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The internet is slipping out of our reach

injuly.in

101–110 of 135 posts

Re: The internet is slipping out of our reach

#101

AI is just one facet of the issue, and it only exacerbates the real problem. Algorithmification, enshitification, etc. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/why-the-in... The old guards of Amazon and Google are gone - no one is there to nurture the product . The new business school jocks are there to juice it, juice it to the max, bro! Quarter to quarter, so that the vaunted SHAREHOLDER does not get all m…

Maybe we ought to just be heading to Venus ("and still we stand tall"), as in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants ?

Or even Venus, as in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons

(Text here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51233/51233-h/51233-h.htm)

Both involved Cyril Kornbluth, what a great talent, taken far too soon.

Interestingly, Pohl wrote a sequel to The Space Merchants decades later, and I picked it up, fully expecting it to be terrible, and it was brilliant, and made me cry at the end.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchants%27_War_(Pohl_nov...

Re: The internet is slipping out of our reach

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's fine when one party is in control, but then suddenly it's "censored" or "curated"? I would like to get my first page from the "deep state" State Department if I search for "is it safe to travel to Iraq", not from some sketchy travel blog written by a dude who believes in lizard people.

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Re: The internet is slipping out of our reach

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is already happening and has almost nothing to do with llm, this is Google and Facebook business model because these are the marketable details.

I don't think the current systems used by Google and Facebook can integrate and infer new details as well as the LLMs can; LLMs can do more with less.

I know LLMs are pretty wild technology, but you're wrong about this. LLM's are just models of language. To some extent they can do some of the things you're talking about, but almost by the very nature of the problem other models could do the same better and with much less by way of resources.

Re: The internet is slipping out of our reach

#105
post #69
post #54

Someone once asked a question online about what each person's biggest fear was regarding the future of AI generated content. I thought about it. While the fears of not being able to earn money for creative pursuits are a concern, my biggest concern remains around anonymity. At some point, I fear that participating online with other humans will require "proof of self" and as AI becomes more and more able to generate c…

The parallel concern - we saw how too open communities just don't work in modern world. Way too many sides have their own 'pitch', be it marketing, politics, propaganda, always to manipulate opinions via emotions to steered goal which is never actual simple truth. Truth doesn't need much marketing among reasonable people. This is how flat earthers, climate change deniers, blind supporters of putin's war on ukraine et…

You seem mainly focused on what the out group does. Manipulating emotions and discourse is not a outgroup problem, really.

Also, I think algorithmic feeds are the main culprits. Before them, it was way harder to manipulate people on the internet.

Re: The internet is slipping out of our reach

#106
post #20

That is definitely true about search. Google ruined it, like they ruin most things. The more hand-curated style of the old Yahoo was far superior. Yes, Google was superior in search in the short-term, but their automated algorithms came with the inevitable attachment of the future of gaming their algorithms. The modus operandi of Google is to provide a highly-centralized automated service that at first appears superi…

>The more hand-curated style of the old Yahoo was far superior. You say hand-curated, I say political manipulation. The motives of 1990s people and 2020s people are very different.

What would a non-manipulated search result page look like? What kind of business process would produce such a thing and how would we know what was objective anyway?

Re: The internet is slipping out of our reach

#107
post #54

Someone once asked a question online about what each person's biggest fear was regarding the future of AI generated content. I thought about it. While the fears of not being able to earn money for creative pursuits are a concern, my biggest concern remains around anonymity. At some point, I fear that participating online with other humans will require "proof of self" and as AI becomes more and more able to generate c…

> I fear that participating online with other humans will require "proof of self"

This is a huge fear of mine as well. I can't see how I could ever accept such a thing, so it would be the end of my use of the web.

Re: The internet is slipping out of our reach

#108
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you not using an adblocker if your current experience bothers you?

I do use uBlock Origin. It removes sponsored search results, but it won't do away with the poorly written articles just below. More importantly, not everyone uses an ad-blocker (especially mobile users). If installing a browser extension becomes necessary to deem a browser worthy of use, I would think that's a problem.

Fortunately, with web environment integrity websites will be able to force you to use an approved browser (Chrome) with a verified local binary (that will forbid an adblocker and report your browsing to Google) and you won't be able to do anything about it.

Re: The internet is slipping out of our reach

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is already happening and has almost nothing to do with llm, this is Google and Facebook business model because these are the marketable details.

I don't think the current systems used by Google and Facebook can integrate and infer new details as well as the LLMs can; LLMs can do more with less.

What makes you think the details provided by LLMs would be accurate?
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