[827a]

This seems like one way to saddle nonprofits with functional, but potentially very expensive systems, set up by someone who helps them for a year then disappears and leaves them with no expertise to do long-term cost control or functionality improvements.

[noemit]

They've already done this through the 6m Anthropic API "unlimited plan" grants. Claude-only is getting embedded.

[drcongo]

Having had to fix the messes of several green-washing consultants from PWC, JP Morgan Chase etc. I can confirm that this is absolutely guaranteed.

[patcon]

I don't suppose you have experience with how badly small non-profits are fucked by every tech consultancy they ever work with? They are paying for a service at the very top of their budget, and receiving services perceived from the bottom, as almost "pro bono" by the consultancy, via intern labour.

They all have PTSD from the status quo.

Getting nonprofits into AI that feels even marginally more self-serve, that is a step forward. Again, even if it just feels more agentic, that's a step forward -- maybe even if they end up screwing things up more in the process -- because the lack agency with their tech is so demoralizing in the sector

[torginus]

I used to volunteer for an animal shelter doing IT stuff. They didn't really have much money, and what they had they needed for actual, real-world problems like buying dog food and paying vet's fees etc.

They ran on ancient hand-me down Windows PCs, with a donated HP server, fully on-prem. The MS licences they got from some government/MS program for free (not sure).

It was kinda crappy, but it did the job, there were some databases, Active Directory, some CRUD stuff to manage the internal workings of the shelter, and a locally hosted website.

But it cost nothing to run besides the electricity, and it did the job.

If we were to replicate the same system on top of SOTA AWS hardware, it would cost thousands of dollars per month, which would be a significant part of their operating budget.

Considering how much they actually needed every cent, I shudder at the thought.

[watwut]

Small non-profits I have seen did not worked with tech consultancies.

[moregrist]

> I don't suppose you have experience with how badly small non-profits are fucked by every tech consultancy they ever work with?

Definitely with you here.

> Getting nonprofits into AI that feels even marginally more self-serve

Umm... so your plan to make non-profits less fucked is to give them yet another consultancy, but this one is AI!

I am dubious that this results in them feeling less fucked.

[JumpCrisscross]

> yet another consultancy, but this one is AI

Eh, I bet an intern with AI could build some internal tooling stuff for the non-profit that they use for years. Same as they’ve been using, unedited, that one Excel sheet someone wrote in 1995.

[skybrian]

They know it's a temporary job going in, though. How is this different than having an intern?

If they're not using this opportunity to train other staff then that seems like a management problem.

[saghm]

Interns don't typically have a job description that describes trying to push a specific software system from a vendor.

[827a]

It certainly is a management problem, as non-profits are certainly not well known for having strong management.

[danielrmay]

"Embrace, extend, and extinguish" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis...