places, quit.

> I’m not sure if people are being intentionally daft or are just not reading anything past the word “AI”

I think this demonstrates the risks of jumping on a bandwagon. When software companies (in general, not iTerm2 specifically) overuse a term, including outright lying to attach a buzzword to basic features that are nothing to do with it, many people respond with an equal and opposite reaction: distrusting use of the term altogether.

We trusted google at one point with a lot of our info, then they started to screw us.

Are people overreacting for something not enabled by default? Quite possibly, but literally today open ai is getting in trouble for almost certainly using Scarlett Johansson's voice, even after she specifically told them "no". They're already giving all the indications they don't care about consequences to abuse.

And the URL for the AI API shouldn't be buried in the advanced settings.

I can see the perception/concern being different than the technical reality. I just did the update myself and briefly saw something about "AI Term" or other and finished the update. Afterward I was wondering how to get details on what that meant--searching "AI" in iTerm2 Help menu shows no results. If I hadn't read this post/comments already I would be concerned as should anyone who installed without detailed understanding.

Agree, people are complaining about a new OPTIONAL feature on a open source project?

It's like the Facebook integration and Twitter integration that Apple did to Mac OS X Lion. It's basically "don't do that".

Totally.

There are clear explanations in the release notes and the wiki entry linked from the relevant place in the preference pane [1]. The full release note is displayed before updating. There are numerous comments here explaining how it's impossible to accidentally enable the feature. It's opt-in, you have to input a paid API key, you can use a offline model instead, and the data it sends are totally customizable and by default limited to the output of "uname" and the prompt that you explicitly enter.

Yet people are ignoring all of that and writing all sorts of misinformation.

iTerm2 is featureful yet solid, constantly improved on, doesn't work against the user, and is free. I've submitted patches before and the author was nice and responsive. The AI feature is minimal, non-intrusive, and doesn't advertise its existence once you decided not to opt in unlike commercial products hyped up about AI. It's thankless work even without HN piling on and the author deserves much better.

[1]: https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/-/wikis/AI-Prompt

I haven't seen any of that pressing the update button on the updater dialog box that automatically pops up (as I usually do, since typically iTerm2 updates don't have such sneaky surprises). Only after the update there was a little slideshow where the AI stuff was hidden somewhere on the 3rd or 4th slide.

You should have. iTerm2 uses Sparkle update and it shows release notes. It was there.

There's a screenshot of how it should look like in Sparkle's project page.

https://sparkle-project.org

Care to explain what's so "sneaky" about it? What did the iTerm2 dev do to you?

You saw the dialog. It's not so hard to verify again. Yet you so quickly accused me of lying. Shame on you.

Sneaky? Hidden?

It is _opt in_ and it’s not the main feature of this release. If it was the first slide you people would be complaining about that too. Maybe it’s best you just uninstall iTerm2 and use the default terminal if you can’t be sure you won’t trip one day, accidentally open the preferences, and enter in an OpenAI key by accident. Don’t forget to get a refund, oh wait…

These aren't mutually exclusive—it's perfectly possible to be fully aware that this version of iTerm introduces optional AI and be concerned about it. Dismissing these concerns as people "ignoring [the optional aspect] and writing all sorts of misinformation" is disingenuous and unfair.

The most obvious concern is that it becomes non-optional in future, but there are plenty of related concerns ranging all the way up to the general principle of the use of AI technology.

Have you used iTerm2? Saw the amount of work that's put into it? Checked how long it has been cared for, maintained, and continuously improved on by basically one person for more than a decade? All for free and no ads? The iTerm2 developer is a person you can actually trust.

https://github.com/gnachman/iTerm2/graphs/contributors

But all of a sudden you now have people up in arms about how a spyware of a feature was sneakily forced upon them, and be righteous about it. This is sad.

Also, what does it even mean for this feature to become non-optional? It doesn't work without the user typing in a question. Do you seriously think that iTerm2 is the kind of software that's scheming to force users to use AI?

https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/-/wikis/AI-Prompt

Yeah, this state of discussion saddens me. There's so many other features I've yet to digest in the release notes. This release has been a long time in coming. Yet, as a daily iTerm user, I haven't thought I have really missed anything. It works and it works well. But, I'm certain there's few things here I'll be using soon. I have been donating a long time, and shall continue to so.

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