It's easy to recognize the potential of incremental advances — more efficient cars or faster computer chips for instance. But when a genuinely new technology emerges, often even its creators are unaware of how it will reshape our lives. So it is with AI, and this is where I start my discussion with Peter Nixey.

Peter is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, developer, and startup advisor. He reasons that large language models are poised to bring enormous benefits, particularly in enabling far faster & cheaper development of software. But he also argues that their success in this field will undermine online communities of knowledge sharing — sites like StackOverflow — as users turn away from them and to LLMs. Effectively ChatGPT will kick away one of the ladders on which its power is built.

This migration away from common forums to sealed and proprietary AI models could mark a paradigm shift in the patterns of knowledge sharing that extends far beyond the domain of programming.

We also talk about the far future and whether conflict with AI can be avoided.

• Follow Peter on Linkedin or X @peternixey
• Intentional.io — service for meaningful time management Peter is building
• Show home: multiverses.xyz
  

Chapters

(00:00) Introduction

(02:44) Start of Conversation

(03:20) The Lag Period in Technology Adoption

(06:48) The Impact of the Internet on Productivity

(11:30) The Curious UX of AI

(19:25) The Future of AI in Coding

(29:06) The Implications of AI on Information Sharing

(41:27) AI and Socratic learning

(46:57) The Evolution of Textbooks and Learning Materials

(49:01) The Future of AI in Software Development

(51:11) The Existential Questions Surrounding AI

(01:05:16) Evolutionary Success as a lens on AI

(01:13:29) The Potential Conflict Between Humans and AI

(01:14:24) An (almost) Optimistic Outlook on AI and Humanity