So, I’m a bit mixed on AI. I’ve never been a Luddite, but there’s a lot about this AI revolution I don’t like. I have used ChatGPT a few times. I don’t think it knows much about me, but I’m afraid to ask. I joined “Fuck AI” but I don’t see them on my community list. Maybe they went away, or maybe they kicked me off for not being anti-AI enough. I don’t really care. I’m gonna join this comm because I dislike AI more than I like it.
So anyway, I’m at work, and for a while we had Copilot, then they said we couldn’t have it, and now they say we can have it again. Mostly I ignore it because Copilot is just stupid. But I blanked on how to google (DuckDuckGo actually, but whatever) a template for what I needed. I wanted to make a quick disc sleeve, something I could print, cut out, and put a disc in. I know, two 4x4" squares that share a side. Not hard. But I wasn’t thinking about that. Anyway, I told Copilot to make me a Word template I could print and cut to put a CD in.
It gave me a 2x3 table. I see what it was going for — it was going to make those squares bigger and different sizes and change the weights of the edges and all that. It just… didn’t.
I know, Copilot sucks and Microsoft should give it the Old Yeller treatment. I don’t like Microsoft. I use Macs at home. I do not have Apple Intelligence turned on, though it’s pretty much garbage anyway. I feel like it’s a waste of resources. But at work, I have to use Windows and Word and Excel and Outlook and some proprietary shit they have. They’ve suggested I install it at home. I say “I have a Mac.” They say “you can get Dells and HPs pretty cheap.” I say “you just upgraded every computer here, give me one of the old ones” and that ends that conversation. “Put up or shut up.” They won’t put up, so they’ll shut up… for a while. Then they’ll come ask me again. The bonus is their old Dells and HPs aren’t fit for any AI, let alone the Windows 10 they do run. If I had one of those computers, I’d take out the hard drive, drop an SSD in it, and install Linux on it, then run power and ethernet to it and remote in from my Macs, and use it as a server. 8th gen i5 with 4GB DDR3, I can probably up that to 8GB, would be fine for a Plex server and some other stuff.
I’ve never been a Luddite
Luddites weren’t against technology because it was new or because it was technology. They were against it for empowering oppressors (bosses) and threatening their jobs.
The equating of Luddites with general anti-technology bias, hatred and distrust was probably a propaganda campaign to smear them and make them look ridiculous and out-of-touch.
Edit: However, you are probably correct that Luddites would absolutely have been against LLMs etc.
As to your point though, thanks for sharing your experience with us. That sounds like a tough workplace to be in with a lot of flip-flopping on ‘AI’.
We do hope you figure out how to make that table and avoid the deskilling ‘AI’ causes.
A Linux server sounds like a great idea for converting a computer into. Hope you can achieve it, if you can get your hands on one of those computers!
Once I saw what Copilot called it, I just searched that on DDG and got a ready made template. Then I learned I didn’t need it. Such is life.
In this case, now that I think on it, the AI did help me. It gave me the search terms my brain wasn’t correctly conjuring. It absolutely failed to do what I asked of it (which should have been simple enough), but it used the right terminology which led me to the solution. Like when people ask Google a question and get the right answer among bad links or whatever.
A suggestion might be to ask others instead if you don’t want to rely on AI at all. However, that’s just a suggestion :)
Yeah, it was a one-off thing that didn’t really matter and I found a better way. It proved it’s still shit so, mission accomplished?
Heh, yeah. Glad you found a better way!
Microsoft office does run on macs, fun fact the original office released on mac one year before the window’s release.
Obviously don’t tell your boss about the mac version. You’ve got a good thing going not having that at home. I have no point here other than the fact that trivia fact about the mac release has lodged itself indelibly in my brain.
I didn’t know Office released first on Mac. I doubt it, but I don’t care enough to try to prove it. Anyway, no, I didn’t mean that Office doesn’t run on my Mac. When I moved from Windows, I had a subscription to Office 365, and I used it on the Mac as well, until they doubled the price and shoehorned in AI. Then I switched to iWork (which is now Creative Suite or some shit). iWork later added AI, but it’s optional (and does cost money, a subscription to boot). And it’s coloured purple or red or something, so if you see it, you just know not to click on it.
No, I meant some proprietary shit they have that we need doesn’t run on Macs. I’m not saying what it is because I don’t think other companies have it. It’s not some super secret thing, it’s just something they probably commissioned or made in-house. So it doesn’t matter what it is. If I google its name, it takes me to their site, and it can be downloaded. So this can be done on a PC (Wintel box) if you have one. But the Mac won’t run it, being a .exe and all that. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. They want me to work from home, they need to pay me for my time. I’ll answer email, I don’t mind running Outlook on my phone, but I ignore any email that can wait until Monday if it’s not important.
