"Is Mastodon becoming an echo chamber?"
I dunno. What even is 'Mastodon' in this conversation?
I'm on dice.camp because I like their moderation & federation decisions. If you're on a different instance, how "echo-y" your "echo chamber" is may vary.
But if you don't like it when people are picky about who they associate with & how, just go hang out on mastodon.social or whatever.
I thought a big part of the value of Fedi is how much choice we have over who we associate with.
Why is it a bad thing that people who are choosey about their online experience don't want to listen to AI-shills?
It's interesting how important it is to some people that you supposedly shouldn't be choosey about who you associate with.
The person I saw talking about this framed the "problem" of AI-shills being "unwelcome" on Fedi (not sure I buy that either—they seem to have their own corners of Fedi) as the same thing as Black users being harassed/unsafe/not included, which is just absurd.
It's very "blue lives matter" coded, ya know? Like, being a techbro is not an inherent part of who you are.
They have to frame it as a diversity issue because they want to distract from the fact that it is a *consent* issue!
Not wanting to associate with Black people is bigotry, but not wanting to associate with AI-shills is just protecting your peace. These are not the goddamn same, & it's really sinister asking people to pretend they are.
It is weird to insist people should HAVE to interact with you, regardless of your behavior. It shows a lack of respect for people's agency & choice.
In the year 2026, it is the height of bad faith to argue that moderating online community & maintaining spaces that are free & honest & not controlled by techno-fascists is somehow regressive.
We are living with the results of their online takeover. How are you going to act like people are overreacting when they say they want to choose carefully which types of interactions belong in the spaces they are in?
How are you going to pretend it doesn't matter? Online manipulation helped give us the global rise of fascism.
Insisting that we may not exercise our own discretion in our association with others online is insisting people expose themselves to potential harm & surrender to the outcomes desired by bad actors.
It is just too goddamn late for this show of naivety to be convincing.
Bad actors will always try to hijack "diversity" to force us to accept actual enemies into our camp.
"AI", as it exists now, is a tool of our enemies: they use it to enshrine bias into employment processes so it no longer requires a bigoted human in the loop. They use AI to devalue the work of writers, researchers, coders, artists & more. They use AI to automate decisions of who should be bombed, who should starve, & who should be erased/ignored/& excluded.
But seriously, I am pretty sure there are corners of Fedi where AI boosters are totally welcome.
That's the thing about Fedi.
But it's possible instances where AI boosting is welcome & encouraged may find themselves defederated from instances that don't promote AI slop & blocked by users who don't want to see that shit in their timeline.
And that's what they are complaining about. They are complaining that they don't get to insist on being in your timeline & in your mentions.
If you're complaining that the kind of behavior that is widely seen as extremely antisocial is unwelcome in many people's "social media" experience, maybe Fedi isn't for you.
I don't think you want a social media platform that is constructed around choice, because I see you out here really upset that people are making the choice that they don't want AI in their lives.
@artemis I would argue that "AI" is a fundamentally anti-human technology.
They stole literally every piece of text and audio and video on the internet that *people* created, without consent or compensation, and used it to create machine that replace humans.
And therefore, I do not have *any* respect for people promoting or using it. Not even the basic respect that every human deserves, because they are actively promoting the replacement of humans with machines.
They are enemies of mankind.
@galacticstone @stefanie @artemis
Mastodon utilise l'IA pour les traductions. On me dit que c'est différent, mais ce n'est pas le cas, car les gens aiment utiliser Mastodon. Avant, les traductions étaient faites par des humains, mais on me dit que ça crée du lien entre les gens, alors c'est acceptable que ce soit aussi basé sur le même vol et la même suppression d'emplois. Les gens vont se passionner pour la défense de leur choix de continuer à utiliser Mastodon malgré cette technologie ; ils l'utiliseront ailleurs.
J'adore ça parce que deux messages plus haut, il est question de ne même plus accorder aux gens le respect humain élémentaire à cause de l'IA. Le simple fait de l'utiliser signifie que vous n'êtes pas humain (je suis étonné que ce soit un message public - désolé pour les aveugles). Genre, on pourrait les tuer et commettre des crimes de guerre, je suppose – c'est normal, à cause de l'IA. Personne n'a jamais défendu de telles choses auparavant, ça ne tourne jamais mal quand on commence à supprimer les droits humains fondamentaux. Ne vous inquiétez pas – c'est une réaction saine.
[On va me dire que je défends l'IA, ce qui est absurde, car ce n'est pas le cas – j'étais simplement terrifiée de lire des gens discuter de la suppression des droits de l'homme parce que quelqu'un a utilisé un lecteur d'écran]
@JoeHenzi @galacticstone @artemis Oh, so that is why I only get a [503 - service unavailable] when I click the translate button?
Thanks for warning me, I will never engage with this feature ever again.
Is there an option to remove the button?
@stefanie @[email protected] @artemis Maybe I am wrong, but the ethically-problematic and planet-killing "AI" technology mostly refers to GenAI and LLM models (and their associated services).
The term "artificial intelligence" has become a catch-all, but for the purposes of the modern AI debate, most opponents such as myself are not talking about older technologies that existed many years before the 2020-2021 AI boom, ChatGPT, mega datacenters, and fascist oligarch owners....
"And therefore, I do not have *any* respect for people promoting or using it. Not even the basic respect that every human deserves"
Would agree with your toot but not these cc'ed sentences, which I'd rephrase to sth like this:
"I do not have *any* respect for the *persons* promoting or using it and have deep contempt for them. I only respect them as human beings in the sense I won't actively physically harm them."
@proscience @artemis I understand your disagreement on this point.
And I'm fine to agree to disagree in that part.
But with all the damage I have seen already, I see people using and promoting AI on the same level as an alien invasion force trying to enslave or erase mankind.
They are destroying not only the environment, but eroding our very sense of reality itself. We have already reached the point where you can't believe anything anymore. The very foundation of society has been destroyed
Although I grant them a tad more human rights, I entirely subscribe to the many drastically negative consequences you listed. I'd further distinguish the originators like Thiel, Karp and their fascistic ilk, the many fascistic donors of their pursuit and the many fascistic politicians eager to deliver for them from those many customers who're too naive (and/or ignorant) to see through.
Artemis
Steffi
Galactic Stone
JoeHenzi
Sharp Cheddar Goblin
Feral Fury 🏴☠️ 🏳️🌈 🫂🔞