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I use AI all the time for coding, but a tool that non-deterministically reaches potentially a different output than I would have produced myself is not analogous to typewriters.
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You yourself would be non-deterministic if we could rewind time. So what's the issue here?

Not to mention, LLMs can be made deterministic if that were actually valuable.

Seems like determinism is just the latest excuse to hate.

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It’s not exactly determinism, it’s authenticity. If we rewind time, of course the words would be different. It’s not relevant to my argument.

There’s a reason why the top comments of HN blog posts whine about articles that are clearly written by AI. I use AI constantly as a coding agent, but I care deeply about the authenticity of the words I write intended for other human beings to be my own.

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> It’s not exactly determinism, it’s authenticity.

I hope you understand, by so glibly switching from "determinism" to "authenticity" you've just provided more evidence that this is just the latest excuse to hate.

But that aside - what happens in a couple years, when LLMs inevitably improve, and their writing is objectively superior to human writing? And people who just want to read well-written material won't care about the authenticity?

I suspect there will be another glib switch. Because the reality here is just that AI is hated. Full stop.

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That's a terrible analogy. It's more like using a typewriter where the job is calligraphy.

I use LLMs at work all the time, and it truly does feel like somebody else coding for me, and me reviewing, cleaning up, and asking for changes. It's really not my work, nor is it my code, but I'm still fine bringing it in.

I also don't use LLMs on my personal code done in my free time because I want my brain to still be fully functional in a few years.

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I still use LLMs on personal code as well because I can build way more of it and I have way too many open source projects
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I think it's pretty telling that the only response techbros have to that is some form of false equivalence, every single time.
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If you can't see why your analogy is deeply broken I honestly don't know what to do for you.
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It’s not clear to me why people believe determinism has some special property.
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When you read the code thats been generated and submit it as a PR it becomes deterministic
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You still don't get it.

Think about the act of writing with a pen.

Now think about what a typewriter does in that context.

Now think about what an LLM does in that context.

Can you reason about how those are vastly different tools within the context of writing or communication, so much so that the comparison doesn't actually make any sense?

Hint: it has nothing to do with determinism. It has to do with the nature of the work itself and the role of the person doing it.

As an aside, this whole exchange really is just a perfect encapsulation of the outcome-focused versus process-focused individual.

The outcome-focused person sees words in a document and whether an LLM produced them or a human typed them is a distinction without a difference.

The process-focused person is utterly baffled that anyone could think those are in any way equivalent.

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> You still don't get it.

HEH. I just read your comment three times and I definitely don't get it. I think its entire point is to express outrage about not getting it, rather than actually explain it.

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Weird, I don't think any of my comments express outrage

Bafflement? Certainly.

Maybe a little sadness at the lack of understanding of, or appreciation for, the creative process? Sure.

Outrage? Nah.

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I think it was your phrase starting with the word "Hint:".

I only see that construction used condescendingly.

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Yup, fair point, totally valid criticism.
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