Notes

Well this article certainly amused me...

Google complained it had become under "distillation attacks", with agents querying Gemini up to 100,000 times to "extract" the underlying model — the convoluted AI industry equivalent of copying somebody's homework, basically.

When it comes to its own tech being copied, Google has no problem pointing fingers. This week, the company accused "commercially motivated" actors of trying to clone its Gemini AI.

There is a glaring sense of hypocrisy here. For years, the tech giant has utilised the work of others to train its models, yet it now bristles when the same logic is applied to its own outputs.

Furthermore, the "vulnerability" Google is concerned about feels trivial when compared to the anxieties of the "everyman," who fears that AI might eventually render their livelihood obsolete. It suggests a definitive shift in the tech world: a line has been drawn where AI companies, now desperate to protect their paths to monetisation, are prioritising corporate survival over the open-access principles they once championed.

The biggest stumbling block I encounter when working on new personal projects is developing a UI. In fact it fills me with dread! The thought of having to scour the internet in search for templates that could meet my needs just to have something to build upon is a frustrating, exhausting task.

Design and front-end development have never been my strong suits. One look at the simplicity of my personal web builds will confirm it; I often lack the visual imagination required to build a truly unique online presence.

While I might have a idea of how I want a project to look, translating those thoughts into a tangible interface usually feels impossible. If I'm being honest, I've never had the patience to master the complexities of front-end styling. I'm a coder, not a designer.

Lovable.dev changed the game for me.

For those not in the know, Lovable is an AI-powered "full-stack engineer" that generates real, production-ready code from natural language. You simply describe what you want, and it builds the React components, styles them with Tailwind CSS, and even handles backend integration.

It hasn't just replaced the need for manual coding; it acts as my own freelance creative partner. I was surprised by just how easy it was to tailor my thoughts on how I want my personal websites to look. In fact, as I write this, I am in the middle of a complete design overhaul of one of my other sites, Stockmantics. What I have managed to achieve in a matter of days is nothing short of a miracle!

By referencing other sites I like alongside my own ideas, I am able to create something truly my own. Lovable does a grand job of providing creative direction. The front-end code it generates is remarkably robust; it isn't just "filler" code, it's clean, structured, and ready to be deployed. This allows me to focus on core functionality. Even if the generated output isn't to the standard of a veteran front-end developer, it provides a fantastic foundation to build upon.

Thanks Steve for bringing this to my attention. Without sounding too cheesy—I am truly loving it!

I stumbled across a Reddit post that posed the question:

What is the point of AI taking everything over? Let’s just say hypothetically AI wins, congrats. Every job is replaced. Meta, Open AI and Amazon own everything... No one can work, therefore, no one has money to buy any of the horse shit Temu slop they prime on Amazon now. Won't everything just implode from there?

If everyone stops working, and has no money, doesn't consumerism stop too? ... No one can pay their $1000 car note anymore or their mortgage... What am I missing here? What is the grand idea with AI taking over and everyone is broke?

This will be the question that might stand the test of time - especially in my lifetime. But the OP states a fascinating point that often crosses my mind. Does this all end with a class divide as depicted in films like Snowpiercer, Soylent Green, Elysium, to name a few? Are we heading down that very same road?

I highly recommend perusing the Reddit thread. The responses to the OP are interesting in thier views. They offer some interesting perspectives, ranging from dystopian cynicism to cautious idealism.

My view:

The problem isn't the technology itself, but the economic framework we wrap around it. In an ideal world, automation would be the great liberator: machines shoulder the burden of labour, paving the way to rendering money obsolete and leaving humanity free to pursue passion over profit. That is what we should be striving for.

However, this very idealistic "Star Trek" view on humanity could be a stretch too far. A dose of reality tells us we are currently heading in the opposite direction. As we have seen historically, when machines replace workers, the efficiency gains turn into profits rather than enhancing the well-being of its workers. The technology offers us freedom, but whilst capitalism runs in the veins of those in power we risk forging our own chains with the very tools designed to break them.

I believe that when we watch a film, some of the scenes we find particularly memorable are often determined by our current frame of mind—a reflection of what we have endured or experienced. Today, I watched the brilliant 28 Years Later, and one particular scene struck me with its poignant and haunting meaning.

Without giving away any spoilers, there is an exchange between the character Dr. Ian Kelson and a young Spike, where Kelson references a Latin phrase:

Memento mori. Remember we must die. There are many kinds of death. Some are better than others. The best are peaceful where we leave each other in love. Memento amorous. Remember you must love.

If what I believe is true—that this is almost like a cinematic Rorschach test where we project our internal thoughts onto the screen—then what does that say about my own mental disposition?

What a thought to have as we near the end of 2025. I think my new years resolution should be to watch more comedy!

It just occurred to me that I haven't browsed Stack Overflow for answers to my coding queries since using the likes of Copilot and Gemini. It's been an even longer period of time since I posted my last question, which in the past, I would only have done if life depended on it. We are all aware of the strict rules that are enforced to ensure a question is asked in the correct manner, whereas an AI prompt doesn't really care.

I wonder how the likes of AI have impacted them, when the quest for answers is now so instantaneous? It also raises a far more important question about what will become of community-driven websites where we will no longer see the person behind the knowledge.

The most annoying part of breaking a long silence isn't writer's block; it's technical debt. Wrestling with outdated libraries and a broken development environment felt like the universe punishing me for neglecting this place.

After spending an embarrassing amount of time wrestling with outdated libraries and broken dependencies just to get this site back online, I realised I didn't have the energy to write a 1000-word essay. So, welcome to "Notes." A place for half-baked ideas, snippets, and thoughts that aren't quite ready for the main stage. Less polish, more publishing.