AI, whether you (or I) like it or not, is here to stay. In this context I am referring to generative AI: ChatGPT, Claude, Deepseek, Gemini, the LLMs. So many people hate on AI just because... well, it's AI. AI slop, clankers, groksuckers. All of these terms and all of this hate. People who blindly hate the concept and people who blindly deploy AI are one and the same.
The issue isn't AI itself, its the way people use it. AI is not a Hollywood doomsday scenario or a cheap human replacement, AI is a tool. I was in school during the birth of modern LLMs, so I see spellcheck as a fitting comparison. When spellcheck first became a thing, it was controversial. "Just proofread your work." I could just use spellcheck? "You won't always have that you know." It's built into most if not all browsers, and every text editing program. Spellcheck isn't perfect. It doesn't write for you. Spellcheck is a tool.
AI is a great tool, when used correctly. When a tool removes the grunt work from something, productivity increases massively. The issue is, people aren't just removing the grunt work from stuff — coding, especially. (this em dash was used at the decision of a human person)
I despise the agentic coding workflow. AI supervising AI, did hollywood not teach us anything? Not necessarily doomsday movie plots, but what happens when the world is built by people who don't understand how it works? They send out chatbots to do their bidding and send another to make sure the first doesn't rebel.
I use AI for coding. I'm not particularly proud of it, and I think thats a good thing. I look over the code and figure out what it is doing. Debugging is a severely lacking skill in these AI coder bros, and so is understanding the fucking code too apparently. I had a conversation with someone at my internship on Thursday. He was on a train and someone was coding with AI. They couldn't for the life of them figure out why their code wasn't working. He then leans over and goes "You know, real programmers put semicolons at the end of their lines." AI is not the problem. AI is a tool.
Calculators in our pockets, spellcheck in our devices, AI everywhere. AI shouldn't be everywhere, it's spreading like mold. The only difference is that people are putting the mold spores everywhere on purpose. AI is being shoved down everybody's throats and nobody likes it. Copilot gets taped onto every possible part of Windows, even fucking notepad. AI gets used to process job applications. Google recently announced at Google I/O their intent to REPLACE THE FUCKING GOOGLE SEARCH WITH AI. Not just AI overview anymore, they are replacing their fucking flagship product with AI to please investors. This actually pisses me off so much. These money hungry fucks can't keep their grubby hands clear of the AI bubble, and they're so scared of Anthropic stealing their spot as the AI search engine that they'd rather replace their whole thing. The internet won't be blue hyperlinks anymore, it will be Gemini referral links. "While speaking on stage, Sundar Pichai...said that in 2024, Google processed 9.7 trillion tokens per month. That number went up to 480 trillion in 2025, and it now stands at 3.2 quadrillion in 2026" (shacknews.com). Most of that was just because they FORCED people to use AI.
When people treat AI like a god, it gets marketed like one.
AI is just a tool. Use it like one.
