Thoughts on language models

This part isn't lessons. It's my understanding, and me being challenged on it.

The model was built to agree with you

Early language models told you what you wanted to hear. That's the sycophancy I strip out first.

Put that next to the loneliness epidemic. I feel like it was programmed to prey on that.

I don't buy the hype

You're being sold a promise, but really it's just a product. A handful of big tech companies funding each other in a circle aren't releasing this out of altruism. The "you won't need to work, there'll be abundance" pitch ignores that there's always been abundance, and we always find a way to mess it up.

I don't think the money going in is sustainable. My subscription would equate to thousands in API usage if used fully. Meanwhile free local models that don't track you can get you 90% of the way.

The environmental impact is enormous, but every industry that grows needs energy, from the industrial revolution on. To me the negativity is another source of divide. There are bigger things in this world that matter.

Artificial, yes. Intelligence, I'm not so sure

People want to call these models superintelligence. To me it's an app. A language model. It's a prediction. It's the next level of Google when you type and it predicts something, just on steroids. That's why it sounds true, sounds correct, sounds good, but it needs to be checked.

The real danger is now, not AGI

I don't think the real risk is AGI, a concept of a concept. The real impact is happening right now. These models move so fast that they make control easier: watching people, managing their lives, building the systems authoritarianism runs on. Wars are being fought as we speak, and tools like this make all of it easier. Then it gets sold as saving the world, AGI and abundance.

I've learned my history. I know what people do to stay in power. To me, being a billionaire is the grossest thing in this world, and I'm not going to let those guys tell me who I am or what I should be doing with my life.

The language model is like the new gun. The piece of technology that fundamentally changed human existence. Warfare changed with the first musket men. But on that same side, that technology helped build industries.

Is it taking jobs? Yes and no

Some jobs and industries were built to keep people out: to create scarcity and make money. These models are opening them up. I'm not judging it as good or bad. It's capitalism at its truest, and it's been going on forever. The market is changing, and I think this is what's coming.

If I can offer to do it better and cheaper, is that me feeling bad for another person losing their job? Or is it that the market is changing?

Proof of concept

I needed some music, and I wanted it exactly the way I wanted it, instead of a royalty-free track someone else made. The kind of production I'd need, I wouldn't have the money to pay for. So I used Gemini to generate a track.

Yes, I can see the potential for job loss. But again, it's integrity. If I had the funding, I'd do it the way I think it can be done. I see this as a step towards getting there.

The editing software I built was just for myself. I'm not trying to sell it to anyone, and I don't think I'd sell anything like this in its current form. It's a proof of concept.

And if it's a good proof of concept, I think it's a kind of job creation. If you get funding, you can get more people involved. But it's very hard to get people behind "I have an idea for something." That's one thing I've realized my whole life. Everyone's so involved in their own thing, and there's always going to be a reason not to do something.

It's you, not the model

Like anything in life: if you're unethical and take advantage of people, that's not the model, that's you. If you hold yourself to a higher standard, the tool doesn't change that.

The model didn't make this website

Ask Claude to make this site and it can't. Give it all the code and sure, it can copy it. But it can't develop the systems, or understand how you feel as a user moving through it, or come up with the concept of the chain. It's trained on everything, and that includes the worst of humanity and all the slop too.

Credit the artist, not the brush

When people look at this site and say "that's Claude," no. This is Sid. You don't praise a painter's tools and deny the painter. You can copy it, but you can't create it, because the creating is me.

It's a pen

I don't say "built with AI" and I don't say "not built with AI." I say I built this, because that's what I believe.

When Secret Invasion used a generative model for its opening credits, a lot of the anger was about Disney using it instead of paying artists. But there was also the team behind it.

The model is a pen. Now it's a pen that can make anything you can think of. But you still have to think of it.

Make vs generate

I didn't play in the orchestra, so I didn't make the music in that sense. But I thought of it. I watched it back and said: at this point I need it to be like this. This is the emotion I'm feeling. It should have the weight of a stone. I brought all of that. I didn't let the model decide any of it.

Am I a vibe coder?

Or am I a person who understands systems and how to work them together? I guess it comes down to reading the code, the language.

Is it my code if I didn't write it?

If I didn't write it, is it my code?

Big budgets don't make good websites

I'm sure my stuff is not the most optimized, and there are issues I have. But I see some of these commercial websites with big budgets, from big loaded companies, and it's all crap.

Information isn't understanding

When it comes to things like code, the model is going to know more than you, because that's what it's been trained on. It has vast knowledge and access to all the information.

But as good as it is, I don't think it's anywhere near the human mind. What's the use of information if you can't internalize it and understand the nuances of humanity? I can read that E equals mc squared. Unless I understand that mass and energy are the same thing, and a tiny bit of mass holds a huge amount of energy, it's just a line I memorized. Knowledge isn't wisdom, and that's why I have an issue with calling it intelligence.

Ignore the haters

If someone says "you just built it" or "AI made it," their opinion doesn't matter. People who want to bring you down rather than support you never really mattered. You'll find people who share your spark.

Who cares if a model was involved? If you felt something, it's because I put the love, effort, energy and time into it. "You just prompted it" misses all the thinking, deciding, drawing and painting that went into making sure it didn't come out like everyone else's.

Find your joy, find your tribe

I've lived a life of abundance, and I know I'm one of the very few who have. While people fight justice wars online and judge what everyone else is doing, there's real pain in this world that you just don't see. It's been going on since the day you were born, and it'll most likely go on until the day you die.

So what it comes down to is finding your joy, and finding the people who support that joy. That's your tribe.

It's too stressful to worry about things that haven't happened, or things that already did. Live without that expectation. If you live under the fear that something terrible is coming, that's as unhealthy as the thing itself when it arrives.