My employer has this figured out the right way: AI tools in the hands of competent employees can get a lot done. The engineers themselves agree and are long past their initial chilly reaction. They now have their workflows figured out and routinely report that they did something in minutes that would have taken them hours to do manually.

And even under this rosier picture, token budgets are an issue. These guys have agents running agents running agents that use a whole ecosystem of internal MCP servers and skill plugins and on and on. They say they never shut their laptops because they have 6 or 7 things running at all times. The LLM usage is ridiculous.

Once the LLMs cost what they actually cost, there will be a big time reckoning. First companies will crack down, then they will futz with on-premise models, then they will drive for SLMs and other slimmed down stuff. And they will pay the big guys 100x what they are now for 1/100th the usage.

But hey I don’t know why I’m posting in substance about the real world when all we are here to do is say AI is bullshit and CEOs are dumb. Carry on I guess.

[mimes bong hit]

So whether it’s acceptable depends on whether it’s acceptable. I agree!

I’m glad you’re entertaining yourself because I have no idea what you’re prattling about.

91% accuracy is the kind of thing that may sound good… hey! It’s an A minus! But it’s actually completely, totally unacceptable. Imagine if the turn signal wand on your car operated with 91% accuracy. About one in every ten times it would light up the wrong direction. How many accidents are we causing? A lot.

If you ban religion AI will become people’s God.

Say more here. It’s an interesting claim. Why do you see this as inevitable? I’m an atheist and AI has not become my god.

If you could ban religion, or ban AI, which would you ban?

Try it. All we have here is someone with a very accommodating employer. It’s not like all Unitarians everywhere now have some court judgment backing them.

But did you type that on your thinking machine?

I’m pretty sure that in Dune, all computers are banned, not just AI. You can’t even have a ship with a navigation computer.

There were already 100 reasons why the Unitarians are where it’s at.

But I really don’t think this is reason 101. All we have here is someone who asked their employer for this and was fortunate enough to have it granted.

That means nothing for anyone else. There is not some national law that all Unitarians have this protected right now.

So yeah… you might as well try on grounds that it offends Allah, because you’ll have the same odds.

“You can now get an exemption” is a huge overstatement.

Someone in North Carolina asked for it and happened to get it from her employer. That does not provide any firm basis for anyone else to follow. Any of us could have tried this last month with the same odds we have now.

Agreed - it was so obvious it didn’t take much work to name it.

Yup. Also traditional: the blind hypocrisy of using a tech product that routes through a data center to call for a total ban on data centers.

You can be sure Monterey Park didn’t have any data centers to begin with. They aren’t exactly in every town. And there’s no shortage of towns ready to line up for data center money. I’m sure this town will be fine.

Don’t feel bad - you just dared to bruise their favorite “AI BAD” narrative with practical facts. Sometimes this place really is just an echo chamber to shout idiotic wishes into the dark instead of a forum for actual discussion.

I could see a reasonable statewide zoning law but a statewide ban? You’ve got to be kidding. Tech is one of California’s biggest industries. We’re just going to NIMBY the problem onto someone else?

So you’re saying it’s a one dimensional age check which doesn’t invade your privacy because you can just lie to it completely?

That’s a valid point. I just want to clarify that’s what you meant.

Hey, I don’t know if you’ve heard about this or not, but… there’s pornography on Steam.

I haven’t actually. But now I understand why Steam asks for my birthday over and over. It’s surprising that people don’t complain about that more. All the new age verification laws have drawn vociferous ire, but Steam has been doing it for years and remains beloved.

Most corporate lawyers are there to steer you way around any danger. I used to think they would help me understand exactly where the legal boundaries are, but I’ve been disappointed time and again that they won’t play it even close to the line. To be fair to them, laws are written in language and always have room for interpretation so if you work in an industry where you’re doing novel things, they can’t always say exactly what will get you in trouble.

A lawyer that will lean in and go in hot on issues where it’s well known that you’re operating over the line… yeah that’s a very “wartime consigliere” kind of thing which I imagine few corporate lawyers are able to pivot to at the drop of a hat. Sorry, Tom.

Yeah all 3 of you should cancel.