this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2026
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Fuck AI
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A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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Facebook phone, Oculus Quest, now AI?
You've had so many chances Mark. So many chances to do what PEOPLE actually wanted... And you've NEVER got it right.
Try LISTENING. For once.
how long is it going to take for people to realize these companies aren't making products for people, they're using you as the product to sell to advertisers and state agencies. they don't care if you like it they only care if you use it.
This is the core of the issue right freaking here
What was the right choice?
Quest was solid. VR hardware at a fraction of the price of Valve while not being locked down so you could sideload anything you wanted or play Steam PC VR games without hassle.
Lemmy hates AI but even Linus uses it now so it's monthly revenue that people will pay for even if it is stupid and created off of theft. People pay money for all sorts of stupid things so it's foolish not to at least try and get a piece of it.
Edit:
Don't downvote without explaining!
Why does anyone think "listening to customers" is how capitalist companies make money? Candy Crush made billions by not listening because they know the average consumer is stupid.
Facebooks idea for improving vr was buying out all the major game studios, never doing anything with them, then shutting them down and taking down the servers.
All mean while they tried to push this idea of the "metaverse" which aims to be the place you work, play, watch movies, events, buy fictional property, buy nfts, etc, etc. The biggest failure facebook has seen thus far. Its so pathetic that they changed their name to meta as if they where betting on the idea everyone was going to walk around with a vr headset. Its ironic they didnt quickly change their name back as soon as they gave up on vr for glasses and ai.
Before he even had much sucess hes already trying to destroy anything of value and try to make it into this shitty Second Life clone to compete with roblox, and rec room.
The consumer is always right, the ceos are always disillusional to the point of incompetence. The only time it ever works out is when they have a monopoly or enough money to force their inflated egos on the rest of the population, forcing us to go down with them when inevidbily they fall.
Xbox is famous for that and PS does it too.
Yeah Metaverse was a collosal failure. But it's one app on the Quest hardware. The Google Pixel is a still a good hackable phone despite Google+ being a huge failure for Google.
Consumers took to micro transactions like fish to water. Apple became a Trillion dollar company by ignoring the consumer and forcing their way.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it."
Just reread my last paragraph and that is my reply.
Repeating "consumers are always right" isn't a rebuttal.
Consumers weren't forced to buy iphones through monopoly or money. They did it because in general, they are stupid.
It was more the second half of the last paragraph I was trying to drive home. I wanted to make a point about how the app market is a closed Eco system and how that is a form of abusive control to ensure people don't have a choice even if they don't like it. Yeah I'm sorry I didn't put more effort the last reply, it I just kind of mentally moved on and wasn't feeling it. I'm still not now honestly or I would of obnoxiously wrote you 8 more paragraphs.
The way you framed it in your last sentence really reasonated with me and I understand your point now. Yes I agree some what, but no. I genuinely think people are smarter than you give them credit, but are limited by time, and are physically limited by the info the are presented. There's a million different cultures and things happening at once and you have a narrow scope of vision where you are stuck in a demographic that is being advertised to and manipulated.
Did you not have any experience with reddit? You crossed the hive mind on VR and AI, and you are also getting in the way of a hate train. If a sub or post is about hating someone, that hate has to be pure, unconditional and undistracted.
But to your points: Quest. Agree. Awesome piece of tech; however Mark Zuckerberg tried to turn it into something nobody wanted: an entry into an artificial world where people could live entirely on Facebook's servers. There was so much wrong with the MetaVerse, as conceived, that it takes several YouTube videos to explain all of it, but, as a movie guy, this is my favorite primer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLItp5SiRGw
AI: Strongly disagree there is any kind of mass market for AI. Claude, the most heavily used programming LLM, which is the best use case for an LLM's mass adoption, recently tried raising prices to start to turn a profit. People started limiting their tokens or dropping the service entirely.
Another massive chunk of LLM use is people taking their AI-generated content to make a few bucks. A service that costs $4 to make $5 worth of product will naturally see huge adoption! It's not the future if that $4 is heavily subsidized. The instant the actual cost is $5 investment for $5 worth of product, that technology is as dead as aspirin suppositories.
At this point in the game, it's obvious that AI in a bubble driven by insane levels of social and regulatory failure, and Zuckerberg is just getting on the bandwagon to impress his cool billionaire friends.
Apple and Android both followed the same path: Let DIY people do what they want, follow that community let them create wild and free tech on your platforms using your tools for free.
This is how apple started, it's how google started, it's the nature of the early internet and computer companies.
That should give you a clue to what went wrong with the Facebook Phone and Quest. Quest has been against developers for a long time, there's very little support for devs there, because Zuckerberg wanted them to all go make the Metaverse for him (same thing is currently being attempted with Unreal Engine 6 and their metaverse attempt "verso").
I simply steals from people and defrauds/denies and lies about it. That's their approach to the DiY hacker and FOSS developer ethos that made the internet and cool shit we have possible.
Apple? Apple hasn't been open since 1984. Apple is defined by the principle that they know better than you and will go out of their way to not listen and force their customers into their vision.
That's what I said! But if it makes money companies are going to do it.
Yes I'm talking about the start of successful platforms/companies. How they get going, grow and become successful. Not whatever recent apple tech or meta/valve double standard you're on about. But duely noteted, you woke up wanting a conversation about being fairer to corporations and AI that no one else here is having.
Whereas I'm talking about the topic. Zuckerberg trying a top down path to popularizing his tech.
But Facebook isn't a startup. It's not 2001. Facebook was the product back then. Once they had billions, they needed to create new markets to keep growing. When Apple "listened to their customers" they were a $100M company. When they stopped listening and took a top down path to popularizing tech they became a $1T company.
The iPhone was not a bottom up technology created by hackers like Linux.
The Quest is Android. It's more DIY than an iPhone.
The iPhone was a bottom up technology:
Fingerworks iGesture Pad invented by a man with hand injuries who couldn’t use a conventional mouse.
But yeah, we heard you the first time, you love ride corporate dick.
Apple buying iGesture means ground up but Meta buying Oculus isn't? You can't have it both ways.
The iPhone wasn't DIY which was your original claim. It was the opposite. Apple locked down their phone. Quest is Android which you claimed is DIY.
You aren't making any sense.
You think you're in some grand battle for corporations. No one's listening to you. Piss off.
I've already said only you are interested in this discussion. You can fuck off now you addict.