I mean, if someone truly disliked AI, the only natural course would be to ensure that they can switch to open source and not willingly give money + data to the frontier labs.

Just recently convinced one of them to move away from the frontier lab lock-in to OpenCode and switch between models. Not saying they need to switch to non-frontier models immediately, but this approach lets them easily switch to open source when the time is right.

Why don't more people do this? And shouldn't companies that use AI heavily also suggest this approach?

To be clear, I like AI, and use it all the time, but I use it in a way that allows me to easily switch models and not get locked-in.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49401293

Points: 2

# Comments: 9

Here's my example:

React.js was released in 2013 (before I started programming professionally, so I could be wrong about this). But taste is knowing that React is the "future" even when all the training data that AI would've had until at that point in time was with Angular, Backbone, jQuery, etc. So no AI would suggest React, purely because it's too new and not enough training data, right? But having "taste" is using React.js over what is recommended by AI?

===

What does this imply? Is it possible, that if modern/good AI existed in 2013, we would've never used React.js because many folks would just "vibe" Angular or Backbone?

Is it possible the next best framework or language or tool already exists, but it will never get the light of day because it's not part of the AI training data?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48708904

Points: 1

# Comments: 3

Get those AI companies to compete on who installs the GPUs, and let them offer incentives to you (the house owner) on who to choose :)

AI companies, go to individual homes in a community, ask to install a GPU cluster (for a size that fits + owner agrees to), and pay the household some 100s or 1000s of dollars a month?

Yes, this will cause wild incentives (for those with apartments, multiple homes, etc.) which would need to be addressed, but surely, this would long term benefit the household and also the AI companies?

Almost like how your internet service provider provides you with a device that provides Wifi, but for GPU compute?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48692283

Points: 1

# Comments: 6

I have hearing sensitivity and have repeatedly asked my parents to lower the volume on TVs, whatsapp videos, insta reels 100s of times. They always lower it for 5 minutes before raising it back. Likely because they are losing their hearing, but unable to admit that.

I tend to be very mindful of others (maybe because I grew up in America), but my parents are not even mindful of my requests. Maybe it's a cultural thing? I expect those who have grown-up (or spent their whole lives) in India would do the same.

Definitely need to test this out app out when I go home.

Doesn't this mean that any company that depends on headcount growth (every SaaS), loses?

100 SWE -> 10 SWE, 100 slack/gmail/notion/zoom/etc. subscriptions become 10.

And now let's recurse.

These SaaS companies that use AI and dropped 90% of engineering headcount lose revenue because their customers also drop headcount.

Let's say AI costs 89% more than it did before, so the SaaS companies still get 10x productivity from the 10 engineers, but now all their customers headcount is 90% smaller too. So what now? Does every company make a pact to grow headcount ;)

Doesn't this mean that any company that depends on headcount growth (every SaaS), loses?

100 SWE -> 10 SWE, 100 slack/gmail/notion/zoom/etc. subscriptions become 10.

In this case, Anthropic would want 100 SWEs generating 100,000/mo of revenue. Replacing the very headcount that is responsible for token usage would hurt company growth.

Not to mention what happens when companies start doing this recursively. 100 SWE -> 10 SWE, 100 slack/gmail/notion/etc. subscriptions become 10.

100 SWEs all running Claude Code. Okay, company is 10x more productive than before.

Now, company cuts 90% of SWEs because AI makes 10 engineers as productive as 100 engineers.

Yay, company saves 90% of engineering costs.

But now, 10 engineers run Claude Code. And now Claude revenue drops by 10x multiple?

So if AI gets good, it will reduce the very engineering headcount that AI companies depend on, right?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46570849

Points: 2

# Comments: 10

If there are fewer engineers, then there will be fewer dev tool companies, and fewer managers, etc. meaning fewer Slack, Gmail, MSFT, Zoom subscriptions, etc.

Companies are showing good profits, but if every company downsizes, then every company loses... right?

So, what happens now? (To the economy, lets say.)

50% less white collar jobs -> 50% less productivity SaaS apps needed (slack, gmail, notion, jira, msft word, many more...)

Once company downsizes -> businesses that depend on said companies "growing in size" also lose.

AI doesn't need Slack, Jira, etc. That's just how we humans communicate. But AI can work directly with databases and store data more efficiently.

What now?

(FWIW, I do think AI is very useful. I use it daily to help me with engineering work. No arguments there.)

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46380352

Points: 5

# Comments: 7

With deep sorrow, the Mukerji family announces the passing of Meenakshi Mukerji on June 11, 2024. Meenakshi fought very hard and bravely against stage 4 lung cancer for nearly 5 years, and she passed peacefully surrounded by close family and so much love.

Meenakshi was born and raised in Kolkata, India. She obtained her BS in electrical engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, and a MS in computer science from Portland State University, Oregon. After working in the software industry for more than a decade, Meenakshi dedicated her time to her family, her community, travel, and to the arts. She authored many origami books and spread her love and passion for the craft across the world.

Meenakshi was a beloved daughter, sister, mother, wife, and friend. Her strength, creativity, positivity, and love will continue to inspire and touch the lives of those who knew her, and also those who didn’t.

That's 4 stacks over the course of 5-6 years. Not worth it.

Decided to do the sensible thing and use GitHub's README functionality. I prefer this approach and wish more folks in the tech community adopted it: https://github.com/SuboptimalEng

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42575947

Points: 71

# Comments: 11

I've linked a few video demos on the GitHub readme, and there is a playable demo on my website.

Using WebGPU has been great so far. The iteration loop (with Vite.js) is much faster than when working with Unity. This helps with quick prototyping, though Unity's editor scripts allow you to build more interesting user input tools.

I was also surprised by how good the WebGPU error logs were. They helped me debug most of my shader bugs pretty quickly.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42543239

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Most of my math learning starting in high school all the way through undergrad was done by watching YouTube videos. I used books to practice problems, but when it came to understanding topics more deeply, it was always some random person on YouTube who did it better.

I hope in the future, all math (at least applied math) is explained using nice visualizations + videos instead of books like this.