AI coders are carrying half-open laptops through airports, offices, and ice rinks

https://www.businessinsider.com/coders-keep-laptops-open-in-public-ai-agent-2026-5

9 points · 8 comments · view on lemmy.world

8 Comments

naeap@sopuli.xyz · 24 pts · 112d (2 replies)

And those great AI coders can't even configure what their laptop does, when they close the lid?

That's the most stupid approach I've ever heard

slazer2au@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 112d (1 reply)

In fairness company security policies likely force the machine to sleep when the lid is closed, or as the very least lock the screen.

What they would do is have the agent running in a VM somewhere so they can close the lid and the work continues elsewhere not locally.

naeap@sopuli.xyz · 8 pts · 112d

Ok, yeah, company policies locking the options is a thing, true

Being self employed it seems I've lost touch a bit, how stupid those policies can be

Still, locking shouldn't quit the tasks - or does it on windows?
At least with i3lock nothing gets disturbed. At least I haven't seen it yet

But yeah, company policies are often very counter productive - and as we see here, when people leave their laptop open and accessible all the time, also not really secure
I'm currently in the 3rd change of VPN tech, because the customer thinks, that's better.
And it only is getting worse with more proprietary software...

codeinabox@programming.dev · 11 pts · 112d

This behaviour sounds a lot like addiction. It has been argued that AI coding tools may be triggering the same dopamine loops as slot machines.

MattR@feddit.org · 9 pts · 112d

My programs keep running when I lock the screen. Works on any modern OS. Not sure about Windows, I don't use that weird system. But Linux and macOS keep AI agents running. (And all these allow to configure the device not to sleep when the lid is closed.)

grahamja@reddthat.com · 8 pts · 112d (2 replies)

Why don't they run the AI tool through a virtual machine on a computer at their houses that is always online? Just tunnel into a home computer that is good at running the software and won't be affected by you having poor internet service.

SinTan1729@programming.dev · 10 pts · 112d (1 reply)

They're not very bright.

Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 112d

they are resorting to ai afterall