This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
It’s the Wild West days of AI, just like the internet in the 90s. Do what you can with it now, because it’ll eventually turn into a marketing platform. You’ll get a handy free AI model that occasionally tries to convince you to buy stuff. The paid premium models will start doing it too.
Remember that you, the reader, don't have to take part in this. If you don't like it, don't use it - tell your friends and family not to use it, and why.
The only way companies stop this trend is if they see it's a losing bet.
Oh they'll force you to use it. It will be shoved into every service you use, also ones you need to use. You will not be able to do your work, access government services, or live your life without going through them.
Late stage capitalism has killed the free market a while ago.
Use at work is a secondary factor. If end stage customers refuse to use a service because of a certain trait, that trait becomes unprofitable.
As an example, my friends and I will never play Valorant because of the invasive anti-cheat system; most people don't care.
We all have a choice, even if it means giving up some conveniences. It would seem that most people either don't know or don't know better.
Millions of businesses are so innovative they are choosing the same basket to put all their eggs in.
Capitalism sure is fun. Simply side economics plus massive deregulation is sure to provide humanity with it's salvation.
It's crazy Google will lose its search dominance and all its money in my lifetime. Android will probably be the only thing left when I die.
Not even sure about that though. There are many ideas already to "revolutionize" the OS market where your device basically becomes a sole wrapper for AI, ditching the concept of apps etc. I assume it would center around some agentic bullshit or so.
The rich are cashing in our tax dollars to try to automate their control of an enslaved human race.
They will do anything besides just pay taxes and contribute to society
It's not even that
tech is under the helm of dipshit MBAs who have no idea of the technologies of the companies they control. They're all about the generative AI because it looks like a massive shortcut to compensate for their complete and utter lack of technical ability and talent.
I've been playing Watch Dogs Legion so I know how this ends.
What happens? I don't mind spoilers
Rich people at tech companies replace workers with AI, set up a security force that goes after immigrants, surveil the city with a camera network, try to remove the human from the equation, try to upload human consciousness to the cloud, lots of other AI tech dystopian stuff.
That's when a group of underground hackers start recruiting random people off the street like Granny and generic construction worker 12, and take the fight back to them!
....right?
Luckily, 90% of what Google goes all in on fails. I remember Stadia and Google Glass.
In that case, we should encourage google to go all-in on climate change, racism, and war; they should back the conservative party as well. Then 90% of those will fail.
I remember some people very vehemently telling me that I was dumb to be skeptical of Stadia, that it really was going to just take over the industry...
Tech companies don't really give a damn what customers want anymore. They have decided this is the path of the future because it gives them the most control of your data, your purchasing habits and your online behavior. Since they control the back end, the software, the tech stack, the hardware, all of it, they just decided this is how it shall be. And frankly, there's nothing you can do to resist it, aside from just eschewing using a phone at all. and divorcing yourself from all modern technology, which isn't really reasonable for most people. That or legislation, but LOL United States.
Tech companies don’t really give a damn what customers want anymore.
Ed Zitron wrote an article about how leadership is business idiots. They don't know the products or users but they make decisions and get paid. Long, like everything he writes, but interesting
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/
Our economy is run by people that don't participate in it and our tech companies are directed by people that don't experience the problems they allege to solve for their customers, as the modern executive is no longer a person with demands or responsibilities beyond their allegiance to shareholder value.
Can confirm. The more you deal with people who have climbed to the tops of corporate ladders, the more it becomes clear that it's all vibes. It's all people telling stories to other people who tell stories about those stories.
The peter principle is wrong - in an oversized corporate structure, there is no upper bound for incompetence. You can keep rising for no reason, because after a certain point other people just trust that you know what you're talking about, and the people that know better work around you instead.
The people beneath you can't trust the people above you enough to explain the situation, the people above you don't really listen to the people beneath you anyway, and so plenty of middle managers just muddle through and constantly make shit up to justify their own existence, while everyone above and below is left in the dark about what's really going on.
Decisions are constantly made by people without any real connection to the consequences, and it shows. With the everything.
Nothing I can do to resist?
Microsoft is shoving this copilot in all its products? Alright, Linux and open source it is.
Google is bugging with its spyware? Well, I only use a Pixel phone, and ironically, its the best phone to put GrapheneOS on it.
Gmail? I don't remember when I opened mine the last time...
All what's really remaining right now is a good YouTube alternative.
Nothing I can do to resist?
I admire your optimism, but we are pissing in the wind.
Microsoft is shoving this copilot in all its products? Alright, Linux and open source it is.
Windows 11 is forcing people to throw away functional computers that Microsoft seems "not secure enough" (it's lacking TMP 2.0)
This means you can get a great deal on one of these "inscure pc"... but in the long run your pc now and tomorrow will have TPM. As time progresses, the use of TPM/attestation will become more and more entrenched in application, web pages, everything. ... and Linux, with its 4% user base, will be left out in cold.
Google is bugging with its spyware? Well, I only use a Pixel phone, and ironically, its the best phone to put GrapheneOS on it.
Currently, many banking apps won't run on Graphene (or any custom firmware) due to attestation.
Graphene issued calls for help, because Google is restricting public access to the latest android source code (I cannot find the links atm).
Gmail? I don't remember when I opened mine the last time...
Today things like "email reputation" make it difficult to host your own mail server, so your stuck paying someone who has a better "reputation".
My point is: today, you and I can resist with some (minor) success, but our days are numbered.
In regard to Linux users being left out in the cold.. how so? Do you think that distros are going to start enforcing attestation? I doubt that it will be a hard requirement for most, even in the next decade or two. It's an option, yes, but mandatory?
FWIW, all of my banking apps work just fine with compatibility mode enabled on Graphene. Also, I'm not sure saying it's inevitable is the right way to go, it certainly won't make others care about their privacy and security.
Google has gotten so fucking dumb. Literally incapable of performing the same function it could 4 months ago.
How the fuck am I supposed to trust Gemini!?
I was fucking irked when I wanted to use Hey Google to add something to my grocery list. I had switched to Gemini not realizing its scope, and suddenly Gemini was needing voice permission then some other seemingly unrelated, unnecessary permission (can't recall exactly but something like collaborative documents) to add to my grocery list. Fuck that. Then it seemed very difficult to find the setting to switch back to Google assistant, but I eventually found it.
google search got dumb on purpose, a whistleblower called it out - if you spend longer look on the search pages they get more "engagement" time out of you....
I find this current timeline so confusing. Supposedly we're going to have AGI soon, and yet Google's AI keeps telling you to stick glue on pizza. How can both things be true?
It's the same reason why they removed the headphone jacks from phones. They don't want to give you a better product, they want you to force youbto use a product, even if it's worse in all aspects
imagine if a company said they're going all in on quality instead
But higher quality ≠ more profits
AI apparently makes investors wanna dump in all their money tho
The last 20 years has basically been entirely a troubling trend in tech.
I work with ServiceNow for my job and a couple weeks back was the big knowledge 2025 conference in Vegas. The CEO came out for the opening keynote and opened with some like, "ah yea, doesn't it feel good to be an AI company?" and I didn't here a single cheer from the crowd, just polite applause. They have gone all in on AI, have made it completely unaffordable, and have just been shoehorning it into everything. I hope every one of these companies that that goes big on AI crashes and fails. They've already cut the employees, so the only people affected are the ones making the cash, so fuck em.
the fuck does service now even need AI for?
I hate any company I work for that uses ServiceNow. And now it's getting worse??
The two thing I use most, by far, from Google, is gmail and basic search.
Gmail, I'm looking to move away from it now, but I currently have every little addition to it disabled. Basic inbox and tags, no automatic filtering, no categories, no nothing.
Search, my browser is set to open the "web" tab with the query, no transformation, no summary, no "for you", no AI garbage, no "we thought you wanted video so there's only video in the replies". It still works fine.
Basically, none of what they added for years… maybe decade at this point, had held a glimmer of interest from me. It feels like this trend will continue. I just want something very basic that works.
Switch over to the Qwant search engine for your basic search and a good email provider like Tutamail or Proton. I have for a few months and there really is no reason to go back. It's simple and it works.
The Sunk Cost fallacy is strong
Guess my next phone is coming from Oneplus or Fairphone.
bUt AnDrOiD!!!
...can be chained to its desk and limited, I agree.
What tech company isnt going "all in" on AI? We just had Google I/O and AI was literally the only thing they talked about.
Google did the same thing with Google Plus they went all in on social and it failed miserably
Gemini.
The twins.
Castor and Pollux.
They were tricked by their cousins and started the whole Trojan War.
