Yeah, it is effectively subsidized by VC right now.
I expect what will happen after the bubble bursts is that the only affordable models will be quite small ones, not the energy chugging behemoths we have now.
They’ve already started cranking up prices in enterprise.
This seems to be his view:
In the kernel community we do open source because it results in better technology, not because of religious reasons.
He doesn’t seem to subscribe to the idea that everything you use MUST be open source, as some more radical open source advocates do, but instead that more software SHOULD be open source.
I would definitely prefer if AI was open source and self-hosted (or at least E2EE if cloud hosted). Sometimes though the best tool for the job as things stand is closed source.
Aa for the legally dubious output, while AI can exactly replicate training data, it rarely does nowadays. It’s usually an amalgam of stuff.
I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I’m willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer. Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it. Or just walk away. AI is a tool, just like other tools we use. And it’s clearly a useful one.
I think broadly speaking what he says is reasonable. If you don’t want to use AI, then don’t, but I think it can be used somewhat responsibly.
I have all sorts of issues with AI tooling:
That said, it’s a tool, and can be used to amplify good work too.
If you download this picture you get a 5MB ~14000x19000 pixel image that will slow down your whole PC when rendering.
Kind of links well to the lack of efficiency of AI so I think that’s part of the art.
Did Edna Mode tell you that? She was correct.
Not all heroes wear capes.
Yeah I can’t deny that. Platforming bigots is not something an organization like the BBC should do. Reality has a left-leaning bias, and the BBC over-corrects.
It’s not my first choice, clearly, but it’s ok on some topics. Others I don’t even bother to read what they have said.
The Telegraph is outright terrible. The only more right wing paper is probably GB News.
I’d focus on using left or center-left publications like The Guardian and The Independent.
There are some further left publications such as Novara Media and The Canary (they’re better on some issues where others are too cowardly, like Gaza or trans rights). Though I’m not sure how accurate they are on everything.
On some issues the BBC is fine too, just not Israel and trans rights.
My point being, we are stopping pretty low if we reach for the Telegraph.
Let’s hope he goes through with it.
Can we have that in the UK too?
That’s true, but spaghetti code was always faster to write than good code before as well. I will agree that the speed gap probably has grown though. That’s why tools like AI need discipline.
If managers and engineers don’t understand that their code will turn into garbage and the business will get reputational harm and lose customers / get sued / have more tech debt to fix and they’ll eventually learn their lesson. In the meantime it’s going to be a painful process where upper management see extra speed, expand their scope or downsize their staff, then learn that they have crumbling foundations and need to adjust. This has publically happened a few times already. Things will stabilize in time.
Maybe you’ve misunderstood something.
No matter what framework or language you are using, AI can make the development process faster. It can help you debug a problem, write tests and refactor code. In some situations, it will be faster than writing code yourself, in others not.
In some parts of Europe, we have many ways of mitigating heat that don’t cost as much and work well enough to a point.
Shutters will reflect heat before it gets into the home, which can keep the temperature as low as 10 degrees cooler than outside, cieling standing and desk fans can help cool you down in 20-30 degree weather. Dehumidifiers can help in humid heat.
Beyond a certain point, you do have to use air conditioning to lower the temperature, but that’s when you get to 35deg and above, and that typically been pretty rare until now, and most of the above still help.
I think if I did have the money I would probably install a heat pump + air conditioner combo and I believe there should be grants available for those.
If you’re a renter it sucks though because you have very few options. “Portable” air conditioning is ok but not very effective and very expensive to run.
They like to ignore that there is no evidence that it works, and in fact significant evidence that it does not.
Insane stuff.
Hopefully, those are the sorts of companies that should fail or get sued, so they learn their lesson. Not holding my breath though.
Companies have been doing insane shit for the sake of saving a buck or getting to market fast for decades, it’s nothing new. AI may or may not just make it worse.
In my experience, AI is an amplifier.
Good engineers will produce more good code, because they ask the right questions, know what good looks like and check the output.
Bad engineers will produce reams more bad code. The mistakes they make will be amplified. They will give wrong and incomplete instructions, won’t see what the problems are with the result and will ship it anyway.
This amplification also means people will spend a larger proportion of time reviewing than coding, which I think is less interesting.
All of this is stuff that can, to some extent, be addressed with policy. You help and instruct juniors, encourage people to better understand and own their code, or at worst reprimand them if they don’t.
You can adjust expectations of product managers and explain to them that more is not better, as it always has been. Faster development can often come with bugs and tech debt and this is more of the same.
All I’ve said above is puts aside the ethical arguments of using or not using AI of course. That’s a separate can of worms entirely.
Funny… but please don’t do this.
I’m sorry, but it’s not my job to clean up a billionaire’s rotting platform.
X and Facebook profit from petty conflict, spread misinformation for clicks and their leaders are horrible people. Those platforms can die for all I care. The less people are on there the better.
If people want to talk to me, they can and do contact me directly.
With EU customers, not reporting a breach within 72 hours of learning about it is actually illegal under GDPR.
https://gdpr-info.eu/art-33-gdpr/
Not sure how much trouble that can get you into though.