3 ms·

I've been thinking about this lately. While we engineers understand how to judge and evaluate AI solutions, I am not sure Business Owners (BO) care. BO's are

by fusslo 1y ago

I've been thinking about this lately. While we engineers understand how to judge and evaluate AI solutions, I am not sure Business Owners (BO) care. BO's are ok with a certain percentage of bugs/rework/inefficiency/instability. And the tradeoff of eliminating (or marginalizing) Engineering may be worth the increased percentage of unfavorable outcomes.

evklein 1y ago
Probably depends on BO/stakeholder as well. B2B solution that has a low risk of killing anyone? Maybe fuck it, let the model have its way. Technology that controls software that keeps people alive, controls infrastructure, etc., uhhhh I don't think so. I guess we're just waiting for the first news story of someone's pacemaker going haywire and shocking them to death because the monitoring code was vibed through to production.
- fusslo 1y ago
  Isn't the sector for software that is life-critical really small? medical devices, and maybe some control software? Oh and probably defense too I don't feel much better ( as someone who has spent their career in consumer electronics )
  - evklein 1y ago
    > Isn't the sector for software that is life-critical really small? I think it's large. Think about the software that goes into something like air travel - ATC, weather tracking, the actual control software for the aircraft... I am aware that nothing is perfect, but I'd at least like to know that a person wrote those things who could be held accountable.
    - ponector 1y ago
      But how many people are there? Comparing to 100k in Meta? To millions from Indian body shops?
- yencabulator 1y ago
  Think more business risk than risk to humans. B2B AI LLM vibe-SaaS that has a 10% chance to become profitable and a 10% chance to gift away all money invested into the business ever while leaving founders on the receiving end of 100 lawsuits.
ponector 1y ago
>>While we engineers understand how to judge and evaluate AI solutions Usually no one really care. Target is to close a ticket, not to make a good software. "Works fine on my machine" - heard this many times. But user don't have a beefy m4 pro machine with ultra fast fiber. No one care.
- fusslo 1y ago
  Yeah but the ‘works fine on my machine’ is usually said by jr/inept devs I havent heard that around serious engineers
  - ponector 1y ago
    Their title and salary are serious, though.
  - readthenotes1 1y ago
    Isn't that the no true Scotsman fallacy? I'm overjoyed that you only encountered serious "engineers". My professional experience is that at least 3/4 of the people riding software should not be because they write horrible code horribly. But since I live in a place where you have to pass licensing exams to call yourself an "engineer", Maybe my experience is different than yours
    - fusslo 1y ago
      Hi, you did not understand what I wrote. > I'm overjoyed that you only encountered serious "engineers". Nowhere did I say this. At all. I said I havent heard 'works on my machine' said by serious engineers. That does not mean that I have ONLY met serious engineers.
nunez 1y ago
Precisely. Businesses are okay with bugs if it helps them enter a market faster or stave off competition. Bug fixes are mostly considered maintainancd which is outsourced or "cost-optimized"

by fusslo 1y ago

evklein 1y ago

Probably depends on BO/stakeholder as well. B2B solution that has a low risk of killing anyone? Maybe fuck it, let the model have its way. Technology that controls software that keeps people alive, controls infrastructure, etc., uhhhh I don't think so. I guess we're just waiting for the first news story of someone's pacemaker going haywire and shocking them to death because the monitoring code was vibed through to production.

fusslo 1y ago
Isn't the sector for software that is life-critical really small? medical devices, and maybe some control software? Oh and probably defense too I don't feel much better ( as someone who has spent their career in consumer electronics )
- evklein 1y ago
  > Isn't the sector for software that is life-critical really small? I think it's large. Think about the software that goes into something like air travel - ATC, weather tracking, the actual control software for the aircraft... I am aware that nothing is perfect, but I'd at least like to know that a person wrote those things who could be held accountable.
  - ponector 1y ago
    But how many people are there? Comparing to 100k in Meta? To millions from Indian body shops?
yencabulator 1y ago
Think more business risk than risk to humans. B2B AI LLM vibe-SaaS that has a 10% chance to become profitable and a 10% chance to gift away all money invested into the business ever while leaving founders on the receiving end of 100 lawsuits.

ponector 1y ago

>>While we engineers understand how to judge and evaluate AI solutions Usually no one really care. Target is to close a ticket, not to make a good software. "Works fine on my machine" - heard this many times. But user don't have a beefy m4 pro machine with ultra fast fiber. No one care.

fusslo 1y ago
Yeah but the ‘works fine on my machine’ is usually said by jr/inept devs I havent heard that around serious engineers
- ponector 1y ago
  Their title and salary are serious, though.
- readthenotes1 1y ago
  Isn't that the no true Scotsman fallacy? I'm overjoyed that you only encountered serious "engineers". My professional experience is that at least 3/4 of the people riding software should not be because they write horrible code horribly. But since I live in a place where you have to pass licensing exams to call yourself an "engineer", Maybe my experience is different than yours
  - fusslo 1y ago
    Hi, you did not understand what I wrote. > I'm overjoyed that you only encountered serious "engineers". Nowhere did I say this. At all. I said I havent heard 'works on my machine' said by serious engineers. That does not mean that I have ONLY met serious engineers.

nunez 1y ago

Precisely. Businesses are okay with bugs if it helps them enter a market faster or stave off competition. Bug fixes are mostly considered maintainancd which is outsourced or "cost-optimized"