ahistorical immaterialistApr 26, 2025

I need to be very clear, that the push towards "vibe coding" - that is, deliberately deskilling people - is because AI code assistants are an (increasingly expensive) subscription service.

If you know how to code, you can just write Python, C, Java, R, PHP, whatever for free and make things. You may not own the tools of production, but at least you're not renting them.

If you have been deskilled so you only know how to vibe code, you will be paying for that privilege forever.

This also goes, by the way, for researchers who are starting to be convinced they don't need to learn how to be scientists anymore, because "the AI" can just do the science for them. Nope.

Show threadRMS06510Apr 27, 2025
@jimbob actual experimental scientists who collect real-world data don't need ai until the write-up stage. Although big pharma has been trying to push through toxicology modeling for literally decades and might win on that point.
Show threadahistorical immaterialistApr 27, 2025
@rskurat "need" is still a strong word. I've published over 130 papers, and have a h-index of 48, and I've never used one in writing a paper.
Show threadRMS06510

@jimbob true - 'need' might be the case for the youngins. I can bang out a well-written 1000 words in about 40 minutes, in my own distinctive voice. AI can issue 1000-word blandly written boilerplate in 10 seconds. Our tech overlords think these are the same things.

But don't get me started on my students inability to understand the basic content of a single page of text. In the long run our superior writing may not matter.

Apr 27, 2025 at 3:02amWeb