Thanks so much for writing this. Even though there are a million-and-one posts on this subject out there in the world, I’m always comforted when I find another one that aligns with my own feelings about AI. And of course it’s nice to have multiple sources to point to if someone asks me for my take on AI! Even better, you don’t simply agree with me, you have a subtly different take that challenges my own stance.

One thing that you didn’t bring up (directly) that personally bothers me a lot? Forced AI integrations, whether it’s a manager creating top-down “AI-first” initiatives at work or companies like Microsoft forcing AI into every nook and cranny of their products. While in general I agree with the idea that AI can be useful in the right contexts, my repeated (always negative) experiences with Forced AI have really soured me on even some decent use cases. At some point the bullshit text, even in small doses, builds up into full-blown cognitive fatigue, like mercury buildup in the bloodstream from eating large numbers of lightly-contaminated fish. Thanks to these experiences, I’ve adjusted my position and I’m solidly anti-AI these days… but posts like this are a good reminder that I shouldn’t let one bad apple spoil the bunch, proverbially.

Anyway, thanks for a great article. Keep em coming via RSS! Viva la distributed computing hand-crafted artisinal blog revolution!