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I Received an AI Email

timharek.no

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Re: I Received an AI Email

#501

Post by viridian »

andretti1977 wrote: post #210

I won't add to the AI debate already well expressed by other commenters but one thing i don't understand is why the author has posted the name of the "spammed" product and a direct link to their blog: consider how much did he helped them having new traffic and potential customers

Name and shame is a worthwhile practice. Driving potential business to The AI powered CMS known as Wisp, is not a good reason to avoid contributing to the common consensus about the company.

And the common consensus in this thread, which I agree with, is that Wisp is obnoxious, insidious, and is an active participant in the degradation of quality of both email, and the internet as a whole.

Re: I Received an AI Email

#502

Post by jabroni_salad »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #474
jabroni_salad wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's people that write you love letters until you western union them your entire retirement account.

It’s really quite sophisticated. John Oliver actually did a great segment on it, but I won’t link it, because a lot of folks don’t like him.

I haven't seen that but I have read some articles about it on propublica. I just kept the description as simple as possible to make it more memorable.

Re: I Received an AI Email

#503

Post by ryandrake »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #233
sph wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People cry about Bitcoin's energy usage now, imagine the amount of energy burned to create next-level spam with "AI". Flame me all you want, but this is one case where Bitcoin is much more useful than LLM. If it doesn't create value, as its naysayers claim, at least it allows exchanging value. LLMs on the other hand, burn electricity to actively destroy the Internet's value, for the profit of inept and greedy drones.

Bitcoin is literally turning greed into money, by means of wasting exponentially increasing amounts of electricity. It doesn't just not create value - to be able to allow exchanging value, it fundamentally requires ever increasing waste, as the waste is what gives its mathematical guarantees. LLMs deliver value. Right here today, to countless people across countless jobs. Sure, some of that is marketing, but that's n…

Long term, LLMs are not going to create more actual value than the sum of their costs and negative externalities. Bookmark this comment and check me in 5 years.

Re: I Received an AI Email

#504

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

jabroni_salad wrote: post #502
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s really quite sophisticated. John Oliver actually did a great segment on it, but I won’t link it, because a lot of folks don’t like him.

I haven't seen that but I have read some articles about it on propublica. I just kept the description as simple as possible to make it more memorable.

Well, a lot of the scammers are actually slaves, trafficked into Myanmar boiler rooms, by Chinese Tongs.

If AI takes off for this stuff, the gangs are less likely to be kidnapping these poor schlubs.

So … I guess this would be a … positive outcome?

Not sure if AI zealots will be touting it, though.

Re: I Received an AI Email

#505

Post by ryandrake »

bowsamic wrote: post #386
TeMPOraL wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A spam advert for a product is still an advert for a product. Therefore it's not just semantic noise, it is still an advert for a product Ergo slop and semantic noise. Companies that used adverts which weren't noise went out of business long ago.

Adverts have semantic content, they aren't noise.

Let's just call it slop then. Peak HN: Another conversation is logjammed by nitpicking the precise definition of a word rather than discussing the overall point.

Re: I Received an AI Email

#506

Post by bowsamic »

ryandrake wrote: post #505
bowsamic wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adverts have semantic content, they aren't noise.

Let's just call it slop then. Peak HN: Another conversation is logjammed by nitpicking the precise definition of a word rather than discussing the overall point.

Except I am still discussing the point: the companies won't stop getting an ROI because "slop" still produces an ROI, even if people know it's slop, because it isn't contentless noise, it has semantic content.

Just because you and the others don't understand what point I'm making doesn't mean the conversation is "logjammed". I am still discussing the overall point, you just don't see it.

Re: I Received an AI Email

#507

Post by mrtranscendence »

commodoreboxer wrote: post #485
thedevilslawyer wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sure as heck is inspiring to a critical thinking adult. There's been enormous value added to all world's citizens.

Interesting. In my experience, advertisement and the incentives around it have led to the most devastatingly widespread removal of value in human culture and social connections that we've seen in this generation. Huge amounts of effort wasted on harvesting attention, manipulating money away from people, isolating and fostering extremism, building a massive political divide. And centralizing wealth more and more. The…

> If advertisements were opt-in, I expect a single digit percentage of people would ever elect to see them.

I mean, you'd see the same thing if paying for your groceries were opt-in. Is that also a net bad for the world? Ads do enable the costless (or cost-reduced) provision of services that people would otherwise have to pay for.

Re: I Received an AI Email

#508

Post by ryandrake »

bowsamic wrote: post #506
ryandrake wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's just call it slop then. Peak HN: Another conversation is logjammed by nitpicking the precise definition of a word rather than discussing the overall point.

Except I am still discussing the point: the companies won't stop getting an ROI because "slop" still produces an ROI, even if people know it's slop, because it isn't contentless noise, it has semantic content. Just because you and the others don't understand what point I'm making doesn't mean the conversation is "logjammed". I am still discussing the overall point, you just don't see it.

For the record I agree with you--just pointing out a silly, but common, HN pattern.

Re: I Received an AI Email

#509

Post by raxxorraxor »

thedevilslawyer wrote: post #477
Jgrubb wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That last line kind of makes the point. Is any of that actually inspiring to a young child?

It sure as heck is inspiring to a critical thinking adult. There's been enormous value added to all world's citizens.

I think this is a rationalization of an enormous waste of work. The effects generating wealth are indirect. In that regard you could argue that betting is generating wealth too. Advertising is like a hamster wheel people have to jump onto if they want their place in the market.

A similar amount of wealth would be generated if every advertised product would be represented by a text description, but we have a race to the bottom.

There is advertising and advertising of course but most of advertising is incredibly toxic and I would argue that by capturing attention, it is a huge economic drain as well.

Of course an AI would also be quite apt at removing unwanted ads, which I believe will become a reality quite soon.

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