> “What about security?” [..] “What about performance?” [..] “What about accessibility?”
TBH i'm fine with AI but my main concern isn't any of these issues (even if they suck now -though supposedly Claude Code doesn't- they can get better in the future).
My main concern, by far, is control and availability. I do not mind using some AI, but i do mind using AI that runs on someone else's computer and isn't under my control - and i can, or have a chance at, understanding/tweaking/fixing (so all my AI use is done via inference engines that are written in C++ that i compiled myself and are running on my PC).
Of course the same logic applies to anything where that makes sense (i.e. all my software runs locally, the only things i use online/cloud versions for are things which are inherently about networking - e.g. chat, forums, etc, but even then i use -say- a desktop-based email client instead of webmail).
Absolutely. I'm gonna go full agentic coding the day I can do it with open-weight models on my machine. Until then feeding someone else's models with more data on how to replace me in particular sounds insane to me.
So far I have been able to trade some efficiency for more control in my professional life. All of my tooling is open-source and local. I hope I can get away with it this time as well though sure some adjustment will be needed
But why? Why not simply do/use whatever is most cost-effective? In the places where greater control leads to less efficiency, what is the benefit of control?
This is a genuine question -- I really don't understand. I appreciate local tooling when it helps my long-term efficiency, even if there's a learning curve. But not if cloud seems like it will always be more efficient. And while there are LLM's you can run locally, it doesn't seem like the ones useful for coding, with their vast memory and GPU requirements, will be realistic or cost-effective to run locally in the foreseeable future.
> But why? Why not simply do/use whatever is most cost-effective?
Because cost-effectiveness is a short term concern compared to...
> what is the benefit of control?
...the independence that being in control provides you in the long term. As for why to be independent, i hope it should be self-evident that being able to do what you want and work on without having to rely on 3rd parties for a core component of that work is a good thing.
And TBH i'm not sure why being fast at the cost of everything else (especially of independence and control) is even considered a good thing in the first place.
TBH i'm fine with AI but my main concern isn't any of these issues (even if they suck now -though supposedly Claude Code doesn't- they can get better in the future).
My main concern, by far, is control and availability. I do not mind using some AI, but i do mind using AI that runs on someone else's computer and isn't under my control - and i can, or have a chance at, understanding/tweaking/fixing (so all my AI use is done via inference engines that are written in C++ that i compiled myself and are running on my PC).
Of course the same logic applies to anything where that makes sense (i.e. all my software runs locally, the only things i use online/cloud versions for are things which are inherently about networking - e.g. chat, forums, etc, but even then i use -say- a desktop-based email client instead of webmail).