Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".

@jwz That's actually pretty much exactly his point too. He explicitly states:

"It would seem that we are addicted to a new drug, and we don’t understand all of its effects yet. But one of them is massive fatigue, every day.

"[...] is genuinely addictive. The better you get at it, the more you want to use it. It’s simultaneously satisfying, frustrating, and exhilarating. It doles out dopamine and adrenaline shots like they’re on a fire sale.

"Many have likened it to a slot machine. You pull a lever with each prompt, and get random rewards and sometimes amazing “payouts.” No wonder it’s addictive."

Even the fucking boosters are talking about it as an addiction that capital is exploiting because it lights up money sign in their eyes. This is how the boosters are describing it.

@jwz "Look, we're putting cocaine in Firefox, but you'll be able to opt out if you don't want it. Just don't inhale."

@theorangetheme It is completely opt-in. Your room comes equipped with a mirror, a spread-out line and a stainless straw, but if you call down to the concierge desk, someone will come up and flush that down the toilet for you. If that's really what you want. By the way here is a pamphlet about our ethical cocaine initiative.

Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".

I shall demonstrate!

(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)

"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.

You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]

In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."

Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".

I shall demonstrate!

(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)

"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.

You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]

In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."

@unlambda @jwz

The slot machine metaphor is more apt than ever.

If generative “AI”-assisted programming in general is like playing an old-school slot machine from 50 years ago - you know, mechanical reels, three or four symbols each, one coin per pull - then programming with “agentic” generative “AI” is like playing one of those horrifying multi-line slots where you can put 10 (or more) bets up simultaneously, and you get multiple dopamine hits from “winning” 4 or 6 bets when you’ve paid for 10.

The biggest gen-“AI” coding boosters right now can scarcely describe *what* they’re building, or planning to build, with their supposedly enhanced tools or skills, beyond what seems to be an ever-increasing number of “agents”. It really does feel like too many of them — the ones who are dominating the pro-gen-“AI” side of the discourse — are caught in the same sort of doom loop as people who are getting sucked into playing ever more elaborate slots for ever increasing amounts of money.

@jwz Works for the code side of things, fails with music, though. You can't just lock people in with a bunch of GPUs and get Rumours.

Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".

I shall demonstrate!

(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)

"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.

You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]

In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."

@unlambda The first rule of cocaine club is always talk about cocaine club.

@jwz There just aren't enough AI-related overdose fatalities for this analogy to really work for me.

Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".

I shall demonstrate!

(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)

"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.

You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]

In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."

Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".

I shall demonstrate!

(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)

"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.

You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]

In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."

@troy_frizzell @jwz Like on the one hand this is extremely apt and funny and on the other my workplace was dominated by three-energy-drink/day salesmen and when management figured that out they started having us compete to earn energy drinks on every Xth sale.

@cwicseolfor @troy_frizzell @jwz

at least they weren't incentivizing with anti-cheese pills

Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".

I shall demonstrate!

(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)

"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.

You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]

In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."

@jwz@mastodon.social A selection of headlines from finance.yahoo.com today:

- "Dark side of cocaine": Wall Street weighs stock sell-off over disruption fears
- Rampant cocaine demand for memory is fueling a chip crisis
- The Big Tech losers as cocaine fears wipe billions off valuations

Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".

I shall demonstrate!

(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)

"Let’s pretend you’re the only person at your company using cocaine.

You decide you’re going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]

In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."

That's a feature in Wafrn already