This is like a new philosophy student objecting to someone saying, “This begs the question of whether…” It’s essentially a category error, an incorrect application of context.
You - and Eric Raymond, who believes he’s an incarnation of the god Pan - are both using a meaning of the word that has only ever been used in a relatively tiny subculture. That meaning has no bearing on its broader use.
I think the usage of the word in the CNN article is more like a news report saying there was a bear attack. Bears hunt salmon, eat berries and veggies, since they're omnivores. A report is only going to be typically referring to bears in reference to an attack on humans, but bears have other normal activities, like communing with other bears, taking a nap, raising cubs and going on walks. In that sense, hackers do partake in multiple, non attack activities.
It would be just as unusual to have a story about hackers doing acts of good will, like helping old ladies cross the street. But a news report isn't going to cover that. "Hacker altruist volunteers at soup kitchen" might make a headline, I suppose.
> To say otherwise tells me you haven't actually tried to make use of these tools.
There's also a lot of ideological opposition, which often tries to claim that the tech is useless etc.
> Am I missing out on the work involved in learning things I would be forced to otherwise, also yes.
Yes, but many of those things are things you might not really care about learning about. And if you want to learn about them, AI can be a big help, if you use it appropriately.
The "mixed bag" comes from the way people use it, mostly not from the tech itself.
Get it right, 99.99% of ideological opposition is mostly do to the naked display of wealth concentration where we are literally forcing Americans to bear the higher costs of electricity, noise pollution, actual pollution, and increased cancer rates while they are flushing down trillions of dollars into the drain while Americans lack medicare for all, universal childcare, free higher education, or even a public jobs program (fun fact, all these programs poll above 70-80%).
The naked display of the elites willing to fuck over large swaths of Americans is not only despicable it is in our civic duty to rightfully fight and reject this.
No one wants this yet it is being thrusted upon us and we are forced to pay for this madness. If you ask most Americans they would probably be completely okay with nationalizing big tech or seizing their assets.
Why does this tech have to champion naked displays of greed where the elites feign surprise that people are willing to fight for their lives?
This is the single issue that unites Americans across parties, incomes, and race; it's the class issue of the century and the people yearn for material change.
What I pointed out is that ideological objectors often try to claim that AI is actually technically useless.
The problem with that is that it makes their arguments seem less credible, and even misleads their own supporters into underestimating what they’re dealing with. It’s a literally self-defeating position.
Another tactic is to use LLMs to help you learn. That's another way to approach "It has never been easier to get better than others."
Avoiding tool use because you're afraid you won't be able to use the tool responsibly is not likely to be a winning strategy in the end. Learning to use the tool well is much more effective.
But they're also unreliable in what they present, they still hallucinate. I rather do my own research or listen to a real human on the topic who actually has an internal concept and structure of what they're talking about.
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