Evan FedorovFeb 23
Charlie Stross

Why agentic AI creeps out women: because it's written by bros for bros who want Stepford Wives, and conveys that vibe: commercial AIs are fine-tuned to perform as cheerfully submissive handmaids, not working partners:

https://abiawomosu.substack.com/p/they-built-stepford-ai-and-called

(via https://awful.systems/comment/10543801)

They Built Stepford AI and Called It “Agentic”

Women’s “ick” for AI isn’t technophobia or a gap to close. It’s wisdom to act on.

How Not To Use AI
Feb 23 at 11:59amWeb
Show threaddavecb 🇨🇦Feb 23

@cstross

You wrote: commercial AIs are fine-tuned to perform as cheerfully submissive handmaids, not working partners:

Show threadMedea Vanamonde 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 23

@cstross for femme presenting AI i’d want Ross from Night Court, or Floe or Selma:

Otherwise it would be Burroughs or Hunter S. Thompson AI for that Dixie Flatline Feel, with a high preference for Hunter

Show threadCharlie StrossFeb 23
@MedeaVanamonde Spider Jerusalem or go home!
Show threadMedea Vanamonde 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 23
@cstross
Hunter’s disembodied voice “Good god man! Don’t you realize there’s a chip shortage on? We can’t stop here, it’s Malware Country”
Show threadCharlie StrossFeb 23
@MedeaVanamonde Meanwhile Spider Jerusalem injects a speedball straight into his eye socket then dials his bowel disrupter to "Prolapse" smiles like a skull, and prepares to conduct another adversarial interview—
Show threadMedea Vanamonde 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 23

@cstross

I had my Hunter iconography amped by Colonel Hunter Gathers on the Venture Brothers…a cartoon i binge watch when Psyche and Pneuma have been injured.

Show threadsolastalgia kris ☀️🧘🚲Feb 23
@cstross I'm predicting the comments will be filled by people who didn't even read the whole thing to the end. The author isn't saying women should reject AI 😉
Show threadPapyrusBrigade has movedFeb 23
@iyashikei_kris Indeed. I was nodding all along until I got to the last 25% of the essay. I have no interest in building a better AI. With fascism rising and climate collapse inexorably approaching, investing trillions in AI is like taking up crack to stop smoking.
Show threadSidus NareFeb 23
@cstross I can't stand it when an LLM uses first person pronouns, F that obsequious, servile, self effacing BS.
Show threadSam Chavez (she/they/he) 🌈🤠Feb 23

@cstross if only we lived in a world where people listened to women. What a concept!

I wrote this series on AI two years ago. We also have it in a printable zine version.
https://www.rootschangemedia.com/bros-club-tech-ai-dominance/

🌱 The Bros Club™ | Maintaining Tech Power At All Costs

Part II: The Social Impacts of AI, Tech & Surveillance

the roots of change agency
Show threadSpacewizard! (Ed H)Feb 23
@cstross The article swerves hard at the end to suddenly supporting liberated girlboss women commanding their own Stepford AIs :\
Show threadclewFeb 23

Boy howdy yes. Completely skipping one of the causes of revulsion: the most Stepfordy nature is going to lead the user astray.

The stock character for *that* is the much younger last wife of the magnate, who spends the family fortune and advances her cousins into control of the business and is herself seduced by a continental Count of dubious origins and loyalty.

@spacewizard @cstross

Show threadclewFeb 23

patriarchal men* deeply don’t get that women, servants, employees have been _saving them from their own bad decisions_. While pretending not to.

Women, servants, employees know how hard this is; it’s three or four layers of theory of mind, its planning so far ahead that you move the pebble, not the landslide. It often fails; that’s our fault too.

* true across any power chasm. Edit as needed and inquire within.

@spacewizard @cstross

Show threadmorfil (any)🌈Feb 23
@cstross seem to remember the second one on the left to have been quite a cool -change the pardigm- kinda woman?
Show threadKyle Memoir 🍉🐧Feb 23

@cstross

The 'typing' of the AI options kinda nails it:

'ChatGPT’s defining feature isn’t efficiency. It’s sycophancy. She agrees with whatever you say. Validates your position even when you’re wrong. Tells you what you want to hear. Never really pushes back. Makes you feel smart regardless of reality.

This isn’t a bug. It’s retention strategy.'

Show threadRobert BanzFeb 23
@f800gecko “you’re absolutely right!”
Show threadHannah SteenbockFeb 23

@f800gecko

A striking similarity to drugs like cocaine. Maybe it is similarly addictive, too.

@cstross

Show threadGerardo Cisneros-S. has moved!Feb 23

@Firlefanz: Also, why is ChatGPT being referred to as a "she"? I think "it" is more than it deserves.

@f800gecko @cstross

Show threadHannah SteenbockFeb 24

@gerardo

Several thoughts on this, even though I would never call it "she".

1) Some machines (cars, ships etc.) are called "she" in the English language, although by now it is a bit archaic. This is often done in a loving way, signaling a special relationship.

2) ChatGTP might be seen as a servant, and there is a tendency by some men to want women to serve them. This is extremely creepy.

3) Alexa and the others are often seen as female because of their name and voice.

@f800gecko @cstross

Show threadJeff Zugale - Z FactoryFeb 24
@f800gecko @cstross it’s a Stepford Wife. I’ve called it that to friends my age who like it, and that slams them into a wall.
Show threadKyle Memoir 🍉🐧Feb 24

@jeffzugale

yep that theme's explored in the item in some detail

Show threadJasper 🍉Feb 23

@cstross there is truth to it, but really tendentious writing.

The substack profile picture mentions "telling you a different story about AI". A story is not an assessment.

The suggestion is nice, but often in practice people will use other peoples' server, i'd not depend or send too much...

Show threadMichał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 23
@cstross it's really good for about 2/3 of the way, and then it feels to me like it really goes off the rails.
Show threadWayne MyersFeb 24
@rysiek @cstross Read to the end, it's a full throated call for women to embrace AI as a tool of feminist empowerment, written by the founder of an AI consultancy of some sort. Now I too have the ick.
Show threadFrank Bennett 🇯🇵Feb 24
@cstross After taking in (with some relief) the visceral repulsion induced by the personality mimicked by LLMs in two women at a recent dinner party, it occurred to me that the top intellectual performers of the next generation will be women, simply because their minds will have had more opportunity to grow.