alt Hacker NewsWhen I read pieces like this all I think is, resistance to change is a helluva drug.
I've been working on a project and using LLMs heavily to inform my design decisions. There's already a long list of cases where it has taught me things I wasn't familiar with, alerted me to possibilities I didn't consider, shown me how to do things that I was struggling with. In those cases I ask for references, and it delivers.
This is not "endangering human development". If anything, it's the exact opposite - allowing human knowledge to be transmitted to other humans in an accessible way that otherwise, usually simply would not have happened.
Of course, this all depends on using AI to enhance cognition and access to knowledge, as opposed to just letting a machine write all your code for you without review, Yegge-style.
I'm not saying there isn't a moral dimension to all this, and areas of serious concern. But the one about "endangering human development" is wholly in our individual hands. You can use AI to help you learn, or to replace the need to learn. The former will be better for human development.
One real lesson from this is perhaps that we need to teach people how to use AI in ways that benefit their development, not just their output.
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I think it depends on the person. As a teacher, I see this. Some kids (the gifted ones) use AI to multiply their efforts. Most kids use to just get by and are actually coming out of the class with less knowledge than they would have without one.
As I see it, LLM’s require far more self-discipline and introspection than people expect or generally engage in.
It’s a corner cutting machine that allows people to shift the burden of their work on to others either in the form of more slop we have to wade through OR more work we have to correct because they couldn’t bother to vet the results.
It’s like writing a paper, running spellcheck, then sending it to some less to look over for you without ever taking a pass yourself. It’s selfish.
> When I read pieces like this all I think is, resistance to change is a helluva drug.
When I read comments like yours, I’m reminded of (though I’m not comparing you to—I believe you are arguing in good faith) the cryptocurrency shills saying anyone who is against cryptocurrencies is just jealous they didn’t get in on the gold rush; they are incapable of imagining or accepting other people have their own reasons beyond what the author can themselves conceptualise.
When people criticise cryptocurrencies, NFTs, the Metaverse, LLMs, they’re not just stubbornly “resisting change”. Those technologies have important issues and repercussions which should be addressed, we shouldn’t just accept change unquestionably.
> Of course, this all depends on using AI to enhance cognition and access to knowledge, as opposed to just letting a machine write all your code for you without review, Yegge-style.
And the latter is exactly what is going to happen and is already happening in large enough quantity that it’s going to be a serious problem.
> But the one about "endangering human development" is wholly in our individual hands. You can use AI to help you learn, or to replace the need to learn.
That completely ignores the loss of skill that happens without you realising, as you lean more on a tool.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872
This is nothing new. We already know that e.g. heavy GPS use makes us weaker at navigating on our own.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62877-0
> One real lesson from this is perhaps that we need to teach people how to use AI in ways that benefit their development, not just their output.
Yes, that is a good goal. But good luck achieving it.