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A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

nytimes.com

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Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#101

Post by randycupertino »

stuartjohnson12 wrote: post #27
knicholes wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found a page on Facebook that regularly posts single white mothers with black babies on supposed dating profiles with very demanding requirements for men. The comments are loaded with people saying that they deserve their current situation, enforcing racial stereotypes, etc. It's not hard to see that these are AI generated, as there are maybe 5-8 posts a day like this, and the images are pretty clearly AI genera…

Could you give me some searching clues to hunt down this or a similar profile?

Here are a few examples of ones where right-wing influencers are making AI-shop videos of people complaining about losing SNAP benefits:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackPeopleTwitter/comments/1ojydgq...

https://www.reddit.com/r/themayormccheese/comments/1ojtbwz/a...

Note how that second one all uses the same script, "I have 7 babies from 7 different baby daddies!"

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#102

Post by supersrdjan »

District5524 wrote: post #92
supersrdjan wrote: post #84

Socrates thought that writing contributed to brain rot. If I AI rots my brain than so did Google before it, and printed encyclopedias before that. In reality, the fact I can get my questions answered quickly only makes me think of more and more questions to ask, more things to wonder about, more problems to ponder.

That still seems to be a problem. It was not what "Socrates thought", but what Plato put into Socrates' mouth in Phaedrus, and even this imaginary Socrates is not saying anything like that, just referencing an even earlier Egyptian tale: "There is an old Egyptian tale of Theuth, the inventor of writing, showing his invention to the god Thamus, who told him that he would only spoil men’s memories and take away their u…

Can’t you say the same about the printing press?

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#103

Post by paddleon »

api wrote: post #35
Mabusto wrote: post #30

I think we'll start to see AI as any other tool that can atrophy your natural faculties. You can use a wheelchair to get everywhere, but your leg muscles will start to wither, but a wheeled vehicle for going longer distances is a genuinely useful tool. Reaching for AI as a _substitute_ for thinking is bad, but reaching for it as a tool to assist thinking is good; you just need to be honest about whether it's your bra…

Ancient Egyptians on writing: "For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them." https://www.anthologialitt.com/post/the-god-thoth-and-the-in... This discourse is as old as humanity. Every…

Curious if we could test/compare (popluation-level) memory skills before/after writing was introduced to the population.

I want to say "I remember things better when I write them down", and because I think I'm a smart person I think my memory is good.

I don't know how well I'd remember things if I'd spent a large portion of my life building memorization skills. Maybe I could be 100x better at memory if I exercised it more?

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#104

Post by kjkjadksj »

sdwr wrote: post #59
tharne wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m doing most complicated projects I ever work , I would not even try to implement them without AI. My brain is exploding of complexity every time , I passively learn lots of topics I only had a vague understanding in the past This sentence is very poorly written and ironically is undermining the very case you're trying to make.

It's pretty clearly not a native English speaker

What language has a space preceding commas?

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#105

Post by D-Machine »

hitarpetar wrote: post #91
SunshineTheCat wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“I’m worried about younger folks not knowing how to conduct a traditional Google search.” This has a real “I’m afraid no one will know how to ride a horse when the motorcoach comes out” sense to it. The answer is, who cares? Why would a better way of doing something “frighten” someone. Not to say it won't come with its own set of issues, but technology constantly evolving/improving should be expected by now, but huma…

typical technological determinism. comparing AI to the motorcoach assumes something we cannot know yet, namely that the impact of AI on the next century will be comparable to the invention of the automobile. there's also a long list of negative externalities caused by automobiles. who cares? anyone hurt by climate change, or who lives in a grid organized around cars rather than people. anyone who has ever been killed…

Yes, although in this case the premise is just entirely wrong. A "traditional Google search" doesn't work anymore as Google just ignores half of what you put in anyway, and even vigorous quoting and Google-fu still generally just returns SEO garbage. Whereas e.g. Kagi is another world (proving that "knowing how to search" is not actually the problem anyway).

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#106

Post by stdclass »

HeinzStuckeIt wrote: post #15
randycupertino wrote: post #7

I'm in a local facebook group for my town where people post hiking pics, bird pics, local business updates, contractor recommendations etc. I am annoyed to see "brain rot" videos starting to take over the page. There is one dude promoting his succulent repotting/resale business and he's posted like 5-8 ai generated surfer dude monkey surfing and partying with his potted succulents just in the last week. I opened the…

On modern social media, even if you had a group full of smart and reasonable people, the platform itself is injecting crap that may well drive out many of them. I rececently returned to Reddit since there are no other remaining discussion venues for one of my hobbies. I looked at the new-Reddit interface and shuddered: ads are being shown among comments, and many comments are hidden by defaul because apparently discu…

> since there are no other remaining discussion venues for one of my hobbies

maybe you find a suitable board on 4chan

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#108

Post by Liquix »

Mabusto wrote: post #30

I think we'll start to see AI as any other tool that can atrophy your natural faculties. You can use a wheelchair to get everywhere, but your leg muscles will start to wither, but a wheeled vehicle for going longer distances is a genuinely useful tool. Reaching for AI as a _substitute_ for thinking is bad, but reaching for it as a tool to assist thinking is good; you just need to be honest about whether it's your bra…

there seems to be a parallel with the industrial revolution - being fit and having muscles used to be the norm when everyone worked the fields all day. but now that grocery stores and sedentary jobs have made exercise optional. so choosing to pursue fitness signals to others that one is disciplined, takes pride in their appearance, etc.

i can see the next couple generations of AI agents causing the same effect on reading, critical thinking, and intelligence in general. thinking is no longer necessary with AI agents, so maybe cultivating one's ability to think will become optional/personal pursuits which send similar signals.

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#109

Post by jimbokun »

ryandrake wrote: post #80
afavour wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, IMO this is going to start becoming visible sooner rather than later. College students that defer to ChatGPT to form arguments for them are going to graduate, sit for an in-person job interview and discover they haven't had to think fast, with their own brain, in years. It won't be pretty.

But who is going to crack first? Will job applicants somehow remove their borg implants and learn to think on their own? Or will businesses give in and admit that nobody can think for themselves anymore, allowing applicants to use ChatGPT during their interviews (knowing that they're probably going to need to use it on the job, too).

Or businesses just use ChatGPT to replace the entry level employee.

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#110

Post by anukin »

Loughla wrote: post #94
spicybright wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I refuse to use reddit with it's modern UI. Once old.reddit.com dies I'm hanging up my spurs

I left when they killed 3rd party app access. Honestly even the curated subs I was a part of were pretty toxic or echo-chambery now that I've had time to look back

The biggest problem is that Lemmy is no substitute for Reddit. Majority of it is run by tankies and people professing extreme left views.
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