Why did I use AI to develop parts of this project?

Some parts of this project are vibe coded, some more, some less.

There’s a short and a long answer for why that is.

The short one first: I’m mostly working on this alone and lack the skills required, my mental health is difficult and working all the time on one project can get frustrating very quick.

Long version: I’m easy to excite and come up with project ideas all the time. Most of them never make it out of the drafting stage, and every fewer get completed. There are two main reasons for this:

• leak of free time
• depression

Depression is a bitch, who do I need to explain this to, but when a project reaches a point where I’m overwhelmed by it or just have a depressed and dissociated day - and all of my complexer projects arrive that this point eventually - I don’t see any path forward. In such moments I tend to abandon things and tell myself I’ll never be good enough to finish anything. Sometimes friends help me to overcome this phase, but that’s rarely the case. I’m rather isolated socially. Then there’s the temptation of asking AI. It helps me research a specific component, paper or even generate a few lines of code when nothing seems to make sense and conventional search engines turn up garbage because the answer to the problem was posted in a dead forum 8 years ago.

Regarding this project: Critter Scanner is composed of the website, firmware, database, schematics and board design, I have used AI (specific: Clause Opus 4.8) at some point for everything. But not to produce mindless slop. The breadboard prototype was build entirely without AI, same for all the schematics and PCB. But when it comes to e.g. web design I’m lost.

Technically DID/plurality also play into all of this; different headmates excel in certain skills, or lack them entirely. I’m not here to judge as long as things get done and publications reviewed properly. In this sense technology can aid me to overcome (my) disabilities and we& get things done even if knowledge or skills aren’t available all the time. At least that are my 2 cents in this debate.

Feel free to reach out if you see things differently or make suggestions for improvements.

we&: & = plurality indicator, internal we