Hello, recent Reddit convert here and I’m loving it. You even inspired me to figure out how to fully dump Windows and install LineageOS.
One thing I can’t understand is the level of acrimony toward LLMs. I see things like “stochastic parrot”, “glorified autocomplete”, etc. If you need an example, the comments section for the post on Apple saying LLMs don’t reason is a doozy of angry people: https://infosec.pub/post/29574988
While I didn’t expect a community of vibecoders, I am genuinely curious about why LLMs strike such an emotional response with this crowd. It’s a tool that has gone from interesting (GPT3) to terrifying (Veo 3) in a few years and I am personally concerned about many of the safety/control issues in the future.
So I ask: what is the real reason this is such an emotional topic for you in particular? My personal guess is that the claims about replacing software engineers is the biggest issue, but help me understand.
It’s a hugely disruptive technology, that is harmful to the environment, being taken up and given center stage by a host of folk who don’t understand it.
Like the industrial revolution, it has the chance to change the world in a massive way, but in doing so, it’s going to fuck over a lot of people, and notch up greenhouse gas output. In a decade or two, we probably won’t remember what life was like without them, but lots of people are going to be out of jobs, have their income streams cut off and have no alternatives available to them whilst that happens.
And whilst all of that is going on, we’re getting told that it’s the best most amazing thing that we all need, and it’s being stuck in to everything, including things that don’t benefit from the presence of an LLM, and sometimes, where the presence of an LLM can be actively harmful
I am not an AI hater, it helps me automate many of the more mundane tasks of my job or the things I don’t ever have time for.
I also feel that change management is a big factor with any paradigm shifting technology, as is with LLMs. I recall when some people said that both the PC and the internet were going to be just a fad.
Nonetheless, all the reasons you’ve mentioned are the same ones that give me concern about AI.
Am Mixed about LLMS And stuff but i agree with this