Without the system prompt these models can be used to do all sorts of terrible things.

That's precisely why they need to be strictly regulated by international treaties.

The vacuum is a great example of an actual invention. Making it "autonomous" just isn't that impressive.

And those productivity gains are moot if AI costs (including externalities) increase commensurately.

AI hasn't done anything we couldn't already do. It's just doing it faster and with more mistakes.

It's very much like the Naked Emperor. Sycophantic AI has convinced them their naked inner thoughts are profound and beautiful. Meanwhile the audience is starting to giggle. "This is our CEO??"

I have coworkers who overuse phrases, oftentimes incorrectly. It doesn't annoy me because I'm familiar with their writing I know what they actually mean.

That, and you laid off all your FTEs so you could afford the shiny platform your execs bought after a disgusting night of excess debauchery.

I don't know how programmers, who are so used to staring at the same handful of keywords every day for decades, have suddenly become so discerning.

Yes, Claude writes boring and predictable prose. It also writes boring and predictable code. That's good!

we liked it until we didn't.

It's important to note that neither side has moral legitimacy. Not everyone who carries a rifle is a enemy. Not everyone wearing body armor is a saint.

I have given up on the idea that "human vs bot" matters at all when it comes to anything other than voting (which should only be done in person with paper and pen, by the way.)

You could make an argument that "likes" are a form of voting, but you shouldn't. We need to abandon the idea of supposedly democratized algorithms and focus instead on actual democracy.

I would prefer to read a defense of something more radical like "database per account." Something that has unique tradeoffs within fintech.

Also, the main advice I would give to fintech engineers/founders is to take risk and compliance seriously from day one.

Financial systems are based around trust. If you don't provably mitigate risks you will lose trust and, eventually, your entire business.