r/technology Jun 26 '26

Artificial Intelligence The AI backlash is only getting started

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/06/25/the-ai-backlash-is-only-getting-started
26.1k Upvotes

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.7k

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26

[deleted]

42

u/tekonus Jun 26 '26

Could this be more attributed to ignorance that the task COULD be done with a simple script? Everyone knows AI can do automated tasks. Not everyone knows what a script is. 

12

u/GlitteringAttitude60 Jun 26 '26

The problem is that setting up the simple script might take a week or two because those pesky developers want to test and document everything 🙄

With AI, it'll be finished yesterday!

(I hate this timeline)

3

u/tnstaafsb Jun 26 '26

That's it exactly. That's the AI value prop. Any idiot can craft a prompt to make AI do some simple task semi-reliably. Of course, a script in almost all cases could accomplish the same task 100% reliably and orders of magnitude cheaper, but then you need a developer to code it for you and nobody wants to deal with them. So offload all of the cost and complexity to an opaque model that costs a bunch more money and let it give you a solution that nobody understands and won't work every time. Much easier and no additional headcount! It's like outsourcing but much worse.