Sasha AkhaviMar 9

I think what’s missing in the AI anomie (AInomie?) we’re currently experiencing may be a memory of what value is. Value exists because of the complexity of the world. It’s because the world is complex and pushes back against our preconceived agendas that we need help (~ functional value) in the first place. It’s only by dealing with that complexity that value can be helpful. 1/7 #AI #software

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzkwn3hu1Cc

I was a 10x engineer. Now I'm useless.

YouTube
Show threadSasha AkhaviMar 9
What’s more, sources of help are inevitably complex themselves, and they push back and forth too. In the process, *we* become complex; we become more like the world. 2/7 #AI #software
Show threadSasha AkhaviMar 9
The primitive, unevolved answer to all of this is that the world must instead become more like us, like our preconceptions; that if we insist the world be what we’ve already seen and known (which is exactly the paradigm “AI” models follow), we’ll have the wellbeing we sought without having to reconcile with complexity. 3/7 #AI #software
Show threadSasha AkhaviMar 9
But that’s been tried to death — anybody who’s parented a toddler has witnessed them trying this route. The maturation they have to deal with is the same as what the industry has to deal with now (as it has before and will have to again, if it survives). 4/7 #AI #software
Show threadSasha AkhaviMar 9
For technical output to be value, it has to be a lot of things: reliable, resilient, accessible, substantially complete, and responsive (i.e. supportive of users’ actual interests). This is infinitely harder to pull off than it ever seems like it will be. And AI accomplishes zero of it for us. 5/7 #AI #software
Show threadSasha Akhavi
In fact, tooling hasn’t ever made much of an impact in these areas at all, especially compared to disciplined practice on the part of collaborative knowledge workers. That’s why we’ve invented #UCD, #agile, #TDD... all of these are habits of complexity-tending, and they’re what disposes systems toward producing value, if anything does. 6/7 #AI #software
Mar 9 at 7:12pmWeb
Show threadSasha AkhaviMar 9
Laurie Anderson once said, “Technology has never made it easier to create art.” You have to put in the practice. Otherwise, you’ll have something that superficially resembles value but isn’t, and there’s a reason that’s a premise of so many horror tales. 7/7 #AI #software
Show threadjon rMar 9
@sakhavi
What's UCD, if I may ask?
Show threadSasha AkhaviMar 9
@yala ah, User-Centered Design, probably should have spelled that one out
Show threadjon rMar 9
@sakhavi
Merci! It was just not directly obvious to me, despite hinted at before ("supportive of users' actual interests").