The problem at its core is definitely capitalism. That said, AI itself is nothing more than a massive plagiarism machine that is extremely cost-prohibitive to run, which means the only ones that control it and have a say are the ones with the most money. There’s a space for ethical AI that isn’t trained haphazardly on copyrighted works, but what we have today in the mainstream is not that.

As much as I personally hate building anything with AI (programmer that has had to build tools that use it), I don’t hate the concept of AI itself. I hate the fact that the people with the most money to innovate with it are churning out the most boring products so they can go to market faster, while also burning the planet down in the process.

Yeah the current admin, at least in the US, ain’t enforcing that lol. They’re all in on AI’ifying everything in sight. AI is a hellscape in the hands of capitalists.

pay people to go enjoy their lives.

The problem is that this isn’t happening. Instead it’s greedy board members trying to find ways to exclude every creative artist so that they can hoard all of the wealth for themselves.

Marx predicted that automation would allow the worker to live a more leisurely life when they were maintaining the machines, vs doing the work manually. This is a nice premise, but it turned out to be wrong. Instead, the workers get replaced entirely and third parties come in to occasionally fix and maintain those machines. Automation is not a bad thing by any stretch, but the point of creative work is to retain humanity and emotion. Using AI voices and artwork is counter to that. At that point it’s no longer artwork and is simply a husk to drive revenue and nothing else. If we replace humans with AI, where does it stop? Why not throw all the creatives out and have AI write the script, storyboard, edit, etc? Mindless entertainment on autopilot sounds miserable.

It’s not a hard one to dodge. I’ll be fine.

You’re welcome to play video games with shitty fake AI voices, but myself and tons of other folks definitely won’t be.

This feels like someone took their banned content list and inverted it so that it was suddenly all approved. Regardless, leaving Instagram and Facebook was one of the best decisions I’ve made this year. Can’t and won’t deal with platforms that pump feeds full of ads and fascist hate-filled toxic bullshit.

Pick cheaper interests is my only advice lol. If you have to purchase something for a new hobby and it’s over X amount, don’t allow yourself to buy it. My latest hobby is lock picking. Not expensive and I don’t feel guilty picking it up and randomly doing it every few days or so.

Also, get off of social media. The constant scrolling and mental bombardment of other people’s interests mixed with ads for things, is what keeps these kinds of obsessions going. Your brain basically gets overwhelmed with information and never actually slows down to enjoy and sink into anything. I’ve since deleted all social media, and started doing yoga every morning and night to calm my mind, and I find these constant brain overloads have reduced considerably.

Zuck is an ass kisser with no friends. Fuck him. Get off his platforms if you haven’t already.

Ahh a fellow Xiaohongshu user!

It’s been a nice window into their culture and daily lives, and they’ve been extremely welcoming. As an American that is pretty much burnt out on my country’s bullshit and inability to be respectful and friendly, that is a breath of fresh air.

I’ve been on Rednote for a while now and learning and chatting with Chinese folks has made me less anxious, more mindful, and generally more positive. It’s teaching me Taoism, QiGong, and given me tea and food recipes.

I’ve since deleted every Meta account because western social media has given me nothing but meaningless, empty scrolling, anxiety, and bombarded me with ads—a lot of which were extremely questionable.

Another major shift has come in online shopping, where Americans are flocking to digital Chinese marketplaces such as Temu and Shein in search of ultra-low prices on clothes, home goods, and other items.

I don’t shop at these places but this is what happens when you make absolutely everything in America way too expensive while paying people shit. They find cheaper alternatives.

Western social media will use all of your data to spy on you on a daily basis. If we’re going to criticize Chinese social media, the spotlight needs to be turned on America also. Meta is predatory, and has helped fuel genocide, and TikTok is now a compromised mess.

Thanks! Never thought I’d own a domain with “yachts” in the name 😂

True. Always good to unpack it. It’s therapeutic lol.

The right side is just liberalism. This is what happens when the left and liberal are melded together in everyday western society/language and the water is muddied. It’s intended. It confuses people, overwhelms them, and leads them to use the apparatus that the ruling class has placed in front of us to circumvent true working class interests and movements. It’s why liberals scoff at potential allies (leftists), instead of seeing the truth: a unified working class.

https://ethanmarcotte.com/books/you-deserve-a-tech-union/

This is the way.

Yep. Corporations are scared of open source AI, especially when it makes OpenAI look like dog shit.

AI in the hands of the ruling class is a collective threat to the world. Apple Intelligence, Copilot computers—they are all gateways for corporations to circumvent security. They scour every piece of data on your devices in order to process it all. It’s going to become a shitty Trojan horse: offers nothing of value to people and we handwave it away, while it casually peeks into all of our “secure” apps on a daily basis.

No, our politicians and the dummies that follow and support them blindly are the baddies.

lol no. Go outdoors and put that shit on DND. Scroll later. Can’t stand when I see someone craned over a phone when they’re somewhere surrounded by nature.