Jun 5, 2026, 4:40 PMThe proliferation of genAI has made my life
- Jun 5, 2026, 4:40 PM
Replies
- Jun 6, 2026, 12:00 AM
I don't think I've ever had so many responses to a poll before
- Jun 6, 2026, 12:00 AM
Nearly at 3k already
DⒶrkthed4rknss@kolektiva.socialJun 5, 2026, 5:03 PM@cwebber i can't afford a ram upgrade anymore...
Gabriel :nixos:Gabriel@floss.socialJun 5, 2026, 11:48 PM@thed4rknss @cwebber And more programs are vibe-coded electron-based RAM black holes with useless AI chatbots 😭
Jun 7, 2026, 12:42 AM@thed4rknss @cwebber I hadn't thought about the cost of ram. I was thinking of it only in terms of content consumption. AI has actually helped me a lot in my Linux journey. I do hate the price increases however.
Kusuriya (kk7hut)kusuriya@masto.hackers.townJun 5, 2026, 5:09 PM@cwebber Everything is getting ruined or going to shit. People keep pushing AI for things its not ready to do yet. But its great at pattern matching so its saved me from having to read terrabytes of logs looking for an attackers IP address and patterns, and attacks, and figure out if they may have shifted to a different address.
Its removed parts of my workload that were tedious but well enough defined that I could explain them in a way I could have honestly hired my 7 year old to do.
MWTmwt@mastodon.nzJun 6, 2026, 11:24 PM- Kusuriya (kk7hut)kusuriya@masto.hackers.townJun 7, 2026, 3:53 AM
@mwt @cwebber not really so while a regex could do part of it it could not do the behavioral matching. I could layer regexes once me as a human found the behavioral pattern but LLMs find thise patterns faster than I can. That's what they are if you boil thier math down, they are statistical pattern matching machines.
Jun 5, 2026, 5:12 PM@cwebber things are more expensive, you can't trust shit anymore, chatbots are popping up everywhere to replace human interaction, search engines don't search
genAI provides convenience without solving any of my problems, and making existing problems worse
Elliotinfinitegusto@mastodon.socialJun 7, 2026, 6:26 PM
bignosebignose@fosstodon.orgJun 9, 2026, 2:21 AMDead Internet Theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
Jun 5, 2026, 5:18 PM@cwebber AI is hardly the first technology I've avoided, but it's the technology I've had to work the hardest to avoid.
Greg Titusgregtitus@social.coopJun 5, 2026, 5:19 PM@cwebber I voted "no difference" because the direct impacts are pretty minimal for me personally thus far.
Largest impact has been negative in that discussion of AI in software tech spaces has driven out every other interesting topic. :)
- Snell DunksSnelldunks@wehavecookies.socialJun 5, 2026, 6:10 PM
@gregtitus @cwebber I'm with you on this. Voted no difference as well, but I feel like it could turn negative in the near future.
Depending on the industry we might end up with clients generating genuinely useful tools for themselves. Someone will have to integrate them into toolsets, but the tools will be more or less be delivered as black boxes.
I'm bracing for some weird mentanance work in the future.
Jun 5, 2026, 6:28 PM@gregtitus @cwebber Urgh, not just in tech. Everyone in philosophy has been trying to convince people they are now an expert in AI (largely because it’s also what the US job market wants)
Jun 5, 2026, 7:24 PM@gregtitus i guess i haven't actually lost my job yet
but it's certainly made it incredibly unpleasant even without actually touching the thing myself, just being around the incessant discussion of it, stealing all the oxygen from the actual work
Val Packett 🧉valpackett@treehouse.systemsJun 5, 2026, 8:06 PM@gregtitus @cwebber yeaa but RAM and flash crisis tho..
- Greg Titusgregtitus@social.coopJun 5, 2026, 8:35 PM
@valpackett @cwebber True! I have delayed potential computer and disk purchases.
gotofritzgotofritz@hachyderm.ioJun 5, 2026, 5:25 PM
Jun 5, 2026, 5:39 PM@cwebber I'm not sure if it's genAI or the current environment but a lot of people are not their best selves. Some are choosing to be worse people.
It's disheartening to see people who valued expertise to revile it today. Same with appearing knowledgeable instead of admitting you're not sure.
Last thing is I'm tired of pretending I like genAI because dissent of our current direction is considered a grave sin today.
PaulPaul@hades.townJun 5, 2026, 6:03 PM@cwebber I nearly picked no difference, but I see more recaptchas and less relevant search results so in reality marginally worse
Dgardgar@aus.socialJun 5, 2026, 6:22 PMWorse, because now I see slop everywhere, but also better, because of the reputational damage done to US tech corporations.
Bruno Parga 🔸brunoparga@troet.cafeJun 5, 2026, 6:29 PM@cwebber better, but I expect that to reverse fairly soon - I don't think humankind will still be around in 10 years, extinguished by AI.
Jun 5, 2026, 6:35 PM@cwebber Conflicted between "better and worse" or just "worse"... Like the "better" parts are just not big enough to justify its existence.
John Deterstargetdrone@mastodon.socialJun 5, 2026, 6:41 PM@cwebber I voted "better" but for a very specific reason: it was part of the inputs as to why I decided to retire early.
And I'm loving not having to deal with genAI at work anymore!!!
Maho 🏳️⚧️maho@tech.lgbtJun 5, 2026, 7:06 PM@cwebber I hate almost everything genAI does, but also I love that I finally can have a fem voice in games :/ been avoiding using my voice in anything for +15 years...
Jun 5, 2026, 7:16 PM@cwebber no RAM, no drives, makes emi go something something....
CarolynCStamp@mastodon.socialJun 5, 2026, 7:38 PM@cwebber I avoid it at all cost, chose worse because it is extra effort to avoid it and AI used to manipulate images and video means it gets easier to be manipulated.
Guillotine Jones, FlâneurGuillotine_Jones@beige.partyJun 5, 2026, 7:52 PM@cwebber
I voted for "worse," because 2 suppliers of critical services -- my water company, and my health insurance vendor -- each recently sent me wildly inaccurate erroneous bills.
While I can't prove it, I suspect that they had applied some sort of Ai "solution" to their accounting databases.
Jun 5, 2026, 8:13 PM@cwebber it finished killing my motivation to work with computers + job market is atrocious so there was no chance for me to negociate doing my job part time while going back to school. I don't trust the art I see on mainstream platforms anymore.
- Jun 5, 2026, 9:17 PM
@cwebber I think the most annoying (not "worst". There are many consequences about this industry and the force feeding that are much, much worse) thing for me is that I literally have a master's degree in machine learning. I've studied and worked on adjacent stuff. These are interesting research topics. The millisecond it became usable to make billionaires richer it turned into what we have now.
Jun 5, 2026, 8:50 PM@cwebber in some ways better - I can vibecode things I didn't have time, or skills for. Deep Research is amazing and there are many great AI services. In some ways worse as all the support chatbots that use cheap and useless models, all AI slop...
Jun 5, 2026, 8:50 PM@cwebber Assuming that proliferation means growth, it made my life worse. I wanted to say better in some ways but since I don't use it much, if at all, it just made my life worse with all these costs in SSDs, Graphics Cards, etc... rising, people requiring it for jobs with the intention of replacing human beings (regardless of whether or not it is possible), etc...
Jun 5, 2026, 9:06 PM@cwebber Even if it didn't also ruin my mood - which it does - it adds friction & removes effectiveness & quality in my otherwise awesome job... so yeah, definitely worse.
My God. It's full of sitars.OrdRadical@beige.partyJun 5, 2026, 9:07 PM@cwebber
Not much difference... yet. Mostly getting the annoying emails trying to get me to use AI for my job. That's not likely.
Jun 5, 2026, 10:11 PM@cwebber not yet major disaster, its only used in limited forms at my employer with human oversight of the output, but its still causing annoyance when searching for maintenance info for fleet cars and my own personal vehicle - I have to be wary for multiple search results that are 60% correct and 40% bullshit (mostly things that would be correct for other vehicles but not the one I am specifically searching for info on), so its not trustworthy enough to be in any way useful..
Major Denis Bloodnokdenisbloodnok@mendeddrum.orgJun 5, 2026, 10:27 PM@cwebber Burn it with fire and salt the earth.
Allan Chowgrumpasaurus@infosec.exchangeJun 5, 2026, 10:36 PM@cwebber there's some pretty fucked up shit going on
Hov!Hovenduck@mastorol.esJun 5, 2026, 10:44 PM@cwebber missing the option "Worse and worse"
Jun 5, 2026, 11:02 PM@cwebber My life per se hasn't changed, but the world is getting worse because of genAI or, specifically, the companies that try to shove it down everyone's throats, tanking my life, which is a part of that world, with it.
Daniel Lakelanddlakelan@mastodon.sdf.orgJun 5, 2026, 11:07 PMRAM and storage prices went up, bot armor on every site I visit, people talk about it all the time including me, my HS age son's college class is full of slop assignments, his classmates act like heroin addicts pushing slop on him, a friend of mine fell into chatbot hole went mildly psychotic, went bankrupt, and fled the country. Unambiguously worse in many ways.
- Daniel Lakelanddlakelan@mastodon.sdf.orgJun 5, 2026, 11:07 PM
Oh yes, and the environment globally is being damaged by crazy investment in datacenters.
prom™️promovicz@chaos.socialJun 6, 2026, 12:04 AM@cwebber It seems like a good premise? I'm so sick of getting gaslit over AI nonsense. I don't mind the tech... it's the mobbing that's sick! I'm glad I have an education about that.
Annika Backstromannika@xoxo.zoneJun 6, 2026, 12:09 AM@cwebber my most responded to poll (about steeping tea) didn't quite break 900 responses
Gorgritch_Umie_KillaGorgritch_Umie_Killa@mastodon.auJun 6, 2026, 4:08 PM
Dr. Fortyseven 🥃 █▓▒░fortyseven@defcon.socialJun 6, 2026, 12:12 AM@cwebber My appreciation for "better and worse".
As good a time I'm having... it's not worth the price for what it'll further do to society. If I had the means, I'd go back in time and sabotage the birth of Cyberdyne Systems, so to speak...
But alas...
Adam Kennedygreenarchist@social.ridetrans.itJun 6, 2026, 12:16 AM@cwebber Oh man, how do i count the ways it’s worse.
*So many friends have lost their jobs or are worried about losing their jobs.
*The conflation of ML, GenAI, and LLM has made it impossible to tell whether or not the “AI” any particular project is using the planet burning bullshit machinery or some actually useful tech.
*I have lost so much respect for folks in my life that use LLM chatbots to answer questions instead of looking for actual verified information, or just thinking about stuff.
Tom Bortelstbortels@infosec.exchangeJun 6, 2026, 1:07 AMIt can be a useful tool in very specific circumstances. I'm just not sure it it's worth the baggage, or the harm it's causing as we try to adapt to not only the technology but the impacts of the businesses surrounding it.
jamesfoxbrjamesfoxbr@mastodon.gamedev.placeJun 6, 2026, 2:07 AM@cwebber sure my life is much worse because this heck. If I had a time machine I would kill Sam Altman instead Hitler this days
Jun 6, 2026, 4:43 AM@cwebber I emailed my clients yesterday that I was closing up shop after successfully being a freelance tech translator for 20 years. Business has cratered. Most of them wrote back to me privately to tell me how much they hated genAI, imposed on them by their bosses. Guess what I voted…
Jun 6, 2026, 5:40 AMWorse, without any reservation. It feels like an all-out blitzkrieg on everything I cherish about being human.
Ozzelot :runbsd:ozzelotJun 6, 2026, 5:55 AM@cwebber
Better in the way that I was able to filter out some people and red flags. Worse in losing trust in everything from pictures to code.
Karenmissnfranchised@glitterkitten.co.ukJun 6, 2026, 6:45 AM@cwebber Mostly worse.
(But it might lead to more interest in a universal basic income, which would help mitigate the damage it’s caused.)
GidMr_GHARice@mastodon.socialJun 6, 2026, 6:52 AM@cwebber
I’ve already been able to offload quite a few annoying tasks at work to AI. It’s very positive, though I don’t use it much because I’m not comfortable with the environmental and social impact. And I’d like to upgrade 4 PCs here at home. 🥴
Averil ✒️ DoomBloomArtdoombloomart@mastoart.socialJun 6, 2026, 7:01 AM@cwebber This stuff has sown nothing but mistrust in the art community so very clearly worse. (the working class artists anyways, important distinction)
And in my SWE dayjob it turned previously okay people into insufferable bros, so very clearly worse too.
meduz'meduz@m.nintendojo.frJun 6, 2026, 8:44 AM@cwebber I can’t think of any single positive effect AI has on my life so for.
But the negatives are countless.
Fox Chaoticafoxchaotica@mastodonapp.ukJun 6, 2026, 10:36 AM@cwebber worse by far. genAI models are basically casino slop machines. insert IQ points, pull the lever, and watch as you approach intellectual bankruptcy, and the payouts are never worth it.
May likes Torontomayintoronto@beige.partyJun 6, 2026, 1:03 PM@cwebber 1-5% better in hyper niche areas, many orders of magnitude worse across all the things that actually matter to me.
