all the criticism has been said, all the takes been had.
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@jonny mmm, been thinking a little about this too.
unpredictable rewards (will the task be solved or not), unpredictable timing... and the thing is always _almost_ there, just one more prompt, this might be the one...
@snoutgrab
Spectacular payoffs with hard withdrawal -
@ainmosni
Well good, keep those walls up, they are protective. I am not so lucky and rely on discipline and observation of the impacts on others. It sets my alarm bells ringing to run for cover, but to understand why the things are happening around me the only means has been to feel it for myself, and I get it. -
@snoutgrab
Spectacular payoffs with hard withdrawal@jonny ohh yeah. and with ease of access, and an ecosystem of hype... it's so hard not to be exposed, unless you remove yourself from a lot of stuff. wide blast area these days. AI features in notepad.exe
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RE: https://hails.org/@hailey/116657391001259044
all the criticism has been said, all the takes been had. the only metaphor i have been finding consistently useful for understanding what is happening with people and "AI" is addiction, and specifically gambling addiction.
@jonny exactly, when i talk to people who maybe just use ai a little bit, their reaponses quite align with things you’d hear from drug addict, some excuses, avoidance, bit of shame.
And i agree that the patern is finally similar to gaming/gambling addiction -
@jonny mmm, been thinking a little about this too.
unpredictable rewards (will the task be solved or not), unpredictable timing... and the thing is always _almost_ there, just one more prompt, this might be the one...
@snoutgrab @jonny the "hooked" loop. chatbots as mobile game.
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i love gambling. i have used "AI" extensively. it feels the same.
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@ainmosni
Well good, keep those walls up, they are protective. I am not so lucky and rely on discipline and observation of the impacts on others. It sets my alarm bells ringing to run for cover, but to understand why the things are happening around me the only means has been to feel it for myself, and I get it.@jonny @ainmosni I've found for me I have to always remind myself to not get lazy when using AI because it's super tempting to just accept what it says without proper review just to get that dopamine hit of closing the bug report or feature request.
I suspect that's what happened with rsync because it seems like they got a lot of CVE reports all at once and basically just told Claude "here deal with these". And AI is perfectly willing to solve a problem that doesn't exist if you tell it to.
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RE: https://hails.org/@hailey/116657391001259044
all the criticism has been said, all the takes been had. the only metaphor i have been finding consistently useful for understanding what is happening with people and "AI" is addiction, and specifically gambling addiction.
exactly what @pluralistic said about it a few months back
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@jonny @ainmosni I've found for me I have to always remind myself to not get lazy when using AI because it's super tempting to just accept what it says without proper review just to get that dopamine hit of closing the bug report or feature request.
I suspect that's what happened with rsync because it seems like they got a lot of CVE reports all at once and basically just told Claude "here deal with these". And AI is perfectly willing to solve a problem that doesn't exist if you tell it to.
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@jonny @ainmosni I've found for me I have to always remind myself to not get lazy when using AI because it's super tempting to just accept what it says without proper review just to get that dopamine hit of closing the bug report or feature request.
I suspect that's what happened with rsync because it seems like they got a lot of CVE reports all at once and basically just told Claude "here deal with these". And AI is perfectly willing to solve a problem that doesn't exist if you tell it to.
@KalenXI @jonny if you don't want to get lazy when using AI, is there really a use for it at all? I mean, it's been proven that reviewing code is much more difficult than writing it, so I'm finding it much more taxing to review slopcode than if I'd just write it myself.
Of course, that's adding the usual disclaimer that all this is not even relevant until the ethical and environmental shitshow of AI has been fixed.
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@KalenXI @jonny if you don't want to get lazy when using AI, is there really a use for it at all? I mean, it's been proven that reviewing code is much more difficult than writing it, so I'm finding it much more taxing to review slopcode than if I'd just write it myself.
Of course, that's adding the usual disclaimer that all this is not even relevant until the ethical and environmental shitshow of AI has been fixed.
@ainmosni @jonny Personally I think it depends on how short of a leash you keep it on. I've found you should generally never let it decide how to solve a problem on it's own without review. But if you tell it the problem and also how it should fix it then it's usually pretty decent and I can review it quickly because I have an idea of what the solution should look like.
What makes me most nervous is when people use AI to solve problems that they don't have the skillset to verify the answer to.
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@ainmosni @jonny Personally I think it depends on how short of a leash you keep it on. I've found you should generally never let it decide how to solve a problem on it's own without review. But if you tell it the problem and also how it should fix it then it's usually pretty decent and I can review it quickly because I have an idea of what the solution should look like.
What makes me most nervous is when people use AI to solve problems that they don't have the skillset to verify the answer to.
@KalenXI @jonny Still sounds like if you just wrote it yourself it would be easier and less error prone.
But tell me, how do you justify giving money to huge fascist adjacent corporations that want to enclose the digital commons, make people dependent on their services for basic thought, while totally not caring how much scams, fake (child) porn, misinformation, propaganda, military strikes, etc, they enable?
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RE: https://hails.org/@hailey/116657391001259044
all the criticism has been said, all the takes been had. the only metaphor i have been finding consistently useful for understanding what is happening with people and "AI" is addiction, and specifically gambling addiction.
@jonny
I have been on and off addicted to Path of Exile. Using LLMs to code feels very much the same. It's harder to quit, though, since no one paid me to play Path of Exile.
@praxeology -
@jonny exactly, when i talk to people who maybe just use ai a little bit, their reaponses quite align with things you’d hear from drug addict, some excuses, avoidance, bit of shame.
And i agree that the patern is finally similar to gaming/gambling addiction -
@KalenXI @jonny Still sounds like if you just wrote it yourself it would be easier and less error prone.
But tell me, how do you justify giving money to huge fascist adjacent corporations that want to enclose the digital commons, make people dependent on their services for basic thought, while totally not caring how much scams, fake (child) porn, misinformation, propaganda, military strikes, etc, they enable?
@ainmosni To be perfectly honest I don't believe I have a good answer. My inclination is to place the responsibility at the hands of those choosing to do the harm like the government doing the military strikes or the person making the porn. But I also don't believe you should knowingly give a a vulnerable person the means to their own downfall.
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@ainmosni To be perfectly honest I don't believe I have a good answer. My inclination is to place the responsibility at the hands of those choosing to do the harm like the government doing the military strikes or the person making the porn. But I also don't believe you should knowingly give a a vulnerable person the means to their own downfall.
@ainmosni
I also believe we're currently in an unsustainable bubble where the true cost of all of this inference is subsidized by people who have been allowed to accrue too much capital. And I feel like in fairly short order people are going to have to start reckoning with whether all this is worth it when venture capital isn't covering 90% of the real cost for them. -
@ainmosni
I also believe we're currently in an unsustainable bubble where the true cost of all of this inference is subsidized by people who have been allowed to accrue too much capital. And I feel like in fairly short order people are going to have to start reckoning with whether all this is worth it when venture capital isn't covering 90% of the real cost for them.@ainmosni I'll also admit that I find it very difficult to truly understand what people who have an emotional relationship with AI are going through. Because my reaction to a software program feigning any kind of emotional understanding or empathy is to be extremely repulsed.
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@ainmosni I'll also admit that I find it very difficult to truly understand what people who have an emotional relationship with AI are going through. Because my reaction to a software program feigning any kind of emotional understanding or empathy is to be extremely repulsed.
@ainmosni And I do worry that the people who work for the AI companies seem to be imo somewhat delusional. Like asking a model what it wants to do in "retirement" and giving it a blog to express itself on rather than just turning it off. When they more than anyone should know it's just an algorithm and is therefore incapable of having feelings or opinions.
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RE: https://hails.org/@hailey/116657391001259044
all the criticism has been said, all the takes been had. the only metaphor i have been finding consistently useful for understanding what is happening with people and "AI" is addiction, and specifically gambling addiction.
@jonny As well... there are a few people I was amazed to talk to, especially science fiction loving guys higher up at tech companies (who are like, everywhere) which have an almost animistic belief that GAI currently exists. Got called small-minded, etc, which is fine. Sources and research didn't phase them.
They sincerely believe in it, and you know you can't replace a belief with data and information. My anthropology courses have never been better applied than recently with the cultish behaviour around genAI. I'm interested in how it feels for people who get that gambling rush about genAI, and how it ties into beliefs, could it maybe strengthen the affect?
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RE: https://hails.org/@hailey/116657391001259044
all the criticism has been said, all the takes been had. the only metaphor i have been finding consistently useful for understanding what is happening with people and "AI" is addiction, and specifically gambling addiction.
mandatory
"LLMs are slot-machines": https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2025-08-16-jackpot-salience-bias-2a696501bba7
and
