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Yup, it's the tragedy of the system we have set up. There's a potentially civilization-ending disasters looming over us (the climate crisis, increasing escalat
by saubeidl 8mo ago
Yup, it's the tragedy of the system we have set up.
There's a potentially civilization-ending disasters looming over us (the climate crisis, increasing escalation between the major powers, rising risk of insurrection due to mismanagement and inequality) and what are the smartest people of our time doing?
Making sure you click that damn ad or create technology that lets you create slop ads more easily.
- kilroy123 8mo agoTo be fair, I'd rather have smart people pursue AI and LLMs than ad tech.
- yifanl 8mo agoThey're one and the same. https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/ https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/
- dgb23 8mo agoThat's mixing up the tool with what it is used for.
- kakacik 8mo agoAd tech is annoying at worst, it doesn't take literally your job and most of job market with it. Without any seemingly easy way to move to fields which are booming so overall it would stay the same. I hate ads with passion for past 20 years and (very) actively avoid them at all costs, but I'd take those over what world llms seem to be bringing in soon.
- throwawayqqq11 8mo agoConsider LLMs as the recent iteration to monetize free content, like ads do too, and you are not far from seeing the approaching AI-first enshittoscene. No matter the smart engineers altruistic goals, ROI has to be met.
- toomuchtodo 8mo agoSo, how do you fix it? Can it be fixed?
- nemomarx 8mo agoRight now we allocate capital to those kinds of companies. We're on a page for that and all. If you allocated capital to other stuff, the jobs go there with it?
- losteric 8mo agoMoney follows ROI. Making those speculative or detrimental industries less profitable is the answer. Regulations on micro-targeting, data privacy, algorithm transparency, legal liability for content, etc.. all push back against the externalities of ads/social media. Regulations on energy and land use can make eg data center build outs more expensive, pressuring back against speculative AI trash. Taxing big tech companies, subsidizing manufacturing education, and judicious import tariffs.. would all create incentives for investing money and labor in hard capabilities
- misterbishop 8mo agowe need an opposition party.
- saubeidl 8mo agoIf you're asking me? Workers revolution and a complete systems change, towards something that aligns incentives with the good of humanity, not of a money-grubbing few. I have a feeling most folks here will disagree though.
- dorgo 8mo ago>aligns incentives with the good of humanity is this possible?
- pphysch 8mo agoThose are two sides of the same coin. The "sky is falling" narratives and invasive advertising are both employed by the same elite to control your behavior through fear and suggestion. Noam Chomsky is one of the loudest doomsayers and "critics" of the system (war, climate, politics) and yet simultaneously was good buddies with post-conviction Epstein. That ought to stimulate a reassessment of what you've believed about how (American) politics and society works.
- robotpepi 8mo ago[flagged]
- orwin 8mo agoThat's not surprising. Post 2000 Chomsky is worthless, he couldn't defend his original thesis without ad hominems and used his fame to put pressure on universities (it didn't work every time, but enough), he pushed a decade backward part of the linguistics field (after pushing it up maybe two decade forward, but that's not an excuse). Especially in humanities where you don't have hard data, contradiction is the only way to advance, and he forgot that. He became too full of himself and too confident.