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I'm pretty AI pessimistic, but I still found the more optimistic AI story refreshing and nice. A reminder that new technology is actually supposed to make our
by commodoreboxer 2y ago
I'm pretty AI pessimistic, but I still found the more optimistic AI story refreshing and nice. A reminder that new technology is actually supposed to make our lives better, not just funnel a lot of money from a lot of people to a small number of share holders (ie. "create value").
It's extremely believable that the downfall of some public good like Abelique would be primarily sales and marketing getting in and trying to steer it and advertise for profit, and it being otherwise gamed. It's so hard for something to just be good for everybody; somebody always wants to maximize their own benefit, even at the expense of everybody else (relevant example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40862865 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40862865).
- kridsdale1 2y agoWell that’s exactly what happened to Facebook, and YouTube. People don’t really tend to believe it but when I worked at Facebook inventing features for users, 100% of the time our discussions were based in “how do we improve community and happiness and squash divisiveness and hate?” and never about revenue. Until influencers took over the internet. Then more and more we started being told not to ship things that were fun or socially good because it would break viral loops or undermine the market dominance of Universal Music or some such shit. So I quit.
- layman51 2y agoYour comment is reminding me a lot of the ideas in a short book called “Program or Be Programmed” by Douglas Rushkoff. I think specifically it’s the idea about how digital technology has a “social bias” that can conflict with the interests of businesses on the internet.