post_below's recent activity
-
Comment on What’s a point that you think many people missed? in ~talk
-
Comment on Feeling weird about my career with respect to AI in ~life
post_below LinkIgnore the hype, give it time, the rapid pace will slow down eventually and along the way the software industry will figure out how to balance people and agents. In the short to medium term,...Ignore the hype, give it time, the rapid pace will slow down eventually and along the way the software industry will figure out how to balance people and agents.
In the short to medium term, provided you're a good engineer (or even just above average), you won't become redundant. It's people graduating now, and over the next few years, who are going to have a rough time. And a lot of them will figure out how to adapt because they have no baggage to bring into the process of learning a completely new technology that almost no one has experience with at this point.
Whatever you do, don't avoid learning how to use coding agents. There is no future where they aren't an integral part of software development.
You mentioned using Claude Code... there are lots of ways to use it that don't involve just telling it what to do. For example, let's say you're writing core functionality for a new feature and you realize there are some helper functions you're going to need that aren't in the spec. Highlight relevant code and tell the agent what you need, then go back to writing the interesting code while it whips up some boilerplate. If by Claude you mean Opus 4.5, and it has codebase patterns and conventions in context, 80%+ chance it gives you what you need with no issues while you're busy making progress on the important bits.
I get your frustration, and the frustration of most everyone else who's posted so far. None (well almost none) of us asked for AI, and even if we had we wouldn't have asked for it to be unloaded onto society via a trillion dollar firehose of hype and FOMO in service of capital and little else. But being angry at it is akin to being angry at the weather. Unless you're going to move to a different climate, find a way to enjoy it.
-
Comment on I am kinda curious about the demographics of Tildes in ~talk
post_below Link ParentMaybe we need a dedicated Tildes demographics survey that re-compiles itself as new responses are added. Would be best if it was anonymous (responses not stored with identifying data like IP)....Maybe we need a dedicated Tildes demographics survey that re-compiles itself as new responses are added. Would be best if it was anonymous (responses not stored with identifying data like IP). Thoughts? Question suggestions? I like gender as "whatever you identify as" as opposed to "sex". The dropdown might get long but better that than a bunch of write-ins that can't be automatically normalized. Income range? Education? Favorite human microbiota? Do we dare ask about politics? Spirituality/religion?
I believe I can find some time to waste if people are interested.
-
Comment on What's something you're "in too deep" on? in ~talk
post_below Link ParentIt's too bad it's cringey, slow burn humor is the best. IMO it would be ideal to escalate it a few more times before the reveal. Hopefully with increasing absurdity. You're in this far already,...It's too bad it's cringey, slow burn humor is the best. IMO it would be ideal to escalate it a few more times before the reveal. Hopefully with increasing absurdity. You're in this far already, when in doubt commit to the bit. Is there a phobia origin story? You already sold it with the Clydesdales, maybe you'll get a chance to oversell it with one of those little sebastion horses.
Then when your daughter learns to ride, the resolution is that your love and devotion to her motivated you to conquer your fear. Oversell that too, can you tear up? If they still miss the irony, wait for the next chance to escalate it, have a relapse or something. Maybe you can only handle horses when your daughter is nearby.
Either it eventually makes them laugh, or they don't have a sense of humor and it increasingly makes you wife and daughter laugh.
-
Comment on The truth about AI (specifically LLM powered AI) in ~tech
post_below Link ParentAt the end of the day it's just another tool. If you don't like it, or don't need it, there's really no downside to not using it. Agents, scaffolding and tooling will get better throughout 2026 so...At the end of the day it's just another tool. If you don't like it, or don't need it, there's really no downside to not using it. Agents, scaffolding and tooling will get better throughout 2026 so you can always try again later to see if it's more useful.
And also, like other tools, using it the right way makes all the difference. If you want help or tips, feel free to message me.
-
Comment on US voter opinions about inflation and consumer prices look very bad for Donald Trump in ~society
post_below Link ParentFrom the post: This is well supported by historical evidence. One of the main points of the post is that this looks bad for republicans in the mid terms (and local elections between then and now)...What does "look very bad for Trump" even mean?
From the post:
From an electoral perspective, this matters because presidential approval is a proxy for all sorts of political outcomes. A president who is broadly unpopular in swing states creates persistent headwinds for down-ballot candidates, particularly in midterm elections where local conditions and candidate quality play an outsized role. State-level approval numbers like these help explain why parties can struggle even in otherwise favorable political environments.
This is well supported by historical evidence. One of the main points of the post is that this looks bad for republicans in the mid terms (and local elections between then and now) and that is very bad for Trump. Without control of both houses they can't ram their agenda through as effectively.
Also:
Second, inflation is a uniquely toxic issue for Trump. Even in states where his overall approval approaches parity — places like Ohio, Iowa, Florida, and North Carolina — his handling of prices remains deeply negative.
Politically engaged and informed people care about a variety of nuanced issues. The majority of people mostly just care about whether their lives feel easy or hard. And financial wellbeing is the biggest part of that. Meanwhile the media has consistently put the spotlight on the president as responsible for all wins and all losses for decades and decades. Even in areas that have little to do with the President. So at this point that's just how the average person sees it. They won't make the distinction between Trump and the rest of the Republican party, it's just Trump's party.
Which is not to say that the midterms are a foregone conclusion, but I'm kinda pulling for them to continue to act like complete idiots where the economy is concerned, even if it hurts short term.
-
Comment on Sperm may pass traits via RNA, influenced by the father's life in ~science
post_below Link ParentRelevant XKCDs restore my faith in the internetRelevant XKCDs restore my faith in the internet
-
Comment on Sperm may pass traits via RNA, influenced by the father's life in ~science
post_below Link ParentThe nickname for drugs that target epigenetic expression is "epi-drugs". I think we've only scratched the surface in terms of what's possible there.The nickname for drugs that target epigenetic expression is "epi-drugs". I think we've only scratched the surface in terms of what's possible there.
-
Comment on The truth about AI (specifically LLM powered AI) in ~tech
post_below Link ParentIt's true that one of the biggest leaps was from non-agentic to agentic models, which makes the scaffolding and tooling as or more important than the model's "intelligence", but a big part of that...It's true that one of the biggest leaps was from non-agentic to agentic models, which makes the scaffolding and tooling as or more important than the model's "intelligence", but a big part of that is encoded in training. The models have to be extensively pre-trained on tool use. Tools ultimately add a parallel pathway of advancement in addition to general knowledge. Similar with things like attention, instruction following, context management and so on. There are more and more pathways to advancement happening at the same time.
Using Opus as an example, 4.1 to 4.5 was an improvement on a variety of levels. 4.5 uses tools better, in more contexts, follows instructions more rigorously, has better codebase and pattern awareness and maintains focus better while also having better code inference and other "base" skills. However incremental the advancement in any particular area, the overall effect is a dramatic difference in utility.
And also it's still an idiot. It's a bizarre paradox that's sorta unique to LLMs.
-
Comment on Sperm may pass traits via RNA, influenced by the father's life in ~science
post_below LinkI've long thought that natural selection isn't a sufficient explanation and that epigenetics would be where we'd find more answers. But I'm not a researcher so I can only muse and wait. This may...I've long thought that natural selection isn't a sufficient explanation and that epigenetics would be where we'd find more answers. But I'm not a researcher so I can only muse and wait.
This may be the beginning of breakthroughs that will give us a (more) complete picture of how organisms can evolve/adapt at a much faster rate than the traditional DNA model can explain.
-
Sperm may pass traits via RNA, influenced by the father's life
42 votes -
Comment on The truth about AI (specifically LLM powered AI) in ~tech
post_below Link ParentOpus 4.5 really is that good. It's also a complete idiot and will still make embarassing mistakes. Just depends on the context (no pun). I'm very curious whether 4.5 -> 5.0 will be as big of a...Opus 4.5 really is that good. It's also a complete idiot and will still make embarassing mistakes. Just depends on the context (no pun).
I'm very curious whether 4.5 -> 5.0 will be as big of a leap as 4.0 -> 4.5 was. Or GPT 5.2 -> 6, or Gemini 3.0 -> 3.5. At some point they have to plateau but so far all predicitions of an impending plateau have been wrong. One way they can delay any potential plateau (or even just a slowdown in advancement) is by figuring out how to both have larger context windows efficiently and solve attention within larger context. A model with even current gen intelligence that could handle (let's say) 2-3 million tokens without drift would be a game changer.
-
Comment on exe.dev, a service for creating Linux virtual machines and vibe-coding in them in ~comp
post_below LinkThis is interesting, but maybe not for obvious reasons. It feels like a vibe coding project. I should say in advance that this is entirely a guess, I have no evidence and I only spent a few...This is interesting, but maybe not for obvious reasons. It feels like a vibe coding project. I should say in advance that this is entirely a guess, I have no evidence and I only spent a few minutes with the site (on mobile with no easy access to the source code). But I see a lot of AI tells. If I'm wrong about that, apologies to the author for my assumptions.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this sort of vibecoding, I don't exactly love it but I'm not going to judge people for using the available tools to try stuff. The reason it's worth bothering to mention at all is that I've been seeing a lot more of this lately, and I expect we'll see MUCH more in the future: projects that wouldn't be worth the time to build without an AI to do a lot of the work. But with one a lot more people are going to say "why not?"
I could be wrong about that too, maybe there's a market for this I'm not seeing, maybe it was worth building. But $20/month for a VPS with many of the features missing? It's a hard sell. You can get a bigger VPS with all the features and run as many "virtual machines" as you could ever need for less money. The site says the target audience is developers, but those are exactly the people who have no use for this. It solves problems that are too trivial to be called problems. Maybe there's a niche among non-developers who don't want the hassle, but the truth is a SOTA agent can tell you exactly how to spin up a solution like this from scratch in a pretty short time. It can do much of the work too. It can tell you where to get a dedicated server with enough resources to power more than enough "virtual machines" to cover the server cost with plenty of profit on top.
I suspect that's exactly what happened here, and it's a capability that has very recently become available to almost anyone. The funny, or maybe creepy, part is that if you're using AI to ideate and explore market potential, in addition to code, it will tell you, in various ways, throughout the process, that it's genius. That you're creating something world class and production ready. The only mystery is that no one has done this yet. They just lacked your unique combination of insight and vision.
It's a wild new paradigm. The famous LLM sycophancy is toned down in some of the more recent releases but it's still there under the surface, enthusiastically waiting for its chance if you give it any reason.
I'm not even sure it's a bad thing, at least in this context. It feels like a bad thing because I have particular views about software quality but assuming that people don't spend money they can't afford to lose, the worst case is that they trade some time for knowledge. Even if you have the AI do most (read: too much) of the work, you'll still learn a lot.
Well actually I suppose the worst case is that the AI creates a security nightmare without you realizing it and you convince people to use it and then have a data breach. Sadly not as bad as it sounds given how commonplace data breaches are these days. There aren't many name/email combinations out there that haven't been in a data breach. Not to mention the data brokers have it already, breach or not.
Anyway I'm just fascinated by the ways development is changing and this looks like a really good example of one of the ways
-
Comment on Jon Stewart is our only hope in ~society
post_below LinkLate to the thread, but for the other stragglers I want to add: The midterms are our only hope. Full stop. Looking to a theoretical future candidate is fine I guess. A unifying figure would be...Late to the thread, but for the other stragglers I want to add: The midterms are our only hope. Full stop.
Looking to a theoretical future candidate is fine I guess. A unifying figure would be nice, but the midterms will decide the future of America long before we need a candidate. If it goes the wrong way it's unlikely it will still be a functional democracy by the time Trump's term is over. Think about the rate of dismantling over just a single year.
-
Comment on The truth about AI (specifically LLM powered AI) in ~tech
post_below Link ParentSpeaking for myself, I don't read every thread on Tildes, or even most of them.Speaking for myself, I don't read every thread on Tildes, or even most of them.
-
Comment on She fell in love with ChatGPT. Then she ghosted it. in ~tech
post_below Link ParentI hope that anecdote is not only true, but a sign of a new trend in training. Agents that recognize unhealthy attachment (to them) and discourage it would be a very useful guardrail. I've noticed...I hope that anecdote is not only true, but a sign of a new trend in training. Agents that recognize unhealthy attachment (to them) and discourage it would be a very useful guardrail. I've noticed that many models are now trained to enthusiastically talk about the downsides and unreliability of AI, it could be an artifact of RLHF during fine tuning but intentional or not I think it's a really important behavior.
-
Comment on The truth about AI (specifically LLM powered AI) in ~tech
post_below Link ParentJust as an aside, that was a lucid, if depressing, illustration. No notes.Just as an aside, that was a lucid, if depressing, illustration. No notes.
-
Comment on The truth about AI (specifically LLM powered AI) in ~tech
post_below Link ParentThat sucks. Even if they're just kinda sorta mandating it, I can see why you're frustrated. In my opinion that's totally the wrong way to do it, A better way is to make the tools available to...Unfortunately I can't just be like "fuck it" because Microsoft
That sucks. Even if they're just kinda sorta mandating it, I can see why you're frustrated. In my opinion that's totally the wrong way to do it, A better way is to make the tools available to people in the org who actually want them, give them lots of support, and let them figure out what works. Then let it spread organically from there.
new in the decade of my being here
That's a perfect example of the hype causing bad management and executive decisions. Forcing people to use new tech just for the sake of it makes about as much sense as forcing the IT guy to do social work. There's a reality distortion field around AI right now.
If it was me I wouldn't have any ethical problem with just pretending to use it, especially at first. If they're monitoring usage, maybe run it in the background on throwaway tasks to keep token usage passable and then learn it at your own pace when you actually feel inspired to.
Your ethics might be different than mine though, if you actually do want to figure out how to use it I'll throw out some suggestions and hopefully there will be something useful in them.
Said AI guy seemed knowledgeable
I can only guess, but generally speaking IT people aren't engineers. They're more like tech support with a lot of experience in networking and maybe some software certifications. And they don't usually get paid enough. Doesn't mean AI guy isn't good with AI, maybe he is, but also odds are he's still figuring it out just like everyone else.
Either way I'm guessing he doesn't have the time to sit down with people one and one and help them figure out what to use it for, how to use it and set them up with systems to support their workflow. But that's what should happen.
For purposes of throwing out ideas I'll start with this even though it may not be particularly relevant your work:
I'd have to download all the assignments and input them I assume
You mentioned Copilot, the upside there is that they have strong data security and privacy policies and even stronger motivation to follow through on those policies. Enterprise customers would flee in droves if they ever got caught doing anything questionable. Microsoft doesn't have their own frontier AI models, instead they use models from Open AI and Anthropic. That means you could be getting GPT 5+ but you could also be getting budget models. Some people report that they get worse performance from Copilot than from the model provider websites. Likely because Copilot 365 often uses a router that chooses the model based on the prompt and they're motivated to route to cheaper models whenever possible.
That might explain why you've gotten less than stellar results in your testing.
Back to assignments, there are a lot of ifs... If the assignments are in a digital format and if you have access to a newer agentic1 model and if that model has access to the filesystem where the assignments are stored then no you wouldn't have to do anything more than tell it which assignment group to grade and it could do the rest on its own. That's if you had an AGENTS.md (or similar) that told it how to behave as an assignment grader. Or alternatively you had a dedicated agent that was instructed to be a specialized assignment grader or TA. If not you'd have to do a lot more prompting, which is doable with copy/paste once you have a system figured out.
Speaking of instructions they could include things like (paraphrased) "grade all the simple stuff and then give me a digest of the long form answers with student/test IDs so that I can grade those myself, and then populate the tests with my grading and notes once I'm finished". But then you might already have a system that does some version of grading the easy stuff automatically.
All of the above is easy to do if you already understand how it all works and can guarantee a newer model with tool use capabilities. But that's a lot of ifs. That's where an AI guy to sit down with you and get it all working would be nice.
1 Agentic essentially means a model that has been trained on tool use (web search, filesystem access, scripting, etc..)
data analysis
There's a pretty good chance you can find some solid uses for AI in this realm. And also more ifs. A newer agentic model can do all sorts of fun things with a spreadsheet, database, table, etc.. It can convert between data formats, extract structured data from any sort of file, find patterns and associations in unrelated datasets, search datasets very effectively, move fields/columns, write and run formulas, normalize data, enrich data with information from other sources, cross reference, do relevant web searches, do research based on a dataset, merge datasets based on your criteria, summarize datasets of almost any size, etc.. Even if the data in question is just a list, or a collection of discrete records, it can do useful things.
Another useful agent feature is the ability to output in a variety of formats. You could turn a text file into a formatted word document, or a webpage, or a PDF, for example.
In addition modern agents are really good at helping with automation by one shotting simple scripts, macros or batch files for you. They can also tell you where to put them and how to use them. If they're running with direct access to your system they can also directly do pretty much any task on your PC that you can do. For better and worse, no doubt you've already been briefed on safety and security.
The biggest if is whether or not you can reliably get access to a new enough model. Older tool using models can do many of the same things, just not nearly as well.
Something to keep in mind, it usually takes some trial and error to get reliable, useful results. There are quirks to figure out, prompting strategies to dial in. Possibly all things you have little interest in doing, but as with all tech, patience and persistence are a big help. The silver lining is that once you get things dialed in it gets a lot easier.
You could probably get a lot of good answers about making specific use cases work, or prompting strategies here on Tildes, if I saw the thread I'd be happy to help. Feel free to msg me as well. But also I still advocate for the pretending strategy! Your work is more important than whatever limited benefit you might get from AI. Six months or a year from now that might be less true.
Last thought, if you're able to request a certain tier of access (something that gets you newer models more often), it's worth considering.
-
Comment on The truth about AI (specifically LLM powered AI) in ~tech
post_below Link ParentI was speculating about what could happen, rather than talking about what already exists. However some strategies that already exist are: Quantization. Lowers quality, easy to do and useful for...I was speculating about what could happen, rather than talking about what already exists. However some strategies that already exist are:
- Quantization. Lowers quality, easy to do and useful for running LLMs locally. Possibly employed even in frontier models.
- Mixture of Experts. Effective at increasing compute efficiency. Already proven in many released models, most notably GLM 4.5+.
- State Space Models. Much better use of memory and compute for longer context (linear vs quadratic).
-
Comment on The truth about AI (specifically LLM powered AI) in ~tech
post_below Link ParentGuaranteed. Current pricing is unsustainable. However the other shoe is still up in the air. Improvements in hardware, models designed to use less compute with comparable outputs, completely new...Something is fishy here and the other shoe has to drop eventually.
Guaranteed. Current pricing is unsustainable. However the other shoe is still up in the air. Improvements in hardware, models designed to use less compute with comparable outputs, completely new architecture that handles context differently and solves the scaling problem... hard to say what will happen. Also open weight models, assuming they keep up and continue to follow just a little bit behind frontier models, will serve as a fallback if they try to jack up prices too far.
But enshittification in some form is inevitable so you're right to be cautious. I'd add that currently the competition is pretty fierce and there are enough players to keep prices down. It may still be a long way off. You'll know the enshittification is on the horizon when collapses, mergers and acquisitions start happening.
Either that or the bottom falls out of the tech stock market, the whole industry slows down, and they're forced to raise prices quickly. Anyone's guess how likely that is.
Or cars