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🧵 One thing that concerns me about the current AI mania is what I see as people embracing full on nihilism - the "nothing matters" philosophy. - "LLMs have a massive environmental cost? Doesn't matter, because *future smarter* AI will solve climate change." 1/7

- "LLMs are being forced on everyone by deeply unprofitable companies? Doesn't matter, *future efficient* AI will make it super cheap." - "LLMs produce buggy, unreliable code? Doesn't matter, *future smarter and cheap* AI will fix all the bugs." 2/7

- "LLMs lead to de-skilling of software engineers with decades of institutional knowledge? Doesn't matter, *future smart* AI will replace all software engineers anyway." 3/7

Any concern you have about LLMs? The answer is some form of "what's happening NOW doesn't matter, because in the FUTURE some magical solution will exist". 4/7

What's the shape, cost, or ETA of the solution? Impossible to know, but just having religious faith in it removes any and all responsibility for TODAY'S actions and decisions. 5/7

So yeah - anyone deep in AI today is very hard to argue with, because in the world they constructed in their head, they cannot lose. If they don't have an answer to any question, or something looks bad today, it *doesn't matter*... because future genius AI will solve all problems. 6/7

You always go on about LLM and their shady investors. But it seems you approach the world circa 2016 as a neutral basis. Are you satisfied so long as software labor is most important? Are you happy time traveling back few years when everything is ‘normal’?

I always say that there needs to be a fundamental change in how AI works to do all that stuff. LLMs aren’t the answer. This is not an argument that that AI people like because apparently the LLMs will figure that out.