AI Policy

jmathai

It's a tough predicament when the industry you're in is moving towards violating your personal preferences and ethics. I'm neither agreeing with or disagreeing with the author's stance. But this tension crosses the line of "I have an opinion" to "I have an opinion that impacts my livelihood". And I'm witnessing a lot of it.

rvz

Such stances are very easy to make when there is no financial incentive or no competition with any meaningful money on the line. But as soon as there is competition, they don't care about "AI policies" if it is the means to make a lot of money. The best example of this is security in open source software which maintainers have no choice but to use AI to protect themselves before an attacker can use AI to find and build exploits for security vulnerabilities faster than they can patch it. In some sectors such as banking, crypto, defense and government, this is extremely critical. It will soon be the same with AI companies who have the AI model and someone could use AI to breach them with the goal of leaking the proprietary model. So to them, policies like this, are actually a downgrade that they cannot afford to do.

bbor

Not using world-changing technology because some people are using it harmfully is wild. Expanding it to people just making art (/entertainment...) that you don't like is just confusing. Obviously I relate to the anxiety that made this man put up at least 3 mentions of how much he hates AI per page site-wide and to finish this draft before the actual site, but I can't help but see it as an unhealthy coping mechanism. It's a shame cause this is an origami-themed freelance web developer who believes strongly in labeling natural vs. artificial prose, which couldn't be more up my alley if he tried! Shame the world is like this. Just for clarity, in case anyone else doesn't see it -- I'll just take one paragraph: Criticism of AI has led to harassment. Perceived support of AI has led to molotovs and bullet-riddled doors. AI has been used to publish hit pieces. Computers have been used to publish hit pieces. Generative AI is used openly to generate sexual abuse material. Ditto, just with a much more serious crime. This one is actually a lot easier now and we need new laws for sure, but plugging your ears to the future will not speed those laws up in any way, no matter how indirect. AI chatbots have encouraged vulnerable people to commit suicide. Again, a serious, new twist on existing problems with suicide prevention. But A) it's far from a foregone conclusion that it's a net negative on suicide rates given that there's tons of positive anecdotes too, B) refusing to use claude code is not going to help devise legal, social, and technological solutions to that problem, and C) this is so clearly post-hoc reasoning. For example: where's the "Social Policy", given that social media is a proven threat in this sense? *EDIT:* And it's the guy who tried to make his own text editor after lamenting that Zed wasn't enough like Sublime?? Well, I guess it's nice to know I have an inverse doppleganger out there...

keel-control

Now imagine he were a mathematician instead of a software engineer. The post sounds rather backwards in this scenario.

usedbytes

I feel like you could replace “AI” with “computers” across much of TFA and it would read like something from a few decades ago (ignoring the web development specifics…) That lends some credence to the “AI is a tool” position I hear in some forums, though I do think there are real harms from the vast scale of AI deployment.

_dwt

I guess I'll say it unhedged (since nobody else has yet): I agree with the author. I don't 100% align with his particular assignment of threats and externalities to AI, but I think overall it sucks and I don't want to use it. I think he's in a space that's getting overwhelmed by AI and AI output and I salute him putting his money where his mouth is. I wish him luck.

chrisjj

> I use the acronym “AI” to refer to trends in generative AI and large language models. Please don't propagate the "LLMs are artificial intelligence" PR bullsh*t.

trebligdivad

I read that as dbus-hell and got confused.

ChrisArchitect

Previously: January 2026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46743095

vips7L

I love this guy. I don't want to use this stuff either. It produces a subpar product and way lower quality than I would ever output.

VCFundedGenYer

This is the correct take. Using AI is unethical and results in degradation of skill and talent. If you must interact with it, then you must, but you shouldn't. All of HN should take note.