Beware software brain

Nilay Patel put out an excellent Decoder episode today. In it, he dove into the idea of “software brain”, which is something he’s been workshopping during the past several Vergecast episodes. It’s his attempt to explain why so many Silicon Valley folks are head over heels about AI, at the same time that most normal people hate it. The idea really resonates with me. It’s worth checking out the post. There’s a 15 minute YouTube video, a podcast version, and a written piece on the page. But here’s the main thrust. Software folks are used to thinking of things as software problems. To them, automation is always a win, and LLMs are the best automation tools to come out in decades. But most people don’t think in terms of automation. Instead they see bullshit features, terrible art, people losing their jobs, and massive amounts of money and energy going into data centres. This isn’t guesswork, either. Recent polls from the Pew Research Center and Quinnipiac University show that most people…