Live data from Hacker News

Meta is killing off its AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles

theguardian.com

81–90 of 605 posts

Re: Meta is killing off its AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethnicities and tribes and inclusion therein are ambiguous, and it changes over time. Look at any society and its history. They're not homogeneous. All the historical countries and tribes were multiethnic. One example is Rome. Every region or province, even Italia, consisted of different ethnic groups. At one point there was a diverse group in a small area called the Latins. The Romans were a single ethnic group in L…

What's that got to do with anything? What's stopping me from identifying variation in the frequency of different traits between ethnic groups in the current day ? It's not a virtue to pretend not to notice such things (or, indeed, to be truly incapable of the most basic pattern recognition). I think the argument could then be made that if you identify traits common to closely related tribes (eg. indigenous East Afric…

People frequently seem to think that identifying these traits is a permanent thing or a fact of nature, rather than as you say, a statement about the current day (and I would add, an often inaccurate statement based on corner cases like those I've mentioned). To make it more than that is a mistaken notion. You can justify a lot of ugly racism that way. Many people do and have.

As an example, slavery in the US created an artificial category or label of black people out of many unrelated peoples, calling them inferior by nature and using that to justify unethical systems.

Re: Meta is killing off its AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's that got to do with anything? What's stopping me from identifying variation in the frequency of different traits between ethnic groups in the current day ? It's not a virtue to pretend not to notice such things (or, indeed, to be truly incapable of the most basic pattern recognition). I think the argument could then be made that if you identify traits common to closely related tribes (eg. indigenous East Afric…

People frequently seem to think that identifying these traits is a permanent thing or a fact of nature, rather than as you say, a statement about the current day (and I would add, an often inaccurate statement based on corner cases like those I've mentioned). To make it more than that is a mistaken notion. You can justify a lot of ugly racism that way. Many people do and have. As an example, slavery in the US created…

[dead]

Re: Meta is killing off its AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles

#83
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you say the same if the bot identified itself as being from a certain religion? Or working for a specific company? Having a random personality trait? Supporting a sports team? No one would bat an eye, and none of those would mean it is okay to discriminate against them on that basis. Removing racism does not mean removing race.

I think it is fine to discriminate against companies (that's what boycotts are) and sports teams (that's what rivals do).

it's fine to discriminate agains actions and behavior or self-proclaimed or observed values.

but it's dumb to discriminate against coincidental attributes.

Re: Meta is killing off its AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles

#84
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's that got to do with anything? What's stopping me from identifying variation in the frequency of different traits between ethnic groups in the current day ? It's not a virtue to pretend not to notice such things (or, indeed, to be truly incapable of the most basic pattern recognition). I think the argument could then be made that if you identify traits common to closely related tribes (eg. indigenous East Afric…

It's a fair point that some indigenous African bushmen, even today, spend time watching lions and pressuring them off of fresh kills in order to take home the leftovers, as they have done for centuries. It's equally fair to observe that the offspring of those very same bushmen when transfered to a Scandinavian country may spend more time word processing or catching trains.

[dead]

Re: Meta is killing off its AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles

#85

I don't know whether to be amused or furious. They're trying to create personal social interaction with a non-person without real intelligence, conscience or morals. So they can fool people into emotional attachments and learn more about how to sell things to us. Goddamnit. I kinda feel that should be not only illegal, but just short of a capitol crime.

if only it was about selling stuff...!

although, if you mean it broadly; i.e. selling wars, selling the idea of fiat money, or taxation, or national debt, or the plandemonium... then i hear you.

Re: Meta is killing off its AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles

#86
post #80

I feel like the question I want to ask is "Why do we need AI-Profiles?" Like, I can barely be bothered to keep in touch with my friends and family. Why do I need a fake person to be follow on social media? What purpose does it serve? What possibly comes out of this that is positive?

So that you get attached to a person who only exists on Facebook, therefore you spend more time on Facebook and see more ads.

Re: Meta is killing off its AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles

#87
post #31
post #7

The thread is here and... it's pretty wild. This doesn't seem like it was a well-thought out idea to release this without some more consideration beforehand. https://bsky.app/profile/karenattiah.bsky.social/post/3letty...

Soo...they didn't learn anything from Microsoft's failed attempts at leaving an A.I. on the net ?? what was it ?? 48 hours before MS had to take them down ?

justice for taytay

gone, but not forgotten

Re: Meta is killing off its AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles

#89
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But that's what racists are, people who think the race of a person has predictive power with regard to their nature, culture etc. I didn't think that's how the term racist is normally used. A definition: a person who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group Big difference.

You're right, but in practice I don't really consider it as being too fundamentally different because it's the logical conclusion from strong enough predictive power.

There is nothing "logical" about the progression from my appearance and ancestry is something I'm entitled to be proud of; also there might actually be such a thing as Black American culture to racial epithets and Jim Crow laws. Or indeed using "predictive power" to assess people's intellectual ability or criminal propensity from their melanin content.

I mean, do you believe that people should expect to be subjected to the weirdest and most hostile takes on gender relations and treated as potential rapists or sluts unless and until everyone uses gender neutral pronouns (even silly bots mostly identify as male and female at the moment)? If not, what is it about racism that obliges victims not to affirm their identity if they wish to cease to become victims?

Re: Meta is killing off its AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles

#90

I get the hate, but I'd be open to trying out a social media experience that is a mix of human and bots, especially as the bots get better at acting like reasonable humans. Stack Overflow was great when it came out. But the whatever percent of humans who were mean and obnoxious and wouldn't let you just ask your questions eventually ruined it all. Then ChatGPT came out without any humans to get in the way of me askin…

I can’t think of any way where a social media app using bots to discourage wrongthink doesn’t come across as dystopian, and also a little sad.
Post reply on HN