twovests

twovests OP wrote

Hey!! Replying on mobile so I'll be sparse, but ya! I basically agree with you, I read your comment in good faith and I knew most of this but I appreciate it anyway. Good + informative comment, esp for the shoutout to give directly.

I used to identify as an effective altruist for basically all the same reasons you are pro-EA!

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twovests OP wrote (edited )

A bit of both.

The best models still absolutely fucks up code in the same way it does prose, but GitHub's Copilot gets it right 90% of the time. If you're writing in a new language, you can end up with an MVP waaaay faster than you would've before. If you have a method signature with descriptive names, it can usually fill it out for you. If you're a product manager, instead of hiring a team of datascientists, you might just hire one.

I think it's fair to say the supply-vs-demand of programming expertise changed a lot over 2023, purely because of these tools. That's my bread-and-butter and it's depressing.

With Google and other search engines turning to garbage, communities/support becoming increasingly dependent on Discord, and StackOverflow also turning to garbage (with AI answeres), so I found myself just giving up and checking ChatGPT and Copilot instead.

A lot of my coworkers are vocally dependent on these models, and suddenly I was one of them too.

AFAICT, this kind of replacement isn't happening wholesale for artists. People are using AI models in asset-creation pipelines and for decoration and marketing materials, and people are using models instead of commissioning art. But AFAICT there's not the industry-wide "ask ChatGPT rather than your coworkers or docs" that I'm seeing.

This makes sense, because "How do I unwrap this observable?" has one correct answer, whereas you really can't find a model that can, say, "Create concept art for an 80s-inspired retro desk fan prop in our South African inspired animal people world".

TLDR:

  • Current models still mess up, but get things right very often.
  • Programmers are definitely becoming dependent on these models.
  • Programmers are definitely being replaced, and my understanding is that artists aren't being replaced as widely yet.
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twovests wrote

there is something VERY funny about imagining someone eating croutons very loudly in the theater. like

CRONCH chchc

...

CRO

CRONNCHH

CRONCH

C

CRONCH

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twovests OP wrote

Oh yeah, you can absolutely do it in Debian.

My argument is that there is a lot new on the table for someone like me, who was just a kid who liked computers. I got Linux because Windows Vista was way too heavy for my laptop (+ Chrome, GIMP, etc. had Linux-exclusive 64-bit builds.)

My first experience with Ubuntu was playing around with GNOME, and then Unity when it came out on my next install. When I learned there were dozens of other DEs for me to try, I felt like a kid in a candy shop.

What's better is that I could even play Runescape and Minecraft again! It went from "6 fps and then my laptop turns off" to "like 12fps" which was sweet.

When I made the realization that almost anything I did could be written down to a .sh file and repeated, e.g. setting up a fresh install, my brain fucking exploded.

I'm a wizened Linux enjoyer now and I basically agree with you, but when I was a preteen, Ubuntu was the OS that was twice as fast, had a dozen different skins, made it dead-easy to install things, and also let you script it.

... Speaking of, I wonder what new DEs are out there...

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