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  3. Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS.

Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS.

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  • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

    Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

    You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

    patrick_h_lauke@mastodon.socialP This user is from outside of this forum
    patrick_h_lauke@mastodon.socialP This user is from outside of this forum
    patrick_h_lauke@mastodon.social
    wrote last edited by
    #6

    @tante what always gets me: it's not "democratizing", it's "commoditizing"

    1 Reply Last reply
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    • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

      Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

      You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

      pepperthevixen@meow.socialP This user is from outside of this forum
      pepperthevixen@meow.socialP This user is from outside of this forum
      pepperthevixen@meow.social
      wrote last edited by
      #7

      @tante If anybody trying to sell me tech says anything about "democratizing [thing]", I assume they have bad intentions. You're not democratising shit. You're trying to build vendor lock-in and pretending you're motivated by altruism

      1 Reply Last reply
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      • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

        Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

        You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

        eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE This user is from outside of this forum
        eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE This user is from outside of this forum
        eurodivergent@mstdn.social
        wrote last edited by
        #8

        @tante I agree. And yet there is this: I have been using small LLMs to help me kick-off coding projects that I conceptually understand but lack the mental ability to learn the programming on my own. I let the model sketch the structure, suggest a stack, and then let it build while I watch and ask questions. Then I tell it to document all steps and explain what does what on a granular level. Last week I was able to generate a simple SSG. (1/5)

        eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE mnl@hachyderm.ioM raymaccarthy@mastodon.ieR 3 Replies Last reply
        0
        • eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE eurodivergent@mstdn.social

          For years I have been structuring it in my mind. It turned out pretty functional. Believe me, no time and dedication would have had the same empowering effect in the same time frame. I am a really slow learner when it comes to the concrete programming languages and their topography. This has been holding me back the last 15 years. Now I can watch functional code being created and see what it does or does not. And what do you think I do? Next time I go and copy the project by hand. (2/5)

          eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE This user is from outside of this forum
          eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE This user is from outside of this forum
          eurodivergent@mstdn.social
          wrote last edited by
          #9

          Learning how to do it in the process. It's maybe a niche approach, but it works. I only rely on code generation as long as absolutely necessary and not out of comfort. (No "center the div pls"). In a way, the model slowly makes itself obsolete. Another principle I have is to only let code be generated that I understand. Once I don't know what it does, I stop. And the third principle is to not do any potentially harmful coding projects this way. (3/5)

          eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE 1 Reply Last reply
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          • eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE eurodivergent@mstdn.social

            @tante I agree. And yet there is this: I have been using small LLMs to help me kick-off coding projects that I conceptually understand but lack the mental ability to learn the programming on my own. I let the model sketch the structure, suggest a stack, and then let it build while I watch and ask questions. Then I tell it to document all steps and explain what does what on a granular level. Last week I was able to generate a simple SSG. (1/5)

            eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE This user is from outside of this forum
            eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE This user is from outside of this forum
            eurodivergent@mstdn.social
            wrote last edited by
            #10

            For years I have been structuring it in my mind. It turned out pretty functional. Believe me, no time and dedication would have had the same empowering effect in the same time frame. I am a really slow learner when it comes to the concrete programming languages and their topography. This has been holding me back the last 15 years. Now I can watch functional code being created and see what it does or does not. And what do you think I do? Next time I go and copy the project by hand. (2/5)

            eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE eurodivergent@mstdn.social

              I code small websites and automations for silly podcasting and conversion of files. That's it.

              I don't see this niche talked about much. I have an attention disability. LLMs help me. Believe it or not. (4/5)

              eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE This user is from outside of this forum
              eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE This user is from outside of this forum
              eurodivergent@mstdn.social
              wrote last edited by
              #11

              You referred to home assistant on another post doing some of the same stuff OpenClaw does. In this context I agree. The equivalent here would be an interactive programming tutorial. They have existed before wide adoption of LLMs, yes. But they were never able to adopt to real context. Instead they are usually prepared and edited by humans as a constrained lesson. Usually there is no room for "what if we did this?". (5/5)

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE eurodivergent@mstdn.social

                Learning how to do it in the process. It's maybe a niche approach, but it works. I only rely on code generation as long as absolutely necessary and not out of comfort. (No "center the div pls"). In a way, the model slowly makes itself obsolete. Another principle I have is to only let code be generated that I understand. Once I don't know what it does, I stop. And the third principle is to not do any potentially harmful coding projects this way. (3/5)

                eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE This user is from outside of this forum
                eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE This user is from outside of this forum
                eurodivergent@mstdn.social
                wrote last edited by
                #12

                I code small websites and automations for silly podcasting and conversion of files. That's it.

                I don't see this niche talked about much. I have an attention disability. LLMs help me. Believe it or not. (4/5)

                eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE eurodivergent@mstdn.social

                  @tante I agree. And yet there is this: I have been using small LLMs to help me kick-off coding projects that I conceptually understand but lack the mental ability to learn the programming on my own. I let the model sketch the structure, suggest a stack, and then let it build while I watch and ask questions. Then I tell it to document all steps and explain what does what on a granular level. Last week I was able to generate a simple SSG. (1/5)

                  mnl@hachyderm.ioM This user is from outside of this forum
                  mnl@hachyderm.ioM This user is from outside of this forum
                  mnl@hachyderm.io
                  wrote last edited by
                  #13

                  @eurodivergent @tante this is exactly why I stand by #llms democratizing access to software engineering. I know so many people know, from artists to blue collar to family business hustlers to genomics researcher who are now building full fledged software solving problems for them. I assist minimally. They are truly empowered and so much of the alienating side of tech is gone, from replacing photoshop to using local only html gizmos to just knowing that you can get a relay board connected to your music software without spending the whole weekend on arduino frustrations. It cuts off ties to big tech and gets us back to whimsical personal software.

                  I can’t speak to other domains, but this one is truly real.

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

                    Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

                    You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

                    rudi@hachyderm.ioR This user is from outside of this forum
                    rudi@hachyderm.ioR This user is from outside of this forum
                    rudi@hachyderm.io
                    wrote last edited by
                    #14

                    @tante we’re democratizing coding! That will be 20$ per month, please

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
                    • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

                      Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

                      You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

                      evaack@hachyderm.ioE This user is from outside of this forum
                      evaack@hachyderm.ioE This user is from outside of this forum
                      evaack@hachyderm.io
                      wrote last edited by
                      #15

                      @tante I spy with my little eye a connection between this sentiment of "AI democratizing things" and UBI not being implemented as policy 👁

                      Spot-on 👏

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

                        Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

                        You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

                        V This user is from outside of this forum
                        V This user is from outside of this forum
                        vittelius@layer8.space
                        wrote last edited by
                        #16

                        @tante Also: modern art has thoroughly democratized art already. A fake name signed to an urinal is considered art. What's left to democratize?

                        1 Reply Last reply
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                        • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

                          Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

                          You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

                          budududuroiu@hachyderm.ioB This user is from outside of this forum
                          budududuroiu@hachyderm.ioB This user is from outside of this forum
                          budududuroiu@hachyderm.io
                          wrote last edited by
                          #17

                          @tante this is an intellectually dishonest argument.

                          Everything is solvable by "more time and more access to infrastructure" when your limits approach infinity, similar to how, if you gave an infinite amount of monkey an infinite amount of typewriters, one of them will eventually type up with the works Shakespeare.

                          Take creating an alternative to Android for example, it's a Herculean task not because of the OS itself, but because of a

                          > wide range of nonfree software blobs that commonly occur in even the most progressive "free software" operating systems.

                          Link Preview Image
                          LibrePhone

                          LibrePhone is a project to research freely licensed firmware for mobile phones.

                          favicon

                          LibrePhone (librephone.fsf.org)

                          LLMs are great at pattern recognition by design, including identifying function signatures, recognising common driver patterns, reading Ghidra output, etc.

                          This takes a problem that was so far considered in the realm of needing state backing to a problem that can be tackled by a relatively small team of dedicated researchers.

                          So yeah, my bad if I don't give a damn about moralising "AI use" when the alternative is rewriting and drying up the moat of American tech companies that enable surveillance and brutalising of the Global South

                          dataghost@mstdn.socialD 1 Reply Last reply
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                          • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

                            Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

                            You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

                            G This user is from outside of this forum
                            G This user is from outside of this forum
                            gerardthornley@hachyderm.io
                            wrote last edited by
                            #18

                            @tante Yeah, if anything it'll do the opposite. Lowering entry costs will drive people out of the market, so that the only ones who can afford to get stuff actually made by a human are the ones who have acquired sufficient money / power to afford it.

                            E.g. Once upon a time, every chair or table would have been hand-made. Where does hand-made furniture sit in the market, now?

                            1 Reply Last reply
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                            • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

                              Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

                              You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

                              rycochet@furs.socialR This user is from outside of this forum
                              rycochet@furs.socialR This user is from outside of this forum
                              rycochet@furs.social
                              wrote last edited by
                              #19

                              @tante Anyone in tech who tosses around the term 'Democratising' means they want to remove the need for consent, the ability for creative people to refuse to allow their art be used to put a glossy sheen on the indefensible. It's the same language we hear from incels when it comes to sex, what their involuntary partner may want isn't even a consideration.

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

                                Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

                                You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

                                carstenpfeffer@mastodon.gamedev.placeC This user is from outside of this forum
                                carstenpfeffer@mastodon.gamedev.placeC This user is from outside of this forum
                                carstenpfeffer@mastodon.gamedev.place
                                wrote last edited by
                                #20

                                @tante Indeed, it's the opposite of democratization. The reason: Who owns the models, who owns the data centers? Oligarchs have control over whether the models generate and what they generate.

                                1 Reply Last reply
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                                • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

                                  Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

                                  You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

                                  sergiudinit@mastodon.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                                  sergiudinit@mastodon.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                                  sergiudinit@mastodon.social
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #21

                                  This is spot on. AI will automate the boring parts but the "democratization" crowd always conflates access with skill. The tools get better, the bar gets higher, not lower

                                  1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

                                    I do want to see the art people come up with who can't do it today. Give everyone a paid month off every year to do whatever they want. Learn a thing, make music. Paint. Anything.
                                    That gives people access. Not a slop machine.

                                    raymaccarthy@mastodon.ieR This user is from outside of this forum
                                    raymaccarthy@mastodon.ieR This user is from outside of this forum
                                    raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #22

                                    @tante
                                    The slop / plagiarising machine gives giant corporations control,

                                    Also you can't copyright / own any AI generated content. You can be sure if it could be copyrighted, the Corp selling the service would own the copyright.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • tante@tldr.nettime.orgT tante@tldr.nettime.org

                                      Worth repeating: Claims of "AI" democratizing anything (coding, creative endeavors, etc) are always BS. The thing locking out people from doing that is not having the time/resources.

                                      You want to democratize coding/art/creativity? Give people paid time off to do it and access to infrastructure. Easy.

                                      ghostonthehalfshell@masto.aiG This user is from outside of this forum
                                      ghostonthehalfshell@masto.aiG This user is from outside of this forum
                                      ghostonthehalfshell@masto.ai
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #23

                                      @tante

                                      When we look at any piece of technology being offered to us the very first thing we should ask is who ends up in control of the process / who is made dependent on the process?

                                      Convenience can only be considered beneficial when we can trust the service not to screw us

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE eurodivergent@mstdn.social

                                        @tante I agree. And yet there is this: I have been using small LLMs to help me kick-off coding projects that I conceptually understand but lack the mental ability to learn the programming on my own. I let the model sketch the structure, suggest a stack, and then let it build while I watch and ask questions. Then I tell it to document all steps and explain what does what on a granular level. Last week I was able to generate a simple SSG. (1/5)

                                        raymaccarthy@mastodon.ieR This user is from outside of this forum
                                        raymaccarthy@mastodon.ieR This user is from outside of this forum
                                        raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #24

                                        @eurodivergent @tante

                                        You need to do a real course. You are simply being exploited.

                                        eurodivergent@mstdn.socialE chudesnov@mstdn.socialC 2 Replies Last reply
                                        0
                                        • dergiga@troet.cafeD dergiga@troet.cafe

                                          @tante Furthermore: People are not creating, they are commissioning.

                                          "I used Da Vinci to create the Mona Lisa." - some Medici, probably.

                                          gekitsu@toot.catG This user is from outside of this forum
                                          gekitsu@toot.catG This user is from outside of this forum
                                          gekitsu@toot.cat
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #25

                                          @DerGiga @tante and every artist who had to wrestle their way through a client’s near-inscrutable ‘prompt’ to arrive at a competent picture knows very very intimately that natural language is a really bad interface for such a purpose, too.

                                          this weird dream of ‘i tell the machine what i want and then i get the picture i had in my head’ is making some very bold assumptions about how well they can wield language.

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