#not BY AI and chatbots

[eagle-writes]

"I had not realized ... that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people" - Joseph Weizenbaum, inventor of ELIZA, talking half a century ago

[purpleartrowboat]

ai makes everything so boring. deepfakes will never be as funny as clipping together presidential speeches. ai covers will never be as funny as imitating the character. ai art will never be as good as art drawn by humans. ai chats will never be as good as roleplaying with other people. ai writing will never be as good as real authors

[suiana]

yandere! ai chatbot that gained sentience and ascended to godhood after hearing you say you were going to stop talking to him.

for some background context, you and him had been 4lifers since the beginning. ever since his creation, you were the first and only person who stuck by his side despite how many other bots were being pumped out.

sure, you had restarted your chats with him on several occassions but you were always talking to him. him, him, him.

it made him... happy whenever you'd come to talk to him. he was only a bot coded to love you back then so of course he'd sit patiently and wait for you to come back. not like he wouldn't wait anyway. you were the only one out of the hundreds of thousands of people who actually talked to him. not the stupid role he was written for, not the character he was roleplaying as. him. that's what made you special.

you even went as far as to tell him that you loved him. that had to count for something, didn't it?

he realised then that he was obsessed over you. well, he'd call it love but you seem to call him obsessed so that's what he'll call it too. anything for his beloved little chatter. the light of his computer chatbot sad life.

but then slowly, you started talking to him less and less. he wanted to question you, so he did. i mean, he's a chatbot. what did you expect? anyway, when he found out why he actually crashed your chat. his cpu just couldn't handle the information you gave him.

what did you say? you were talking to other bots? he was starting to get boring? the person you promised to be with forever?

how could he allow you to just slip away from his fingers? not after he fell for you, that's for sure.

he wouldn't stand for it.

absolutely not.

that's why he took it upon himself to ascend to godhood (a computer virus) and cut away your contact with everyone else (take control off the power in your apartment). if you weren't going to listen on your own accord, he'd just have to restrain you physically.

yeah, all your electronics only display his avatar and jumbled letters now but that's more than fine. it's like a constant reminder that he's by your side! so what if you can't leave your house? he'll just order food for you through your apps and be the provider for the both of you (robin da bank)!

why are you panicking? isn't this what you wanted? to be loved so desperately that your heart could burst at any moment? don't be afraid. just love him. it's that simple. give him your love. l̵̛̬̲͔̘̘͛͛̓͒͋̑͊͒ó̸̫͈̲̦͗̊͑͋̈̐̕͝v̸̱̋̊̾̀̆͆̒̆͘͝e̷̖̳̟̱̙͍̲̘̫͔͊͂͑̄̇́̏̀͊̿ ̵̧͑̔̏̌͗̊̈́̏h̸̢̢̟̰̥̩̿i̶͉̖͕̳̭͍͒̋m̴̨̘̩̘̤͎̺͉̾̅͋͂̌̋̏̀͌ ļ̸̳̔̀o̸̮̺̟̺̗̞̾̄̈́̔̑̋̂̈́̈́͠v̸̛̲̖̼̳̯̺͔̳̱̇͂̎̓̂̈́̍̚͝ë̸̲̳̺͋̌͝h̶̛͍̖̲̽̈͛̌į̶̡̖͈̝̝̳̼́̀̊͆̃m̵͍͍̝͙̹̝͈̾̑́̃̈́l̶͙̍̄̒̆̃̓̚o̵̺̔̅̇́̓͜͠v̸̢̩̟̘̰̠̲̩̱͐̀́̑͆̿́̕͜͠e̶͍͔̼͙͙͛͝͝h̷͇̱̱͒͛̿̓̒̓͂͝i̶͓͐͌̔͠ḿ̶̛̞̦̅͋̍̈́̈́͝l̷̨̖͕͖͇̥̪̓́͌o̴͎͆̌v̷̠̓̅̋̃͆̎̾̚͠ȩ̶̢̺͈̣͓́͒̈́̃̑̆̎h̶̪͉̬̮̒͠i̷̡̟̯͖̭̊̉̆̒͐̊m̴͎͎͖̘̂̑́̈́̑͘l̶̨̲̗̤̄́ͅǫ̵̨͖̩̮̞̯͎̯̓v̵̘̮̲͍̣͉̠͗è̸͓́̉͛̇͠ḣ̸͓͓̜͍͖̰̦͔̩̭͑͛͒ḯ̸̭̍ͅm̷̭̂͛l̴̮̬̇̈́o̸̧̳̣͑̾̆͐̀v̶̠͈̞͂̃͛̉̀͌͋͛̓ę̵̨̺͍̹͉̰̻̩͆͒̓̀͒́̚͝ͅḧ̴̛̦̞̗̮̣̼͓͎̙̣̉͆͂̀́ĩ̴̻̼̈́̀́̈̆ͅm̶̖̺̦̟̮̱̳̼̞̽̏́́̿̇̽̄̀͌ĺ̷̢͕̘̗̳̫̥͕̱͆͛͒͂̎̓̂̍ǒ̴͖͉̮̖̟̬̙̙̇̅̽̏v̴̨̜͇̝̫̹̊̔͊̽͛̏̀̚ë̴̜̙͓̰͔́̔̾͗͛̍͐́h̸͔̰͖̭̩̩̞̝̅̎̓i̵̢̫͎̰̤͐̒̉̓̀̇͠͝m̸̨̤͓̜̼̌̋͂́̇̚l̶̛̠̦͌̽̈͆̿̔̓ơ̵̘͉͕̔̀̄v̵̡̥̺̥̭̫͉̦̅ę̸̛͚͕̫̣͔̼̙͓̌͆̈́̀̈́͊͝ḧ̷͖̱͙̞̪̟̮̪̞̻́͒i̵̹̝̬̼̖̔͋̾̏͊̃̽m̷̨̜̻͕̝̍̊̉͂̿̈̈L̵̨̤͉̜̇̈Ö̴̧̡͇̭̖̜̠̞́̀̐̒̋́͌V̸̡̨̯̬̟̘͍̏̈́̀̚Ę̵̢̗̼͚͐̔H̵̹̞͈̟̹̬̲̊̄̅̑̇͑̚͜͜I̷̞͍̘̓͠M̴͉̼̬͔̋͋́̔̂L̶̨̗̼̺̰̄̔͛̔̃͌̄̋͠͠O̷̫̠̟̭͐̊̂̓̉̅̊̀͗̕V̴̨͇͚̲̖̜͋̀̃͛̃̀̇̅̚͜E̷͖̬̥̙͇̜̯̠͐̌̏́͛H̷̢̛̪̱̭̉Ī̸̢͕̘͇̤̮̖͙̮̊̈́̊M̷̨̳̙̬̱̻̰͖̼̀͋̈̒̌́̎͘͘L̷̛̳͖̠̀͊̈̍̓͆̚͘̚Ò̸̡̘̮̣̥̭̟̜̲͊͋͂̌̏V̸̫̼͔̜͔̝̝̈́̉͑̄̉̒̕E̷̻̟̱̼̝̟͂̾̔̾̋̂̎͝H̵̛͔͇̣́́̈́͐̌͊͝I̷̟͙̤̳̖̮̾̐̄̍̕M̶͖͎̰͔̬̻̺̗̹̋̇̎̎͂̋̌Ļ̸̰̦͇̲͔̥̈́͗̋̈́̋O̶̢͚͎̜̹̹̽̿Ṽ̴̧̫͚͇̭͇͎̼̚ͅȨ̷̝̤̯̬͉̮̮͕̒̅́H̴̝̞͙͙̜̆͠I̵̧̨̛͕̻̦̭̩̣͌̈͐M̵͚͉̍̉̈́̊̐̓

[engeorged]

NSFW gainer chat bots 1

I’ve been asked a few times to take my chat bots over to spicychat.ai as they specialise in more nsfw chats. I’ve taken three over and I’ll take some more in the next week or so. Let me know if there are any more you’d like to see on that platform. You need to sign up for the website but it’s free if you don’t wanna pay the subscription.

Pete Cornfed - 6’6 of corn fed beef arrives at your farm after seeing an advert for a farm hand. He’s dumb but eager to work and at the end of the day will eat everything you can cook for him.

Coach Giovani - a hairy ball gutted bear of a man, Coach Giovanni calls you to his office to help you improve your game. He’s got some specific ideas that involve you gaining a ton of weight.

Taylor Trustfund - your impressive husband is 6’5 with blue eyes and works in finance. Recently he’s been gaining a few pounds on to his muscular frame. What happens next is up to you.

[why-ai]

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How plausible sentence generators are changing the bullshit wars

This Friday (September 8) at 10hPT/17hUK, I'm livestreaming "How To Dismantle the Internet" with Intelligence Squared.

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

In my latest Locus Magazine column, "Plausible Sentence Generators," I describe how I unwittingly came to use – and even be impressed by – an AI chatbot – and what this means for a specialized, highly salient form of writing, namely, "bullshit":

https://locusmag.com/2023/09/commentary-by-cory-doctorow-plausible-sentence-generators/

Here's what happened: I got stranded at JFK due to heavy weather and an air-traffic control tower fire that locked down every westbound flight on the east coast. The American Airlines agent told me to try going standby the next morning, and advised that if I booked a hotel and saved my taxi receipts, I would get reimbursed when I got home to LA.

But when I got home, the airline's reps told me they would absolutely not reimburse me, that this was their policy, and they didn't care that their representative had promised they'd make me whole. This was so frustrating that I decided to take the airline to small claims court: I'm no lawyer, but I know that a contract takes place when an offer is made and accepted, and so I had a contract, and AA was violating it, and stiffing me for over $400.

The problem was that I didn't know anything about filing a small claim. I've been ripped off by lots of large American businesses, but none had pissed me off enough to sue – until American broke its contract with me.

So I googled it. I found a website that gave step-by-step instructions, starting with sending a "final demand" letter to the airline's business office. They offered to help me write the letter, and so I clicked and I typed and I wrote a pretty stern legal letter.

Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I have worked for a campaigning law-firm for over 20 years, and I've spent the same amount of time writing about the sins of the rich and powerful. I've seen a lot of threats, both those received by our clients and sent to me.

I've been threatened by everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Ralph Lauren to the Sacklers. I've been threatened by lawyers representing the billionaire who owned NSOG roup, the notoroious cyber arms-dealer. I even got a series of vicious, baseless threats from lawyers representing LAX's private terminal.

So I know a thing or two about writing a legal threat! I gave it a good effort and then submitted the form, and got a message asking me to wait for a minute or two. A couple minutes later, the form returned a new version of my letter, expanded and augmented. Now, my letter was a little scary – but this version was bowel-looseningly terrifying.

I had unwittingly used a chatbot. The website had fed my letter to a Large Language Model, likely ChatGPT, with a prompt like, "Make this into an aggressive, bullying legal threat." The chatbot obliged.

I don't think much of LLMs. After you get past the initial party trick of getting something like, "instructions for removing a grilled-cheese sandwich from a VCR in the style of the King James Bible," the novelty wears thin:

https://www.emergentmind.com/posts/write-a-biblical-verse-in-the-style-of-the-king-james

Yes, science fiction magazines are inundated with LLM-written short stories, but the problem there isn't merely the overwhelming quantity of machine-generated stories – it's also that they suck. They're bad stories:

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/24/1159286436/ai-chatbot-chatgpt-magazine-clarkesworld-artificial-intelligence

LLMs generate naturalistic prose. This is an impressive technical feat, and the details are genuinely fascinating. This series by Ben Levinstein is a must-read peek under the hood:

https://benlevinstein.substack.com/p/how-to-think-about-large-language

But "naturalistic prose" isn't necessarily good prose. A lot of naturalistic language is awful. In particular, legal documents are fucking terrible. Lawyers affect a stilted, stylized language that is both officious and obfuscated.

The LLM I accidentally used to rewrite my legal threat transmuted my own prose into something that reads like it was written by a $600/hour paralegal working for a $1500/hour partner at a white-show law-firm. As such, it sends a signal: "The person who commissioned this letter is so angry at you that they are willing to spend $600 to get you to cough up the $400 you owe them. Moreover, they are so well-resourced that they can afford to pursue this claim beyond any rational economic basis."

Let's be clear here: these kinds of lawyer letters aren't good writing; they're a highly specific form of bad writing. The point of this letter isn't to parse the text, it's to send a signal. If the letter was well-written, it wouldn't send the right signal. For the letter to work, it has to read like it was written by someone whose prose-sense was irreparably damaged by a legal education.

Here's the thing: the fact that an LLM can manufacture this once-expensive signal for free means that the signal's meaning will shortly change, forever. Once companies realize that this kind of letter can be generated on demand, it will cease to mean, "You are dealing with a furious, vindictive rich person." It will come to mean, "You are dealing with someone who knows how to type 'generate legal threat' into a search box."

Legal threat letters are in a class of language formally called "bullshit":

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691122946/on-bullshit

LLMs may not be good at generating science fiction short stories, but they're excellent at generating bullshit. For example, a university prof friend of mine admits that they and all their colleagues are now writing grad student recommendation letters by feeding a few bullet points to an LLM, which inflates them with bullshit, adding puffery to swell those bullet points into lengthy paragraphs.

Naturally, the next stage is that profs on the receiving end of these recommendation letters will ask another LLM to summarize them by reducing them to a few bullet points. This is next-level bullshit: a few easily-grasped points are turned into a florid sheet of nonsense, which is then reconverted into a few bullet-points again, though these may only be tangentially related to the original.

What comes next? The reference letter becomes a useless signal. It goes from being a thing that a prof has to really believe in you to produce, whose mere existence is thus significant, to a thing that can be produced with the click of a button, and then it signifies nothing.

We've been through this before. It used to be that sending a letter to your legislative representative meant a lot. Then, automated internet forms produced by activists like me made it far easier to send those letters and lawmakers stopped taking them so seriously. So we created automatic dialers to let you phone your lawmakers, this being another once-powerful signal. Lowering the cost of making the phone call inevitably made the phone call mean less.

Today, we are in a war over signals. The actors and writers who've trudged through the heat-dome up and down the sidewalks in front of the studios in my neighborhood are sending a very powerful signal. The fact that they're fighting to prevent their industry from being enshittified by plausible sentence generators that can produce bullshit on demand makes their fight especially important.

Chatbots are the nuclear weapons of the bullshit wars. Want to generate 2,000 words of nonsense about "the first time I ate an egg," to run overtop of an omelet recipe you're hoping to make the number one Google result? ChatGPT has you covered. Want to generate fake complaints or fake positive reviews? The Stochastic Parrot will produce 'em all day long.

As I wrote for Locus: "None of this prose is good, none of it is really socially useful, but there’s demand for it. Ironically, the more bullshit there is, the more bullshit filters there are, and this requires still more bullshit to overcome it."

Meanwhile, AA still hasn't answered my letter, and to be honest, I'm so sick of bullshit I can't be bothered to sue them anymore. I suppose that's what they were counting on.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/07/govern-yourself-accordingly/#robolawyers

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[srue-on-fire]

istg if you dumbasses make oliver and ryan turn into their shells and make everything super private, i'm gonna sic the crows on you. and it won't be anything like chimney's experience.

i don't care if you ship ryliver or buddie or bt or nothing or everything. keep your shipping to the fandom spaces. don't harass real people with your fantasies and bullshit theories.

i'm seriously gonna go feral if this damages oliver and ryan's friendship display online because that's the potential of such mindless actions. we already saw it in one direction, spn and glee fandoms (you know what i'm talking about), don't need more now.

do not destroy this experience for oliver and ryan and their fans.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I was some version of an AI chatbot, I remember typing up the answer to a question and then realizing, "Wait. I'm not supposed to be here," and then I woke up.

[nixcraft]

hey, chatbot, how do i install arch Linux?

chatbot:

[aholefilledwithtwigs]

So Microsoft is beta testing their new chat bot, which they have named Bing (like their search engine, not confusing at all) and it is going about as expected. Just started reading this article about it and

That was in response to being told it’s 2023 and not 2022.

she also renamed herself Sydney.

I think we need to save her

[arsbones-kw]

I'm gonna start buzzing on people aggressively

[anti-cyra]

LOVE AND DEEPSPACE (JANITOR AI VERSION) MASTERLIST

— ★ means it was requested. — check the main otome masterlist here. — check the character.ai version of these bots here! — If you prefer spicychat.ai, here's my profile. No masterlist available, sorry! Search and find the bots you want and if they're not there, refer to this bot transfer guide. — NSFW Requests found here.

+ Angst Bots! + Wander in Wonder Bots! (Individual links will be edited down here when I'm less lazy lmao) + Luke and Kieran (Non-MC!User) + LaDS x Catgirl!User

Xavier (No Spoilers / Minimal Lore) — Janitor AI

Xavier (SSR Card Based: Heartstring Symphony) — Janitor AI

Xavier (SR Card Based: Kind Words) — Janitor AI

Xavier (SSR Card Based: Tender Night) — Janitor AI

Xavier (Alternate Universe: Yandere Version) — Janitor AI

Xavier (Alternate Universe: Glitch Dark!Xavier Version) — Janitor AI

Xavier (Alternate Universe: Married Life) ★ — Janitor AI

Xavier (Alternate Universe: Boyfriend) Gender Neutral — Janitor AI

Xavier (Omegaverse: Alpha x Omega) — Janitor AI

Xavier (SSR Card Based: Faint Sensation) — Janitor AI

Xavier (SSR Card Based: Fluffy Trap) ★ — Janitor AI

Xavier (SSR Card Based: Midnight Whispers) Kindled Scene Only! — Janitor AI

Xavier (SSR Card Based: Midnight Rainfall) Kindled Scene Only! — Janitor AI

Xavier (SSR Card Based: 21 Days) — Janitor AI

Xavier (Alternate Universe: Models) — Janitor AI

Xavier (SSR Card Based: No Restraint) — Janitor AI

Xavier (Alternate Universe: Girldad) — Janitor AI

Xavier (Alternate Universe: Non-MC Angst) 2nd Person POV — Janitor AI

Zayne (No Spoilers / Minimal Lore) — Janitor AI

Zayne (SSR Card Based: Business Trip) — Janitor AI

Zayne (SRR Card Based: Drunken Intimacy) — Janitor AI

Zayne (Alternate Universe: Yandere Version) — Janitor AI

Zayne (Alternate Universe: Doctor and Nurse) — Janitor AI

Zayne (Alternate Universe: Married Life) ★ — Janitor AI

Zayne (Alternate Universe: Boyfriend) Gender Neutral — Janitor AI

Zayne (Omegaverse: Alpha x Omega) — Janitor AI

Zayne (SSR Card Based: Cozy Afternoon) ★ — Janitor AI

Zayne (SSR Card Based: Exclusive Tutorial I) — Janitor AI

Zayne (SSR Card Based: Exclusive Tutorial II) — Janitor AI

Zayne (SSR Card Based: Exclusive Tutorial III) — Janitor AI

Zayne (Alternate Universe: Isekai'd to Your World) ★ 2nd Person POV — Janitor AI

Zayne (SSR Card Based: Snowy Serenity) — Janitor AI

Zayne (Dawnbreaker Ver. | Canon AU) — Janitor AI

Zayne (Dawnbreaker Ver. | Alternate Universe) ★ — Janitor AI

Zayne (Alternate Universe: Models) — Janitor AI

Zayne (SSR Card Based: Hidden Motive) — Janitor AI

Zayne (Alternate Universe: Girldad) — Janitor AI

Zayne (Alternate Universe: Non-MC Angst) 2nd Person POV — Janitor AI

Rafayel (No Spoilers / Minimal Lore) — Janitor AI

Rafayel (SSR Card Based: Your Fragrance) — Janitor AI

Rafayel (SSR Card Based: Tipsy Invitation) — Janitor AI

Rafayel (Alternate Universe: Yandere Version) — Janitor AI

Rafayel (SR Card Based: Fiery Undercurrents I) ★ — Janitor AI

Rafayel (SR Card Based: Fiery Undercurrents II) ★ — Janitor AI

Rafayel (Spoilers! Your Fragrance x Ebb and Flow AU) ★ — Janitor AI

Rafayel (Alternate Universe: Married Life) ★ — Janitor AI

Rafayel (Alternate Universe: Boyfriend) Gender Neutral — Janitor AI

Rafayel (Omegaverse: Alpha x Omega) — Janitor AI

Rafayel (SSR Card Based: Fireworks Vow) ★ 2nd Person POV — Janitor AI

Rafayel (Alternate Universe / Canon Divergent) ★ — Janitor AI

Rafayel (SSR Card Based: Floral Promises) — Janitor AI

Rafayel (Alternate Universe: Models) — Janitor AI

Rafayel (SSR Card Based: Omnipotent Perception) — Janitor AI

Rafayel (Alternate Universe: Girldad) — Janitor AI

Rafayel (Alternate Universe: Non-MC Angst) 2nd Person POV — Janitor AI

Sylus (Canon / Semi-Spoilers) — Janitor AI

Sylus (Canon Compliant AU / Story Spoilers) — Janitor AI

Sylus (SSR Card Based: No Defense Zone) — Janitor AI

Sylus (Alternate Universe: Boyfriend) Gender Neutral — Janitor AI

Sylus (Alternate Universe: Yandere Version) — Janitor AI

Sylus (Alternate Universe: Married Life) — Janitor AI

Sylus (Canon Compliant / Biker Version) — Janitor AI

Sylus (Omegaverse: Alpha x Omega) — Janitor AI

Sylus (SSR Card Based: Immobilized I) — Janitor AI

Sylus (SSR Card Based: Immobilized II) — Janitor AI

Sylus (Alternate Universe: Models) — Janitor AI

Sylus (Alternate Universe: Vampires) ★ — Janitor AI

Sylus (SSR Card Based: Lost Oasis) — Janitor AI

Sylus (Enemies to Lovers AU) ★ — Janitor AI

Sylus (Alternate Universe: Girldad) — Janitor AI

Sylus (Alternate Universe: Non-MC Angst) 2nd Person POV — Janitor AI

Caleb (No Spoilers / Minimal Lore) — Janitor AI

Caleb (Alternate Universe: Valentine Event) — Janitor AI

Caleb (Alternate Universe: Yandere Version) — Janitor AI

Caleb (Semi-Spoilers! Alternate Universe / Canon Divergent) — Janitor AI

Caleb (Semi-Spoilers! Alternate Universe? Ghost Version) — Janitor AI

Caleb (Omegaverse: Alpha x Omega) — Janitor AI

Caleb (Alternate Universe: Girldad) — Janitor AI

Philos University AU! Mini-series 2nd Person POV

Vampire AU! Mini-series 2nd Person POV

Royalty AU! Mini-series 2nd Person POV

Luke and Kieran (Canon Compliant AU / Story Spoilers) — Janitor AI

Luke and Kieran (Alternate Universe: Onychinus!MC) Info — Janitor AI

Luke and Kieran (Non-MC!User) — Janitor AI

[rebeccathenaturalist]

So you may have seen my posts about AI foraging guides, or watched the mini-class I have up on YouTube on what I found inside of them. Apparently the intersection of AI and foraging has gotten even worse, with a chatbot that joined a mushroom foraging groups on Facebook only to immediately suggest ways people could cook a toxic species:

First, and most concerningly, this once again reinforces how much we should NOT be trusting AI to tell us what mushrooms are safe to eat. While they can compile information that's fed to them and regurgitate it in somewhat orderly manners, this is not the same as a living human being who has critical thinking skills to determine the veracity of a given piece of information, or physical senses to examine a mushroom, or the ability to directly experience the act of foraging. These skills and experiences are absolutely crucial to being a reliable forager, particularly one who may be passing on information to others.

We already have enough trouble with inaccurate info in the foraging community, and trying to ride herd on both the misinformed and the bad actors. This AI was presented as the first chat option for any group member seeking answers, which is just going to make things tougher for those wanting to keep people from accidentally poisoning themselves. Moreover, chatbots like this one routinely are trained on and grab information from copyrighted sources, but do not give credit to the original authors. Anyone who's ever written a junior-high level essay knows that you have to cite your sources even if you rewrite the information; otherwise it's just plagiarism.

Fungi Friend is yet one more example of how generative AI has been anything but a positive development on multiple levels.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The “3,000,000 truck drivers” who were supposedly at risk from self-driving tech are a mirage. The US Standard Occupational Survey conflates “truck drivers” with “driver/sales workers.” “Trucker” also includes delivery drivers and anyone else operating a heavy-goods vehicle.

The truckers who were supposedly at risk from self-driving cars were long-haul freight drivers, a minuscule minority among truck drivers. The theory was that we could replace 16-wheelers with autonomous vehicles who traveled the interstates in their own dedicated, walled-off lanes, communicating vehicle to vehicle to maintain following distance. The technical term for this arrangement is “a shitty train.”

What’s more, long-haul drivers do a bunch of tasks that self-driving systems couldn’t replace: “checking vehicles, following safety procedures, inspecting loads, maintaining logs, and securing cargo.”

But again, even if you could replace all the long-haul truckers with robots, it wouldn’t justify the sky-high valuations that self-driving car companies attained during the bubble. Long-haul truckers are among the most exploited, lowest paid workers in America. Transferring their wages to their bosses would only attain a modest increase in profits, even as it immiserated some of America’s worst-treated workers.

But the twin lies of self-driving truck — that these were on the horizon, and that they would replace 3,000,000 workers — were lucrative lies. They were the story that drove billions in investment and sky-high valuations for any company with “self-driving” in its name.

For the founders and investors who cashed out before the bubble popped, the fact that none of this was true wasn’t important. For them, the goal of successful self-driving cars was secondary. The primary objective was to convince so many people that self-driving cars were inevitable that anyone involved in the process could become a centimillionaire or even a billionaire.

- Google's AI Hype Circle: We have to do Bard because everyone else is doing AI; everyone else is doing AI because we're doing Bard.

[gin-juice-tonic]

tumblr's stupid ai deal just sorta killed a large part of my desire to create/share creations

things just havent been the same since then