# People vs. the AI Overlords > Source: > Published: 2026-08-22 22:32:42+00:00 # The people vs the AI overlords Previously in this series: [The Four Horsemen of the LLM Apocalypse]. In a [post to oss-security](https://lwn.net/ml/all/87o6fmdgs6.fsf@hope.eyrie.org/), my (Debian) co-developer Russ Allbery stated that "open source software [OSS] is coming face to face with a motivation crisis that has been building for a long time". His point is essentially that large language models (LLMs 1) are making the existing OSS community crisis worse. For him, it's the flood of code reviews, but he argues that varies according to people's desires, for others it's security issues and so on. I think Russ is right, but I would argue there's something much bigger than our open *communities* going on here, and it's about the entire *field* of computing. This pressure is on *all* of us, regardless of whether we work on open source software or not. # How people use models People using LLMs in their workflow have *radically* changed how programming works, even for [people who claim to avoid vibe-coding](https://www.spurint.org/journal/2026/07/llms-and-xfwl4). And I'm sorry to single out one poor maintainer here: it's not you, Brian, you're just one example among many. But this is typical use of those models nowadays: Once it’s done, I’ll use `/code-review` and let Claude spawn sub-agents to do a full review of the new code. This usually finds some problems, even problems that the “main” Claude instance didn’t find during its validation. I usually keep running`/code-review` again and again after finding and fixing issues, until there aren’t any left. Think about what that means for a minute. This is automation built to fire up dozens of agents crunching at a problem for minutes if not hours of GPU compute time, in parallel. This is essentially a couple of shelves in a datacenter rack, totally maxed out on power and cooling, abstracted behind a cute little `/code-review` command. The author, here, is rightly concerned that "Anthropic could pull the rug out and require API pricing", which is perhaps a code word for "charging something closer to actual costs". Brian also pays lip service to environmental and societal costs but those are largely abstracted away, so let's keep that conversation aside here as well, as we have [discussed it before anyways](../2026-05-16-four-horsemen/). But clearly, this way of working has an ([externalized](https://drewdevault.com/blog/Stop-externalizing-your-costs-on-me/)) cost, to say the least. # Paying for non-free tools For decades my work has been focused on free and open source software. I've long stopped using proprietary operating systems like Windows or Mac, and even before that switch, I was mostly using free software on those platforms, partly out of principle, but also because I was too poor. So the tools of my trade are free, and I build free tools with them. It feels like we're going backwards: when I was in school, a millennia ago, my classmates didn't have access to a compiler and were wondering how they would scrape the money to buy a compiler like [Borland's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borland_C%2B%2B) or [Microsoft's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_C%2B%2B). I had a compiler built into my operating system ([FreeBSD](https://www.freebsd.org/) at the time), so that wasn't a problem for me. For them, it was a significant expense, but at least those expenses (or more [shady sourcing of programs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warez)) were a one-shot deal. Fast forward 30 years, and software is rented: you pay monthly for Adobe's Photoshop and Microsoft's office suite just like you pay for Netflix, Disney+ or Spotify 2. And now you need to add dozens (if not hundreds of dollars) of monthly credits to access LLMs on top of that. So, now we have to *pay* to get anything done? This is peak [enshitification](https://craphound.com/category/enshittification/) of our job: first they steal our work to train their models, and then they sell it back to us at a profit. # Attacking the engineers AI is coming for our jobs, as engineers, if not *everyone*, according to the narrative. For a while now, our job market has deteriorated: less jobs, for less pay. Lots of skilled engineers looking for work and finding crap jobs then still looking while working. This is not by accident. 3 We engineers have a *lot*of power, it is not organized, but that's just a couple of unions away ( [easy](https://www.ibtimes.sg/wikimedia-foundation-declines-voluntary-union-recognition-labor-dispute-grows-91377)!). Tech overlords know this, so they are attacking our profession, directly, by forcing us to train and use models that *they*can control. Even in environments where programmers are not *forced* to use LLMs, the mere pressure of other people's LLM-generated work is huge. One can be forced to review LLM outputs, or just peer pressured you into producing more. We're now supposed to accelerate delivery, because models can *presumably* do things so much better and faster. With supply chain security becoming such a large vector that we now have [worms crawling around developers accounts on NPM](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/chaindrop-npm-worm-analysis/), increasing the delivery cadence seems like a really bad idea.[4](#fn:4) The LLM hype is part of the larger wave of cyberwar against workers, against water, against the Earth, against all the people. This is not a matter of individually "adapting to the reality" or personal choice, but a political, social, hard problem we need to address collectively. Previously in this series: [The Four Horsemen of the LLM Apocalypse]. - I again prefer the term LLM to "AI" because models do *not*possess[intelligence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence). I did use it in the title because click baiting is apparently important, but I stopped short of calling this one "Rage Against the Machines" because that would be the title of every blog post I have ever made.[↩](#fnref:1) - Yes, I know that [Visual Studio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Studio)is kind of free now, but I wouldn't be surprised if they turn that into a rental as well, because why not.[↩](#fnref:2) - Beyond sabotaging the job market, Sam Altman event wants to sell " [intelligence as a utility](https://gizmodo.com/sam-altman-says-intelligence-will-be-a-utility-and-hes-just-the-man-to-collect-the-bills-2000732953)" something that is just a[really bad idea](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-digital-self/202603/intelligence-as-a-commodity)but especially shows how megalomaniac those people are.[↩](#fnref:3) - This brings back memories of [another era](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_worm), walking us back decades in terms of computer security.[↩](#fnref:4) You can use your Mastodon account to reply to this [post](https://kolektiva.social/@Anarcat/117122589723431187). [Edited .](https://gitlab.com/anarcat/anarc.at/-/commits/main/blog/2026-08-18-people-vs-ai-overlords.md)