Well, that’s certainly not the direction I expected this conversation to go.
I apologize to the necro community for the hurtful and ignorant comments I’ve made in the past. They aren’t reflective of who I am as a person and I’ll strive to improve myself in the future.
For a while I was telling people “don’t fall in love with anything that doesn’t have a pulse.” Which I still believe is good advice concerning AI companion apps.
But someone reminded me of that humans will pack-bond with anything meme that featured a toaster or something like that, and I realized it was probably a futile effort and gave it up.
Yeah, no one would have even blinked at that from what I recall. Unless you tried to take it onto a plane or into someplace high security like a courtroom it was something so mundane that it wouldn’t have been brought up.
Making an issue out of it would have been akin to saying “Did you hear about Bob? He always has his car keys with him. Watch out for that guy…”
Honestly, after scrolling through this thread, I gotta wonder when carrying a pocket knife became something abnormal to a decent percentage of the population.
It was never universal, but as young lad in the late 1900’s it was unremarkable for most people to have at least a little pocket knife with a nail file on them most of the time and never anything sinister. There were places you couldn’t take them, but for the most part we lived our lives surrounded by people with concealed knives and never thought twice about it.
Never tied an onion to my belt though.
EDIT: If it’s mostly a backlash against the EDC crowd, I kinda get it, but still it seems pretty harmless in moderation.
It’s how my wife and I proposed!
Check out the Gerber Armbar.
I carry a skeletool from time to time. Same deal. It’s light, simple, and the pliers work well.
Same here. Growing up, you got a pocket knife for Christmas or your birthday some time around middle school (usually a Swiss Army or Boy Scout knife) and it was just a thing you carried like your wallet or house key.
Multitools changed the tradition a little, but didn’t end it. Largely it meant another round of all us kids getting a multitool for Christmas.
I’m not a big EDC guy, but I still habitually have a good penlight and one of these on me most of the time: https://www.gerbergear.com/en-us/shop/multi-tools/all-multi-tools/armbar-drive-onyx-30-001585
The scissors and screwdriver come in handy more often than the blade. So these days if I give knife/tool it tends to be something like that rather than a Jackhawk 9000 sort of thing.
That’s an absolutely crushing schedule.
When I think of “middle aged family man”, I think of a salaried employee or tradesman working a 40 hour work week, and supporting kids with the help of a spouse who’s either a homemaker or earns additional income. Which mostly describes me.
You’re comparing apples to oranges when it comes to lifestyles. I work occasional overtime and it always knocks my dick in the dirt for a week or so. All things considered, just surviving what you’re describing is an achievement.
You’re doing an amazing job and I hope you can find a situation that gives you more time off soon. You deserve it.
Why can’t we win the AI race and still not have a surveillance state? Those don’t seem like they have to be linked…
Yeah, journalistic integrity is important, and they shouldn’t slander Google, due diligence and what not.
But there wouldn’t even be a need for an article or any investigation if Google and other tech companies weren’t treating user data as something they have a god given right to.
That’s my point. It doesn’t matter what Google does or doesn’t do with the data. They shouldn’t collect it unless I tell them they can. It’s MY data. It’s MY right to keep it private or destroy it as I please. That’s the baseline all tech companies should adhere to.
Play Services does collect data it shouldn’t collect, by sending it back to Google.
Right. And my argument is that this shouldn’t happen without users opting in.
But the difference between “I am collecting your data” and “I wrote software you are running” is important and needs defending,
I don’t disagree. Not am I arguing the content of the article. I just disagree with your notion that we have to prove negligence or malfeasance to deserve privacy.
Your original post placed the burden on users to prove that Google mismanages the data they collect. That’s not how this should work. I should own that data, just as I own the text I write with a text editor. I shouldn’t have to prove that Google is mismanaging it in order to keep that data private. I shouldn’t need any other reason than “it’s my data and I don’t want to share it beyond what is necessary for this technology to operate.”
If you don’t collect the data in the first place, there’s nothing to mismanage.
Rather than users having to prove that Google is mismanaging OUR data, Google should prove it has a need to collect, aggregate, and sell access to that data beyond surveillance capitalism.
The default option should be that only fully anonymized data that is essential to device functions should be collected, and this should be validated through an independent audit. Everything else should be opt-in.
Yes, that’s denying them the freedom to be ignorant, superstitious, greedy, sociopathic idiots and be rewarded for it.
Ah, yeah, it was just my SO and I. But most of the videos are gangbang scenes.
I don’t follow…
You know those crazy Japanese videos where they cover a woman in gallons of lube, ruin her nice outfit, and go to town while everyone is all slimy?
So, sure it’s fun. Like stupid, giggly fun, but it’s also hard to get any traction, it’s distracting when it gets in your ears and nose, and it’s super, super hard to clean up. Like two showers just to get it all out of her hair.
We tried it a few times. The fantasy was fun to fulfill, but the sex was kinda meh, so not really worth the effort to make it a regular thing.
It’ll give you what you want, but not what you need. Sorry if that seems obtuse.
It’s an artificial parasocial relationship. Imagine falling in love with an Onlyfans performer, yet even that astronomically slim chance of being the one out of their thousands of subscribers who is unique enough to win their love isn’t even there, it isn’t even possible.
At its best, it can give you some small validation that you’re too embarrassed to get elsewhere. Sort of a “things you already knew but needed to hear from someone else” vibe, but it can’t give any real insight, and real love, or any real connection. It’s the participation trophy of relationships.
It’s hollow and empty, with simulated complexity and depth.
What AI is kinda good at is creating absurdly specific interactive erotica based around your particular fetishes. But even then, it can’t produce anything truly unique or innovative, so it’s sort of the same old sexytimes wearing new clothes. It’s probably a decent form of porn if you don’t mind the ethical concerns, but it’s not a real relationship.
An optimist invents the airplane. A pessimist invents the parachute.
You’re when it comes to finding affection. Which is precisely why my approach fell flat.
While the environmental problems and the market bubble eventually bursting are bigger issues that will harm everyone, I see the beginnings of what could be a problem of equal significance concerning the exploitation of lonely and vulnerable people for profit with AI romance/sexbot apps. I don’t want to fully buy into the more sensationalist headlines surrounding AI safety without more information, but I strongly suspect that we’ll see a rise in isolated persons with aggravated mental health issues due to this kind of LLM use. Not necessarily hundreds of people with full-blown psychosis, but an overall increase in self-isolation coupled with depression and other more common mental health issues.
The way social media has shaped our public discourse has shown that like it or not, we’re all vulnerable to being emotionally manipulated by electronic platforms. AI is absolutely being used in the same way and while more tech savvy persons are likely to be less vulnerable, no one is going to be completely immune. When you consider AI powered romance and sex apps, ask yourself if there’s a better way to get under someone’s skin than by simulating the most intimate relationships in the human experience?
So, old fashioned or not, I’m not going to be supportive of lonely people turning to LLMs as a substitute for romance in the near future. It’s less about their individual freedoms, and more about not wanting to see them fed into the next Torment Nexus.
Edits: several words.