I see two basic reasons.

1. it gives companies plausible argument to embed telemetry into their products. Should your TV manufacturer or coffee maker manufacturer be able to monitor every single button you press on your device? Probably not, but they would like to “because AI”! Now they have an excuse to be as invasive as they want, “to serve you better”. The dream - for them - would be total surveillance of your habits to sell you more shit. Remember, it always comes back to money.

2. The old adage never fails: if it’s free, you are the product. Imagine AI being so pervasive, that now everywhere you look, everything you interact with can subtly suggest things. It doesn’t have to be overt. But if AI can nudge the behavior of the masses to do a thing, like buy more soda, or favor one brand over another, then it has succeeded in boosting company bottom line. Sure the AI can do useful shit for you, but the true AI problem companies want to solve is “say or do the right shit to influence this consumer to buy my thing”. You are the target the AI is operating on. And with billions of interactions and tremendous training, it will find the optimal way to influence the masses to buy the thing.

In other news, mathematicians have been working hard on calculator detector software. Upon request for comment, leading mathematicians suggested a variety of ideas, such as such as secretly embedding a watermark “58008” (BOOBS) into the decimal parts of pi and e to more easily identify derived calculations. There was consistent sentiment among leading minds that “back in my day we had to work hard to do math, and walk up hill both ways in the snow to school”… and that “there’s nothing wrong with a good ol’ fashion abbicus, dag nabbit!”

I can attest this is true for me. I was shopping for a new clothes washer, and was strongly considering an LG until I saw it had “AI wash”. I can see relevance for AI in some places, but washing clothes is NOT one of them. It gave me the feeling LG clothes washer division is full of shit.

Bought a SpeedQueen instead and been super happy with it. No AI bullshit anywhere in their product info.

This guy gets it.

This app got me laid,” says one five-star review on the Apple App Store. “Best way to buy tickets for events. 2nite is the truth and the future,” the horny user wrote.

This author knows what’s up. Most glorious ending to a news article I seen in a while.

Star Wars: X-wing vs TIE Fighter

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_X-Wing_vs._TIE_Fighter

Are AI products released by a company liable for slander? 🤷🏻

I predict we will find out in the next few years.

Time to get an EV you can charge at home 😎

Think of this fact the next time people list off all the “downsides” of owning an EV… like never going to the gas station.

Sure, makes sense. But the title was “what’s a good phone that doesn’t force ads on me.” None of the things you listed were mentioned in the post. I stand by my answer 😎. Come, join us in the land of good-user-interface.

iPhone.

Fun fact: non-profits are required to report the incomes of their highest paid employees on IRS form 990. In 2022, Mark Surman was paid $344,483. This is well below executive pay in Silicon Valley, and on par with normal software engineer pay in the same area according to GlassDoor.

Sure, some executives are overpaid, but this is very much not the case here.

It’s worth it to find out before spewing hate and bias.

You’re not supposed to say the quiet part out loud.

All these fancy plans and Microsoft still can’t figure out how to merge Windows Control Panel and Settings into one 🙄.

I’ve thought about that before. 😂

In all honesty, $TSLA made a lot of people rich 3 to 4 years ago. I’m not the only one.

I honestly don’t care which companies do it, but I’ve always been interested in green investing. When so many governments are pouring money into energy transition, there’s bound to be profit to be made.

I sunk about 70k into $TSLA in 2020. Sold the brokerage shares to pay off my mortgage and buy a Model X for my family. The stock also grew my kids’ UTMA accounts to pay for about half of college, or perhaps large down payment on their future home.

There were a lot Tesla of haters back in 2020. There are probably more now. But whatever your opinion may be, that company has changed the world for the better. Accelerated the transition to electric transport: just like they said they’d do. I’m excited for the second generation to succeed: Rivian, BYD, and other companies who’re serious about it.

Best financial move I ever made? Latch on to a company that has purpose and a great product, then cash out for the things that matter. I just wish I’d had capital back when Apple launched the iPhone!

(P.S. to all the haters who’re gonna come at me with downvotes: I have more dollars than the number of downvotes you’ll ever be able to dish out! So come at me brah.)

I feel you, Pakistan. Same here in the US. The yeeeeejadists are itchin for a fight.

I value a distro that “Just Works”^TM and I can affirm that Linux Mint is it! Been using it for 5 years and would never go back.