Post by Lett Osprey :v_pan: :v_enby: 🍉 :therian:

@lettosprey All that said, and to take a wider view, my fingers are still crossed for all these AI companies to go bankrupt. That would be fantastic. The few things I use it for (and I usually consume single digit percentages of my quota) I can also do without it, just a bit slower.

@paulk

@lettosprey Exactly. I have seriously given that thought too and came up with an empty list.

@lettosprey My list is very short. I've found it genuinely helpful for finding gaps and bugs in my code because it can probe and test it rapidly. I also use it to figure out how to get the most out of the Qt framework by having it scan Qt's 2.3 M line source. That saves me hours, and compensates for the fact that reviewing what it writes would otherwise cancel the gain, as you said.

But that's pretty much it. I've found no other use for AI in my everyday life. None.

@paulk

@veronica This goes to the point of "if your tool is of a type where using AI can save you time, the solution is to find a better tool"

Using AI on overly complex frameworks might actually save you some time, but you would do the work faster, and safer, by using a simpler framework.

@paulk

@lettosprey That's a solution not applicable to the actual problem. But it can definitely be done without AI. It just takes longer, and is the kind of work using automtion for is actually helpful since it's just busywork that requires little skill.

@paulk

@veronica So far every a.i. company has negative yield in the field. I hope they all go bust fast. That the bubble bursts.

@lettosprey

@paulk I saw Anthropic lost $81B just the first half of this year. It will be interesting to see the final numbers for the industry for 2026. It's also encouraging to read about all the resistance to data centres. @lettosprey

@veronica I really don't understand places like Anthropic and Openai.
"We need better regulation to stop us from what we're doing!"

What? Can't you just figure out on your own that you should flipping stop what you're doing then??

And yes, the data centre resistance is very encouraging.

@lettosprey

@paulk The company I work for really loves data centres, because we can sell electricity to them. I keep questioning that because we're a publicly owned company, and should also think of the regular customers who will have to pay the premium for all that wasted energy.

@veronica Indeed, I totally understand you.

Making a profit is a thing for a company, but there are ethical ways for that too.

Shareholders will be able to live on a lower bonus.

@paulk "Publicly owned" doesn't really translate well here I guess because the shareholders are municipalities and the profit goes directly to paying for public services. But that also means we should be conscious of the cost offloaded to the people living in the region, because these are the very same people.