Maybe I’m seeing shadows in the clouds, but it seems like AI means a lot more people have been building open source tools.
I’m an AI skeptic, but I’m wondering if this can help undermine some of the shit software industry. Most AI tools sold by companies have an open source alternative.
I’m thinking that maybe AI will accidentally allow the private person to build free tools and reduce the market value of sold tools.
I tried use AI to help me with self host. It gave me incorrect information and I wasted hours trying to read the docs and the AI slop to make sense of everything.
In the end, reading the docs was all that I needed.
I googled for the default port of dynmap, AI gave me the minecraft default port. I knew it was wrong, but that would have been annoying if I didn’t know that.
Seems it has been fixed now, but definitely kills the trust.
I already left !programming@programming.dev because I was sick of seeing AI related posts. I would appreciate it if this didn’t also become a place where people talk about AI constantly, whether it’s related to FOSS or not. My ask is: Move the AI related posts to an AI-adjacent community or create one. Perhaps I’m not the only one who shares this wish.
While I am not the biggest fan of Ai (but also not the biggest hater as well, at least for local models), I think banning a topic because you don’t like it is not fair for everyone else. It is already used and part in many sections in our life, so discussing it (either if its good or bad or its pitfalls or recommendations) should be allowed. Especially in a generalized topic such as Open Source or Programming. I mean would you rather like it being silently used and lied about or make it official, and at least then you can filter out and ignore stuff about that topic?
I mean you don’t have to participate in the Ai discussions, but you can allow others to discuss. I don’t understand why you want to ban it for everyone.
I think banning a topic because you don’t like it is not fair for everyone else
It’s not just them. A lot of us don’t like it. The rules don’t exist to appease everyone but to make a “good” community, whatever that means in the eyes of the moderators. So it’s a valid suggestion.
It is already used and part in many sections in our life
No it’s absolutely not.
I mean would you rather like it being silently used
They can use it and talk about it somewhere else.
I don’t understand why you want to ban it for everyone.
Because it’s fucking everywhere and it’s fucking infuriating and it’s fucking dogshit. Corporations are stealing from creators and publishers, driving up costs of electricity, water, and electronic hardware across the board, unleashing DDoS attacks on the entire internet, creating an economic bubble the size of which the world has never seen, and inevitably going to lead to the destruction of the global economy, all in the pursuit of what? Spreading disinformation and sexual abuse? The damage AI is unleashing on the world cannot be overstated…
The absolute least we can do is stop perpetuating it on our little space on the internet.
I feel like listing copyright infringement next to actual harms is sort of an “arson, murder, and jaywalking” moment.
But yes, I wouldn’t mind banning discussion of this nonsense as well.
your premise is flawed. using AI to do this shit is like using a twin-engine F-14 Tomcat’s afterburner to clear the snow from your driveway. and to get you started to ditch your shovels and shit and help your muscles atrophy, Northrop-Grumman is subsidising the insanely humongous fuel bill and maintenance for the first year.
it’s not sustainable. it’s not ethical. it’s fucking disastrous to the environment, local and at large. and it tends to blow up the house you’ve built, for no fucking reason.
I can see some value using AI. I treat it like a search engine, since Google, DDG, Bing, etc all seem to suck now favoring ads and purchased result slots rather than finding what you’re looking for. Using AI helps since it’s doing several searches for you. But as others have said, the results can be flawed, particularly when searching for niche topics.
I have zero coding experience and used ChatGPT (I think) to vibe code a simple battery GUI for my Thinkpad running linux since the OS version I had would not display the internal and external batteries separately. Technically it worked, but it looked and ran like ass.
Ultimately I think it falls apart when things go wrong and trying to coax the robot to help you get your way out of trouble, which can be very problematic.
You can AI as hard as you like, you’ll probably not manage to replace the really complex tools.
I have just started writing a laser cutter tool, and I tried some suggestions from AI for doing basic matrix transform calculations, and it was completely wrong. So I wouldn’t trust it for anything moderately complex. That said, it was fantastic for the UI.
it seems like AI means a lot more people have been building open source tools.
TBH I haven’t seen this. AFAIK I’m still using the same open source apps made by the same people. I haven’t seen a single “AI” app that I would add to my stack or replace an existing app with.
Are there some examples of some great apps that have been built with “AI”? Like a list somewhere?
Personally I would really like a clone of GarageBand for Linux. So if an “AI” can whip that up real quick, I would really appreciate it.
Have you not also noticed a dramatic increase in instability of platforms like Windows, AWS and Cloudflare?
Things are moving so fast that anything that doesn’t work today, will work tomorrow, or ‘next week’. Take all the failed attempts from others, as possibilities of what you will be able to do in a week, and catalog what you think could be beneficial for you later. They are all on the plate.
AI is a technically a cognitive extension much like pen/paper - we are offloading cognition externally. So everything you spend mental energy on now, can and will be lessened when AI takes some of your cognitive load off.
Ignore their current baby-step errors. Think about where you spend your thoughts - your cognitive energy, and think of a way an AI could assist you with that. Worry too much ? Need a push/nudge with social connections ? Tired of seeking bargains at shops that cheat you ? Have something you find difficult ?
Then imagine what you can do with like-minded people from all over the world.
