The anti-AI thread

[Kaido]

 

[Kaido]

Good read:

Why do AI data centers use so many resources?

AI data centers are gobbling up resources, and they're growing fast.

www.engadget.com

 

[Kaido]

The day I fear has arrived​

Everyone on the planet should watch this video in order to be aware that the game has changed when it comes to video footage:

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1nyegf8/we_can_no_longer_trust_archival_footage_ever_again

 

[Kaido]

Reddit's ChatGPT visibility crashed from 14% to 2%, which caused a 13% stock drop in RDDT. The current line of thinking is:

1. OpenAI wanted more reliable sources of information & fewer hallucinations
2. There may have been legal pressure involved from recent data deals
3. Google killed "num=100", which limits API results to 10. Reddit ranks in the 11 to 20 range, so ChatGPT's crawler simply may have sopped seeing it as a result

TL;DR: Reddit stock dropped over $5 billion dollars

 

[marees]

It may not be able to do arithmetic, but at least it has the energy consumption of a mid-sized city

https://twitter.com/x/status/1974828240679166396

 

[Kaido]

It may not be able to do arithmetic, but at least it has the energy consumption of a mid-sized city

https://twitter.com/x/status/1974828240679166396

 

[Kaido]

Robin Williams’ daughter begs fans to stop sending her AI videos of late father

‘You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings,’ Zelda Williams says

www.the-independent.com

 

[nakedfrog]

Well-said, would be nice if people would listen to her but I have every confidence they won't.
It's weird for Kaido to keep posting anti-AI sentiments while being a huge AI cheerleader and fan.

 

[Kaido]

Well-said, would be nice if people would listen to her but I have every confidence they won't.
It's weird for Kaido to keep posting anti-AI sentiments while being a huge AI cheerleader and fan.

Guns are great for hunting & self-protection...not so great for murder.

AI is great for a lot of things. I use it every day at work for things like "chatting" with giant technical manuals (instant Q&A lookup), which literally saves me hours & hours of research time a week.

Animating people without their permission, especially re-animating those who have passed away, is on the icky side. Hollywood in particular has very strong Right of Publicity legalities:

Personality rights - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

For example, this voice imitation case from 36 yeas ago:

Bette Midler: Still Divine

In 1989, Bette Midler made legal history when she won a $400,000 lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company. Ford had hired one of Bette’s former Harlettes, Ula Hedwig, to imitate Midler’s voice while...

www.facebook.com

In 1989, Bette Midler made legal history when she won a $400,000 lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company. Ford had hired one of Bette’s former Harlettes, Ula Hedwig, to imitate Midler’s voice while singing her hit “Do You Want To Dance” in a 1985 Mercury Sable commercial without Bette’s permission. The landmark verdict established that a celebrity’s voice, like their image, is legally protected from unauthorized imitation in advertising. This case is still cited today in discussions of performers’ rights and intellectual property.

A fake Drake song got millions of views:

The Fake Drake AI Song Earned Millions of Streams – But Will Anyone Get Paid?

The fake Drake AI song earned millions of streams, but will anyone get paid? Since it was pulled from platforms, its royalties may be withheld.

www.billboard.com

However, some people ARE cool with it...which is fine with permission:

James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader voice lives on through AI. Voice actors see promise and peril in that

Over the course of an acting career that spanned more than six decades, James Earl Jones’ voice became an indelible piece of his work as a performer.

apnews.com

But in the wake of his death, an aspect of Jones’ career has come to the fore: consenting to the use of artificial intelligence to replicate his performance as Darth Vader after he stepped away from the role. Skywalker Sound and the Ukrainian company Respeecher used AI to recreate Jones’ villain for the 2022 show “Obi-Wan Kenobi” on Disney+.

The problem is, as with anything else, ease of accessibility:

1. Sora 2 is free
2. It works on mobile phones
3. It incredibly easy to replicate anyone doing & saying anything

AI has always been headed to this point, and for better or for worse, here it is! You won't be able to trust ANY video anymore, not just photos...

 

[nakedfrog]

AI is great for a lot of things. I use it every day at work for things like "chatting" with giant technical manuals (instant Q&A lookup), which literally saves me hours & hours of research time a week.

I agree that this is a perfectly valid usage, no harm, no foul. Also great for scientific/medical research.
Overall, it's been a tremendous disaster for humanity and is only getting worse because they're chasing profits (and this is not on the scientists, but the 1% also fucking everything else up in the world)

 

[Chaotic42]

Don't worry, some folks are fighting the good fight. NSFW:

 

[lxskllr]

A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal

This is a comic about AI art.

theoatmeal.com

 

[Kaido]

I agree that this is a perfectly valid usage, no harm, no foul. Also great for scientific/medical research.
Overall, it's been a tremendous disaster for humanity and is only getting worse because they're chasing profits

1. The energy resource usage is super awful. Basically the new Bitcoin.

2. The theft is awful. It's one thing to train on humanity's data, it's another to profit off it. Like, I like making Ghibli avatars from photos for fun, but that's basically like an Instagram filter. And it's all calculated: Anthropic AI agreed to an massive $1.5 billion-dollar payout...but they got to keep the data AND are now valued at $183 billion.

3. I do feel like a bubble is coming. Music, voices, photos, and videos are all realistic now. Technical writing is great. The newer live-Internet search features double the usefulness of GPT's. Most future advances will be refinements of quality & ease-of-use. Robots are...a long ways off from being able to cook dinner. Full self-driving will probably come, eventually.

As far as posting both positive & negative aspects about AI, I've had 3 major shifts in thinking over the years:

1. Dialectic thinking:

I used to be much more of binary thinker (x OR y), but switched to more of a dialectic approach (x AND y). I think it started as an Apple fanboy: incredible & fun products (crazy-thin laptops operating systems that rarely crashed, iOS freeing us from Palm Pilots, fantastic creativity software, etc.), but Steve Jobs had a vastly different reputation.

This led to the question: can the person or situation be problematic AND make a good product or service? Then at what level should protest be held at, if at all? On that tangent, as I'm not a fan of being told how to feel, I try not to do that to others as well. You see it everywhere...Ford vs. Chevy, left vs. right, NVIDIA vs. AMD, Android vs. iPhone, etc.

Part of that stems from the "let them, then let me" theory. Essentially, I get to choose who & what I care about in my life. I don't have any expectation of other people being magically benevolent just because they're rich or famous, nor do they deserve to live rent-free in my head, make me angry, or give them any of my time or effort outside of what I choose.

It's the same reason PETA had such a bad reputation in the past, from being overbearing & militant about their views as far as wanting everyone to agree with them & take action with them (despite having their own set of issues). Binary-thinking extremists ("para-social haters" against ideas or people) always have the same recurring dogmatic issues:

1. They get tunnel-vision about their topic fixation
2. The hateful justification saturates their perspective & becomes an identity for them
3. They need to be vocal about it
4. They need everyone else to care about whatever their salient issue is
5. They need others to publicly agree with them
6. If you're not for them, you're against them! There is no auditing, middle ground, apathy, or any other perspectives allowed in their minds ("your silence is complicity", which becomes hypocritical when people are conveniently also willing to ignore worldwide hunger, save the whales (and the rainforest!), sweatshop goods, single-use plastics, child slavery in chocolate production, Gaza, the Ukraine, "no ethical consumption under capitalism", etc.)
7. They extrapolate stories about their perceived opposition to vilify others & bolster their position
8. They use inflammatory rhetoric

I spent plenty of years over-fixating on stuff, doom-scrolling the news, etc. Despite there being an endless supply of things to be upset about, I don't want to spend my life bitter & angry. Let them be nuts & let me move on with my life, haha! There's a weird glitch in humanity where we like playing the victim. We like feeling justified & getting revenge. Some people are simply happy being unhappy, like Oscar the Grouch! For me:

1. Most stuff is a mix of good & bad
2. I get to choose how involved I want to be in anything

2. Humanity ownership:

I've grown to feel that when you put something out in the world, it no longer belongs to just you. Like with Harry Potter...I'm a huge fan of the books & movies, but JK Rowling's more recent rhetoric has alienated many in her fanbase. I may not agree with everything that everyone in the world does or believes in, but I'm also a really big fan of "live & let live"...what you believe is none of my business! I love what counterculture hippies did with Hitler's "symbol of power": the VW Beetle! They turned it into the Love Bug, haha!

3. Practicality:

I've switched from idealism to more functional practicality. I'm very pro-recycling (even tho the system is a giant house of cards), but two of my hobbies are sous-vide (plastic vac-seal bags) & 3D printing (literally printing stuff out of plastic), which loops back to dialectic thinking: can plastics be terrible and also useful? Is it really all or nothing? Are you automatically a terrible person as a result?

In practice, regarding AI:

1. Dialectic thinking:

a. AI is amazing
b. AI is also awful

2. Humanity ownership:
a. Pandora's box has been opened. Anyone who chooses to slow down or stop their own AI development efforts will get bypassed by someone else who is willing. James Cameron poked fun at humanity's capitalist drive in the Terminator movies when Cyberdyne Systems created Skynet. Market pressure makes development inevitable.
b. Which means that because no individual has control over the public existence of AI, we are simply stuck with it, for better or for worse. Conscious usage is a personal choice at that point!

3. Practicality:

a. Nearly every service we use online now has at least some element of AI involved in it. It's nearly inescapable!
b. The tools are getting better, faster, easier, and more useful.
c. Like guns, there are good & bad uses for it.

I don't think it's weird to see both sides in any given situation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[marees]

Interesting

https://twitter.com/x/status/1975704565040497013

 

[Kaido]

A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal

This is a comic about AI art.

theoatmeal.com

I grew up doing art & switched to computers in college because I wanted a steady paycheck. You DO tend to feel deflated when you find out that someone simply pushed a button to make something really cool!




x

I do think this is part of it:


i HIGHLY agree with this. Many people don't realize that drawing is a learnable skill:

Drawabox | A free, exercise based approach to learning the fundamentals of drawing

A free, exercise based approach to learning the fundamentals of drawing. We tackle drawing in a logical, analytical fashion inspired by concept artists and industrial designers, focusing on technical skills that can be developed with hard work and determination.

drawabox.com

I like his take on Photoshop's Magic Wand:



I don't fully agree with his entire take about AI art, however. I spend a lot of time on my art projects, including the ones I use AI for (2D, 3D CGI, 3D printing, movies, etc.). Some people use it for pushbutton results & others use it as a creative assistive tool. It enables creative people to create some really cool stuff that wouldn't exist otherwise! Hollywood is a great example: you may not have $100 million dollars, but you can imagine something amazing & bring it to life:

https://www.reddit.com/r/midjourney/comments/1nzx2pm/suno_song_music_video

 

[Kaido]

Interesting

https://twitter.com/x/status/1975704565040497013

Peak market value loss (7.1% post-news) was nearly $58 billion

 

[Red Squirrel]

I would honestly not be that surprised if lot of companies are losing money. It's a big thing right now that everyone wants to get into and feels they need to get into "to keep up with times" but is it really needed and is it really economical for everyone? Probably not. It's almost like a corporate version of keeping up with the Jones. Something new and trendy comes out and every company races to get into it. Sometimes it's best to sit back and see how it works out first before jumping in. AI can do really cool things, and has evolved very fast, but not every company may actually need it.

 

[marees]

Nvidia at the centre of the circle jerk

Nvidia to Finance Musk’s xAI Chips as Part of $20 Billion Deal

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is raising more financing than initially planned, tapping backers including Nvidia Corp. to lift its ongoing funding round to $20 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

www.bloomberg.com

 

[Kaido]

haha

https://www.reddit.com/r/aiecosystem/comments/1o1xihd/asked_chatgpt_for_ideas_for_a_funny_title

 

[Kaido]

ehhhh

Meta's Struggling Metaverse Team Told to Work 5 Times Faster With AI

Meta expects expects 80% of Metaverse employees to have AI integrated into their daily routines by the end of the year.

gizmodo.com

 

[biostud]

The economy behind the companies explained.

 

[mikeymikec]

Microsoft adds Copilot adoption benchmarks to Viva Insights

: Viva Insights turns AI guzzling into a leaderboard

www.theregister.com

I'm puzzled by the headline switch made by the forum software, the actual headline is:

Microsoft lets bosses spot teams that are dodging Copilot​

I'm reminded of one of the few interesting bits from the 'Ghost in the Shell: Arise' miniseries where they talked about cyberbrain manufacturers lobbying the government to class a disinclination to be cyberised as a mental health disorder.

 

[Kaido]

Sora 2 and ChatGPT are consuming so much power that OpenAI just did another 10 gigawatt deal:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/13/tech/openai-broadcom-power

OpenAI is partnering with Broadcom to design and develop 10 gigawatts of custom AI chips and systems, a massive amount of power that will use as much electricity as a large city.

ChatGPT now has 800 million weekly users, and an executive suggested on X that the recently released Sora video generation app is growing faster than ChatGPT.

The deal with Broadcom would use as much power as 8 million US households, according to Reuters, as concerns have been raised about AI’s impact on the environment. A 2024 Department of Energy report on data center energy usage found that data centers are expected to consume about 6.7% to 12% of total US electricity by 2028, up from 4.4% in 2023.

Altman previously said the average ChatGPT query consumes as much energy as a lightbulb would in a couple of minutes. But generating realistic video clips using more advanced models like Sora 2 is likely much more power intensive.

 

[nakedfrog]

ehhhh

Meta's Struggling Metaverse Team Told to Work 5 Times Faster With AI

Meta expects expects 80% of Metaverse employees to have AI integrated into their daily routines by the end of the year.

gizmodo.com

Oh boy.
"For his part, Zuckerberg told investors on a call in April that he expects by the middle of next year that AI agents “are going to be doing a substantial part of AI research and development…” In May, he reiterated that, saying they’ll write most of Meta’s code within the next 12 to 18 months."
Facebook already runs like absolute dogshit on my laptop, it's remarkable how terrible it is.

"And this doesn’t just apply to engineers. Shah said project managers, designers, and others should also be “rolling up their sleeves and building prototypes, fixing bugs, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.”"
From my experience... project managers should not be doing these things. Designers, sure, prototypes, but relying on AI to fix code bugs seems optimistic, especially if AI is writing the code in the first place.

 

[biostud]

A quote from a podcast about AI I heard: When playing online chess you can choose whatever kind of chess AI you want to play against. Difficult level, play style, mimic grand masters etc. But in the end people want to play against other people, not AI.

I think it's the same with art. Sure it's amazing what AI can do, but in the end we want human interaction.