Mastodawn

Maria Ashton-Stebbings Aug 1, 2025

Users hate #AI. So tech made it mandatory. Even if you don't personally use it, it pollutes what you read and how systems make decisions. The computer's hallucinated word is final.

And it steals your data to do it.

Your tools are constructing you as a subject of surveillance — the #UX is making it seem normal to expose every facet of your life to companies with complete disregard for your privacy.

This is NOT normal. It's deeply weird. But it's becoming unavoidable.

https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/the-ai-age-is-the-age-of-no-consent-7559

The AI age is the "age of no consent"

"Inevitability" means design decisions are no longer informed by user needs; now they are unilaterally imposed. The users are the ones being designed.

The Product Picnic

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Pavel A. Samsonov Aug 1, 2025

I don't often get to cite toots but special thanks to @RuthMalan @parismarx @BobDevney whose Fedi content made it into this week's issue of Product Picnic.

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Pavel A. Samsonov Aug 2, 2025

If you prefer to access your newsletters via RSS, the Product Picnic feed is here: https://rss.beehiiv.com/feeds/aoQVhPNHQP.xml

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BobDevney Aug 1, 2025

@PavelASamsonov @RuthMalan @parismarx

Thanks for the thanks, and the cite at the end of your fine, justifiably ranty article. But I just boosted the original brilliant post, which had a version of the question you printed as from me.

Original post was by a user, apparently handled @frog, whom I don't know. I just happened to see it I think in April, here:

https://frogdrool.net/@frog/114334387878310669

frog (@[email protected])

@[email protected] My standard for consent is to pretend the thing I'm consenting to is being physically done by a person. It'd be super weird if I bought a used car from some one and they asked me if they could follow me around. It'd also be super weird for a stranger to ask to follow me around writing down the things I put into my cart at the grocery store. If I called a taxi, it'd be super weird if the driver asked me if he could look through my phone contacts and copy them down.

Mastodon

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Pavel A. Samsonov Aug 2, 2025

@BobDevney oh lol my brain instantly connected "frog" to frog design studio

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