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Thinking about The purpose of AI

Apologies if this is strongly worded, but I'm pretty passionate about this. In addition to the functions public-facing AI tools have, we have to consider what the goal of AI is for corporations. This is an old cliché, but it's a useful one: follow the money. When we see some of the biggest tech companies in the world going all-in on this stuff, alarm bells should be going off. We're seeing a complete buy in by Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and even Meta suddenly pivoted to AI and seems to be quietly abandoning their beloved Metaverse. For decades, the goal of all these companies has always been infinite growth, taking a bigger share of the market, and making a bigger profit. When these are the main motivators, the workforce that carries out the labor supporting an industry is what inevitably suffers. People are told to do more with less, and cuts are made where C-suite executives see fit at the detriment of everyone down the hierarchy. Where AI is unique to other tangible products is that it is an efficiency beast in so many different ways. I have personally seen it affect my job as part of a larger cost-cutting measure. Microsoft's latest IT solutions are designed to automate as much as possible in favor of having actual people carry out typically client-facing tasks. Copy writers/editors inevitably won't be hired if people could instead type a prompt into ChatGPT to spit out a product description. Already, there are so many publications and Substacks that use AI image generators to create attention-grabbing header and link images - before this, an artist could have been paid to create something that might afford them food for the week. All this is to say that we will see a widening discrepancy between the ultra-wealthy and the working class, and the socio-economic structure we're in actively encourages consolidation of power. There are other moral implications with it that I could go on about, but they're kind of subjective. In relation to art, dedicating oneself to a craft often lends itself to fostering a community for support in one's journey, and if we collectively lean on AI more instead of other people, we risk isolating ourselves further in an environment that is already designed to do that. In my opinion, we shouldn't try to co-exist with something that is made to make our physical and emotional work obsolete.

@theclack

Mar 24, 2024

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Raise your expectations

A.I. used to make art cheaper and to avoid paying artists is abhorrent. Used to write speeches and summarize books reduces the practice and makes the accomplishment meaningless. It cheapens the process and provides no value. The way it’s being advertised is nothing short of disgusting. Google aired an ad where a father uses A.I. to help his daughter write a letter to her favorite athlete. Why are you shortcutting time spent with your daughter, teaching her how to put emotion into words, helping her work through something challenging? It’s soulless dreck. I’m tired of hearing about it, talking about it and thinking about all the ways it can ruin society. Since corporations and industry insist on shoving it down our throat, I think it’s (as always) our responsibility to demand better. The linked essay made me reconsider the use of it as a tool to expand, as you put it, as long as it’s not used to enable laziness and shortcuts.

@Shadowbeni

Jan 14, 2025

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I’m usually not as single minded about an issue but…

AI is garbage for so many reasons and none of us should be using it. that includes making art as well as seemingly mundane corporate tasks. it’s atrocious for the planet, it’s horrific for the uncredited workers who labor to power it, it bulldozes all notions of “privacy” and further fast-tracks the commodification of humanity, and it‘s fueling the dumpster fire that is an entire generation of brains raised in the cesspool of the internet.

@its_just_kate

Jan 13, 2025

Top Recs from @saylor

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Sketchy tik tok

So we all think it’s sketchy that Tik Tok is already back right? And that they posted a statement kissing Trump’s ass and making him out to be the one saving Tik Tok when he isn’t even sworn in yet? And now Trump wants the US government to have a 50% ownership, aka turning Tik Tok into state owned media just like I thought was happening. And I’m sure most people won’t be able to stay away from Tik Tok and Meta which is so disappointing. I want nothing to do with Tik Tok now because I know the app as we knew it is already gone at this point.

@saylor

Jan 19, 2025

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Get a digital camera!

There’s something about the quality of digital camera photos that make a picture of anything you take look more pleasing (to me anyway). The nostalgia, the saturation, I love them. I have a couple cameras that still work from when I was a kid, but I also bought one on eBay that was similar to one that used to be a favorite of mine. I just throw it in my purse and take it everywhere, and it’s so much more fun than trying to get the “perfect shot,” especially now that I’ve deleted Meta and gone with Pixelfed it seems that people love posting anything from the little things they see or their drinks. It’s making photo sharing fun again! Although, if you do download Pixelfed (which isn’t the point of this post but) I highly recommend using it in your browser on your phone for now, they’ve already made things run smoother from when I first downloaded but they’re definitely still working on the app.

@saylor

Jan 20, 2025

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loving the social media detoxed life

I’ve already read 48 books in 2025 while being on my flip phone, social media detox life. Yes, some of them were just trashy romance, but still. It’s been so nice to get back into reading for enjoyment again. It’s nice to be out and about and not have that constant urge to reach for a phone and check notifications. I don’t even have most social media apps downloaded on this anymore, I love this app though, and the urge to click on an app and doom-scroll is nonexistent. This brick of technology has really turned into my iPod and Kindle, and the occasional pop back on here.

@saylor

Mar 13, 2025