alt Hacker NewsRecently while interviewing for a SWE position, I was talking to the company's VP of engineering and expressed my concern over these LLM tools precisely because of the economics of it, because right now most if not all of these tools are being subsidized. Also, the environmental impact.
I was talking mainly about code generation tools, which can be completely shut down today without affecting production. Not even considering LLMs that are implemented in user facing features or customer service right now.
The guy's response: "oh but these things will surely get cheaper. Every technology gets cheaper with time. And about the environment, yeah... unfortunately there's not much we can do."
That's the level of forethought for a VP of engineering where I live.
That’s the level of forethought encouraged by investors and the CEO in all likelihood. VPs are just doing their jobs. Even if they might agree with you, that sort of sentiment is a quick way to get you on the CEO / board’s bad side. The incentives are perfectly aligned to keep shoving air into this bubble for the time being.