The most important fundamental point -- and one which is likely much more difficult to optimize away than questions of water and efficiency -- remains, IMO, the question of the human intellectual harness. From where will it come now?
Almost every engineer I've spoken to about AI views themselves in the "not a junior, and thank God, because juniors are fucked" mentality. Largely due to a lack of jobs, but there's usually also a recognition that the juniors who can find jobs are now going to have all of their learning opportunities ripped away from them by being forced to be AI-first.
None of these engineers, however, view themselves as liable to become juniors once more, as the skills they've built up are no longer reinforced and their ability to pilot the AI regresses. Few seem to want to consider that their hard-won accomplishments of skill are, in fact, hard-won and *hard-maintained*.
My fear, and I don't think it's an irrational one, is that we are actively choosing to cannibalize the very harness which gives value to the cannibalization machine.
The most important fundamental point -- and one which is likely much more difficult to optimize away than questions of water and efficiency -- remains, IMO, the question of the human intellectual harness. From where will it come now?
Almost every engineer I've spoken to about AI views themselves in the "not a junior, and thank God, because juniors are fucked" mentality. Largely due to a lack of jobs, but there's usually also a recognition that the juniors who can find jobs are now going to have all of their learning opportunities ripped away from them by being forced to be AI-first.
None of these engineers, however, view themselves as liable to become juniors once more, as the skills they've built up are no longer reinforced and their ability to pilot the AI regresses. Few seem to want to consider that their hard-won accomplishments of skill are, in fact, hard-won and *hard-maintained*.
My fear, and I don't think it's an irrational one, is that we are actively choosing to cannibalize the very harness which gives value to the cannibalization machine.
s/mentality/cohort