I wanted to share a reply that I typed up in response to a post made by nobswebdev on XmrBazaar showcasing his product Nullcart. I'm reposting my response here, because I believe it encapsulates some key issues with the use of AI while referencing a real AI slop project shared in the Monero community.
Full thread: http://xmrbazaar6wzcr3wvj4anpnfwv5tcikgdurtzzfba233g52fa2fjx3qd.onion/forum/topic/353/
My response:
What I did was provide constructive criticism, but I am also tired of these quick one–and–done projects being shared in the Monero community without much thought and planning going into them. We need people who are obsessive, who have the necessary technical skill and discipline to plan out, manage, execute, and maintain projects with a decent longevity. High quality talent like that does not take things personal, but will argue from a point of reason. They make decisions for a reason and those reasons are usually predicated on an immense and thorough thought process, which is precisely why they are capable of defending their decisions. For example, if a Monero eCommerce platform was in fact developed by someone who put a lot of thought and effort into it, they would be able to defend their decisions, because they made those decisions for a reason.
If you said that you tested out existing CMS and you found certain issues with each of them making an integration not a viable option, that I could understand. However, I would be interested in the thought process, reasoning, and research you conducted to come to that conclusion. This is known as critical thinking. If two people who don't know each other and who live on opposite ends of the planet use the exact same objective method, they will arrive at the exact same conclusion. This is what proper research and reasoning leads to. I do not see how this project embodies this process in any way, shape or form. This is precisely the problem I am highlighting.
As someone who has real business intelligence and solution architecture experience, I know the final code is only one part of the equation, but what matters is the solution and the solution is almost always more complex in nature than the product. I would have first started to plan out who my target audience is and what problem they are facing that I am attempting to solve. You always start with the problem and not the solution. For example, who are you targeting with this? Is it the vendors I previously mentioned? Because if that is the case, most of them do not care for Monero — they just want fiat, but are limited by regulatory, legal, and institutional rules. There are many CMS with eCommerce integrations that already solve these problems for them. This solution does nothing to solve their problem.
Is it darknet market vendors? There are existing solutions out there for that and there many more features required to satisfy that customer base. Security is of the essence for this demographic and buyers will need some form of escrow service to have the confidence to hand over their money. These security features are not optional — they are essential. These features are not included and therefor this is unlikely to be your target demographic or — at the very least — this demographic is unlikely to use your product.
What about legitimate eCommerce stores that already have a storefront? Well, it can't be them either, because there is no tax or accounting integration, which is arguably the most difficult part of the accounting process for international eCommerce stores. Since you did not build an integration, they would have to offer a secondary store front just for customers who want to pay in Monero, who are most commonly a minority. Your product does nothing to solve their problems.
This is the type of thought process that must happen at the very beginning of any project and it is what is missing from many slop project. Your principles matter and these elements should be built into the solution right from the beginning rather than remain an afterthought.
There is too much hype in the Monero community with people congratulating each other just for releasing any Monero–based project. This sets a terrible precedent and does nothing to further the community's goals. The community is riddled with people who are far too ideological, but not technical. This is a technical topic and we need technical people to solve technical problems.
If you want to use AI, use AI, but don't outsource critical thinking, reasoning, planning, problem solving, and proper execution and initiation to the AI.