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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Amen to all of this.

And really, the only litmus test of whether or not people should get married is if they're happy.

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Adrian Simmons's avatar

Comic Adam Conover (of Adam Ruins Everything fame) has been railing against the false idol of AI for quite a while. Basically, it is one huge scam with a ton of hype--the latest version of 'VR' (remember that? Where did all that go?). That its being foisted on us to justify the cost of its creation and in a 'keep-yer-eyes-on-the-lady' kind of shell game somehow show it makes money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAUTbQ4rPI4

I think your idea of down-rating AI is a good one, but it doens't go far enough. We should spend a month or so down-rating everything. Everybody gets one star and a 'would not recommend' until they fix this shit.

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Mark Finn's avatar

I've seen some of his stuff--he was the guy who turned me on to Ed Zitron. And yes, it would require a concerted effort on our part. Hell, Amazon reviews have already been rendered useless by chuckleheads gaming the system. I say, we game it right back!

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Christopher Gronlund's avatar

Yep, I already find the, "Like this app -- rate it!" pop ups annoying. Usually just close them down. But if it has an A.I. extension, I give them one star and say the A.I. is intrusive and makes me think you're not actually good developers, but just people chasing a trend."

I'm not against A.I. in some things...I know it will likely find a way to fold a protein in a cool way or analyze something that helps us, but when attached to a creative app, they are always as annoying as Microsoft's Clippy...maybe even worse!

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I agree, and if it was only used to fold proteins or find errors somewhere in a million lines of code, I'd be one of its biggest supporters. Why it was decided that it should be used to replace things like art, music, and writing is beyond me.

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Mark Finn's avatar

I think I have the inside lane on this one. No writer, artist, or musician was involved in any of those projects, but the literal, black and white, binary thinking programmers out in Silicon Valley would have totally seen those applications as game-changing. Those who can't, write code that does, shittily.

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Mark Finn's avatar

I honestly think clippy was the better option. Mostly because I could turn clippy off whenever I got tired of the little pop-up.

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J.M.'s avatar

"Help them train—badly—their large language models by deliberately feeding them bad data. The more bad data they get, the better."

There are reports that is what the Kremlin is doing to American bots, figuring most Americans will rely on the bad info without checking.

I was promised bionic eyes and flying cars. Instead, we get cyberpunk without the corporate loyalty or cool aesthetic but with the Gilded Age mentality of rich bros.

May I ask which church (physical or online) or official government agency gave you to power to marry folk? I'm a minister in the United Life Church Online but I've never needed it .. so far.

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Mark Finn's avatar

I got my credentials from the World Life Church, of course, because setting up a First Church of the Reformed Elvis would have been too expensive.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Maybe you could affiliate with this one? It's back after a long hiatus.

https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/church-of-elvis/

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Mark Finn's avatar

I’ve always seen myself as a High Priest of the Church of Elvis. I may need to approach them…

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Jack Herman's avatar

I’m always a sucker for a good Treasure of the Sierra Madre reference. As usual, nicely played, sir!

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Mark Finn's avatar

You get me, Jack.

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