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Google is going ‘all in’ on AI. It’s part of a troubling trend in big tech

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  • Guess my next phone is coming from Oneplus or Fairphone.

    bUt AnDrOiD!!!

    ...can be chained to its desk and limited, I agree.

    Since when does Oneplus support Calyx or Grapheme?

  • Switch over to the Qwant search engine for your basic search and a good email provider like Tutamail or Proton. I have for a few months and there really is no reason to go back. It's simple and it works.

    For search I'm really happy with Kagi

  • And it’s fucking awful.

    DLSS? No way lol. DLSS often gives better image quality than native resolution, and gives you a choice in image quality vs performance increase options. It's a god send.

    DLSS is even worse cancer than TAA

    You've clearly never used DLSS, at least not DLSS3 or 4. I've got a 4070 Super and Ryzen 7 and I use DLSS by choice literally every time it's available.

    Lolwut? No it doesn't? Yeah it turns off TAA so it might look sharper at first, and if you turn off the ugly ass sharpening then it's playable but literally any other option looks better than TAA, including TXAA from early 2010s lol.

    Do you maybe mean DLAA? I Have an RTX 3090 and a 9800X3D. It's ok. When the option exists I just crank up the res or turn on MSAA instead. Much better.

    If you mean DLSS, my condolences. I'd rather play with FXAA most of the time.

    The only game I'll use DLSS (on Transformer model+Quality) in is CP2077 with Path Tracing. With Ray Reconstruction it's almost worth the blurriness, especially because that game forces TAA unless you use DLAA/DLSS and I don't get a playable framerate without it, but also don't want to play without Path Tracing. Maybe one day I'll have the hardware needed to run it with PT and DLAA

  • Switch over to the Qwant search engine for your basic search and a good email provider like Tutamail or Proton. I have for a few months and there really is no reason to go back. It's simple and it works.

    I'm self-hosting my mails; no need for another third party that will decide whatever whenever. The major difficulty is the decades of things that are reliant on the old one.

    And I just said that google works fine for search, despite people claiming it's on the decline, broken, unusable, etc. That's not to move toward qwant, who are no less shady, burn money (sometimes coming from public money…), and despite wonderful claim of an autonomous index, completely stop working when Bing is down. As far as recommendations for search engine goes, google (and Bing for that matter) are far less disingenuous.
    All usable search engines these days are backed by the big ones anyway. Something like https://openwebsearch.eu/ would be a better alternative, assuming it follows on its promises.

  • Lolwut? No it doesn't? Yeah it turns off TAA so it might look sharper at first, and if you turn off the ugly ass sharpening then it's playable but literally any other option looks better than TAA, including TXAA from early 2010s lol.

    Do you maybe mean DLAA? I Have an RTX 3090 and a 9800X3D. It's ok. When the option exists I just crank up the res or turn on MSAA instead. Much better.

    If you mean DLSS, my condolences. I'd rather play with FXAA most of the time.

    The only game I'll use DLSS (on Transformer model+Quality) in is CP2077 with Path Tracing. With Ray Reconstruction it's almost worth the blurriness, especially because that game forces TAA unless you use DLAA/DLSS and I don't get a playable framerate without it, but also don't want to play without Path Tracing. Maybe one day I'll have the hardware needed to run it with PT and DLAA

    What are you talking about “temporal+quality” for DLSS? That’s not a thing.

    DLSS I’m talking about. There are many comparisons out there showing how amazing it is, often resulting in better IQ than native.

    FXAA is not an AI upscaler, what are you talking about?

  • the fuck does service now even need AI for?

    I hate any company I work for that uses ServiceNow. And now it's getting worse??

    Need? None. There are certainly areas that "ai" tools excel at but what I saw was a company literally forcing it into every aspect of the system. Every single booth at the conference, regardless of the topic, made a point to talk about agentic AI. It was my first time there and I left feeling like I got screwed, because I missed out on quality content that I could use in lieu of AI that I'll never use.

    If I were I prospective customer, I'd be looking at other solutions for sure.

  • “Bad” is SN’s claim to fame. Everybody hates it. Apparently, the worse they make it, the more companies will throw money at them.

    I think the biggest problem, is anytime you try and create a universal, low/no-code platform that anyone can use, it results in a poorly optimized, sandboxed, half cocked product. Sure, you can do anything with the platform, but half the time it's like shoving a square peg in a round hole. I have had to write bad code and processes because that is the only way to get somethings done in the platform.

    Also, if I go out and custom create an app, like say I create a fully loaded app for HR, and it's similar to a product they sell, they will charge you for that product.

  • Luckily, 90% of what Google goes all in on fails. I remember Stadia and Google Glass.

    I remember some people very vehemently telling me that I was dumb to be skeptical of Stadia, that it really was going to just take over the industry...

  • The rich are cashing in our tax dollars to try to automate their control of an enslaved human race.

    They will do anything besides just pay taxes and contribute to society

    AI is not needed to automate the control of the human race. I feel like it's already essentially automated from the rich's perspective.

  • Luckily, 90% of what Google goes all in on fails. I remember Stadia and Google Glass.

    In that case, we should encourage google to go all-in on climate change, racism, and war; they should back the conservative party as well. Then 90% of those will fail.

  • I remember some people very vehemently telling me that I was dumb to be skeptical of Stadia, that it really was going to just take over the industry...

    I still don't understand how Stadia got out the door the way it did. It was the exact same business model Onlive tried back in the day. And it predictably failed the exact same way.

  • AI is not needed to automate the control of the human race. I feel like it's already essentially automated from the rich's perspective.

    it is "automated" by some "peasants" they are already paying "too much". maybe they want to reduce those costs too.

    also AI serverparks may consume so much power that they are more costly (for now?), but at least they don't question your commands. maybe that's how they see it.

  • Not sure how far back you’re talking but for a VERY long time they have been and continue to be in the business of what feeds the machine.

    Why do you think we have computers in our possession 24/7? Not because we wanted it, but because they told us we wanted it and it enabled us to be available to feed the machine 24/7. You can work more. You can buy more.

    Social media? Feeds the machine.

    Television? Feeds the machine.

    Cars? Feeds the machine.

    Phones. Telegraphs. Fucking lightbulbs.

    All used to feed the machine.

    True, in a broad sense. I am speaking moreso to enshittification and the degradation of both experience and control.

    If this was just "now everything has Siri, it's private and it works 100x better than before" it would be amazing. That would be like cars vs horses. A change, but a perceived value and advantage.

    But it's not. Not right now anyways. Right now it's like replacing a car with a pod that runs on direct wind. If there is any wind over say, 3mph it works, and steers 95% as well as existing cars. But 5% of the time it's uncontrollable and the steering or brakes won't respond. And when there is no wind over 3mph it just doesn't work.

    In this hypothetical, the product is a clear innovation, offers potential benefits long term in terms of emissions and fuel, but it doesn't do the core task well, and sometimes it just fucks it up.

    The television, cars, social media, all fulfilled a very real niche. But nearly everyone using AI, even those using it as a tool for coding (arguably its best use case) often don't want to use it in search or in many of these other "forced" applications because of how unreliable it is. Hence why companies have tried (and failed at great expense) to replace their customer service teams with LLMs.

    This push is much more top down.

    Now drink your New Coke and Crystal Pepsi.

  • it is "automated" by some "peasants" they are already paying "too much". maybe they want to reduce those costs too.

    also AI serverparks may consume so much power that they are more costly (for now?), but at least they don't question your commands. maybe that's how they see it.

    That's absurd, the AI is not more costly than a human worker, it's just not as capable. The energy cost of a human alone is greater than that of any AI agent that would take its place. If you really think that AI costs that much energy, you just don't have a sense of scale. The server-farm costing a lot overall does not at all mean that an individual API call is expensive.

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    I've been playing Watch Dogs Legion so I know how this ends.

  • I still don't understand how Stadia got out the door the way it did. It was the exact same business model Onlive tried back in the day. And it predictably failed the exact same way.

    From what I call, the advocates kept saying:

    • OnLive was just too soon, the internet needed to be better
    • Google had just so much more resources at their disposal they could make it happen

    Of course, no one ever explained why I would want to pay full price for a game and also have to pay a monthly fee to access it once purchased, which was the most mind boggling facet of Google's concept to me, even more boggling than trying to make games render server side when the cheapest end user device can just locally render PS3, maybe PS4 level graphics nowadays.

  • You are arguing for the sake of arguing...

    TPM has nothing to do with any privacy invasion, AI, or anything bad really. It was conceived by a computer industry consortium called Trusted Computing Group (TCG). It evolved into TPM Main Specification Version 1.2 which was standardized by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

    Advancement in technology will always happen, and if your prose is to stop progress, you are up by your own by your own choice. Your argument about TPM is moot.

    Quite a lot if banking apps are compatible. If your banking app doesn't work, use the jail/sandbox compatible mode.

    The fact that Linux has 2, 3, 4, 64467% has nothing to do with what is available at your disposal. Strawman fallacy here.

    No one talked about hosting your own email server, there are alternative to the fucker-corps with privacy in mind.

    You, my friend, are already defeated, but rest assured there are a ton of us still on our feet.

    TPM has nothing to do with any privacy invasion, AI, or anything bad really.

    are you living under a rock, or have you been not using an Android phone in the past decade? that's exactly what is happening! through the use of the TPM, apps can verify whether you run a google corporate approved operating system, or something else, even if just slight differences, but also if you use a real clean and respectful system.

    plenty of apps do this. including banking apps, while banks are restricting their web banking sites to not work on phones (because that "gives us security from hackers", no I'm not joking this is what my bank told publicly 2 months ago, in the EU), pps that use some form of DRM, and even work related apps that show you your current working hours and needs to be used for work related manners!

  • AI is not needed to automate the control of the human race. I feel like it's already essentially automated from the rich's perspective.

    AI doesn't say no, AI doesn't fight back

  • TPM has nothing to do with any privacy invasion, AI, or anything bad really.

    are you living under a rock, or have you been not using an Android phone in the past decade? that's exactly what is happening! through the use of the TPM, apps can verify whether you run a google corporate approved operating system, or something else, even if just slight differences, but also if you use a real clean and respectful system.

    plenty of apps do this. including banking apps, while banks are restricting their web banking sites to not work on phones (because that "gives us security from hackers", no I'm not joking this is what my bank told publicly 2 months ago, in the EU), pps that use some form of DRM, and even work related apps that show you your current working hours and needs to be used for work related manners!

    TPM is a secure part, a cryptoprocessor with some memory, isolated from everything else, very basically.

    It stores keys and other sensitive data, like your "hello windows pin"... Or any other PIN if you want...

    This secure "box" can also be used for DRM by using the secure nature of the TPM to store the keys, or to encrypt the harddisk of your work laptop. Multiple of uses really. It's kind of like all piece of technology, it seems like.

    At that point, it's like you are saying that encryption is bad because it can be used for DRM or validate if a piece of software is valid or not.

    The TPM by itself isn't bad or related to privacy invasion. Nor the internet or a browser is only used to spy on you.

    There is a limit to the conspiracy...

  • I've been playing Watch Dogs Legion so I know how this ends.

    What happens? I don't mind spoilers

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    rimu@piefed.socialR
    Yep It is a design choice to offer a news feed that combines verified news sources with tankie memes — interspersed with photos generated by AI I've really tried to provide tools to tame the meme flood and put them into effect on https://PieFed.social - compare that with the front-page (or All feed) of any Lemmy instance (or most PieFed instances, to be fair). Gen AI filter is coming.
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    That is a drive unit. The robot is bending down next to it wearing a vest.
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    F
    You said it yourself: extra places that need human attention ... those need ... humans, right? It's easy to say "let AI find the mistakes". But that tells us nothing at all. There's no substance. It's just a sales pitch for snake oil. In reality, there are various ways one can leverage technology to identify various errors, but that only happens through the focused actions of people who actually understand the details of what's happening. And think about it here. We already have computer systems that monitor patients' real-time data when they're hospitalized. We already have systems that check for allergies in prescribed medication. We already have systems for all kinds of safety mechanisms. We're already using safety tech in hospitals, so what can be inferred from a vague headline about AI doing something that's ... checks notes ... already being done? ... Yeah, the safe money is that it's just a scam.
  • Firefox 140 Brings Tab Unload, Custom Search & New ESR

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    Read again. I quoted something along the lines of "just as much a development decision as a marketing one" and I said, it wasn't a development decision, so what's left? Firefox released just as frequently before, just that they didn’t increase the major version that often. This does not appear to be true. Why don't you take a look at the version history instead of some marketing blog post? https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/releases/ Version 2 had 20 releases within 730 days, averaging one release every 36.5 days. Version 3 had 19 releases within 622 days, averaging 32.7 days per release. But these releases were unscheduled, so they were released when they were done. Now they are on a fixed 90-day schedule, no matter if anything worthwhile was complete or not, plus hotfix releases whenever they are necessary. That's not faster, but instead scheduled, and also they are incrementing the major version even if no major change was included. That's what the blog post was alluding to. In the before times, a major version number increase indicated major changes. Now it doesn't anymore, which means sysadmins still need to consider each release a major release, even if it doesn't contain major changes because it might contain them and the version name doesn't say anything about whether it does or not. It's nothing but a marketing change, moving from "version numbering means something" to "big number go up".
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    The problem is the cost of each. Right now material is dirt cheap and energy prices are going up. And we are not good at long term planning.
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    If an industry can't survive without resorting to copyright theft then maybe it's not a viable business. Imagine the business that could exist if only they didn't have to pay copyright holders. What makes the AI industry any different or more special?
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  • AI cheating surge pushes schools into chaos

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    Sorry for the late reply, I had to sit and think on this one for a little bit. I think there are would be a few things going on when it comes to designing a course to teach critical thinking, nuances, and originality; and they each have their own requirements. For critical thinking: The main goal is to provide students with a toolbelt for solving various problems. Then instilling the habit of always asking "does this match the expected outcome? What was I expecting?". So usually courses will be setup so students learn about a tool, practice using the tool, then have a culminating assignment on using all the tools. Ideally, the problems students face at the end require multiple tools to solve. Nuance mainly naturally comes with exposure to the material from a professional - The way a mechanical engineer may describe building a desk will probably differ greatly compared to a fantasy author. You can also explain definitions and industry standards; but thats really dry. So I try to teach nuances via definitions by mixing in the weird nuances as much as possible with jokes. Then for originality; I've realized I dont actually look for an original idea; but something creative. In a classroom setting, you're usually learning new things about a subject so a student's knowledge of that space is usually very limited. Thus, an idea that they've never heard about may be original to them, but common for an industry expert. For teaching originality creativity, I usually provide time to be creative & think, and provide open ended questions as prompts to explore ideas. My courses that require originality usually have it as a part of the culminating assignment at the end where they can apply their knowledge. I'll also add in time where students can come to me with preliminary ideas and I can provide feedback on whether or not it passes the creative threshold. Not all ideas are original, but I sometimes give a bit of slack if its creative enough. The amount of course overhauling to get around AI really depends on the material being taught. For example, in programming - you teach critical thinking by always testing your code, even with parameters that don't make sense. For example: Try to add 123 + "skibbidy", and see what the program does.