> you don't use or like genAI
> you really want a feature on a platform you are hosting
> you find a plugin that provides that feature
> it's not big, you have a look through it and it doesn't seem like malware
> but someone else wrote it with genAI
> what do you do?
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@douginamug If it's small enough to grasp the structure and design by inspection as well as its malware-adjacentness, then I would opt for writing one myself while using the found plugin as a template for what things to consider and a potential structure. I would count this as "don't use it" because you're not actually using the plugin on the site.
I think some of the arguments against genAI fall apart in this case. The major one that still applies is how you feel about it - if it makes you feel spiritually icky to look through the code or use any aspect of it, you shouldn't do it.
If that's not an issue, then the cons include:
- not encouraging genAI use: the damage is done, all that remains is not incentivizing others to use genAI - attribution may be a sticking point
- deskilling: not an issue since you're not actually using genAI and are exercising cognitive muscles to extract whatever is useful from it
Finding something useful on the internet and using it as a template or inspiration for your own stuff has always been a cornerstone of website design.
GenAI takes that approach to its deeply unpleasant logical conclusion, but since everything in it is replicating existing patterns of language, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to treat it with the same disrespect that it applies to the rest of the web.
If you want a rationalization, technically you'd be borrowing from the sources that the genAI model was trained on.
This is not hypothetical: https://mastodon.xyz/@douginamug/117614848257309929 (Although I didn't audit it yet)
The part of me that wants to use it says the damage is already done, doing it myself would in fact be a further waste of energy and that we should separate the art from the artist.
The part that says no is... Struggling. I help normalize genAI use, it is spiritually tainted...
@douginamug doing it yourself creates someone who has a theory of the system with this plug in which the slop version doesn't
Especially interested in "Don't use it" responders about what else to do?
* just decide I don't need the feature?
* code it myself? (is "cleanrooming" the generated code OK??)
* pay someone? (how can I be sure they don't gen it?)
@douginamug I'm on the side of don't use it. It is tainted and it causes harm.
But you say you haven't audited it yet. Might be you'll find the reason not to use that code and decide to code what you need yourself.
So if you're teetering toward using it, do the work and look at the code.
@onepict @douginamug That's the most important thing in all this, in my view - "do the work". Regardless of the tools used, how horrifically inefficient or otherwise they may be, someone has to have done the work of understanding the code if you're to be sure it's worth using, and safe to use. No stochastic bullshit machine can ever understand anything.
@douginamug If it's not big, and easy enough that you can look through it and understand it, why not do a clean rewrite?