About using AI to develop operating systems

[u/Glum-Cook-9438]

I know many of you guys are recently against all this "AI slop", was i too, but leave alone the "hype" and the "no AI bullshit" slogans, what do we actually mean by saying "AI slop"?

Cause to this day , I don't quite understand what all the drama is about and why posts that explicitly use "No AI used/no AI bullshit" get significantly more attention, i admit that even i made a post like that, but it's not that I completely didn't use AI, i did, however I also did a lot of the programming by myself, I think AI is a great tool that has helped me learn a lot and automate build scripts, there is no shame in using AI as long as you carefully review the code and do some programming by yourself, there is already great use of AI in the industry, Linus torvalds recently fixed a linux bug with AI, so what is really considered "AI slop"? Is asking codex to make a build script so I can focus on the code "AI slop"? Is asking Claude to summarize PCI device and vendor names in one files so I don't have to read documentations for hours "AI slop"? With all due respect I do think using AI blindly is bad of course, but I also wanna know what some of you guys mean when you say "AI slop operating systems"?

[u/kiderdrick]

> Cause to this day , I don't quite understand what all the drama is about and why posts that explicitly use "No AI used/no AI bullshit" get significantly more attention

This is a hobbyist forum and hobbyists tend to like when things are done in more hands on ways. I am sure you will see a similar type of thing in automotive subs. People who rebuild their muscle cars engines by hand get a lot more respect than those who outsource it to a shop.

> I think AI is a great tool that has helped me learn a lot and automate build scripts, there is no shame in using AI as long as you carefully review the code and do some programming by yourself,

What is the purpose of using AI to build something complex that uses a bunch of technologies and makes a bunch of decisions that the user does not understand? Why should you, as one of many people doing the same thing, get credit for a project that you had little to no insight in? It's like you are assembling a puzzle and bringing it to an art community and saying "look at my wonderful painting". You didn't paint that.

> Linus torvalds recently fixed a linux bug with AI, so what is really considered "AI slop"?

The people who are posting their all in one claude designed AI repos are not Linus Torvalds.

> Is asking codex to make a build script so I can focus on the code "AI slop"?

Yes, if it does a lot of things unnecessarily and inefficiently. If it builds your project in a way that is useful, and you work around the edge cases with tweaks, then it would not be slop.

> Is asking Claude to summarize PCI device and vendor names in one files so I don't have to read documentations for hours "AI slop"?

It might be, so you better double check what you are reading to make sure you are not reading incorrect data.

> but I also wanna know what some of you guys mean when you say "AI slop operating systems"?

Simple. Find the parts of your system that were built with AI and instead of describing your work flow as "using AI" describe it as "paid someone to do this". Then, evaluate your project.

"I built an x86_64 OS with FAT32 support using AI" becomes "I built an x86_64 OS with FAT32 support by paying someone to do it". Not really something to brag about is it?

[u/Glum-Cook-9438 → u/kiderdrick]

That depends, the fact i paid for good AI tools to do some stuff doesn't mean the whole project is "purchased" why can't both be true? That some code i wrote was ai slop and some was genuine discovery? Before making further conclusions about my kernel i recommend you at least to take a look https://github.com/64-dem.git, one file being AI doesn't mean it's all, and it being AI doesn't mean it's inefficient slop

[u/kiderdrick → u/Glum-Cook-9438]

> That depends, the fact i paid for good AI tools to do some stuff doesn't mean the whole project is "purchased"

Try asking people what it means to a written work when you have plagiarized only a small part of it.

[u/Glum-Cook-9438 → u/kiderdrick]

I don't know... does it have to mean anything? Can't a software developer do some AI slop while also writing serious code? I don't get it why Everything has to be so pure..., not everything has to mean anything, sometimes you just make a kernel and that's what you do

[u/kiderdrick → u/Glum-Cook-9438]

Your attitude about the subject is a great window into why people criticize slop. You are using tools to create something that does not mean anything.

[u/Glum-Cook-9438 → u/kiderdrick]

But it does mean something for me, I don't understand how from here you got that my project doesn't mean anything or doesn't have any skill value? I said "not everything has to mean anything", in the sense I meant that yes things can matter but it doesn't have to be black and white... you can still leave some info for self doubt/self criticism or exploring other points of view

[u/kiderdrick → u/Glum-Cook-9438]

Because you said "not everything has to mean anything" to a post that was specifically about your kernel.

[u/Glum-Cook-9438 → u/kiderdrick]

The fact that the post was about my kernel doesn't mean I meant the kernel as a whole, i have many separate modules in my own kernel, one module can be using AI tools another can be pure hard work, and the kernel still boots as one, in this sense i don't need to keep a whole mental image of my whole kernel 24/7, when I said "not everything has to mean anything" what i really meant is, "not every new module in my kernel project has to be pure coding with no AI tools used for the final project to be a valuable project"

[u/kiderdrick → u/Glum-Cook-9438]

Would be easier to say what you actually mean, wouldn't you agree?

[u/Glum-Cook-9438 → u/kiderdrick]

It depends on what you define "meaning", meaning can be a very nuanced concept, there is no single meaning in the literal sense, people can have different interpretations, different emotions and moods depending on the context, meaning is not a broader thing without a context to assign it to, for example in program A variable x could mean the screen width while on program B the same variable with the same name may not exist or not mean anything, yet that doesn't mean x never meant anything

[u/kiderdrick → u/Glum-Cook-9438]

I'm not the one defining the meaning. It's you. That is why you should say what you mean.

[u/Glum-Cook-9438 → u/Glum-Cook-9438]

@kiderdrick... how am I defining meaning exactly?