this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
74 points (98.7% liked)

technology

24317 readers
398 users here now

On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.

Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 27 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

[The] virtual buddy, which runs on Google’s Gemini, is supposed to help online shoppers finish Target runs on their users’ behalf. Under the new terms, if a customer uses the Gemini agent to do their shopping for them, any transaction performed by the AI would be “considered transactions authorized by you.”

Translation: any mistake by the AI agent — whether it buys the wrong item entirely, or a super expensive version of the right one without your consent — will come out of your pocket.

Hey, I'm done with your order! As a special treat I bought you a can of Shitty Brand baked beans that costs $27 for some reason!

I really don't understand why people use AI if it has access to your money or anything private or important. That's insane.

[–] Fossifoo@hexbear.net 9 points 13 hours ago

Imagine having consumer rights and being able to return online purchases for 14 days, no reason needed. Wait... So imagine buying a burger online... Ah, forget it, you wouldn't understand.

[–] fox@hexbear.net 20 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Tech bros are so distant from human experience they forgot that people actually enjoy shopping because it's one of the few places they have any fucking control left

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 31 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

the few places they have any fucking control left

I read an article yesterday in the NYT about people with student debt simply fleeing to a foreign country to start their life over there and giving the middle finger to the debt collectors. Of course the NYT had to include some law brain saying it was a bad idea and suggesting instead a legal workaround for them to make before they left. But people just want to be free.

---

Ninja edit

Student Debt Burdened Them, So They Moved Abroad and Stopped Paying

Less than a year after graduating, Ms. Tully made a drastic decision: She moved to Prague, where she had completed an internship, and defaulted on her loans. She hasn’t made a payment in over seven years. More than 40 million borrowers are saddled with federal student debt, and a record number — 7.7 million — have defaulted on their loans, according to recently released data from the Education Department.

For some borrowers, moving abroad and out of reach of debt collectors can be tempting. In interviews, people who made this decision cited relieving the psychological burden of student debt as a motivator, as well as having a higher quality of life, even on a lower salary, outside the United States. Many who fled abroad, including Ms. Tully, said they had no plans of ever returning.

[–] JustSo@hexbear.net 12 points 20 hours ago
[–] Blakey@hexbear.net 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

people actually enjoy shopping

...we do?

[–] fox@hexbear.net 5 points 16 hours ago

You've never gone and explored a thrift shop or an antique store? Or stopped at a roadside produce stall some farmer put up to operate on the honor system? Or just fucked around in a mall with some friends? You don't need to purchase anything to shop, but the act of looking at stuff is inherently kind of engaging and so corporations try to lure you into taking the stuff home.

[–] RION@hexbear.net 16 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

They're so enamored with the space age "in five years robots will do everything for us!" conceit that they're willing to retrofit a technology very much not meant for such a purpose, regardless of consequence. Like taking that drug that gives you hyperthermia for weight loss

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 16 points 21 hours ago

regardless of consequence

At least before there was some logic - stupid logic yes but logic nonetheless when people started to entirely give up privacy for convenience online at Facebook, Instagram, etc. I don't care about privacy - I want to easily-as-possible share intimate details of my life with my friends!

But now it beggars belief. Reddit will eventually have a very popular sub called r/AIfuckedme or something. And posts will be like "AI fucked me and charged me $1,000 for tickets to a show by a band called Art House Roses. And the band doesn't even exist! Plus ScrewUai refused me a refund!"

Gee - you don't say. Who couldda seen that coming?