Locally run AI is pretty fucking cool for accessibility.
It’s when it starts phoning home that I’ve got a problem.
“I’ve sorted the thousands of files in your Downloads folder and Desktop into several nested archive folders with clear labeling while leaving your frequently used files accessible on the Desktop. I’ve also put several hundred files into your Review folder which I believe to be of no future use (with my justification as to why it is of no further use). You can choose to keep (and I will sort it into the appropriate archive or trash it, would you like to start the review process now?”
That depends… are you talking about actual AI, which is hard, or LLMs, which are resource wasteful, inconsistent prediction engines that even at their best are catastrophically wrong 1 out of every 100 times you use them, and require a $1000 GPU just to get a result in reasonable time?
Even your example there? Can be done in a 50 line bash script, with the exception of the “Review” folder, which would be wonky anyway because the files that you can decide are not useful, you already know how to decide are not useful, and the ones you don’t, you would have as much trouble with as the AI would, so you haven’t really gained anything. Instead of a continually iterating and improving script that does exactly what you want, you get an unpredictable application that will produce different output every single time it runs, with potential for regressions every single time you do it.
Basically, we’re still at the point where anything a general purpose AI could do on a local operating system, you could do better and more efficiently with a purpose-built tool.
But we live in an era where people legitimately put out Electron apps and call them “lightweight and efficient” with no dissonance whatosever, so I’m sure there are a million people ready to argue.
I actually don’t see any issues with AI in Ubuntu as long as it’s not like Microsoft’s “here’s Copilot absolutely everywhere, even in Notepad”. I mean, there’s also no way they can shove it up users throats like that too, even their so beloved snap can be removed from the system quite easily.
But implementing that would still certainly require some constructive discussion with userbase, and it’s already off to a rough start. 🌚
They could weave dependencies in such a manner as to prevent other critical stuff from running without it, or straight up build it into something that would prevent the system from running properly if you remove it.
Of course, they’d lose the vast majority of their userbase, but short term profit line must go up according to the idiots with MBAs.
Or they can do it more slowly, more insidiously, so that people on the internet will say, “oh it’s just one snap, just remove it, no big deal.” Turn the heat up slowly, always be not quite as bad as Microsoft.
This probably has nothing to do with their intent to add ai to Ubuntu. …probably.
Locally run AI is pretty fucking cool for accessibility.
It’s when it starts phoning home that I’ve got a problem.
“I’ve sorted the thousands of files in your Downloads folder and Desktop into several nested archive folders with clear labeling while leaving your frequently used files accessible on the Desktop. I’ve also put several hundred files into your Review folder which I believe to be of no future use (with my justification as to why it is of no further use). You can choose to keep (and I will sort it into the appropriate archive or trash it, would you like to start the review process now?”
That depends… are you talking about actual AI, which is hard, or LLMs, which are resource wasteful, inconsistent prediction engines that even at their best are catastrophically wrong 1 out of every 100 times you use them, and require a $1000 GPU just to get a result in reasonable time?
Even your example there? Can be done in a 50 line bash script, with the exception of the “Review” folder, which would be wonky anyway because the files that you can decide are not useful, you already know how to decide are not useful, and the ones you don’t, you would have as much trouble with as the AI would, so you haven’t really gained anything. Instead of a continually iterating and improving script that does exactly what you want, you get an unpredictable application that will produce different output every single time it runs, with potential for regressions every single time you do it.
Basically, we’re still at the point where anything a general purpose AI could do on a local operating system, you could do better and more efficiently with a purpose-built tool.
But we live in an era where people legitimately put out Electron apps and call them “lightweight and efficient” with no dissonance whatosever, so I’m sure there are a million people ready to argue.
I actually don’t see any issues with AI in Ubuntu as long as it’s not like Microsoft’s “here’s Copilot absolutely everywhere, even in Notepad”. I mean, there’s also no way they can shove it up users throats like that too, even their so beloved snap can be removed from the system quite easily.
But implementing that would still certainly require some constructive discussion with userbase, and it’s already off to a rough start. 🌚
Where there a will to enshittify, there’s a way.
They could weave dependencies in such a manner as to prevent other critical stuff from running without it, or straight up build it into something that would prevent the system from running properly if you remove it.
Of course, they’d lose the vast majority of their userbase, but short term profit line must go up according to the idiots with MBAs.
Edit: fixed a typo
Or they can do it more slowly, more insidiously, so that people on the internet will say, “oh it’s just one snap, just remove it, no big deal.” Turn the heat up slowly, always be not quite as bad as Microsoft.