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

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

@mpjgregoire

Not a programmer, but what I see as their fear is not job loss, but job loss to inferior product.

On the engineering side, what if some genius MBA tells you to design using AI then simply put your stamp on the final drawing? I expect that you are very good at your job but that there is no way that you can double check faulty calculations faster than AI can generate them.

We are probably not at that stage because of liability issues. But all it will take is for the MBA's and other assorted capitalists to rig the game to get enough bonus and avoid liability by ensuring that it falls on the engineers. As the MBA president of one country says: That makes them smart.