One thing about AI is that I use it. I use it for work, but also for personal stuff1. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I also wrote about it here (in Italian): I don’t remember how to do some things that I now do with a calculator, and sooner or later I’ll probably forget how to do things that I now do with an LLM. All in all, it’s not a big deal. The serious thing is that I had distanced myself from Google.
In a recent blog post, Jordan Fulghum noted how, through the use of AI agents via the terminal, the management of self-hosted solutions has radically changed. Today, it’s easier, faster, more convenient, and even more fun to install and configure utility, monitoring, or productivity applications.
One thing I wanted to say, regarding my last post. I am not a pessimist, and I do not want to imagine any kind of block on artificial intelligence tools for supporting creative work or development. On the contrary, aware of my past mistakes, having experienced defeat, mortificazione and frustration in my youth, I believe these tools should be used to produce faster and, perhaps, to sell the fruits of one’s labor better. Clearly – needless to say – cleary the results of these tools must be verified, corrected, analyzed, and adjusted before being put into a stable context. Already said. I am optimistic about this, but with calmness.
As a boy I was a freelancer for many years. I built and sold websites. I did it like a craftsman: I designed the layout with Macromedia Fireworks, refined it with lines, shadows, and reflections, and then manually converted it to HTML1. Then I used my own CMS, built from scratch with my own PHP framework, to make it dynamic.
I stumbled upon Vinson Guo somewhat by accident. I don’t remember exactly, but I think his app was suggested to me by Gemini or Perplexity. I don’t remember. Anyway, Vinson is a developer based in Chengdu, China. In recent months, he’s been working on publishing SmartRSS.
I’ve been working a lot with AI lately. Wait, don’t run away. I know it’s a boring and unpleasant topic, about which everything and its opposite has been said, but it’s a topic that can’t be ignored. And anyway, I’m only telling you a side story. So, listen, go ahead.
I liked so much how Viticci has contextualized his review of the new iOS 18, focusing on the people behind the technology and not on AI. I fully share its perspective.
Nella nostra ricerca abbiamo incontrato addirittura persone pagate 0,001 dollaro per ogni azione che compiono durante le loro mansioni. Sono reclutate in paesi talmente a basso reddito che per lo0ro, purtroppo, diventa economicamente interessante svolgere questi compiti pagati male. In Venezuela, dove l’80 per cento della popolazione vive sotto la soglia di povertà e il salario medio è di sei-otto dollari al mese, arrivare a guadagnarne un po’ di più facendo microtask (traduzioni, descrizioni, tagging, sondaggi…) per l’intelligenza artificiale può in effetti rappresentare una prospettiva ed è su questo che fanno leva molte aziende come Google, la OpenAi, la Meta. […] Abbiamo passato una settimana in una casa in Madagascar trasformata in fabbrica di dati, con lavoratori ovunque in garage, in soffitta. Erano almeno in 120 in una casa sommersa dalla spazzatura e con un bagno solo, pagati pochissimo e impiegati giorno e notte per far finta di essere un sistema di videosorveglianza basato sull’intelligenza artificiale. […] La conseguenza peggiore di questo processo non è tanto che l’intelligenza artificiale ha cominciato a fare il lavoro degli esseri umani, ma che ha incorporato il lavoro umano in modo tale da averlo reso invisibile. Questo produce maggiore potenziale di sfruttamento.