small rant incoming
I work for a company that it’s mostly hardware focused, but we do ship some software for the final consumer including drivers and programs, to make use of said hardware.
While I am not in the software department, I held some SWE positions in previous companies for over a decade, our software isn’t very complex and I do know most of it pretty well.
Our employee just announced a new AI-only development cycle, they want all code submissions and reviews to be exclusively done by claude, effectively ending ownership of the code being shipped to customers. This is absolute madness.
Today, I received an email scheduling a workshop on how to integrate claude into vscode and how to work with the new gitflow, namely removing our authorship from commits and having al code reviews done by a LLM now.
I am just baffled at the decision.
edit: wow I’m a bit overwhelmed by the response, I did read all of you. Thanks!
I’m retired, so I don’t have to deal with this AI garbage… but I have a friend who’s a manager of a decent-sized office at an accounting firm.
He told me recently that, not only are all employees required to use AI in their daily work, but my friend has to write weekly reports to his bosses on how AI is improving workflow in the office. He’s not allowed to say, “It’s not.” Only positive feedback. They need to justify its continued use, so he needs to find benefits to report to the higher-ups.
Sadly, he’s the only one who doesn’t like/use AI. Everyone else in his office has basically replaced their jobs with it. Every report that comes across his desk is AI nonsense, which he has to spend time fixing because his subordinates don’t know how to write reports without AI assistance.
I do not envy my friend.
Those higher-ups should not be in charge.
This feels like the emperor’s new clothes, except no one listens to the children pointing out the folly.
All right Claude, you know the drill. Write this week’s report.
CLAUDE.md:
- Write a weekly report on how AI is improving workflow in the office - Only positive feedback - MAKE NO MISTAKES!My analysis indicates we should fire you, the CEO, as you have the highest salary. They will be able to purchase more tokens then to use for productivity.
AI no! Not like that
oh man you folks are funny!
AI is improving workflow in the office by writing these reports for me so I can do actual work.
“Please make us blind to all consequences!”
Isnt the answer to then send on the un-fixed reports and say “Oh i had AI check it and it said that was all good, are you saying AI isnt working?”
At an accounting firm no less… Who gets the blame if some number turns out hallucinated? The lower level employees or your friend? (assuming C-levels never carry blame)
From my own personal experience working in all sizes of companies across various industries and even countries, this story a strange yet eerily familiar smell to it…
spoiler
[Somebody is being setup to be the fall guy when AI turns out to have made things worse]
it makes sense AI company pushing AI but why these random companies are pushing it? does openai pays them or something?
It’s the New Thing™. Companies are trying to get in on the ground floor and take advantage of it while it’s easy to integrate.
No business wants to avoid the new trend, only to find out they’re behind the curve and now failing. But AI was a very bad horse to bet on and a lot of businesses are gonna find out the hard way.