Gregory's ServerThe next time someone tells you some tech is "inevitable" please laugh directly in their face. And then tell them that's been used as an excuse for exploitation forever, it's a red flag, and if they were smart, they'd avoid it, well, like the plague. But we know how well that's going.
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@davidthewid Ah, you're here on Mastodon! I will tag you — and thanks for doing the work! (Doh! you posted the original thing I shared — need more tea this morning)  @susankayequinn @davidthewid @histoftech Is the GenAI bubble deflating, though? I would love it if that was the case, but all I see is more and more push for it from big tech, and all the hobbyists lapping it up. @ticho @susankayequinn @histoftech We purposely didn't call it a pop, because it's a slower process, but I do think the hype is deflating. There's some pointers to why we think that's the case in the piece, notably the business types becoming increasingly skeptical. @davidthewid I like your distinction: previous rejection of tech has been the public saying "meh" (to the metaverse) whereas genAI is an active rejection--by the people getting their data scraped, by companies positioning themselves as using "real humans". The gold rush was more intense on this but the backlash was equally intense. And growing. I'm very happy to see that, being determined from the outset to use social rejection on this tech built on theft & made of crimes @davidthewid @ticho @histoftech And also this: "A key question remains for which we may never have a satisfactory answer: what if the hype was always meant to fail? What if the point was to hype things up, get in, make a profit, and entrench infrastructure dependencies before critique, or reality, had a chance to catch up?" We need to wise up to the exploitation/extraction our economic model is based on and how that's simply not sustainable in the #ClimateCrisis @susankayequinn @davidthewid @histoftech Primarily we as a civilization need to figure out how to process all those oodles of information that come at us from all directions, and learn how to discard those which are intended to disinform and manipulate. That, to me, is the central issue behind most contemporary problems, including these hype market bubbles. @ticho while I don't want to minimize the impact of the info/disinfo firehose, I don't see that as the source of problem. The firehose is an intentional tool used by companies for exploitation/extraction purposes (and overconsumption driving the climate crisis). No matter how much I'm able to tell BS from good info, AI was still shoved into everything. The firehose just makes it easier to obsfuscate. Get savvy, yes, but we have to change how the entire economy works. @susankayequinn @davidthewid @ticho @histoftech This is very much what's going on. Delighted to see @histoftech 's name on the paper too! I've long been a fan of their work. @davidthewid @susankayequinn @histoftech Fair enough, thank you. I think I recall some such signals from recent weeks, but very sparsely so far. Maybe that's why I asked my question. :)  Of course they know it's an excuse for exploitation. They were planning on doing the exploiting. Yes, but using social pressure to dissuade them (or motivate others to avoid them/their products) is one of the few tools we have at this point (until the thing collapses under its own weight) |
https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/covid-still-high-mpox-emergency-and