Ask HN: Agentic AI just makes me sad

4 points by NicoJuicy 36 days ago | 2 comments

I've been automating everything that I do. So basically, I've been reviewing and orchestrating LLM's through an Agent on my codebase/projects

I like developing and it's going well. I don't think there's a choice but to adapt.

But that it reads, acts and writes stuff 100 x faster than a human is very confronting.

Eg. I'm helping a friends son studying dutch and french ( they are from Ukraine). He's 13 years old and genuinely a smart kid.

But I can't stop thinking that, in the end, any effort will be for nothing.

I don't want to share it with any of my friends, since a lot of them have kids. Can't share it with my family, I have awesome neeces and cousins. Can't share my inner thoughts with my regular friend that hears my "hard questions", she has a baby of 2-3 years old.

The entire thing just makes me sad.

Any thoughts?

Note: I'm already aware that there will be an abundance of custom software. That's not the problem.

sph 35 days ago |

Thoughts have been shared far and wide. This place is very much pro-AI, so you won't find much nuance here, unless you wish to be convinced that all this is good for humanity and you just have to trust the process.

The truth is that no one is able imagine the long-term ramifications this piece of technology will have on society at large, but we can all agree they will be immense in either direction. I feel for the first time engineers and academically-trained STEM graduates will have to wrestle with philosophical concerns they are not really prepared for, and you will have to make your mind up for yourself.

Is this what you want for your family? If you think it'll be good, go for it; if you think it has potential to be bad, see if you have any power to steer its direction; if you think it's a net negative, time to look elsewhere for meaning than software development; if you think it's an existential risk, join the growing class of anti-AI activists. The easiest road that the vast majority will take is just to hide their head in the sand and see how it plays out. What the world needs are not ostriches, but people with self-reflection and strong values.

jvqv 36 days ago |

I don't think the answer is to out-compete the machine. It's probably more about being intentional about which efforts still matter to you personally, regardless of whether a tool could do it faster.

The kid learning French and Dutch is a good example actually. He's not doing it to translate. He's doing it to connect with someone. At the end of the day, there will always be things only humans can do, a touch of human spirit. Sorry for being too cheesy