'AI' is Not a Tool
www.linkedin.com
(I keep delivering this as a quip, here's a bit more) First order of business - is 'tool' going to have an interesting, distinguishing and thus illuminative meaning or be a mere platitudinous stand-in for "anything useful"? We'll save tool as "anyone/thing that can be exploited" for the AI titans, f

Forgive the smelly domain.

This is a fantastic short essay by Rich Hickey.

  • soyslurper2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    54·
    9 hours ago

    I’m not sure I agree with this

    A drive-thru is not a tool for cooking, it is automation for avoiding cooking. LLMs are not tools with which you write code - they are automation with which you avoid writing code

    Is a microwave automation? What about ovens with timers? Do I need to know how to use a frying pan to know cooking?

    Are you actually writing code if you use compilers instead of assembly? Do you need to know the output of your compiler to know coding? LLMs cannot replace understanding code the same way compilers cannot replace understanding assembly, but both of them are layers of abstraction that both make dubious guesses about what you actually want in their output.

    You should still learn how to write code AND assembly btw, but I disagree with this guy’s definition of tool

    • resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      42·
      9 hours ago

      What?

      Maybe it’s pedantic, but he’s narrowly right. Cooking and drive-thrus are different.

      If you say you want to be fed and both achieve that end, that’s true. But the metaphor is apt since drive-thrus give you junk food the way LLMs give you junk software and leave you feeling bad and wondering what went into it.

      Cooking for yourself gives you better control over the inputs and process.