Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

Last week’s thread

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this)

  • BigMuffin69@awful.systemsEnglish
    20·
    2 months ago

    Actual message I got while renewing my insurance plan last night. Thank you for adding a shitty chat bot which will give me false information about my life and death decisions, bravo.

  • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsEnglish
    16·
    2 months ago

    Kendrick Zitron dropped - its mainly focusing on Prabhakar Raghavan’s recent kicking upstairs, and Google’s bleak future.

    Main highlight was this snippet:

    I am hypothesizing here, but I think that Google is desperate, and that its earnings on October 30th are likely to make the street a little worried. The medium-to-long-term prognosis is likely even worse. As the Wall Street Journal notes, Google’s ad business is expected to dip below 50% market share in the US in the next year for the first time in more than a decade, and Google’s gratuitous monopoly over search (and likely ads) is coming to an end. It’s more than likely that Google sees AI as fundamental to its future growth and relevance.

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systemsEnglish
      15·
      2 months ago

      Man, it’s almost like hollowing out the core value centers of a company in search of short-term growth will leave an empty dying husk that can neither serve in new markets nor continue to exist in their previous niche.

      If only there had been some kind of warning about the consequences of this management style. Hey, how’s GE doing these days again?

      • thesporkeffect@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        2 months ago

        It’s not that the money is unaware this kills the business. They know. They don’t care because their process is business-agnostic. By design and intent they extract value from the business like it was a capri sun pouch and when line no longer goes up, it’s discarded for the next one.

    • istewart@awful.systemsEnglish
      10·
      2 months ago

      I think this is the second or third time that either Ed or somebody on his Discord reminded me about Shingy

  • Rinn@awful.systemsEnglish
    14·
    2 months ago

    A publically funded radiostation in my city has fired all of its hosts and replaced them with 3 AI “hosts” (non-English link).

    They’re trying to defend this by saying that all of the hosts were just independent contractors and AI is not the main reason they’re firing them, and that the AI thing is just going to be “an experiment to appeal to Gen Z”. Fortunately, most people’s response seems to be “fuck off with this crap”.

    I just… can’t with this. Even if they really were firing the hosts anyway (which is possible), I absolutely hate that they are using public money to run “experiments” with AI media. Heads should roll for this.

    • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      I just… can’t with this. Even if they really were firing the hosts anyway (which is possible), I absolutely hate that they are using public money to run “experiments” with AI media. Heads should roll for this.

      i think it might be code for firing these people, but technically not, because they just terminated contracts with 15 single-person companies, so they never really hired them in the first place

  • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsEnglish
    13·
    2 months ago

    Update on the character.ai lawsuit:

    Gizmodo just reported on the story - in addition to the suicide that kicked this litigation off, they’ve also discovered an hour-long screen recording where a test account (self-reported as thirteen years old) gets sexted relentlessly by the site’s chatbots.

    So, in addition to driving one specific teen to suicide, character.ai is also facing accusations that their bots are sexually harassing children.

  • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    12·
    2 months ago

    this is peak AI. you might not like it, but it’s how top of the bubble looks like

    Radio station uses AI to interview the ghost of a dead Nobel-winner with 3 quirky zoomers who don’t exist, seems baffled people don’t like it starring three bots and deepfake of Wisława Szymborska

    related notesfrompoland and onet article they probably referenced (in polish) and another. would you guess that they fired a dozen or so* people just before? (and somehow had money for whatever horseshit they were sold) small radio stations aren’t probably bringing serious money either way now

    homepage of that radio boasts about their “almost entirely created by AI” content. it looks like they tried to convince zoomers to get an FM radio and listen to it somehow. it’s gonna go great

    apparently this radio is in liquidation since january however this might be related to dislodging previous govt’s propagandists from public media

    *original report used very handy word that does not appear in english that one could translate as “fewteen” and can mean any number from 11 to 19 inclusive

    • mirrorwitch@awful.systemsEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      What I never get about this stuff is how unfun all of it is. The characters in character.ai don’t sound anything like their model characters, at all. ChatGPT necromancy is terrible, the séance table in my hometown sucked but the medium on a lazy day was still significantly better at producing some sort of impersonation that felt at least a little bit like the dead person, a skill I’ve come to appreciate a bit when compared to ChatGPT’s attempt at it. Everything that ChatGPT writes, no matter who it’s trying to imitate, has the exact same flavour, and the flavour is slop.

    • bitofhope@awful.systemsEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      Fuck, I didn’t need to be reminded that they named the robot Optimus. Was “Bender” or “Wall-E” too much of a deep cut? Or is it just that Disney’s trademark lawyers are scarier than Hasbro and Nvidia combined?

    • swlabr@awful.systemsEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      My read: sounds like a teenager that knows the touted functionality of the scam tech they are referencing, but is not wise enough to the ways of the world to know they are scams.

    • self@awful.systemsEnglish
      11·
      2 months ago

      the Determinate Nix move was such an obvious next step I was convinced they had already done it; I guess they can let the mask fall off now that they’ve consolidated their control over the community. as was pointed out on mastodon, Determinate Systems previously promised this wasn’t their goal, which goes to show how much a promise from a fascist is worth.

      fortunately it seems like Lix has a NixOS fork on the horizon? I only know about it because the “just fork it or shut up” assholes are now complaining that a fork’s happening (which they seem to only know about by obsessively monitoring Lix’s git forge — I don’t think there’s been an announcement yet)

        • self@awful.systemsEnglish
          7·
          2 months ago

          I hope so too! I like their approach so far, and a NixOS fork by the same folks seems like something I’d switch to as soon as I reasonably could

          • self@awful.systemsEnglish
            4·
            2 months ago

            in other news, holy fuck nix

            notably, this weirdo seems to have only started the podcast that looks like the only thing they’re supposedly known for a couple months before the Nix open letter, and I really don’t recognize them from the Nix community otherwise. they also appear to be using their podcast to interview Steering Committee candidates, which seems like a real obvious way to influence the selection process given the kinds of questions they seem to be asking.

  • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsEnglish
    10·
    2 months ago

    In other news, there’s been a statement on AI training that’s racked up over 10k signatures, which is unsurprisingly lambasting the rampant stealing that went into creating the autoplag machines:

    Now, I’m way too much of a fan of sidenotes, so I’ll whip one out:

    Beyond simple content theft being publicly lambasted, I suspect that even licensed use of artists’ work for gen-AI will ignite some controversy - if Eagan Tilghman’s run-in with controversy last year is any indication, any usage of gen-AI, regardless of context, will be met with hostility.

  • maol@awful.systemsEnglish
    8·
    2 months ago

    More AI generated shite from Ireland: Transport for Ireland decided, for some reason, to use AI for its Hallowe’en themed ads. This was roundly complained about online. Then someone decided, for genius reasons, to ring Liveline and complain about it.

    For those who are unfamiliar, Liveline is a national phone-in show presented by JOEEEE DUFFY, who could start a fight with a brick wall. Every episode is about either a petty grievance or a real horror story. It’s like a national whinge-in. I am going to listen to the episode (available here) and see if there are any highlights.

    • maol@awful.systemsEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago
      The gist of Liveline

      Joe is complaining about TFI putting up the taxi fares in Dublin.

      The ad is for a TFI competition.

      Ciarán works in advertising and thought that the TFI ad must be a scam first because of the use of AI.

      Ciarán points out that TFI has plenty of money and could afford to pay a graphic designer or an illustrator.

      Joe is furious that TFI won’t say whether the ad was AI-generated or not. Ciarán points out that they didn’t even mark the image as AI-generated.

      Gerry O’Brien from Actors Equity is on the line. He’s explaining the issues faced by background actors and voiceover actors who are being pressured into signing over their image/voice rights

      Hannah Lockhead from Lucan is on the line. “I don’t disagree with what anyone is saying, but personally I think the most offensive thing about this ad is just that it’s ugly”.

      Gerry O’Brien is talking about fair compensation and clear consent for actors whose images are being used.

      Hannah says that “Frankenstein’s Wife is Margot Robbie”

      Ciarán says that the AI art is “quite tacky” and compares poorly with the iconic London Underground logo.

      Joe Duffy has seized the opportunity of having Gerry O’Brien on the line to complain that the Abbey Theatre has been closed for a year.

      Joe Duffy has asked Hannah Lockhead (who is an actress) “are you working Hannah or are you resting”. She’s just finished filming a horror film in Wales called Esoteric.

      That’s pretty much it.

      TFI have now apologised.

    • bitofhope@awful.systemsEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      That’s kinda funny. If I’m ever in the market for a proprietary chromium-based web browser, they have my interest.

    • blakestacey@awful.systemsEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      Pretty good sneer there:

      BREAKING: Tim Pool announces he will be stepping back from full time content production to look after his family. He states he’s tired of being made fun of for not having a wife and kids so he will also be using the extra time to pursue acquiring that family

  • flizzo@awful.systemsEnglish
    7·
    2 months ago

    Look out, professional Nix crybaby Jon Ringer is back with his fork.

    In other news, I have my own as well called Borkfan, absolutely not a ban fork due to my having threatened multiple people, but instead dedicated to the idea that a technology that lacks chud approval must necessarily not be in the true hacker spirit.

    • self@awful.systemsEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      literally the exact crowd shitting on the mere rumor of a Lix NixOS fork are clapping for this like trained seals. and I don’t think this getting announced right after those rumors is an accident — it gets Jon the most attention for his low-effort bullshit and might even let him hurt another fork by way of community fragmentation

      something I’m confused about is, is Ringer even effectively banned anymore? I stopped monitoring when someone with mod privileges unbanned him from a bunch of Nix community spaces. is he back to banned, or is this just a continuing tantrum from Jon having Release Manager stripped from him and given to someone who could do that incredibly thoroughly automated job without stirring up a fucking hate mob?

      • self@awful.systemsEnglish
        6·
        2 months ago

        there is one silver lining: for once, I don’t have the cognitive load of another Nix fork to carefully consider switching to. there’s no way in fuck I’m using Ringer’s fork under any circumstances, and my brain already filed it away under “weird name, starts with an E, don’t remember the rest” seconds after I closed the tab

        • flizzo@awful.systemsEnglish
          4·
          2 months ago

          You’re right, Borkfan is too easy to remember, my not-ban fork is now called Frabnok.

          • self@awful.systemsEnglish
            3·
            2 months ago
            > FRABNOK LANTERN

Your lantern explodes into a rant about the wokes, killing you instantly.

*** You have died ***

Your score is 0 out of a possible 10 points, in 1 move. This gives you the rank of Release Manager.