Discussion
i am getting tired of this - this is the third email in a week threatening to stop paying if i don't change my tone on AI (which I assume means feature more positive stories about AI rather than negative ones)
not even the tesla fanboys were this demanding
Little wonder they are an AI fan Boi, they can't write for sh!t.
@decryption I hate how divisive the topic is. You’re not even full never-AI! I use and benefit from AI every day and your takes on AI don’t feel more negative or skeptical than any of your other takes on technology; they just reflect the broad semi-dystopian direction of the tech sector at large.
@decryption they’re so confident that no code is being written today without AI anymore but as someone who writes code for a living, I promise this person has no idea lol
@decryption they’re just another fragile capitalist — and, like most, they can’t stand very mild and fair criticism.
@decryption Tell ya what. Let him go. I'll subscribe in his stead.
@decryption “Fair & balanced” :)
@decryption For my newsletter, I was quite upset about some of the negative comments, until someone pointed out that I reach the size of a small town. In every small town there are nasty horrible people, murderers, criminals, etc. it’s just part of life.
@james I'm used to feedback, but these are long term paying subscribers all complaining about the same thing - it's hard not to take it personally even though I know I haven't done anything "wrong"
@decryption Agreed.
I’ve taken to simply not promoting obviously AI-produced products. The emails asking for promotion (written by AI, mostly) just get deleted. I won’t promote stuff like that - or ad-skipping apps - but I’ve worked out that it probably makes sense to just deny that whole stuff any oxygen, rather than have Opinions. I save those for gripes against Apple Podcasts at the moment. ;)
Amusingly, one person cancelled because of “my promotion of AI” - which I think was a sponsor of a data company that calls itself “AI” despite not really using much of it…!
@james you must get bombarded with AI stuff too, so many people wanting to strip the humanity out of a very human medium
@decryption well that is sad. Being skeptical is hardly a crime. Like you I suspect there is a bubble & given I know how LLM’s were developed, I have real issues with the hype. Will there be some useful tools - sure, are they better than anything ever. It might be possible but they are just tools.
@Sminney look maybe I do go a bit hard on AI, but it's only because there's so much stupid shit surrounding it
@decryption the hype is very much driven by the venture capital behind them, the real value is not really clear within the hype & the haircuts will be savage.
i am very bummed out by this, my day begun and ended with AI induced mental damage
@decryption I don’t sub to your newsletter but I’ve liked your tone & stance on AI from what I’ve seen here. 👍🏻 You write good content though. Can’t please everyone.
@decryption Save them the trouble, cancel their sub and refund their money.
@decryption oh no not a special little boy! Yeah it fucken sucks, especially as it’s your income. Respond by saying you’re always on the lookout for positive stories about AI, perhaps they would like to share some that aren’t just empty hype?
@jpm I used to do that with the Tesla bros and they would bombard me with links that I'd say "cool, will mention that" to and never do it, haha - they got sick of me and left I assume
@decryption I'd say the complaint was written by AI but the spelling errors/typos look pretty human. But then who can tell these days. Reminds me of that Philip K. Dick inspired film, Screamers...
@decryption “no software today is written by hand” is delusional unless they mean with a pen
@mattrobertson and it hasn't really cost any jobs either - software engineer employment is pretty steady overall (maybe less junior hiring)
@decryption @mattrobertson Dunno about that, I've been actively looking for more than 12 months now. Plenty of interviews, but no actual gigs.
And freelance work has dried up too, nobody needs advice since they all "just ask Claude"
@decryption no one’s hiring because all the cash has been sucked into the bullshit vortex and it’s destroying teams, no used to care if everyone had favourite tools to use but suddenly it’s religious
@mattrobertson ive never seen such a divide in tech than with AI - crypto, platform wars, etc were never as religious as this
@decryption The three opinions on AI:
- It's bad and you are bad for using it
- There's bad but also good and we need to find the balance
— OMFG BRO. AI IS THE FUTURE BRO. BRO IT'S SO GOOD BRO. I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DON'T SEE IT. YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHERE WE ARE AT BRO.......BRO
@decryption your tone on AI works for me. Acknowledging it has some utility, yet deeply sceptical of the oligarch motives
@james yeah I think people get confused with my loathing of altman, musk and amodei and think "he hates AI!!"
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@decryption I really don’t get this.. I like your down to earth approach to it all. If they want an AI cheer squad newsletter, why don’t they just get their agent to produce one for them?