Do you worry that LLMs may take your job?

#AI

No
65.2%
Yes
17.4%
Other
17.4%
Poll ended at .

There's a great deal of opposition to #AI here on the Fediverse, to the point that there are people who don't want to run software that has had any contact with #LLMs. (For a rational set of arguments, see https://codeberg.org/small-hack/open-slopware#why-not-llms .)

In the business of persuading people, you learn that it's important to understand not just what they believe, but *why* those beliefs appeal to them, what is the underlying emotional attachment. In this matter, I suspect it's because programmers fear job loss.

1/3

open-slopware

Free/Open Source Software choosing to use and/or support LLM usage/AI, as well as alternatives and tips to requesting better policies or forking.

Codeberg.org

It appears to me that LLMs are already capable of taking the jobs of many computer programmers — if I were in that line of business, I'd be very concerned, possibly even hostile, and the reasons to oppose AI would seem compelling.

I don't think the results of this poll provide much evidence either for or against my theory.

2/3

Personally, as a structural engineer, I worry that AI will be used in structural design and we'll have collapses; but I don't worry about it taking my job. The whole business of #engineering design is based on the idea that there is an engineer who takes personal responsibility and liability for the design. The creators of even comprehensible software always disclaim all liability, so there's no chance LLM providers will accept liability. LLMs will aid but not replace structural engineers.
3/3

@mpjgregoire wrote

Personally, as a structural engineer, I worry that AI will be used in structural design and we'll have collapses; but I don't worry about it taking my job.

AI: 😁 Here are the blueprints for your rail bridge.

You: Some crows just landed on it, and it collapsed.

…thinking…

AI: 😁 Oops, it looks like I mixed up milligrams with kilograms! Would you like me to help you find YouTube videos about Jeff Bridges?

#AI #genAI #engineering

@david_megginson 19 workers died because Vancouver's Second Narrows Bridge collapsed during construction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironworkers_Memorial_Second_Narrows_Crossing

The error, I've been told, is that a junior engineer calculated the shear capacity of certain supports based upon the total cross-section of the beams, rather than upon the area of the webs. Humans make errors, but at least we try to be correct, we can be punished when we err, we understand that words and equations have real meanings — they're not merely symbols.

Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing - Wikipedia