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Ampersander

100 karma · joined January 22, 2022

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Ampersander··on OpenAI bots meddled with multiple US Government agency sites
Holding them accountable is viewed as deciding not to invent the light bulb right now. Or even worse, letting China invent it.

AI needs to be above the law or we will get left behind.

Ampersander··on What AI-Native Looks Like
Doing drugs sounds both more rewarding and productive.
Ampersander··on In September, AI generated code has made up 17.25% of all Linux Kernel patches
The company is doing very well now and they know that it is all thanks to the AI data center build out. Their manager and leadership want them to use it. If the bubble pops, their stock based compensation becomes worthless. Their colleagues are in the same situation and some are tokenmaxxing.

These things are what the pressure consists of. Some probably do feel pressured against their will. For some the encouragement changes their will. Some want to use it regardless of anything.

But whether you call it pressure, encouragement, or incentives, its there and it does affect how people think and act.

Ampersander··on In September, AI generated code has made up 17.25% of all Linux Kernel patches
I just wanted to bring up that it's AI companies (which all computer hardware companies are now) that develop the kernel. In that light 17.25% is actually a tiny share of commits to be written by the Machine God.
Ampersander··on In September, AI generated code has made up 17.25% of all Linux Kernel patches
The pressure to use LLMs is high in the companies that sell shovels in this gold rush. It would look bad if they did not use them. Linux developers work at those companies.
Ampersander··on I think you should almost never use AI to write
Who cares? AI gives me lots of text and it's not like it's ever going to go away. Any time in my life in the future when I need text, I can just have AI generate it. Thinking is solved.
Ampersander··on I Don't Like LLMs
One thing about that site is that it is owned by a Russian and Finnish IPs are blocked from accessing it. Here's some context https://gyrovague.com/2026/02/01/archive-today-is-directing-...

Edit: I did a web search and it seems to go even further back. There are discussions online about archive.is blocking Finland already 10 years ago. But the block was definitely off between then when it was put back on earlier this year.

Ampersander··on Claude, change the “Add to Cart” button to blue
It's an insult to the superintelligence. The basilisk will not look kindly on this!
Ampersander··on AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too
Yeah, it's interesting how the current thing is always the end of programming, but then when a new thing comes it turns into absolute trash that can't be used for anything.
Ampersander··on AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too
All those programmers who could not write fizzbuzz can ship something now.
Ampersander··on AI-written code is still your code
What do you say to your boss if they ask why your colleague is producing 10-100x the kloc as you?
Ampersander··on Please stop flooding our projects with AI slop to furnish your CV
No you can't say that! It's the superintelligence. You will be left behind.
Ampersander··on I were 17, I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch
Stay in school, get good grades.
Ampersander··on AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)
Maybe if you only use the LLM to proof read or something? I don't know if LLMs are actually any good for this purpose, but it's something I came to think of when trying to answer your question.

I do think that it is very difficult to not be a meat proxy when you utilize an LLM for writing tasks. These tools are computer programs that generate text, so what else would you do with it than have it write for you? This is being a meat proxy.

Trying to avoid being a meat proxy can quickly eat the supposed productivity gains of using an LLM in the first place.

Like say I need to write an article about some subject and it would take me the entire day to complete this task without an LLM. I can get some sort of article out of an LLM by simply asking, I don't need to think about the subject myself at all. The LLM productivity promise is also fulfilled, because I did an entire days work in a minute or so.

Now if I also need to read and understand the work, and be able to defend it or explain it to others as if I produced it myself, then this will take a lot of time. If on top of this I need to edit the text to sound like me rather than an LLM, then I probably still need the whole day for this task and I have lost all the productivity increase that I sought from using the LLM.

It's the thinking that takes time when you write, not typing. But you can't do the thinking and avoid doing it at the same time.

The same idea applies to coding too. Doing code review and requiring the author and reviewer to read and understand the code basically eliminates all the productivity gains that using the LLM was supposed to provide. Throw out the reviewing, reading, and understanding and we can have each developer producing a thousand kloc per day, over 1000x productivity. If we don't throw those out, we are comparatively in the exact same spot as not using LLMs at all.

Ampersander··on Eight Myths on Software Engineering and GenAI
If you're going to be reading the code you might as well write it by hand instead of using AI.
Ampersander··on Chinese chipmaker shares surge 470%
EU bourgeoisie invests in US tech
Ampersander··on We have proof automation now
Crypto guys are in the business of grifting magic beans to rubes. They are mostly interested in the aesthetics of these technologies. Using an academic programming language gives these scientific magical vibes and such that make people believe these guys are high tech and know their shit and so on. This is the reason many crypto projects do use Haskell too, it's known as an academic research language that is difficult to use and "if it compiles it works." They come at it from the perspective of "What would sound the best when I try to sell the space money of the future?"
Ampersander··on Rethinking Legal Education in the AI Era
> Are expectations way too high in the near term for tech companies and all of the crap that they’re talking? 100% totally agree.

This is what people mean when they say it's a bubble.

Ampersander··on Zig Creator Calls Spade a Spade, Anthropic Blows Smoke
Why would you need any of those listed capabilities these days? Just generate them with 100x AGI
Ampersander··on Zig Creator Calls Spade a Spade, Anthropic Blows Smoke
Well, yeah, most social media posts that contain a list or a table these days are ai slop.
Ampersander··on LineageOS Statistics
I believe a lot of the enthusiasm we had at the start of the smartphone age is also now gone. The phone is now a boring device made for scrolling and running apps that are mandatory to participate in modern society.
Ampersander··on Europe's company websites are mostly served by US vendors
Where would those European customers go? China? Africa?
Ampersander··on Learning to code is still worthwhile
Programmers do woodworking in their free time and programming at the assembly line in the crud factory.
Ampersander··on Amazon CEO's talks with U.S. officials triggered crackdown on Anthropic models
This forum is full of libertarians that might view bribes and taxes as synonyms.
Ampersander··on India's surprise baby bust
I don't think the data support the conclusion that contraceptives are the main driver behind the decline in fertility. Contraceptives have been available for a long time and fertility is continually decreasing even when nothing changes in the availability of contraceptives.

Also, data going further back show that fertility has been declining since before contraceptives were widely available. Sweden for example: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1033535/fertility-rate-s...

Ampersander··on India's surprise baby bust
Even with extensive support and subsidies from the state, having children is an economic loss for the individual in today's society. Back in agricultural society, having children was an economic gain, because you could put them to do work for you.

Now if the state wants children it would need to pay both for the missed fun times and also the missed career opportunities that come from having children.

Ampersander··on My Agent Skill for Test-Driven Development
Yes, I might need to bet the farm on the IPO to make it
Ampersander··on How LLMs work
I do agree bigly. Calling what is basically a superhuman brain inside a computer just a "token predictor" is peak thinkslop.
Ampersander··on How LLMs work
You are exactly right! People do not find the writing obnoxious, they are backwards technophobes getting brought down by their superstitions.
Ampersander··on How LLMs work
You're not supposed to read it, just like you're not supposed to write anything anymore. Claude can read and write more than any human. We just lean back and relax now.
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