So, I'm a bit mixed on AI. I've never been a Luddite, but there's a lot about this AI revolution I don't like. I have used ChatGPT a few times. I don't think it knows much about me, but I'm afraid to ask. I joined "Fuck AI" but I don't see them on my community list. Maybe they went away, or maybe they kicked me off for not being anti-AI enough. I don't really care. I'm gonna join this comm because I dislike AI more than I like it.
So anyway, I'm at work, and for a while we had Copilot, then they said we couldn't have it, and now they say we can have it again. Mostly I ignore it because Copilot is just stupid. But I blanked on how to google (DuckDuckGo actually, but whatever) a template for what I needed. I wanted to make a quick disc sleeve, something I could print, cut out, and put a disc in. I know, two 4x4" squares that share a side. Not hard. But I wasn't thinking about that. Anyway, I told Copilot to make me a Word template I could print and cut to put a CD in.
It gave me a 2x3 table. I see what it was going for — it was going to make those squares bigger and different sizes and change the weights of the edges and all that. It just... didn't.
I know, Copilot sucks and Microsoft should give it the Old Yeller treatment. I don't like Microsoft. I use Macs at home. I do not have Apple Intelligence turned on, though it's pretty much garbage anyway. I feel like it's a waste of resources. But at work, I have to use Windows and Word and Excel and Outlook and some proprietary shit they have. They've suggested I install it at home. I say "I have a Mac." They say "you can get Dells and HPs pretty cheap." I say "you just upgraded every computer here, give me one of the old ones" and that ends that conversation. "Put up or shut up." They won't put up, so they'll shut up... for a while. Then they'll come ask me again. The bonus is their old Dells and HPs aren't fit for any AI, let alone the Windows 10 they do run. If I had one of those computers, I'd take out the hard drive, drop an SSD in it, and install Linux on it, then run power and ethernet to it and remote in from my Macs, and use it as a server. 8th gen i5 with 4GB DDR3, I can probably up that to 8GB, would be fine for a Plex server and some other stuff.
Luddites weren't against technology because it was new or because it was technology. They were against it for empowering oppressors (bosses) and threatening their jobs.
The equating of Luddites with general anti-technology bias, hatred and distrust was probably a propaganda campaign to smear them and make them look ridiculous and out-of-touch.
Edit: However, you are probably correct that Luddites would absolutely have been against LLMs etc.