Posts by xcdb 11 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jan 2022
Sorry, but if there is one company in the world that doesn't get to shrug and say that its not a problem because a human should always be in the loop, its Anthropic.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei:
"If I look at coding, programming, which is one area where AI is making the most progress. What we are finding is that we're 3 to 6 months from a world where AI is writing 90% of the code. And then in 12 months, we may be in a world where AI is writing essentially all of the code."
The first time in my career I heard the siren call of industry promising to make my role redundant was UML.
Many more silver bullets have been fired since then of course, but at least with say, UML you could theoretically regenerate the whole thing from updated specs. Vibe-coding? not so much...
Totally agree, but I'm personally not clear on why someone would consider themselves skilled enough to confidently refactor the kernel, yet have a mindset of being unwilling to learn a new tool with different capabilities (ignoring lack of free time to do so...)
Occasionally, I need to write something in assembly. It is a tool in the toolbox for those occasions where it is warranted, but also crazy-sharp and dangerous.
Indeed. Again, covered many times in the judge's order.
"Amazon approved and helped market John Doe’s camera. ... Amazon knew the camera’s product description suggested using the camera as a towel hook in the bathroom. ... Amazon cannot claim surprise when a consumer uses the camera that way."
"It is not simply that Wells used the camera to capture illegal images of a minor. What matters is Wells used the camera “precisely as depicted on Amazon’s online retail store.” ... This use was foreseeable."
So if Amazon were to advertise and sell a knife, explicitly suggesting it can be used for murder, I would imagine they could face similar legal consequences.
"However, unless they have evidence showing that Amazon had been made aware of this particular product and then failed to act"
The judge's order references this multiple times:
e.g.
"Amazon failed to properly inspect John Doe’s camera three times—including an inspection by Amazon’s Product Safety team tasked with preventing the type of harm alleged here. ... (looking to the
defendant’s conduct in light of its own policies in duty analysis). Despite these inspections, Amazon approved the camera"
"These allegations raise a reasonable inference Amazon sold a camera knowing it would be used to record a third party in a bathroom without their consent."
"Despite these inspections, Amazon approved the camera. ... Amazon then exercised control over the camera’s product description—including over the photographs encouraging using the camera in
a private bathroom as a towel hook. ... Amazon then promoted the camera. ... Throughout all this, Amazon knew hidden cameras were used to spy on individuals in private spaces. ... Collectively, these allegations “permit the inference” Amazon knew its actions and omissions might expose others to a foreseeable high risk a third party would use the camera exactly as advertised—to surreptitiously record an individual in a private bathroom by using the camera as a towel hook."
And herein lies the ultimate problem with financing OSS.
Hell, even if govt 'solved' the problem by requiring fully supported software stacks, you'd end up with more or less the same arguments of unfairness or horribly-structured dependencies.
Look what has happened with broadcast music - most songs ended up around 3 minutes long 'cos that's what the station was prepared to play. Streaming services (spotify etc) pay for music on a different basis and so - magically - artists have changed their offering to maximise revenue and so tend towards having many more shorter tracks. Leftpad would only be the start...
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