How accurate have Ed Zitron's AI skeptic predictions been?

Post by ChickeNES » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 7:20 AM UTC

minimaxir wrote: post #270

hypfer wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reads slightly weird and more like a pledge of alignment than a statement from the heart. But apart from that, I guess that's always the learning? Journalists (or people labeling themselves as such) often have their own story they want to tell, and usually do so by building it out of little blocks of reality stacked together to form the desired picture. I would predict a similarly frustrating experience being eq…

That's an unfair characterization of tech journalists in general. When BuzzFeed News was around, I worked closely with them on technical aspects and projects to ensure that everything was correct and accurate, and there were very receptive to it; it was not a "directionally correct" thing, the journalists wanted to avoid any unintentional. That was also one of the reasons I was open-minded to helping Ed even though w…

Post by torginus » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 7:26 AM UTC

nl wrote: post #464

torginus wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they? These companies have been caught tweaking their numbers. One example, not sure if cited by Zitron, or others, is that they build data centers through holding companies, who have to absorb the costs and massive capex based financial liabilites, so that the brand-name big-tech companies get to keep their expenses off their books. There have been trillions of debt discovered this way. Another issue is the appa…

> These companies have been caught tweaking their numbers... they build data centers through holding companies, who have to absorb the costs and massive capex based financial liabilites, so that the brand-name big-tech companies get to keep their expenses off their books. This is about as far from "tweaking their numbers" as you can get. It's a standard way infrastructure-heavy industries structure their investments…

Post by JumpCrisscross » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 7:34 AM UTC

layoric wrote: post #563

This critique is leaning really hard on their interpretation of "dying". They take the literal company is going to fail type of dying where as I have always taken it the same way he has presented it in his "rot-economy" context. They can remain financially "successful", but more and more people hate their products, their products are getting worse, their products are "dying". Google Search is still a good example, th…

Post by JumpCrisscross » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 7:36 AM UTC

sfblah wrote: post #654

BeetleB wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How well I remember someone predicting 7 of the last 2 recessions... Yes, one day , we'll have a recession. It doesn't mean the doom prophets were correct.

Agreed, but look at it the other way. Do you really think we'll never again have a recession? Some people genuinely believe that.

Post by JumpCrisscross » Wed, Sep 02, 2026, 7:38 AM UTC

wmf wrote: post #283

th0raway wrote: post #65

Being thorough and accurate might make you a lot of money in the stock market, but it's not a good way to get any media presence, because that demands being in front of people quite often, and basically nobody can be insightful and well researched in all topics of the day. Once you become a pundit, whether on politics or tech, and rely on eyeballs to feed you, you are going to be throwing stinkers. And at that point,…

...get any media presence, because that demands being in front of people quite often, and basically nobody can be insightful and well researched in all topics of the day What? Zitron is getting a lot of media attention by repeating the same takes hundreds of times. He's not a general pundit.