Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | xmzx's comments login

A calculator will give you bad information too if you don't know how to use the tool.

A calculator won't give you bad information if you use it correctly, though. AI, will. The same prompt can generate vastly different answers.

Even the codegen examples given by the AI companies themselves have flaws in them. Critical flaws, like Claude's testing rig that doesn't test what it says it does, for example. The system is inherently flawed for most purposes it is currently being used for.


A calculator won't give you bad information if you use it correctly, though. AI, will. The same prompt can generate vastly different answers.

I think this is exactly it except that part of “knowing how to use it” is also largely about knowing its limitations… ‘trust’ but verify my 11-year old has been using chatgpt/claude since it came out and I have nothing but awesome experience with how she is using it


You sorta just made the point I'm trying to make here.

How the heck, does your 11-year old, verify? Do they turn to you, who already has the necessary background? The AI generated information cannot be verified by someone who cannot already do, what it does.


how do you verify? think about how would you do that if say you were forced to use AI for everything you do (I have friend that works in a place like this…).

of course my kid is 11 so she is learning about algebra and electro motors and logic and roman empire… “AI” is one step in that learning but an insanely patient teacher. back in a day - she did not understand cube roots… she asked, was given an answer, she still didn’t get it, was given an alternate explanation which still didn’t click (worse than original), asked again (“I still do not understand, do you have another way to try to explain it to me…”) and so on. again, it is a guide, a very knowledgeable and patient guide… it is part of the journey, not the destination. anyone using it as destination (by reading MANY HN posts this is a vast majority of people) is going to be in the world of hurt


Could you easily verify the info from the library books back in the day?

Back in the day, publishers were punished with fraud cases if they didn't verify their authors writings, so yes, verification was part of the chain.

Different brands also traded on the trustworthiness of their platforms, and would issue yearly correctionals.

Neither of those is analagous to glue on pizza.


Even all surveillance being equal, Texas has demonstrated it uses its powers in vastly more nefarious ways against marginalized groups, notably women and Latinos and that's just in these past few months.


I'm intrigued. Can you give me some examples of how this is being used against those groups disproportionately?



Sounds like investigating actual crimes. Unless you know for a fact that only Latinos are investigated for these crimes, or they are disproportionately investigated (out of all the people committing such fraud in that jurisdiction), you're looking at it all wrong. But thanks for trying.


You don't get ethics and morality not bound by law?


Ethics is subjective, the law less so. Most people don’t find GitHub to be unethical so the author will have a hard time convincing people without using the license terms.


Well, that's the exact reason why they wrote this page: to explain to people why they think GitHub is unethical, and maybe convince them. It's the same as calls to boycott various other companies: they haven't necessarily done anything illegal, but if you convince enough people not to use their products/services anymore, you might make an impact...


The author really doesn't have to convince anyone, "please don't do $X" is more than enough to state their wish for you not to do $X.


i think it is quite scary that so many in here would just not honor a simple "please don't do it."

it is a wish. if someone says "please don't wear shoes in my home" i hope you would honor their very simple and understandable personal wish without setting up a contract for it?

i mean, just be a bit more human, please.


My aunt once told me "Please don't think negatively of religious people."

Stallman would prefer I not use any closed source software to read his blog, including OS, drivers, web browser, etc.

People routinely ignore unreasonable requests. Asking me to not wear shoes in your home is reasonable. Asking me not to give a copy to Joe after telling me I can give a copy to whomever I want is unreasonable.


How is it unreasonable to want you to not host someone's code on one explicit other platform?

We already established no one is forcing you and if you don't respect the author you don't get to be respected for your decision to ignore them and will earn snarky remarks. (and rightfully so, in my opinion)


> Asking me not to give a copy to Joe after telling me I can give a copy to whomever I want is unreasonable.

This is a repetition of your claim, not an argument for it. Counterpoint: It's entirely reasonable to ask you not to give a copy to Joe.


I see it more like an artist telling me “please hang this picture in this orientation” but I prefer it differently and don’t see any reason why me hanging it the way I want in my home affects the author. My copy on GitHub doesn’t detract from their copy.


The author might also be using this a stop-gap until a FOSS licences comes out with similar terms, but don't want to make the current license nonfree because that has different complications.


This is neither ethics nor morality, it's just someone's desire. Which is fine, people should have desires towards their society.


Since half the code on the GitHub is in Dart, I'm guessing the latter.


And everything that is caused by something is also correlated, it just requires more time and research to figure it out.


Technically true, but not every weak correlation is worth talking about. I would have thought HN had more rigor than that. If you guys want to talk correlations, there are much more interesting ones like 'Internet Explorer marketshare is positively associated with murder rate'.


Sounds exactly like industry.


Literally everything about IPv6 is easier and better. IPv4 is already much slower than IPv6, now you're adding another layer of complexity on top of it? That doesn't sound too good. IPv6 is and has been ready to go forever now.


> Literally everything about IPv6 is easier and better

That's not true, at a simple level typing "ping 10.34.56.22" is far easier than "ping df99:eff2:245a:46vv:2cmm:dfaa:41ff:2211"

The benefits of ipv6 may outweigh ipv4, but by claiming "everything is easier and better" is disingenuous and a reason so many still refuse to move.


Your example is mostly a non-issue if you have working DNS. Which ... I know is a big assumption in a lot of networks, especially small to medium sized businesses, it seems. I don't know why DNS is such an issue for so many companies, but I can't help but think people would be more positive about ipv6 if we could get internal DNS solved first.


You may think it's a none issue, however it simply disproves the "literally everything" hyperbole


The reason, like almost always when things go haywire, is political leaders messed up.


You can't just make up stuff and go with it, you need to be a little more complete with your analysis. Especially worded the way the other comment was and your comment is, you seem to think there is some sort of confusion because you're lumping in one programming language with another and essentially saying, I don't see the difference therefore something sinister may be at play. Your ignorance is not an excuse. Either know what you're talking about or ask questions without your very, very leading premises.


Hang out at a bus station or a school during kid pickup time, you'll feel like you're in a coal refinery. I can't imagine that's good for your lungs.


Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: