Vlad's AI Rant: Cancel your subscriptions

General Off Topic
41

I would blacklist any developer doing this instantly. Not even give them a second chance.
And if the company where he works for doesnt fire him, i would look for another company.

The problem isnt that they use AI, its how they use it. Proofreading and checking is a mandatory task here. And even if the AI does tell something that is true, and works, i would still check whether it is the proper solution. Its extremely easy to get extremely bloated code, and any line of code in a program, is a line that is vulnerable to problems.

This is why microsoft is going the bad direction, they judge based on lines of code these days. Which is the absolute most horrible measurement you can take. It means you reward inefficient code. Its that linux still doesnt get anywhere near the support windows has, or I would already have changed (and seriously, any apple OS is a joke not to be taken serious).

And you can see that they are already using it. The most extreme stupid bugs are being introduced, because no one is thinking whether a certain piece of code is made well. If its broken, they just let AI build a function to ‘fix’ erronous output.

Vibe coding is not only bad, its a security hazard.

We had someone like that at my work before. And im glad he got fired because of it, but even a year later, we still face his bullshit code where we usualy just end up having to rewrite it. Or spend a significant amount of time figuring out what the AI connected together. With 0 logic.
There were blocks in class A, that said that B had do an action with class C, using a helper of D. And its all nested functions like A(B(C(D))). Its unreadable garbage.
Adding to that, each function was validating the same parameters over and over again… Type hinting was obviously something the AI couldnt do. As when asked to do so, it created php functions like:

function thisIsGarbage(mixed $essentialyThis, mixed $argumentThatIsPropertyOfThis, array $moreArguments) : mixed {
    $essentialyThis->setSomeValue('blabla');
    return b::functionToDoSomething($essentialyThis, $argumentThatIsPropertyOfThis, $moreArguments);
}

and in b functionToDoSomething would call something like: 
return c::ohIForgotIAlsoNeededThisFunction($essentialyThis, $argumentThatIsPropertyOfThis, $moreArguments, $butNowAnother);

And he didnt even notice the mixed typing being obsolete. and that class B never used 2 of the arguments.

2 Likes
42

Microsoft exec said something recently, like 30% of their code is now AI-generated.

They pumped out security fixes and big fixes pretty frequently before AI, but W11 is so constant with needs to update and fix bugs that it actually affects the daily workflow. My Surface is practically unusable at trade shows (used to have it so I could “gently guide” the Luddite customers into using the B2B we’ve had for 10 years…), needing to run updates and security in the middle of a presentation.

Google’s most recent updates to Gmail now have their Gemini tool required if you want to keep your spell check and grammar checking functions. All rolled into the “smart tools” service.

I had grammar check, generative texts, and word suggestions all turned off - all of a sudden they were forced back onto me. I discovered the AI bloat when I went in to update my settings.

I don’t know what’s going to bring this absolute bullshit to an end. Should we all be railing against it loudly at every opportunity? It only seems to make everything worse. One of my vendors is replacing (1 of 3) full time customer service rep roles with “AI” to handle first-line - at the same time, phone calls and non-email contacts with customers aren’t getting answered, because the volume at peak season is more than 2 people can manage. Is “AI” going to chat for 30 seconds with 35-year customer Kathy in Dearborn Michigan about the weather in the mountains today, or if the company President has been out to ski this winter while the ATS loads, while placing her reorder and possibly upselling a few units? Fucking hell.

43

Just wanted to shill for linux for a moment.
I don’t windows at all. I have 0 windows devices in my home.
Don’t have mac either. All of my devices are either BSD or linux.
My work machine runs company portal (intune) on Ubuntu Desktop for hardware compliance.
I do not use windows AT ALL

I only know of a couple instances where someone can’t use linux.

  1. Software that is incompatible + unwilling to find an alternative
  2. Hardware that is incompatible + unwilling to find an alternative or go without

I painted my line in the sand a long time ago with windows (literally a decade ago this summer). A lot of people have been holding out and my advise is to just let it go. Bite the bullet, accept the short-term pain for longterm peace. Your mental health will thank you

44

Well you still have your avatar :rofl:

45

Clippy is a movement. Windows can shove it.

46

The problem is that even valve, who is a massive investor in linux gaming, still faces graphical bugs within their own games. And ever since valve did this, linux got a massive improvement.

But 1 issue that holds back linux is that you are still too often forced towards the terminal. It has improved a lot, but windows has at least 20y of advantages here being the main used OS.

On that, linux does it better than Mac, as mac doesnt even give any configuration options, and forces their awkward system. Linux being closer to windows, makes linux better. Microsoft has invested a lot in their interface, its the default for a reason, and so anything deviating here is just bad.

But the main problem in linux is: its not streamlined. Just the distribution alone can cause a lot of changes. This is realy what is holding linux back.
While it being free has a huge advantage, it also creates disadvantages with it. Any company can make a linux distribution, and each one can choose their own settings.

Windows forces a package on you, and while some changes are suboptimal at best. It all being the same makes it much easier to explain towards the inexperienced user.

This is what i mean with support. Its not just hardware or software, its about getting people to easily understand the OS. And thats where linux is the weakest OS.

47

I get the sentiment that many linux distros generally come with requiring the terminal, but speaking from experience, not all distros are like that.

There’s 3 kinds of skill levels I would consider when it comes to computer usage and what kind of user your are.

  1. normies: people who are not interested in anything besides getting things done. I gave my mother and my step-dad linux mint. They both use it, and only occasionally have issues that I jump in to help them with, usually it’s issues unrelated to linux anyway.
  2. Powerusers: people who need a “little more” out of their computers (gaming, GPU required tasks, workflow is highly optimized) This I would argue linux mint isn’t an optimal option. I would instead recommend Ubuntu since it has most commercial support and still allows you to go around many guardrails. If you’re a poweruser, you likely use powershell or cmd at least a little and terminal use shouldn’t scare you
  3. sysadmin/dev: It goes without saying that we live in the terminal and basically any distro is usable.

In any case, I think you’re “linux isn’t streamlined” take is mistaken. A number of distros solve this problem for most people (mint being that most recommended). The argument that you need the terminal for certain tasks only works when the tasks in question aren’t “setting up something that is niche or a poweruser thing”. My parents use mint and never open the terminal. I have my terminal open right now. Different people, different distro, different needs, and linux can meet any need.

48

For most uses, none of it is required. You can use linux without touching any terminal as normie, and still do most things you would have done on windows. Its most of the time just knowing the application name that changes.

For powerusers, terminal isnt a problem. Sure, you still prefer to avoid it, but these users are the ones that often install programs that just demand terminal use. This is where windows peaks because even here you rarely have to use it. But its these power users that are most likely going to install an OS on a laptop for a family member. These are the ones that will face most questions etc. And this is where linux is going to cause many.

Sysadmins look at things completely diffirent. These are often forced within a certain platform from their job. If you are a sysadmin for a lot of windows VMs, you are most likely just sticking to windows. And whichever skillset they have, they can handle it easily. Linux isnt a problem at all for these, and windows also isnt (they know active directory policies very well).

But you are also missing one: developers. For these terminal use is mandatory anyway. For these linux is the optimal environment, as there isnt any restrictions, and good support. A developer on windows is seriously hindering themselve.

The problem with streamlining is that you have fedora, mint, ubuntu, arch. And all of these have their own things. And its these minimal changes that make things problematic. Just the location of a setting changing around can mess up any guiding. And because of that, the general result is that people tell any fix using a terminal command, as that doesnt change. That is where i say its weak.

The moment you force someone to open terminal its bad. Terminal is a poweruser thing, dummies will be afraid, because they are afraid of mistyping anything. Windows might have a lot of hidden windows, a complete mess of appearances and everything, but nearly everything can be reached through clicking buttons. This is what is considered friendly. And even acros versions, you can nearly always find the same settings window with relative ease through the same pathways. Linux has the 20y of windows diffirences here, but all varieties being active in use.
Again, this is where linux is just on its weakest. A forced standard would actualy be best here, but that is never going to happen at this point.

And its not even about which technicaly and interface wise is better. Its about explaining dummies how things work. Linux due to its varieties is weak on this part. Sure, if you installed it for someone, then sure, you can explain it. But a store bought laptop might use a diffirent distribution.

The windows experience is fluent. Even on mac it is (that its garbage design is something else). Linux doesnt have any interface standardized.

But i see the future of linux bright. Especialy with a very anti US based promoting in the EU towards technical things, open source software like linux (even though still US based) is just a very good method to teach users to get used to certain adjustments. All new students that get teached linux early, are going to make it easier for others to adapt as well. Once this is normal, even the varieties within linux distros isnt going to be a problem. The method of explaining or guiding will just change and adapt here.

And im glad its going that way. Windows is getting worse in rapid pace.

Its now mostly down to game developers to ensure linux gets supported well. Some developers are doing a decent job here (microsoft included - where the support is mainly demanded due to playstation using linux as base), but its nearly always AAA games that are just not getting linux support because of anti cheat. And let this be a massive hindrance.

I hope that at some point the EU will enforce some regulation that demands software to be coded in such way it must work on linux, or can easily be compiled for it. But sadly, such rules are going to be complicated to design well. Stop killing games, which in its concept is already easier still has a massive hurdle of designing a good set of rules. And then convince the EU to accept it (which with a lot of lobbying wont be easy).

Sure :slight_smile: you can dm me

49

Lets move this debate elsewhere, I don’t want to derail this.

50

…right, well let’s get back to slagging off AI then. Where were we… ah yes, AI doctors;

From Reuters - As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts - https://www.reuters.com/investigations/ai-enters-operating-room-reports-arise-botched-surgeries-misidentified-body-2026-02-09/

Nice being a guinea pig for AI research, innit…!