https://xkcd.com/1367/

Yeah, it’s gotten so bad I eventually ordered a USB cable checker to figure out what any given USB cable is capable of (and to see if the cable has gone flaky, which seems to happen a lot). I haven’t received it yet so I don’t know if I can recommend this item, but … gosh darn you sure need something like this.

I’ve found ChatGPT somewhat useful, but not amazingly so. The thing about ChatGPT is, I understand what the tool is, and our interactions are well defined. When I get a bullshit answer, I have the context to realize it’s not working for me in this case and to go look elsewhere. When AI is built in to products in ways that you don’t clearly understand what parts are AI and how your interactions are fed to it; that’s absolutely and incurably horrible. You just have to reject the whole application; there is no other reasonable choice.

Roszak’s notes also said that because users got hooked on Google’s search engine, Google was able to “mostly ignore the demand side” of “fundamental laws of economics” and “only focus on the supply side of advertisers, ad formats, and sales.”

This is textbook phase one of what Cory Doctorow calls “enshittification”. Users don’t have much of a choice, so make it as shitty as you are able without them leaving? Check. Phase two (which Google is no doubt also doing) is to do give the same treatment to the advertisers.

The pressure to maximize profits ensures that all private entities performing this sort of connection role on the internet will eventually become enshittified. There’s no escape (under capitalism).

Yeah, yeah, it’s Chinese government propaganda, but isn’t all advertisement basically propaganda? “Everything is rosy in Xinjiang” is a harmful lie, but so is “if you buy a big-ass truck you’ll be a manly man” and frankly I think the latter is causing a lot more damage because it’s one that people act on.