Mastodawn

Elena Rossini ⁂

Connect the dots on the AI hype + Big Tech going all in despite vast losses.

I say: it's all about surveillance capitalism (an enhanced version of it).

Think of it: unprecedented access to personal data, scanning & analyzing private messages under the guise of "productivity" & "saving us time."

All Big Tech companies that make their money in advertising are going all in.

This article by Ed Zitron shows the BILLIONS they are losing: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-gui/

And yet: https://www.theverge.com/news/711621/amazon-bee-ai-wearable-acquisition

The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble

Hey! Before we go any further — if you want to support my work, please sign up for the premium version of Where’s Your Ed At, it’s a $7-a-month (or $70-a-year) paid product where every week you get a premium newsletter, all while supporting my free work too. Also,

Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At

bumblefudge Jul 23

@_elena it's a huge all-or-nothing bet. they're racing to make a version of AI appealling or popular (with anyone except shareholders and C-Suites) before the final showdown between FAANG and human rights. and all the money behind AI is also behind apartheid-tech and next-gen defense, so it's one of multiple all-or-nothings 😬

Little Art Histories Jul 23

@_elena Totally. I already thought for a long time that AI is a trojan horse: They lure us in with making tasks easier and fun pictures while stealing our work, stealing our data, get better at selling us crap, and building in incredibly vast surveillance network. Why else would shareholders continue to throw money into the pit?

Elena Rossini ⁂Jul 23

@art_histories perfect metaphor!

And I thought the same - for years - about the "fun face filters" on Snap, Instagram & all the other apps... stealing your biometric data while allowing you to "have fun" and see what it's like to have bunny ears. I'm glad I never used any of that stuff

Little Art Histories Jul 23

@_elena Definitely. I never used that nonsense but maybe only because I am too old for that trend. And then people kept telling me to stop the scepticism and negativity about new tech. But nobody seems to care about privacy anymore.

@art_histories Yeah, it seems you pretty much have to end up on Fedi to find people who care about those things, and care enough to worry. But then instead a huge number of people go overboard in the *other* direction, insisting that anything short of total perfection is completely worthless…

Leadsticks Jul 23

a good question indeed!

Dan Gillmor Jul 23

@_elena I think it's also a land grab, in which the winner(s) will have absorbed -- for the most part legally -- most of humanity's learning and data and then will create an effective monopoly or cartel renting it back to us at extortionate prices.

Elena Rossini ⁂Jul 23

@dangillmor excellent point Dan

cuan_knaggs Jul 23

@_elena @dangillmor it's our times enclosure of the commons

@dangillmor @_elena
Selling it back to us?
They want us all to pay rent. On everything. Forever.

@dec23k
> They want us all to pay rent. On everything. Forever

Technofeudalism FTW!

@_elena is right that this is about surveillance-as-a-service, and @dangillmor is right that it's about making all information (including all software) proprietary. It's what people like Stallman, Lessig and Doctorow have been warning us about since Gates and BorgSoft declared that resistance is futile back in the 1980s.

Dan Gillmor Jul 24

@dec23k You're correct and I'll edit accordingly. @_elena

@_elena “We’ve been strong stewards of customer data since our founding, and have never been in the business of selling our customers’ personal information to others,” Miller says, as she sells the company and all its data to Amazon.

@_elena Basically, I’ve started to believe that it’s not only surveillance capitalism, but also a way for them to no longer pay creatives.

Elena Rossini ⁂Jul 23

@sylvia absolutely.

And on a side note, I hate how AI is changing my perception of photography and the real world.

Yesterday I saw a photo on here that looked so perfect, my first instinct was: it must be AI-generated. But it was published on the Fediverse, by a photographer I know, so I immediately knew it couldn't be so.

It's tragic how now I have to question everything I see (and read and watch)

@_elena @sylvia I cant wait for the AI bubble to burst, just like it did with the dot-com boom, Cry*to and N*Ts once the grifters made their dollars.

Hierarchy Jul 23

@andycarolan @_elena @sylvia they overhired people during covid and now when its not sustainable to them have so many workers, they lay off these people and then say it is because AI replaced them. The companies that are vocal about this are usually the ones with their own AI products lol.

In reality they just overhired and not that AI has replacrd any of these workers. Such a grift

@Hierarchy @_elena @sylvia It will be interesting to see what happens when the bubble bursts.

Hierarchy Jul 23

@andycarolan @_elena @sylvia my theory is that some of the big players in the field will stay as they have been integrated so well into other companies/products. But those small ones will wipe out or get bought out by bigger players if they have some interesting stuff

But we never know and I agree will be interesting!

@Hierarchy @_elena @sylvia I think it will get messy... if it hasn't already lol

Leadsticks Jul 23

I'm starting to second guess myself on things like: well structured articles that somehow repeat their main idea more than once. I don't like to experience this feeling... but hey, I need to listen, and trust, my inner voice as well!

skribe 🇺🇦

verified_mustard

@sylvia @_elena when haven't they stolen from us?

Leadsticks Jul 23

Hi Elena,

This is what I wrote on my notebook immediately after reading Ed Zitron's article:

Give Me your...
Water
Money
Computer
Job position
Knowledge
Hopes
Dreams
Aspirations
Taste
Art
Style
Identify
Vault
Life

And I will give you, well...

a better subject line?

Elena Rossini ⁂Jul 23

@leadsticks this is so accurate... and tragically so. AI is robbing us of our humanity - to make a buck and create a total surveillance state

Life Ascendant Jul 23

@_elena
AI has been the cause of humanity's downfall in the distant past and will again, judging by how people are welcoming it in all areas of life without fully understanding. Fully as in holistically.

Jaycee420 Jul 23

@_elena lol birds aren't real campain hahaha dead...uhg this world

@_elena I've been saying for a while that AI will die when consumers are expected to pay the actual costs...

No one is mathing who the customers will be with 80% unemployment?

Maybe, if we make #AI customers, with #crypto wallets.
We can achieve the ultimate consumer society.

Scalable to Kardashev II scale.

Revenant Jul 23

@_elena it’s not about advertising. It’s about paying to know what you really think.

Elena Rossini ⁂Jul 23

@Revenant Jaron Lanier would call it "behavior modification on a titanic scale"

Revenant Jul 23

@_elena I know how AI could be used to instigate cognitive collapse on a civilization scale. Maybe the tech bros want to be like pharaohs when they own all the tech and knowledge. We’ll be lucky to make it to 2027, in my opinion.

@Revenant @_elena
Babel / Infocalypse

As predicted in "Snow Crash".

Revenant Jul 23

@dec23k @_elena but real.

@Revenant @_elena
The Metaverse is a dangerous place.
How's your security?

Revenant Jul 23

@dec23k @_elena it’s a simple matter, really. Deadly simple.

pr06lefs Jul 23

@_elena AI is controllable in a way that original source documents are not. Search engines can influence users by presenting different results - giving priority to advertisers sites, or particular news sites for instance. AI summarizers can produce text that is biased towards whatever viewpoints the AI owner wants to promote, without the necessity of presenting a 3rd party site with that viewpoint. What an extraordinary tool for shaping public opinion.

Toni Aittoniemi Jul 23

@_elena Ed 🫶

This is less about folly and more about crapitalist economy.

For decades now, they have been flim-flamming everyone.
From quantitative easing (printing fake money) to stealing shares and destroying companies with fake shares.

You can only maintain the facade for so long.

The "money they are losing" is not real. The REAL VALUE is as it always was in the PERCEIVED VALUE.

Is that rare postage stamp really worth 3 million dollars? Of course not, but if someone thinks so. That's it's value.

If a broligarch thinks his warehouse full of GPU racks is worth 80billion dollars, that's it's value.

Remember they always talk about CONFIDENCE in economy.