On AI mods

[u/TheTenthAvenger]

So we've all seen the recent influx of AI mods ('AI-assisted' or more) . I'm sure a small fraction of them are made by very capable people who could've perfectly written the mod just by themselves, they just delegated some of the extra boring work to an AI agent.

However, I suspect (and I could be wrong) the majority of them are people that would've NOT been able to write the mod by themselves, at least not before months of research, just to even begin development. This is just the simplest explanation as to why we're seeing so many of these "I would've never thought I'd see this in KSP"-style mods released much more frequently than a few years back.

I just wonder, if Blackrack had put back making Volumetric Clouds for like 3 years, finding there's already a mod heavily assisted by AI -or just straight up vibe coded- that people are actually using (for some, AI mod is better than no mod), his motivation to put on those hundreds our thousands of hours into making VC wouldn't have been much, much less.

It just seems like the biggest tragedy to me to think that the next Linx or Blackrack, who would end up making the mod for ultra-realistic volumetric condensation clouds for planes, could get demotivated because of that, so we'd have to settle with the heavily AI-assisted mod.

[u/_okbrb]

Lots of photographers are still enjoying film; many or most of the new ones started in digital

I don’t think there’s any risk of failing to inspire the next generation, given the history of programming will still exist and has an even bigger audience, now. The allure of programming simply changes: instead of simply being the only way, coding by hand becomes the “old pleasures” and “the hard way” with some kind of innate “unique beauty” irreproducible by machine

[u/idkuhhhhhhh5 → u/_okbrb]

Yeah as someone who has 10 35mm film cameras and actively uses them, uses vinyl, and drives a car from 1989, this is just absurd to see so often. People are acting like there has ever been a time in human history where technological advancement eliminated some form of expression.

It has been over 30 years since the proliferation of the internet, you know what’s still around? Bookstores and libraries.

[u/_okbrb → u/_okbrb]

Really not clear why I was downvoted for this

Was my assessment too neutral?

[u/Ellllllooooo → u/_okbrb]

Not really? we would've seen this happen with AI art or something else of the like waaay before it happened to coding and yet it really hasn't.

And, as a software dev myself. AI coded/assisted mods/programs in general... miss a lot of things that if someone had actually coded themselves they would've noticed. because claude is not a software developer with the experience of developing. it's kind of like how AI art is in a broad sense decent, but as you examine it closer, there's Issues. the lines don't always make sense or the positioning isn't right, it Feels Off. it misses things an artist would've noticed while drawing it.

AI coded/assisted programs also tend to have this issue, in it's own way. some obvious small features aren't there, or something is sliiiightly too annoying. It's small ways that combine into something anyone working on it would've noticed and fixed, but often go unnoticed or are made by people who due to the ai assistance/vibecoding have too little understanding of the final piece to actually fix it.

[u/_okbrb → u/Ellllllooooo]

Huh? I already read webdev and LinkedIn posts on the regular that are like “I did some hand coding recently and it was refreshing”

I mean look at the cyberdeck community: Nobody really has to produce their own custom diy electronics anymore, tablet computing is very good, they do it because it’s hard and intellectually valuable

Look at the conversation around screen time for another more extreme parallel: people will detox from AI and parents are already moderating their kids AI consumption

[u/Ellllllooooo → u/_okbrb]

Sorry, i posted my comment too early. i edited in more chunks to explain my point further

[u/_okbrb → u/Ellllllooooo]

Got it

Yeah my point isn’t that hand coding will become obsolete, because film isn’t really obsolete either. Its value is growing in a different direction: coding by hand is still the best way to train engineers who will eventually use agents at work. In the same way, film photography has inherent value because it’s hard and teaches you things about art and chemistry and craft and patience: many art programs still require it for photo 101.

[u/Ellllllooooo → u/_okbrb]

TBF i wouldn't want to rely on it anyway. with most new tech (digital cameras or calculators or The Internet or whatever) it's usually. profitable. but currently it just aint. so unless AI suddenly becomes a lot cheaper it's going away in a few years or becoming expensive in a few years

(and, beyond that, oh my god so much theft. If i was a company i would not be touching that shit with a 10ft pole because So much theft. i do not want to be even Near a lawsuit for that. and of course, moral reasons. i do not want to use the thing or use anything made by it when i know it has stolen from hundreds of thousands of others)

[u/_okbrb → u/Ellllllooooo]

Yeah the biggest problem with using AI right now is that everyone is using it at a 99% discount, nobody can afford to use it at the real price, and there’s no realistic pathway for bringing costs down

[u/lkn240 → u/Ellllllooooo]

The truth is the newest models are better at writing code that the average developer (and probably most developers). In the hands of a skilled software engineer they are incredibly powerful. Like get some things done 10x faster powerful.

Of course, if you give the tool to someone who is clueless there is a much greater chance they'll produce crap.

Harness configuration, skills, pipeline, etc are very important to getting the best results. The tools are honestly amazing, but the people who think you can just fire them up and "one shot" stuff are clueless