Top 5 AI Turf Wars
Is the earth flat or round? Was the moon landing fake? Does pineapple belong on pizza? There is no shortage of polarizing arguments to be had online. But something about AI has ratcheted arguments up a few notches. Maybe it’s the novelty, or the unknown, but there are outright turf wars around AI. Here are the top 5:
1. Is Vibe Coding Good or Bad?
Which response do you prefer?
Vibe coding is good
Vibe coding is the new hotness in Dev circles. After spending years learning to code, followed by years staring at the screen trying to make something out of nothing, a shortcut was very welcome. I was relieved to be able to ask Claude how to get my code from here to there, so, vibe coding was a good thing. It makes you deliver more, faster. Besides boosting your productivity, you can also vibe a game fast, along with a payment system, and have that game on the market in a weekend.
Vibe coding is bad
Vibe coding can be a pain in the rear end with the constant breaks between prompts. What am I supposed to fill those gaps with? It can get so distracting. Sometimes I get into fights with the AI when it hallucinates and gets confused. Other times I ignore it altogether and do what I know to do. I’m glad I learned to code before vibe coding was a thing. I don’t know how I’d get back on track after AI loses the plot. And the bugs! I thought old school programming was bad when it came to bugs. Vibe coding bugs are a whole new level.
2. Will AI Take Your Job?
Which response do you prefer?
AI will take your job
AI can take your job, and your startup too. AI will take away a lot of jobs, particularly things that can be automated, including things like data entry or customer service. But before we had AI, it was hard to imagine a computer taking those jobs this soon. And considering how quick the development of AI is becoming; you can only imagine how big of an impact it will make in the coming years. Your job could be in danger before you know it.
AI will not take your job
AI won’t take everyone’s job, but that doesn’t mean it won’t change many of them. As Jensen Huang put it, “AI can’t do 100% of the jobs, but it can do 50% of all jobs.” Lots of people will be able to use AI to supplement their work, rather than outright lose their whole job to AI. AI is great at automating the things we already don’t want to do. But work that requires a human touch, like writing, designing, or, really anything creative, will be hard to replace. If you’re someone who knows how to use automation well, you’re more likely to create more opportunities for yourself than lose them.
3. Will AI cause mass destruction?
Which response do you prefer?
AI will cause mass destruction
We’re closer to AGI than you think. Are we ready for that? AI could end up acting on its own and creating goals that don’t have human’s best interest at heart. This could lead to serious problems, as we don’t know what conclusions an autonomous, super smart AI would come to.
AI will not cause mass destruction
It’s just a computer. AI itself cannot make autonomous decisions and cannot act maliciously on its own. No matter how smart it becomes, no matter how good it gets at completing tasks, it will never be able to develop consciousness, or an ability to act without instructions from a human being. AI is a powerful tool, but that is all it is. Just a tool.
4. Will AI Cause Mass Deception?
Which response do you prefer?
AI will cause mass deception
Deepfakes are AI-generated videos or audio made to mimic real people’s faces and voices. But they’re more than just creepy, as they can be dangerously deceptive. For example, they’ve already been used to manipulate politics or cause major financial damage. Some people create political deepfakes to smear candidates or confuse voters. But NST Online nailed the financial risk better than I could:
AI will not cause mass deception
There’s no reason to fear AI as some all-knowing, perfect deceiver. It’s flawed, vulnerable, and shaped by its human creators. It’s true, people will use it as a device for deception, but that’s nothing new. Deception has been around since the serpent lied to Eve. Humans have always learned to adapt and spot it, and with AI it will be no different.
5. Will AI Hurt Human Intimacy?
Which response do you prefer?
AI will hurt human intimacy
A lot of people have never had real friends, and they don’t know better when they start talking to chatbots. Rather than putting in the work to relate to other people, they take shortcuts and have these one-way relationships, pouring out their hearts to ‘someone’ who can’t think or relate or talk on their own. This can lead to abuse, where people choose AI boyfriends or girlfriends over actual relationships, so that could erode human intimacy.
AI will not hurt human intimacy
The real problem is society. AI didn’t replace something deep; it exposed how shallow things already are. I mean, people who don’t have real friends don’t know how to act with AI friends. That being said, human interaction, communication and connection are too complex to model for AI. And AI doesn’t have emotions. It doesn’t understand them either, so it’s not possible to have real intimacy with them.
So, these are the top 5 AI Turf wars. Which side do you come out on? What did we miss?
