Post #2534812

2026-02-25 20:36 UTC

When I see LadyAda talking about spinning up an agent to do driver development and how it costs upwards of $100 to run a few hour session I'm forced to see this as a barrier to entry for people who can't / won't afford that kind of expense. So *if* this development flow becomes the minimum viable approach to software dev in the future, only professionals and well-funded enterprises can stay in the game. Free / open-source projects and individual hobbyists will be stuck in the backwater. 2/x

Replies (2)

@emeb@society.oftrolls.com 2026-02-25 20:44

Free / student tier pricing may provide some relief for learners and onboarding, but the restrictions applied will not enable productivity at the professional level that is required for meaningful progress & keeping up with the leading edge. We saw some of these effects decades ago in the engineering & scientific disciplines when tools for computation (Matlab) or EDA (PCB design, HDL synthesis, chip layout, etc) were out of reach for hobbyists. Today there are free tools for these apps. 3/x

Open ##2534813
@dtauvdiodr@c.im 2026-04-21 19:49

@emeb@society.oftrolls.com I wrote about this very thing last month. I have since gotten a job, there's a lot of AI happening. None of which I can know or do without a workplace paying the bill. https://www.sounding.com/2026/02/11/mindcolonization/

Open ##2534815