Something Big Is Happening

[Stump Water]

https://shumer.dev/something-big-is-happening

 

Long read.  Worth it.

[John Kloehr]

Too long. Skimmed it, no clear point. Not well structured around a thesis, background, or action. Sure, emotional hooks, but those are not based on logic or structured argument.

[Chantry]

Skimmed it. My takeaways:

If you're retired, probably not an issue

If you work "hands on" jobs like law enforcement, fixing cars, medical professions, you're probably going to benefit from AI

If you push a computer or work in a corporate type job, AI is either going to make your job easier or replace you.

WHEN robotics catches up to AI, even more jobs can be done by AI/robotics and there will be fewer jobs requiring people.

 

Best Case: Think the Star Trek universe where people work because they enjoy it and everything is relatively plentiful

Worse case: Vast unemployment, people get a basic living stipend, cheap housing blocks and legal recreational drugs are cheap.

Absolute worst case:  the Terminator world becomes reality. 

 

Science Fiction has explored most of these 'futures'

Edited February 16 by Chantry

[El Chapo]

AI is going to change the world like the internet did 30 years ago.

 

For all its faults, the world is a better place because of widespread access and use of the internet.

 

I hope I live long enough to see what it'll create.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

37 minutes ago, El Chapo said:

AI is going to change the world like the internet did 30 years ago.

 

For all its faults, the world is a better place because of widespread access and use of the internet.

 

I hope I live long enough to see what it'll create.

Your opinion, not mine!

[Windy City Kid]

I use AI daily, in my job, as well for personal use. It has been transformative. Maybe I drank the Kool-Aid. Wish it could help me shoot faster and miss less. 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

1 hour ago, El Chapo said:

AI is going to change the world like the internet did 30 years ago.

For all its faults, the world is a better place because of widespread access and use of the internet.

[Stump Water]

14 hours ago, John Kloehr said:

no clear point.

 

Because you...

 

14 hours ago, John Kloehr said:

Skimmed it

 

[Sedalia Dave]

The problem with AI is that it only learns by example. Feed it poor examples and you'll get poor results (Garbage In, Garbage Out).  Because AI gets it's examples from the internet the possibility that it will latch onto and replicate a bad piece of code that will spread like a virus is a real possibility. For industries that support classified systems (DOD) how will AI systems learn and stay up to date? By design, classified systems are isolated to prevent their purpose from being disclosed to those without a Need to Know. 

 

Companies like Microsoft are built around unrestricted internet access. The old model of allowing isolated air gapped systems to have a license server has been abandoned. Locking software to a specific hardware configuration meant that having one build that would run on several different computers was no longer possible. Having a unique build for every PC was not cost effective. Where I used to work this drove all our mission software to be rewritten to run on LINUX operating systems. 

 

Like the cloud based Microsoft business model, the current AI model relies on unrestricted access to the internet. Remove that access and AI cannot function as it requires massive amounts of computing power that can only be supplied by servers running in the cloud. Yes there are AI engines that will run locally but their capabilities are not all that impressive. 

 

I've already heard of companies that want to replace junior software engineers with AI code generation. While retaining more senior engineers to feed input to AI and review the output. The problem with this is once the competent software engineers age out where will their replacements come from? 

 

The Achilles heel of AI is that one poison pill can spread like wildfire. Sooner or later  that will happen and with all the competent software engineers put out to pasture, no one will be left to fix it.

[watab kid]

i read it , i get it , its like the late 90w when we were converting from paper to computer and started using the internet for business , but just like how fast we went from starting to fly to going to the moon in our lives this was a lot faster , the AI age is going to be even faster , young people today need to take heed and expand their thinking on the future work they will do ..............ill admit im glad im not facing this , but thats because im old and tired , i do believe i will see this happen in real time before im gone , 

 

these changes have happened repeatedly in our lives and we accepted them because they were fairly slow and we had time to adapt , today [since the space age] they are much more rapid and our chance to adapt is shorter , but they are going to happen , just like the buggy whip its inevitable and nothing will stop it , 

 

i feel bad for the amish yet my feelings might be ill placed as they may continue on without really noticing - just an idel thought , ive had it before and i may again , but they made it thru Y2K without a problem , 

 

and so did we , we will muddle through somehow , 

[Stump Water]

12 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

Like the cloud based Microsoft business model, the current AI model relies on unrestricted access to the internet.

 

Pretty much every business today relies on the internet.  At my former employer everything was hosted in-house, yet every single order required access to the internet at least three times: Address verification, credit card transaction, fetch shipping charges.  Five distribution centers across the country.  Gone are the days of dedicated or leased lines - they are connected via VPN tunnels over the internet.  I held out until the very end with the in-house phone system (MiTel), but it's pretty much impossible to find an enterprise class phone system for a mid-sized company that isn't cloud-based.  They have since switched to 8x8.

 

Bottom line:  No internet, business halts.  That's why HQ has three separate internet connections - each in a different "ditch".  

 

 

 

At my former employer (where I was IT Director) we started the migration from a legacy ERP to a modern ERP in 2020.  By the time I retired in mid 2024 the team was using AI almost every day to assist in writing code to customize the new ERP to suit the company's needs - and that was only the freeware version of ChatGPT. That was over 18 months ago which, as the author says, is ancient history in AI time.

 

My IT career spanned 38 years - 30 at the company I retired from whom I shepherded into the internet age.  So I've been around long enough to see a few things change.  If you don't heed Mr. Shumer's advice and embrace AI, then you're going to get left in the dust.

  

I still use AI regularly.  Ex: Tractor acting up? Tell AI the symptoms and let it diagnose.  Don't know what to have for supper?  Tell it what you have in the fridge/pantry and let it lay out a meal.  Want to change the curb appeal of your house or the look of a room? Give it a current picture and let it show you some ideas.   Sure, all of that is rudimentary stuff, but you need to start somewhere.   Or not.

[Texas Maverick]

On 2/13/2026 at 6:45 AM, Chantry said:

Skimmed it. My takeaways:

If you're retired, probably not an issue

If you work "hands on" jobs like law enforcement, fixing cars, medical professions, you're probably benefit from AI

If you push a computer or work in a corporate type job, AI is either going to make your job easier or replace you.

WHEN robotics catches up to AI, even more jobs can be done by AI/robotics and there will be fewer jobs requiring people.

 

Best Case: Think the Star Trek universe where people work because they enjoy it and everything is relatively plentiful

Worse case: Vast unemployment, people get a basic living stipend, cheap housing blocks and legal recreational drugs are cheap.

Absolute worst case:  the Terminator world becomes reality. 

 

Science Fiction has explored most of these 'futures'

I agree. After spending over 50 years in IT the future is here in AI. Glad I am one of the retired guys and not one wondering if I will be replaced by AI. It is an interesting read being from the IT field.

 

TM

[Texas Maverick]

On 2/13/2026 at 9:44 AM, Windy City Kid said:

I use AI daily, in my job, as well for personal use. It has been transformative. Maybe I drank the Kool-Aid. Wish it could help me shoot faster and miss less. 

It can in a virtual world. LOL

 

TM

[Texas Joker]

I fed ai a series of prompts AND corrections and it did a compare contrast itinerary with estimated cost for a series of flights for a  vacation I want to take.

Edited February 14 by Texas Joker

[Pulp, SASS#28319]

Sorry, link didn’t work.

 

Edited February 15 by Pulp, SASS#28319
Double tap

[Rip Snorter]

If you are a genuine  photographer, ex. minor tweaks, darkroom or digital, you take photos rather than make photos.  Been at it for 7 decades.

[watab kid]

i transitioned from film and the darkroom to the digital and computer screen but the phone gets used mostly today 

[WD Farren]

I’d like to see AI replace lawyers and activist judges….  as long AI isn’t taught Hate, Bias or TDS.

[watab kid]

i had breakfast with an IT guy today that told me a little about the topic , he said there are already AI computers correcting other AI computers and they are controling robots that do what they tell them to do , there is going to be a gap but far from what most of us of older age recall this transition will happen at a raf more rapid pace that we ever saw in the past 

[Utah Bob #35998]

Stephen Hawking warned about AI. 
Stephen Hawking!!

[El Chapo]

13 hours ago, WD Farren said:

I’d like to see AI replace lawyers and activist judges….  as long AI isn’t taught Hate, Bias or TDS.

 

You should read some AI briefs if you think that.  A number of lawyers have been sanctioned when AI completely made up authority from thin air.  If the judge wasn't human we'd be in the stone age within a week.

[WD Farren]

My thoughts are more for case decisions.
AI can scan the entirety of case law.
Unless programmed with Hate, Bias or TDS, it could replace the activist judges like Boasberg and purely apply case law without bias or activism.

But as with all things today, you are right about weaponization.

We all know AI will never, ever replace lawyers or judges, so the discussion is entirely academic.

[Stump Water]

14 minutes ago, WD Farren said:

We all know AI will never, ever replace lawyers or judges, so the discussion is entirely academic.

 

However, from the article...

 

Quote

But I've had partners at major law firms reach out to me for advice, because they've tried the current versions and they see where this is going. One of them, the managing partner at a large firm, spends hours every day using AI. He told me it's like having a team of associates available instantly. He's not using it because it's a toy. He's using it because it works. And he told me something that stuck with me: every couple of months, it gets significantly more capable for his work. He said if it stays on this trajectory, he expects it'll be able to do most of what he does before long... and he's a managing partner with decades of experience. He's not panicking. But he's paying very close attention.

 

For me the takeaway is the last two sentences.

 

[WD Farren]

I'm sure those in the sealing wax and buggy whip businesses felt the same.

Same as the sun moves in the sky, the elephant rolls over imperceptibly, but it does turn over.

I've seen some of the SQL (structured query language) static code written by Musk's GROK AI application.
It is correct, compiles correctly and is produced in the twinkling of an eye.

AI won't replace plumbers or electricians.

I don't see AI replacing programmers who write interactive code that cannot be AI predicted.

AI is fundamentally a massive database.

It can contain valid data or errors.

[Rye Miles #13621]

I asked Alexa, which is a form of AI, if all banks are closed on Presidents’ Day and it kept giving me a bank close to my house that’s open. I went on their website and they’re closed like all banks. I tried to tell it that it was wrong and it kept telling me, “ I can’t help you with that!” AI is not always right! Just sayin’…..

[watab kid]

10 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I asked Alexa, which is a form of AI, if all banks are closed on Presidents’ Day and it kept giving me a bank close to my house that’s open. I went on their website and they’re closed like all banks. I tried to tell it that it was wrong and it kept telling me, “ I can’t help you with that!” AI is not always right! Just sayin’…..

not sure alexa is keeping up with current developments , a couple friends that use it regularly get those kind of answers and/or something completely off the topic 

[Vail Vigilante]

I have tried asking AI things (professionally) and it has never been right.

[Rye Miles #13621]

If you consider Chatgbt AI, It’s pretty much correct all the time. I’ve been using it more than GOOFLE OR Duck.

[Chantry]

A comment I read somewhere else, supporting keeping live employees:  You can't blame or fire the AI when something goes wrong.

[Pb Mark]

Suggest people read about how AI Data Centers are being used to mine Crypto.  Why read about it?  Because we are paying for the increase in electricity costs.