I got a call from someone I don't know.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano "it didn't even make a backup" hahaha, Maybe taking some responsibility for letting a know-it-all 5 year-old at your infrastructure would be a good start!
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@bladecoder @stefano This particular image is AI generated.
The original was about graphic design, not code.
@BoydStephenSmithJr @bladecoder @stefano I know the original photo so I knew this was modified, but how do you see it is AI generated instead of photoshopped?
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When I worked on the ships, our Logistics office had a "Failure to plan ahead on your part, will not result in an emergency on mine" sign on the wall.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano The call tomorrow: "Hi, I've already spent €1500 on tokens and it's still down and I need your help. Are you still available for €500?" "No, I'm sorry, now it'll cost €1500."
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@BoydStephenSmithJr @bladecoder @stefano I know the original photo so I knew this was modified, but how do you see it is AI generated instead of photoshopped?
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano I say this all the time “you don’t know what you don’t know”. No LLM will proactively warn you about issues you don’t know about and no LLM will fill in the gaps of your knowledge for you.
It does what you ask it to do, so its context is your knowledge, not the other way around.
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@theorangetheme @mwl @stefano I honestly hate doing it, but it is the only work I've been finding lately. I've had to sign an NDA for every single gig I have had doing it, they always wanna haggle over the price, and they always complain that the fix takes too long.
The last part is what really drives me bonkers. They spent a month wasting money on an AI solution that made their issue worse, but they expect me to wave my magic wand and fix it in an hour.
And so, so many of them will try it again. I've gotten three callbacks this year that were basically, "We aimed AI at your fix and now it's broke, we need you to come back in (and do a better job this time)."
I have taken to stating in my contract terms that if you use AI on my work, it completely voids anything resembling a warranty or culpability on my part. I will not be held responsible because people are idiots. Doesn't stop them from trying though.
If AI is the future of IT, I don't want to work in IT anymore.
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@theorangetheme @mwl @stefano I honestly hate doing it, but it is the only work I've been finding lately. I've had to sign an NDA for every single gig I have had doing it, they always wanna haggle over the price, and they always complain that the fix takes too long.
The last part is what really drives me bonkers. They spent a month wasting money on an AI solution that made their issue worse, but they expect me to wave my magic wand and fix it in an hour.
And so, so many of them will try it again. I've gotten three callbacks this year that were basically, "We aimed AI at your fix and now it's broke, we need you to come back in (and do a better job this time)."
I have taken to stating in my contract terms that if you use AI on my work, it completely voids anything resembling a warranty or culpability on my part. I will not be held responsible because people are idiots. Doesn't stop them from trying though.
If AI is the future of IT, I don't want to work in IT anymore.
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@BoydStephenSmithJr @trebor @stefano One trend that amuses me significantly more than it should is that AI already figured out that we all hate AI, while management keeps not understanding this.
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@stefano 🤯 it's amazing (by which I mean worrying) how many people seem to think they can absolve themselves of any responsibility by using AI.
I don't understand why anyone would just let AI loose on a production system like that, and even blame AI for not taking backups. Although why was it not being backed up anyway?
I wonder how much more money they will waste in tokens rather than pay a professional to fix the mess.
@teapot_ben @stefano In my experience, they have always been around. It was just easier to limit the damage they do to an organization.
Once worked with a lady, sweet as can be, but dumb as rocks. She would believe any simplistic forecast the computer would throw at her. Trusted these algorithms like the one true God. So you trusted your engineering judgment over her numbers, did your own research, took a longer term view etc.
I think about her a lot with AI.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano
I don't get this attitude for anything broken. Once I realize something will be a complicated fix, I immediately think that paying a professional is the cheapest solution. My computer, the plumbing, the roof, my taxes. If I know I could dig myself a deeper hole on my own, I give it to someone who won't.Some people were never taught "penny wise, pound foolish" when growing up.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano If he assumed AI is cheaper than sysadmins who actually know what they’re doing and he already spent €500 on tokens, then why is he surprised that you charge more than €500? Does not compute!
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano What a dick
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
Agreed.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe "that much" yet he didn't seem to mind spending the same amount on getting it broken
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@wizbean @stefano showed this to a friend and they just said "i love the difference in value when the money goes to an expert compared to the shart machine" and the reply was "It's literally gambling. A professional is a known quantity. But like a gambler, the sloperator hopes that they will beat the averages."
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe More servers should end like this
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@stefano 🤯 it's amazing (by which I mean worrying) how many people seem to think they can absolve themselves of any responsibility by using AI.
I don't understand why anyone would just let AI loose on a production system like that, and even blame AI for not taking backups. Although why was it not being backed up anyway?
I wonder how much more money they will waste in tokens rather than pay a professional to fix the mess.
@teapot_ben @stefano I'm pretty sure with that mess, ai will cost them their jobs
