Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful youā€™ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cutā€™nā€™paste it into its own post ā€” thereā€™s no quota for posting and the bar really isnā€™t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many ā€œesotericā€ right wing freaks, but thereā€™s no appropriate sneer-space for them. Iā€™m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged ā€œculture criticsā€ who write about everything but understand nothing. Iā€™m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. Theyā€™re inescapable at this point, yet I donā€™t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldnā€™t be surgeons because they didnā€™t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I canā€™t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this)

  • self@awful.systems
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    2 months ago

    every popular scam eventually gets its Oprah moment, and now AIā€™s joining the same prestigious ranks as faith healing and A Million Little Pieces:

    Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who stepped down as Microsoft CEO 24 years ago, will appear on the show to explore the ā€œAI revolution coming in science, health, and education,ā€ ABC says, and warn of ā€œthe once-in-a-century type of impact AI may have on the job market.ā€

    and itā€™s got everything you love! veiled threats to your job if the AI ā€œrevolutionā€ does or doesnā€™t get its way!

    As a guest representing ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Sam Altman will explain ā€œhow AI works in laymanā€™s termsā€ and discuss ā€œthe immense personal responsibility that must be borne by the executives of AI companies.ā€

    woe is Sam, nobody understands the incredible stress heā€™s under marketing the scam thatā€™s making him rich as simultaneously incredibly dangerous but also absolutely essential

    fuck I cannot wait for my mom to call me and regurgitate Samā€™s words on ā€œhow AI worksā€ and ask, panicked, if Iā€™m fired or working for OpenAI or a cyborg yet

    Iā€™m truly surprised they didnā€™t cart Yud out for this shit

    • Architeuthis@awful.systems
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      2 months ago

      Iā€™m truly surprised they didnā€™t cart Yud out for this shit

      Self-proclaimed sexual sadist Yud is probably a sex scandal time bomb and really not ready for prime time. Plus itā€™s not like he has anything of substance to add on top of Saltmanā€™s alarmist bullshit, so it would just be reminding people how weird in a bad way people in this subculture tend to be.

      • self@awful.systems
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        2 months ago

        thatā€™s a very good point. now Iā€™m wondering if not inviting Yud was a savvy move on Oprahā€™s part or if it was something Altman and the other money behind this TV special insisted on. given how crafted the guest list for this thing is, Iā€™m leaning toward the latter

        • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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          2 months ago

          I think if you want to promote something you donā€™t invite the longwinded nerdy person. Donā€™t think a verbal blog post would do well on tv. I mean, I would also suck horribly if I was on tv, and would prob help make the subject im arguing for less popular.

      • froztbyte@awful.systems
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        2 months ago

        unironically part of why I am so fucking mad that reCaptcha ever became as big as it did. the various ways entities like cloudflare and google have forcefully inserted themselves into humanityā€™s daily lives, acting as rent-extracting bridgetroll with heavy ā€œOr Elseā€ clubs, incenses me to a degree that can leave me speechless

        in this particular case, because reCaptcha is effectively outsourced dataset labelling, with the labeller (you, the end user, having to click through the stupid shit) not being paid. and theyā€™ll charge high-count users for the privilege. it is so, so fucking insulting and abusive.

        • V0ldek@awful.systems
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          2 months ago

          I always half-ass my captcha and try to pass in as many false answers as possible, because Iā€™m a rebel cunt.

    • froztbyte@awful.systems
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      2 months ago

      Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who stepped down as Microsoft CEO 24 years ago, will appear on the show to explore the ā€œAI revolution coming in science, health, and education,ā€ ABC says, and warn of ā€œthe once-in-a-century type of impact AI may have on the job market.ā€

      christ

      billy gā€™s been going for years with bad takes on those three things (to the point that the gates foundation have actually been a problem, gatekeeping financing unless recipients acquiesce to using those funds the way the foundation wants it to be used (yeah, aid funds with instructions and limitationsā€¦)), but now there can be ā€œAIā€ to assist with the issue

      maybe the ā€œrevolutionā€ can help by paying the people that are currently doing dataset curation for them a living wage? Iā€™m sure thatā€™s what billy g meant, right? right?

      • -dsr-@awful.systems
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        2 months ago

        No wristwatch, but I have glasses and without electricity I stop breathing. (While asleep.)

        So, yeah, cyborg.