weinzierlDiverse perspectives on AI from Rust contributors and maintainers
https://nikomatsakis.github.io/rust-project-perspectives-on-ai/feb27-summary.html
I enjoyed reading theses perspectives, they are reasoned and insightful.
I'm undecided about my stance for gen AI in code. We can't just look at the first order and immediate effects, but also at the social, architectural, power and responsibility aspects.
For another area, prose, literature, emails, I am firm in my rejection of gen AI.
I read to connect with other humans, the price of admission is spending the time.
For code, I am not as certain, nowadays I don't regularly see it as an artwork or human expression, it is a technical artifact where craftsmanship can be visible.
Will gen AI be the equivalent of a compiler and in 20 years everyone depends on their proprietary compiler/IDE company?
Can it even advance beyond patterns/approaches that we have built until then?
I have many more questions and few answers and both embracing and rejecting feels foolish.
I'm worried about a few big companies owning the means of production for software and tightening the screws.
Given how fast the Open Source models have been able to catch up their closed-source counterparts, I think at least on the model/software side this will be a non-issue. The hardware situation is a bit grimmer, especially with the recent RAM prices. Time will tell: if in 2–3 years time, we can get to a situation where a 512GB–1TB VRAM / unified memory + good fp8 rig is a few thousands and not tens of thousands of dollars, we'll probably be good.