Pavel A. SamsonovFeb 7, 2024

AI has already been used to run scams, rip off artists, destroy search engines, and drown publishers under an avalanche of shit.

Now AI boosters found a new thing to enshittify: #UserResearch .

"AI research is better than nothing" is the latest in a long series of "bad research is better than nothing" arguments that miss the point of research in the first place.

#UXDesign #softwaredevelopment #ProductManagement

https://spavel.medium.com/no-ai-user-research-is-not-better-than-nothing-its-much-worse-5add678ab9e7

No, AI user research is not “better than nothing.” It’s much worse.

There is an invisible reader of every article, whose gaze counts for far more than 1 view, 1 read, or 1 “like.” That reader is, of course, the algorithm. Between search engines’ page-ranking…

Medium
Show threadJan DFeb 7, 2024

@PavelASamsonov I guess that often research is "Something that we collectively believe in to be correct", a tool of alignment (not alignment in a particular direction).

Thus, the function is more belief and cohesion than exploration.

If (and only if!) believed in, any other, less exploitative and less engery hungry mechanism would do.

Show threadPavel A. Samsonov
@simulo @Miniver calls this decision-driven evidence-making and he is absolutely right
Feb 7, 2024 at 9:09pmWeb
Show threadJan DFeb 7, 2024
@PavelASamsonov @Miniver
uh, interesting! Any write-up of this?
For me this was not even about a (already made) decision, just about any direction – a coin toss would work, too (if people believe coin tosses telling something they did not know before)
Show threadPavel A. SamsonovFeb 7, 2024
@simulo @Miniver I looked on his blog but couldn't find it, and my Twitter access has been broken for a while so I can't refer to the tweets since tweets are now logged-in only