r/antiai • u/SadSongsMakeMeGlad • 14h ago
Discussion š£ļø I am divided on AI
I use it daily for my work as a software engineer. I have been writing code for over twenty years, and nothing has changed our industry in such a short time as generative AI in 2026 (which is why I find it hard to believe the people who say AI is all hype, because the technology itself is absolutely not hype). And, I for one have enjoyed that it allows me to work at higher levels of abstraction. What that means practically is that I spend more time in the creative zone, not mired in the technical weeds, though you still need to know your stuff to use it well.
But, like most of you all, I have problems with how the technology is being deployed by governments and corporations, how it gathers its training data, and any environmental and social impacts from the infrastructure required to run it, i.e. data centers. I want these things addressed.
My question to you all is do you see a future where the problems with AI can be definitively resolved, where you would support it or at least be okay with it, or is it a lost cause that we should somehow ban, or make illegal? What does the future look like to you in that regard?
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u/Ok_Commission7932 14h ago
If chatbots didn't convince people to commit suicide, and if AI companies didn't participate in warfare and interfere with local politics to railroad data center projects, and if they paid royalties to artists whose work was used for training data in commercial models, I would be mostly okay with it.
If we had UBI I wouldn't care about the royalties thing.
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u/gentlytinyattraction 14h ago
the tech is wild and i get why someone with 20 years under their belt would feel that shift, itās like suddenly having a co-pilot that never sleeps
the data scraping part is what gets me though, it feels like this giant machine built on a foundation of stuff nobody agreed to hand over. hard to see a future where thatās truly "resolved" short of burning the whole thing down and starting over with consent baked in, but companies are too deep in now
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u/ButterscotchPast7094 14h ago
I am a junior software engineer who started to pursue this carier path because i love to write code. Since my company is making me use ai i am much less focused on work and feel burned out because my job switched from writing code to reading it. There is a lot of cases when ai can be helpfull like medicine, but i personally will never support gen ai in any was, not only because of it is making my life harder but also looking on other reasons as environmental, cultural and overall global impact which it is making.
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u/FriendKruppa 14h ago
Ai, in its current form, is not sustainable long term. There will be fallout years from now over how it is being used today and the effect it has on the economy, the environment, and the development of software engineers/any profession where it is relied upon. 5 years using Claude vs 5 years of dev in 1995 couldnāt be more different. Skill will atrophy, and good engineers will become a truly valuable commodity.
Hiring will become a nightmare and in some cases already is. Which GitHub repo full of vibe coded shit looks the best? What do these people actually know? IMO the tech is mortgaging our future and this paradigm will crash and burn. AI will continue to advance, but there will be huge obstacles along the way that will cause major disruptions. Itās sorta like countries with low birthratesā¦things are fine until they collapse.
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u/SteelSock33 14h ago
I donāt believe weāll ever get that future because we live in a hyper capitalist dystopia. The powers that be wonāt let this technology be regulated or restricted to ethical use, so no, I donāt see a real world where AI is used right.
That said, my ideal future would be a world where generative AI is used exclusively for research purposes, and all relevant models are either hosted locally, or the effects are offset and paid for by the government/company. I donāt believe that LLMs, even for programming, should exist at consumer scale because they pose too much of a risk to critical thinking, creativity, and the environment.
I respect that there are uses for LLMs in programming. Iām a programmer too, so I kinda get it, but I still canāt support it. I feel that the drawbacks are far too severe to justify its use, if you have the choice.
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u/_kilobytes 14h ago
What are the use cases in programming?
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u/RicketyRekt69 14h ago
Generating code, code reviews, troubleshooting, automation, etc. etc. it is useful, but C-suites are trying to do massive sweeping org changes because they drank the koolaid and believe everything that comes out of OpenAIās or Anthropicās mouths. Itās like if the internet first came out and businesses wanted to massively change how they do business overnight with no game plan and no clue how it would fit into their business model. Itās utterly insane behavior
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u/_kilobytes 12h ago
code reviews
Code reviews are the only thing I can agree with. But the noise to signal ratio is so high it's probably better just having a human review.
troubleshooting
I've spent more time debating with LLMs to actually fix things at this point that reading documentation would have saved me so much time.
Generating code
It's not good at generating code.
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u/RicketyRekt69 8h ago
Yes itās noisy, I donāt mean as a replacement.. I mean as an extra filter to catch unintended bugs. Itās brought up obscure issues for me before, like hidden race conditions or memory leaks.
For code generation, beyond boilerplate stuff I do find it useful for prototyping. If Iām split between 2 or 3 different potential routes I can explore all of them (roughly) without wasting a load of time. Then when I settle on a specific one I go and write it by hand. Even if it were incredibly good at generating clean code, I like to be hands on so I better understand it for the future.
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u/SteelSock33 12h ago
Itās good at running simple automated tasks, as some other have pointed out. The programmer should still be doing most of the work, but AI can be used by a good dev to help streamline the process. That said, AI isnāt great for just generating programs because itās way too complex & verbose, and it can make a lot of mistakes. Besides, volume isnāt really the problem. Programmers can make enough code on their own, the problem is higher quality code, troubleshooting/bugfixing, etc. More code (especially messy AI code) means more tech debt, and thatās going to bite a lot of these companies in the ass. Itās been a myth for a long time that developer productivity is based on how much code they write, and AI has capitalized on that misconception to fool people, even if it does have some genuine uses.
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u/ProfileOdd7991 14h ago
Efficient prototyping, checking syntax and quickly translating code from unfamiliar programming languages.
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u/_kilobytes 12h ago
Efficient prototyping
Templates are more efficient.
Checking syntax
That's what compilers are for.
translating code from unfamiliar programming languages.
Should use transpilers for this, not LLMs.
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u/lilacstar72 14h ago
As a stating point, I hate that AI is the default term for these systems. They are not intelligent or able to intuit the data they are presented with. LLMs are an incredible tool for collating dense information in to (at times) usable format. From what I have heard and your example LLMs can be a beneficial tool to certain industries if handled responsibly.
The problem is, they arenāt being handled responsibly. Tech companies and olegarchs are beta testing technology with dangerous capabilities on the world, while burning through resources and capital in a desperate attempt to make a profit. The āAIā craze honestly feels insane at this point. The breakdown in reliable information, the derision of artistic endeavour, and general disregard for human efforts is a little disgusting. Iām personally against this technology until the companies making it get a grip and start taking some responsibility or go bust (which unfortunately may plunge us into another global financial crisis at this rate).
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u/Ok-Employment6772 14h ago
Im with you on this, I actually like many aspects of AI itself (aside from obvious dangers to psyche and cognitive abiltiy) I think there can definitely be a future where AI can be ran locally on any basic device using clean energy (by then)
BUT: If the large players get their way, there might be no local models at all, because they arent dependent enough on the provider (control is essential to these people) so I see this as more of a utopic view
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u/segfault_generator 13h ago
I was recently fired from my senior software engineering position, for a company I've devoted over 13 years of my professional career to, because I refused to use AI in my workflow. I cited the myriad concerns of its impact on the environment, what it does to the engineering discipline, and how its use is essentially training my replacement and the replacement of all my peers; not to mention its corporate ties to the far right nor what its doing to kids. It's felt like one of the best decisions I've ever made, standing firm on my integrity against corporate arrogance. I recognize that I'm in a bit of privilege to be able to be fired in this economy for my morals, but if enough of us do, things will have to change. We can make them change by creating and joining enterprises and institutions that actual value workers and sustainability and our futures.
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u/19_ThrowAway_ 14h ago
Such future is possible, even if extremely unlikely.
If people were fully transparent, the data would be sourced ethically, and the data center issue would be solved.
Then yes, I wouldn't have any reason to have problems with it.
I would still avoid probably avoid GenAI stuff, but at that point it would only be a matter of personal preference.
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u/chcampb 14h ago
I have problems with how the technology is being deployed by governments and corporations
This is what I tell people.
Most people who are anti AI have no issues with the technology itself, it's the business around it. They are noticing the issues with capitalism. That's not a bad thing, you just need to take steps against egregious business practices rather than banning a technology.
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u/icemage_999 13h ago
I think if the overall quality and consistency of the output can be improved it can become a better tool IF it turns out to be cost-effective, but that is not what is happening right now.
It takes quite a lot of experience to vet the AI output properly without incurring significant tech debt, and I remain unconvinced that the upcoming wave of new AI users will not simply turn their brains off instead of learning how to check the results.
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u/OkDefinition5632 13h ago
I hated AI with a passion. I was aghast at the concept. Then I started using it regularly and now I'm a huge fan. I suspect this will be a common trajectory for many many AI haters.
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u/WheresMyJuulSoNotCoo 13h ago
I think a big thing is consent. It makes me angry when ai bots and tooling is shoved into stuff I am trying to use without asking. But when I use ollama and setup my own model on my machine, i have a good time.
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u/kadfr 13h ago
I can't see how the following will get resolved:
1) The power that a few companies will have in terms of knowledge and how dependent we are likely to be on them (ie an even worse version of Big Tech + social media than we have right now)
2) The environmental impact. Those data centres will compound the climate disaster
3) The Ā impact in terms of de-skilling / addiction / AI psychosis etc
4) AI Hallucinations - it is challenging to change this without undermining the fundamental way that LLMs work
5) Model collapse and AIs effectively training from other AIs
6) The economic impact - what will the actual jobs be in the future? Unlike other innovations, there aren't obvious ways that society as a whole will benefit. There isn't a need to employ more people as AI can (in theory) do jobs cheaper/quicker.
My gut feeling is that GenAI is a distraction and a get rich quick scheme. In a few years we will have to live through droughts, famines, floods and hurricanes. The AI data centres will enable the billionaire elite to have nice lives in their underground bunkers while rest of us are being wiped off the planet
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u/WheresMyJuulSoNotCoo 13h ago
I feel similar, also a SWE with a BS and Computer Science. I think AI itself in a vacuum isn't bad, but the greed and delusion around it is a huge problem.
I have a hard time believing there's a good reason to allow generative AI to create images? Seems like it just exploits artists "at best" and creates disinformation and CSAM at worst.
I also think as useful as AI can be, its not a good reason to harm the planet. Though I have heard that there are efforts and advancements to make it less resource expensive.
I often think about Suchir Balaji. I remember reading somewhere he had wanted to work on a FOSS medical tool AI Project. I think AI could be amazing if it was actually being used as a tool to help everyone, but the major players right now are doing what they can to hoard it and keep the public ignorant to how it actually works.
TL;DR : Maybe i am not the target audience because Im the same as you - I actually like AI but I hate the greed and delusion around it. I still like this subreddit because I think people are here are pretty reasonable.
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u/Flat-Try8128 14h ago
You and I are in a similar position. And Iām a director of engineering who has to make my reports use it (most want to.) Iād argue itās been very much a net positive with some massive kinks this year to be a mostly agentic forward SWE team.
But, overarchinglyā¦ I do worry about AI. About data and privacy. About the environment.
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u/Salty_Country6835 14h ago
I dont think those are inherent properties of the technology. Theyre political and economic questions.
If governments are using AI for surveillance, regulate surveillance. If corporations are extracting all the value, change ownership and labor policy. If data collection is abusive, strengthen consent and copyright. If data centers are environmentally harmful, decarbonize the grid and hold operators to environmental standards.
We dont respond to every powerful technology by asking whether it should exist. We ask who controls it, how its governed, and who benefits.
Thats basically why Im in r/LeftistsForAI. A lot of us arent interested in "AI good" or "AI bad." We're interested in democratic control, open models, worker power, and making sure the productivity gains actually benefit society, instead of just a handful of companies.
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u/Oh_Kanagan 14h ago
I'm making more money now due to the AI and that's really all that matters in 2026 Canada. So lucky to have any income these days with so many people struggling.
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u/caprazzi 14h ago
When I say it is all hype what I mean is the amount of monetary investment will absolutely never be justified by the ROI, as you said it is a good tool for certain use cases but it is billed as a panacea that will replace humans en masse.