5 ms·

> “The Grok integration with X has made everyone jealous,” says someone working at another big AI lab. “Especially how people create viral tweets by getting it

> “The Grok integration with X has made everyone jealous,” says someone working at another big AI lab. “Especially how people create viral tweets by getting it to say something stupid.” It's awesome to see the amazing value for society being created by big tech these days.

jrflowers 2y ago
When your definition of “everyone” is like two, three guys tops
sph 2y ago
To think that even a year ago the idea of Instagram-style social media where all posts are openly AI-generated sounded very dystopian, now I can clearly so it is something people would pay for and HN people would gladly build. I wasn’t always a Luddite, but damn they made me one.
- yapyap 2y ago
  Although that is true for Instagram style media it was always a risk for text based media. As PoC I’d say look at the subreddit SubSimulatorGPT2 www.reddit.com/r/SubSimulatorGPT2
- InDubioProRubio 2y ago
  [dead]
- fullshark 2y ago
  "Social" media isn't really social anymore, it just means any idiot with a computer can generate the media you're consuming.
  - flir 2y ago
    Write-only media.
    - dylan604 2y ago
      wouldn't it be WORM media though as the point is to have as many others read it as possible?
- coldpie 2y ago
  > I wasn’t always a Luddite, but damn they made me one. If this industry didn't pay so well, I would've been gone years ago. I'm lucky to work in a job that I think is ethical and improving the world, but it's so goddamn embarrassing to even be in the same room as the AI and blockchain types and the ad hucksters.
  - sph 2y ago
    It's not gonna pay well for long, unless you find yourself a very tight and lucrative niche. My goal on the other hand is to buy a house in the woods by end of the year and become a woodworker before I have to be assimilated by the AI wave, maybe doing some coding by hand just for the fun of it on the side. Can't wait for "vibe coding" and "2 years of Copilot experience" to figure among the average list of job requirements. To quote the young'uns, we are so cooked.
    - coldpie 2y ago
      > and become a woodworker Hey we can't ALL have the same plan, man! The tech oligarchs that own all of society's wealth will only need so much bespoke furniture! More seriously, my plan had been to build a decent savings and go work for the USPS or the local public transit company, supplemented with savings interest and maybe some woodworking income. But then the 2024 election happened so who fucking knows anymore.
      - dylan604 2y ago
        Nah, I plan on owning a chunk of acres and start my own homestead. Raise a few animals like some sheep, goats, rabbits, and of course chickens. Build a nice green house and large garden. Just need to find the right plot of land before making it a serious go. Oh, and can't forget the first step. Gotta win the lottery to pay for it. Not all of have those cushy FAANG salaries.
        magicstefanos 2y ago
        There are rural land loan companies. Or buy with friends or family. I know people who've done the above and don't tell anybody but it's working out fine.
- deadbabe 2y ago
  What you gotta understand is this world is going straight to hell, humanity might not be around much longer. Might as well embrace the chaos and enjoy the ride down. No point in being a Luddite now, the time for that was decades ago.
  - malka1986 2y ago
    > humanity might not be around much longer. Good riddance. Humanity is hell.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- immibis 2y ago
  There was /r/SubSimulatorGPT2, but you're telling me people would PAY for that? Maybe if you tricked them - which is arguably what Reddit is doing. Social media's always been about giving people whatever makes them come back to the site, no matter how unethical. If an army of fake fans makes me think I have an army of real fans and keep posting for attention from my fans, they will totally do that. Unless it's illegal.
- BeFlatXIII 2y ago
  The AI has better shitposts than actual humans. For Reddit, this has been true since GPT-2.
HPsquared 2y ago
Are you not entertained?
xyst 2y ago
And at the expense of consuming massive amounts of energy and depleting our resources—-water, energy—-at an alarming rate.
- gbasin 2y ago
  pardon my ignorance, in what was does it "consume water"? water cooling is closed loop
  - 05 2y ago
    Fabs use water in a way that's not closed loop see e.g. [0] [0] https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/07/the-water-challenge-for-semiconductor-manufacturing-and-big-tech-what-needs-to-be-done/ https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/07/the-water-challenge-...
    - gbasin 2y ago
      I see, thanks. Seems just a matter of cost to reclaim it. Maybe regulation is needed
      - wegfawefgawefg 2y ago
        the planet is a water closed loop. the vapor condenses as rain somewhere
  - llm_nerd 2y ago
    Data centers do use a lot of water on average. Warmer climate data centers often use evaporative cooling and can run through millions of gallons of water to offload heat. Google's data centers combined chewed through some 6 billion gallons of water last year. Closed systems are much more water-efficient, and are more common in cooler climates.
- danielbln 2y ago
  Not to say AI doesn't require a lot of power, but I don't know if we need to be alarmist about it: https://engineeringprompts.substack.com/p/does-chatgpt-use-10x-more-energy https://engineeringprompts.substack.com/p/does-chatgpt-use-1... https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jan/12/generative-ai-the-power-and-the-glory/ https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jan/12/generative-ai-the-powe...
zombot 2y ago
But “have AI help people share better content” is so indispensable! How could humanity ever survive without that? Even better, soon none of us will have to use social media at all, our AI bots will do it for us. Then we will finally find peace.
kccqzy 2y ago
In George Orwell's 1984, there is a machine called the versificator that generates music and literature without any human intervention, presumably for the "entertainment" of the proletarians.
kookamamie 2y ago
It's also very dangerous, I think. Grok is used on X to arbitrating ground-truth for topics I think it has no chance assessing.
thih9 2y ago
I don't use X/Twitter - does anyone have an example of a viral tweet like this?
moogly 2y ago
I guess YTMND.com would've blown their mind if they had been alive and conscious 20 years ago.
tempodox 2y ago
Each time I think I've seen dystopia and the pinnacle of stupidity someone finds a new way to top it. Either that's an amazing superpower, or I'm infected with incurable optimism.
dkkergoog 2y ago
Do you think there is any value by sending rockets to space?
- pyrale 2y ago
  I would say sending rockets to space is currently orthogonal with current issues we are facing as a species. A decade ago, I would have said the big issue was finding a way to live without destroying ecosystems, but apparently finding a way to live without a major war is also a hot topic now.
nopelynopington 2y ago
Came here to post the same. Also, if the value in grok is reposting stupid things, I don't see how it adds any value to have it embedded in the social network. You could just as easily ridicule Gemini this way? Also Twitter generates viral tweets because people use Twitter. A new social network with a similarly embedded AI will just be ridiculed on Twitter and go viral there

jrflowers 2y ago

When your definition of “everyone” is like two, three guys tops

sph 2y ago

To think that even a year ago the idea of Instagram-style social media where all posts are openly AI-generated sounded very dystopian, now I can clearly so it is something people would pay for and HN people would gladly build. I wasn’t always a Luddite, but damn they made me one.

yapyap 2y ago
Although that is true for Instagram style media it was always a risk for text based media. As PoC I’d say look at the subreddit SubSimulatorGPT2 www.reddit.com/r/SubSimulatorGPT2
InDubioProRubio 2y ago
[dead]
fullshark 2y ago
"Social" media isn't really social anymore, it just means any idiot with a computer can generate the media you're consuming.
- flir 2y ago
  Write-only media.
  - dylan604 2y ago
    wouldn't it be WORM media though as the point is to have as many others read it as possible?
coldpie 2y ago
> I wasn’t always a Luddite, but damn they made me one. If this industry didn't pay so well, I would've been gone years ago. I'm lucky to work in a job that I think is ethical and improving the world, but it's so goddamn embarrassing to even be in the same room as the AI and blockchain types and the ad hucksters.
- sph 2y ago
  It's not gonna pay well for long, unless you find yourself a very tight and lucrative niche. My goal on the other hand is to buy a house in the woods by end of the year and become a woodworker before I have to be assimilated by the AI wave, maybe doing some coding by hand just for the fun of it on the side. Can't wait for "vibe coding" and "2 years of Copilot experience" to figure among the average list of job requirements. To quote the young'uns, we are so cooked.
  - coldpie 2y ago
    > and become a woodworker Hey we can't ALL have the same plan, man! The tech oligarchs that own all of society's wealth will only need so much bespoke furniture! More seriously, my plan had been to build a decent savings and go work for the USPS or the local public transit company, supplemented with savings interest and maybe some woodworking income. But then the 2024 election happened so who fucking knows anymore.
    - dylan604 2y ago
      Nah, I plan on owning a chunk of acres and start my own homestead. Raise a few animals like some sheep, goats, rabbits, and of course chickens. Build a nice green house and large garden. Just need to find the right plot of land before making it a serious go. Oh, and can't forget the first step. Gotta win the lottery to pay for it. Not all of have those cushy FAANG salaries.
      - magicstefanos 2y ago
        There are rural land loan companies. Or buy with friends or family. I know people who've done the above and don't tell anybody but it's working out fine.
deadbabe 2y ago
What you gotta understand is this world is going straight to hell, humanity might not be around much longer. Might as well embrace the chaos and enjoy the ride down. No point in being a Luddite now, the time for that was decades ago.
- malka1986 2y ago
  > humanity might not be around much longer. Good riddance. Humanity is hell.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
immibis 2y ago
There was /r/SubSimulatorGPT2, but you're telling me people would PAY for that? Maybe if you tricked them - which is arguably what Reddit is doing. Social media's always been about giving people whatever makes them come back to the site, no matter how unethical. If an army of fake fans makes me think I have an army of real fans and keep posting for attention from my fans, they will totally do that. Unless it's illegal.
BeFlatXIII 2y ago
The AI has better shitposts than actual humans. For Reddit, this has been true since GPT-2.

HPsquared 2y ago

Are you not entertained?

xyst 2y ago

And at the expense of consuming massive amounts of energy and depleting our resources—-water, energy—-at an alarming rate.

gbasin 2y ago
pardon my ignorance, in what was does it "consume water"? water cooling is closed loop
- 05 2y ago
  Fabs use water in a way that's not closed loop see e.g. [0] [0] https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/07/the-water-challenge-for-semiconductor-manufacturing-and-big-tech-what-needs-to-be-done/ https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/07/the-water-challenge-...
  - gbasin 2y ago
    I see, thanks. Seems just a matter of cost to reclaim it. Maybe regulation is needed
    - wegfawefgawefg 2y ago
      the planet is a water closed loop. the vapor condenses as rain somewhere
- llm_nerd 2y ago
  Data centers do use a lot of water on average. Warmer climate data centers often use evaporative cooling and can run through millions of gallons of water to offload heat. Google's data centers combined chewed through some 6 billion gallons of water last year. Closed systems are much more water-efficient, and are more common in cooler climates.
danielbln 2y ago
Not to say AI doesn't require a lot of power, but I don't know if we need to be alarmist about it: https://engineeringprompts.substack.com/p/does-chatgpt-use-10x-more-energy https://engineeringprompts.substack.com/p/does-chatgpt-use-1... https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jan/12/generative-ai-the-power-and-the-glory/ https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jan/12/generative-ai-the-powe...

zombot 2y ago

But “have AI help people share better content” is so indispensable! How could humanity ever survive without that? Even better, soon none of us will have to use social media at all, our AI bots will do it for us. Then we will finally find peace.

kccqzy 2y ago

In George Orwell's 1984, there is a machine called the versificator that generates music and literature without any human intervention, presumably for the "entertainment" of the proletarians.

kookamamie 2y ago

It's also very dangerous, I think. Grok is used on X to arbitrating ground-truth for topics I think it has no chance assessing.

thih9 2y ago

I don't use X/Twitter - does anyone have an example of a viral tweet like this?

moogly 2y ago

I guess YTMND.com would've blown their mind if they had been alive and conscious 20 years ago.

tempodox 2y ago

Each time I think I've seen dystopia and the pinnacle of stupidity someone finds a new way to top it. Either that's an amazing superpower, or I'm infected with incurable optimism.

dkkergoog 2y ago

Do you think there is any value by sending rockets to space?

pyrale 2y ago
I would say sending rockets to space is currently orthogonal with current issues we are facing as a species. A decade ago, I would have said the big issue was finding a way to live without destroying ecosystems, but apparently finding a way to live without a major war is also a hot topic now.

nopelynopington 2y ago

Came here to post the same. Also, if the value in grok is reposting stupid things, I don't see how it adds any value to have it embedded in the social network. You could just as easily ridicule Gemini this way? Also Twitter generates viral tweets because people use Twitter. A new social network with a similarly embedded AI will just be ridiculed on Twitter and go viral there