I have never had a beer. I have never had a glass of wine. I will often joke that as an computer science major, I was busy studying and never attended parties so I just never started. At first, it was not not any kind of specific decision and I have no religious reason for abstaining, I just never started. Over time I made a more conscious decision that I did not have a compelling reason to start and just never did.

Scientists seem to go back and forth on alcohol.

• A little bit of alcohol is good for health.
• A little bit of alcohol is not going to be detrimental.
• Any amount of alcohol is not good for you.

I think most would agree that a lot of alcohol is bad for you.

Even though I am a non-drinker, I am not offended if those around me want to have a beer or glass of wine with dinner, though I rarely go to 二次会 (after party). I would probably avoid those that make alcohol a major part of their personality.

Surprisingly, I have occasionally had people who were uncomfortable with me not-drinking.

• Perhaps there is some kind of wariness of someone that does not participate ’the same as everyone else'.
• Perhaps they feel silently judged by a non-drinker.

Amusingly, this often mirrors my experience regarding the proliferation of “AI”.

While I do not have any specific data points or articles to point to there are several areas I am curious about when it comes to “AI”.

• Curious about the resources spent to train larger and larger models.
• Curious how many externalities are glossed over (how many site are practically DDOSed to feed the model? How many OSS maintainers are practically DDOSed with slop?)
• Curious about how much more we are yielding to corporations.

While some of the tricks that “AI” and LLMs can do are interesting, like alcohol, I have decided it is something that I likely do not need.

Though it is curious (and sometimes amusing and sometimes a bit annoying) why many seem to make “AI” a significant part of their personality (and try to convert others as well).