Yeah, it seems like a new type of judgement is needed that I don’t normally encounter in a day. Like, I use a hammer to hammer nails, then I put it down. I don’t try to cook with it. This tool has a weird, abstract nature to it where you can drift between using / misusing / abusing without necessarily noticing. A strange position to be in while trying to work at the same time .

I’m finding it hard to reconcile the people who find it useless with those who find it useful. My own experience with languages is that it speeds me up for tasks I have the skills to verify, but with ones I don’t it can slow me down doing the verification and fixes.

I know software developers in a Fortune 500 company who swear that overall they are far more productive with “agents”. I don’t know if it’s a highly tailored system rather than the more all-purpose ones the general public have. So I do wonder if there are use cases for it.

It’s ruining the planet and our societies, though. And it’s distracting us from what really matters. Net negative for sure.

Edit: they’re also not very good at their most basic tasks. Researchers have found that when the major LLMs summarise articles, it misrepresents the facts 51% of the time.

It’s not just about business use, but citizen access to content. I looked it up and this is the stage it’s at now https://gizmodo.com/the-first-us-law-targeting-vpn-use-takes-effect-september-3-heres-what-happen-2000805001

The new law is narrow. VPN companies say they can’t do it. Fines for businesses that don’t are real. It’s all a little strange.

Very few people will set up their own business or technical venture, though. That’s enough to have a chilling effect.

The US claim they are going after the VPN companies now too. Of course it could be all lies and deflection like most things they say now.

Just what we need in the EU ecosystem: yet another country that doesn’t give a damn about genocide.

I think so too.

This is still surveillance, just with audio instead of video.

But this actually creates a new problem: wearers of pervert glasses have plausible deniability. “Are you filming me?” “Who, me? Oh no, these ones don’t have cameras. Trust me”.

I’m not American. Does food stamps mean they effectively can’t afford to eat?

Or the technology has plateau’d and this is their cover story. I don’t know, but these two people are known liars.

Sigh

For gods sake, we are way past the point of just sanctioning the settlements. Sanctions like this are known to be ineffective. It is the Israeli regime that needs to be sanctioned. Anything less is performative.

they are actively considering these and other measures

Actively considering … Should have been decades ago, and it’s too little now.

When I was on TikTok, I tried to stick to the “following” feed only, but it was very hard not to check the “for you page” (algorithmic feed), because the app is so good at knowing how to dazzle the user. It also defaulted to showing the algorithm when the app is reopened.

I only know a handful of other people who used the app, but they described the same problem: they follow people, but then they just use the algorithmic feed instead anyway.

All this to say that there are ways to present a choice to the user in such a way that users will not engage with that choice.

It’s Chromium, according to Wikipedia.

Good on you for trying

Gods forbid we be inconvenienced in the slightest.

Surprised nobody has mentioned Ecosia yet. Web searches there are responsible for planting 250,000,000 trees. I can’t think of a better justification for using a search engine.

Déanta ✍️

Yes. I think they just need to get their data centres built. Once they’re in position there will be less to report on, unless the people find a way to make the already existing centres newsworthy. That’s harder.

The “backlash” is half hearted and also sensationalised a little in the media.

People have not come together to meaningfully boycott these platforms. Boycott is the language these capitalists understand.

I do not understand why people still use meta platforms, for example. We could level these companies quickly. The excuse that “everyone else I know is there” is wilful paralysis: waiting for someone else to go first. And that’s why these tech oligarchs are confident. They’re probably right to be.

Yes, and the EU is currently promoting a very dodgy EU platform. When respected individuals report on the dodgyness , the get smeared as spreading “targetted disinformation” https://mastodon.ie/@[email protected]/117149520169152585

As much as i despise Meta and our governments who collude with them, my biggest disappointment is our fellow citizens who enable them the most.