GrapheneOS is currently defending its use of AI coding tools on Mastodon against complaints by various accounts claiming to be users.

We do not understand where you’re coming from or why you’re so incredibly angry with us. It’s not justified and does not make sense.

  • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    arrow-down
    25
    ·
    24 days ago

    “Ai” isn’t inherently evil. It’s just a tool. An incredibly interesting and marvelous tool, in theory.

    What we make of it and how we use it matters. Noone needs stupid chatbots. People should only be allowed to use them after graduating an exam of what they actually are and how they work. In the current state they’re 90% bullshit and harmful.

    But LLMs surely have great and reasonable applications. People often fear what they don’t really understand. And LLMs really are a topic that often even “techies” don’t get, so why should a layman.

    Yes, they are environmental Desasters. But try to substract all the trillions of silly nonsensical queries millions of people hammer into chatbots, that once were simple search-engine - queries. And it’s not THAT bad anymore.

    • qyron@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      24 days ago

      I’m just going to quote myself, as I’m satisfied enough with the answer I wrote to another reply.

      As it exists, as it was created, “AI” is evil. It consumes resources we can’t afford to waste and is currently supercharging our pollution indexes and creating what may be a catastrophic collapse of already very fragile and unbalanced social and economic realities. And because we are already into the sunken cost falacy fase, it will never be rewritten or rebuilt. Hopefully, it will collapse in such horrifying way it will create a cautionary tale, but we are not so lucky, so what we are left with is picking up the bits after it. This kind of system had to be developed inside laboratories, colleges, universities, research centers, to aid into very niche and specific fields of research, not made to be a mass consumption comodity as it is. But it was, unfortunately, not done that way.

      • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        23 days ago

        “I’m just going to quote myself”

        Yeah go on buddy, doesn’t make you right though.

        AI is an item (as “tool” seems to trigger you people), saying it is “evil” is just stupid and makes you sound like an evangelist lol.

        Is it bad? That is something people can actually discuss, but you’re not here for that it seems.

        • qyron@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          23 days ago

          The AI is a consummer of resources we can not easily dispense that returns nothing of objective and equivalent value.

          Fresh words, no quotes.

          More palatable now?

          • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            23 days ago

            Oh no we didn’t know that!! /s

            Dude, we know the downsides of generative AI and the training of llms.

            Is that so hard to understand?

            • qyron@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              23 days ago

              It is. It really is. At any point on any other endeavour, someone said it was enough and the costs did not justify the results. Not with this. So, it really is hard to understand.

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        23 days ago

        Just because it was a nicely worded statement, doesn’t make it universal.

        I use a local LLM for our smart home. It wastes a Lil bit of energy, which is still faaaar below my 1500W while gaming. Is gaming evil now? It helps dramatically in ways that were never possible before like “turn on all lights at 40% in the color purple and also turn on music. My fav playlist” followed by a “no, use a warm color and close all windows”.

        Not every LLM is a fucking chatbot that eats the planet to “create” a shitty cat-meme for Granny’s Facebook.

        Don’t assume everyone uses silly chatbots. That is ONE application of LLMs, and it is indeed stupid and kills out environment for basically no benefit.

    • badgermurphy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      22 days ago

      The problem you’re encountering is that every human defines evil differently. Those disagreeing with you seem to define evil to include “detrimental to civilized society”, which does at least come from an objective premise, even if you don’t agree with the assessment.

      Through that lens, the good it does for people simply cannot outweigh the bad, because they believe the bad to include the end of society. That is what you’re arguing against, and why people with that view are so energized and are unmoved by the counter-arguments. If you want to change their minds, you would first have to convince them their premise is false, not just their conclusion.

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        22 days ago

        Well, tbh, if someone has an opinion that isn’t swayable by facts, why should I take that person seriously? It’s like talking with religious nutjobs. They already have all “answers”.

        The facts are clear, relatively simple, and accessible by everyone. And “evil” is generally considered bad. But LLMs are not just “that precise one thing” that could be declared evil. It’s a concept. The application of it changes the good/evil attribution. Chatbot? Obviously bad. Helping to determine cancer in a Patient? Good. Etc.

        If people don’t WANT to argue because they already joined a “AI is the devil”-cult, so be it. Not my job to convince anyone of anything 😊

        • badgermurphy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          22 days ago

          Their opinions may be swayable by facts, but not just any facts. You would need to present facts that confirm that their specific objections are unfounded or overblown.

          Facts like “its here to stay” and “it allows you to write more code in less time”, etc, do not address their objections. Stating to them the ways in which it is good does nothing to counter their conception of the ways in which it is bad.

          • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            22 days ago

            And that’s the nonsense about it. We’re not talking about cars or such, but a general concept. And most likely take one or two specific applications of it and use it as a definition of the thing itself. And even with cars you couldn’t condemned them because tanks exists, and ignore ambulances or such.

            Also, it’s usually the exact same group that also mostly uses products of what they hate so much. Microsoft, google, Facebook or any us-american bigtec. If LLMs would be as bad as they say it is, stop funding it. Simple. Really really simple. I don’t use any of those, so it’s possible to actually protest besides big word and vote by wallet.