Libb

Bowing in front of the one-person cheering crowd.

I just realized, you did not say 'cheese'? Come closer ;)

I must be an AI, then—does that mean I should charge for a subscription when I answer a question; maybe adding an extra premium fee on top of that sub each I'm also using a semi-column in the same sentence?

I have no idea how representative these stupid remarks you mentioned are to be considered but it's interesting to realize how their own ignorance of a certain know-how/knowledge is so, so easily becoming a proof for them that the use of said tool/knowledge by other people is making those people suspicious.

In a working society, when faced with something one doesn't know, aka faced with one's own ignorance, one would see that as an opportunity to learn something new and become less ignorant. Not anymore. Following their own 'reasoning', it's now being used as a proof that the other person must be some bot/AI, that they must be something non-human and suspicious. Difference is not considered an opportunity to enrich oneself anymore, it's an anomaly.

When dumb starts defining what's 'normal'—and what's human—one better start worrying, imho.

Btw, using the 'Azerty (French alt)' keyboard layout on Linux, this poor em-dash is just a Shift+AltGr+' away—why wouldn't I want to use it?

Legal disclaimer: this comment was generated by Libb, the first French English-speaking AI that's as human-looking as anything French can be. It was trained on baguettes and wine—please, say 'cheese' in the next 20 seconds, if you don't want for Libb to give you a real French kiss.

But unless society moves in that same direction, it would seem that things would become more and more difficult. We can’t rely on old books and already-created content to move us forward.

100% with you on this. And this is a real issue.

Note that people are still writing books, making music and so on. Some even still go to school in order to be educated—they're just not as trendy anymore ;)

I’ve been finding more value in IRL contact with other people these days. But I don’t think everyone has that luxury, I’m afraid.

It's becoming unusual but it's not a luxury. As a matter of fact it's often cheaper than to use online services to go meet someone at a local place: one needs no subscriptions and no is not (not that much) tracked to be monetized either. The real issue, imho, is that people have been very quickly 'un-educated' about living IRL/together to the point it's now starting to become not only unusual but also... odd to be willing to meet (and talk) IRL, not through an app (it's really noticeable among the young).

Thinking about it, it's almost feels like if humanity was trying to commit suicide: we only exist as a species because we devised 'societies' aka the art of living/working/being together.

What if that entire “person” was just AI generated, and the “blog” was just fake AI stories?

I don't live in the future so that I could not tell.

What I can tell is that AI of today smells very much like AI (which is to say, by grossly over-simplifying, that AI 'creates' content that is a severely neutered content and that shows) and, seeing how people are asking for more of that shit content, it doesn't look like they will need to invest that much more to make AI better to make it an economical success. So I doubt it will ever reach a point where we can't tell teh difference. But if it was to get to that there would still be:

• real people, to meet and talk with and do stuff with.
• a bazillion books published waiting to be read. Printed books I mean, not ebooks as those can too easily be altered (here again, to please the crowd... or maybe one day to be 'AI-optimized'). There are more books waiting to be read than I would be able to read even if I was to live for a thousand years. So, I don't need to Web to access fascinating content, I just need (my own or any public) Library. And what about younger people that have not been taught to enjoy reading books and can only consume videos or look at pictures instead? Well, imho the first thing they should do is ask their parents why they failed so badly at giving them such a basic education as enjoying reading. Then, and that's the good news, it's never too late to start reading. Those younger people still can decide to switch gear and start opening a book from time to time ;)

So, if that ugly AI-Web was to take over what I call the human-made Web, I would simply quit using the Web.

Exactly like we quit owning (and watching) a TV in the early 00s my spouse and I, when we realized we had had enough of being asked to pay money in order to watch unskipable fucking ads and what we considered always shittier content (read: 'politically correct' content a bit like that AI-crap of today, as we both prefer to be challenged by what we watch and what we read, not so much being nursed or feeling validated by it).

With AI, you could generate a lifetime of greedy/evil corporate/marketing-owned web in a matter of hours, and just flood every corner of the internet with it.

They could flood the Web they own with that shit and, imho, that's 100% what they will do and so will do Hollywood and Netflix (it will be much cheaper/quicker to produce and there will be less risk of getting lynched for offending this or that part of the population). That they will do, I'm willing to bet. But they still won't be able to flood my part of the Web (I pay for it, I own it, I decide what's (not) published on it), as well as on many other small parts of the Web owned by other people like me. To get rid of us they first would need to make it illegal (or too costly) for mere individuals like us to own a domain and publish content. If that was to happen (and it could very well) it would take them a lot of work to achieve, and that would give us, the mere people willing to keep our freedom of expression (and willing to remain not-owned in any way) the opportunity to search for some other place... including moving back to analog media and IRL/in-person meetings.

I mean, humanity has shared stories for thousands of years. The Internet? It's approx 40 years old. So, yeah, we should be able to find some alternatives ways to express ourselves without relying on such a shitty web if things were to become that bad.

Per my point above, you’ll never know what’s human-made in the very near future. At some point, bots with human identities will flood websites, then what?

See what I just said.

Sure, there will most certainly be a web like the one you're describing and realizing how lazy most people are it will most certainly be a huge hit. But no matter how successful it is it will still be 100% of no interest to me and to people like me. So me and those other people we would focus our time (and money) on a man-made Web without worrying how machines monkey humans. And if one day they make it so that it's not possible to access any man-made content online, well, we will fall back on IRL-meeting, with real people. Like going to church, or to a book club, go to concerts or make some music in a band, go listen to poetry, go places to play board-games, whatever.

We don't need our lives to be online at all time. As a matter of fact, we used to not spend it online at all up until very recently ;)

AI generated content, which now includes incredibly convincing videos of people, will grow exponentially over the next weeks, months, and years.

At some point, the majority of the content you see will be fake, and any usefulness or connection to humans will be lost.

(...)

To that end, when will the internet be so untrustworthy, “soulless”, and useless to you that it crosses the tipping point?

Depends what you read. Blogs are still a thing and on many there is not the slightest hint of AI and in some there is even not even a single ad to be seen. It's still people talking about what they truly care. Not people trying to farm likes or views by spreading some low-effort shit content, be it videos, pictures or text.

The corporate/marketing-owned Web is filled to the brim with utter crap but that's not new, and it has been so well before AI became a thing. I've quit bothering about its existence a decade ago or so. So, I would not even notice it that corporate-owned Web was to suddenly vanish back into the nothingness it never should have left.

But the human-made web is still a thing. It's just not promoted as much as it once was and certainly it's not promoted where nowadays crowds gather to get spoon-fed content. Aka, in those handful of places that are all owned by corporations, corporations that don't want people to go see elsewhere. But corporations not wanting to promote human-made web doesn't make that human-web go away.

It's there for anyone to taste and, if they're willing to, to participate in. But it's up to those people to move their ass and change their habits. If they don't do that effort to try to go see elsewhere, well, they'll the only one losing out on a potentially more interesting (and less faked) content.

It's out there. One just needs to open the door or jump the fence to get the fuck out of their walled garden and start exploring the World Wide Web.

edit: clarifications.

You're welcome. Colored pencils are great ;)

Exactly.

In my mind the law requires the equality of us all (no one should be above the law and also no one should be more targeted by said law). So, no 'malicious people' should not be punished more than other people committing the same 'crime'.

If it is to be respected, any law needs to be fair. If it is not, bad things will happen. That's one of the reasons laws can be amended or removed and... why they should be when they aren't fair.

Edit: typos.

Getting out for long walks (probably meeting a few people, not sure about that), enjoying long reading and writing sessions, having a great time with my spouse. And last but not least, spend a couple hours working on a little DIY crafting project of mine: I'm making my own index card portable case/folder and tiny writing desk all-in-one, and I hope this WE I'll be ableto finish what will be my second attempt at it.

Also, doing chores but for that I cheated a little as I already started this Friday morning ;)

Depends where you live. The already suggested Prismacolor for example can be hard to find in many countries.

The German FaberCastell has decent non-artist grade colored pencils (much better than Crayola). They also have excellent artist grade ones but they're also more expensive (the Polychromos), they're much less soft than the Prismacolor (US, btw). You may also want to watch for the Swiss Caran d'Ache as they too will offer non-artist grade while still really nice as well as amazingly good but also very expensive artist-grade ones called the Luminance.

Cheaper of the three while still good, I would also suggest the German Staedtler.

Keep in min those 3 brands not only sell your traditional kind of colored pencils but also sell watercolor pencils (unlike traditional pencils, those can be used with water and a paint brush to activate the paint and, well, paint it) so be aware to pick the kind you need, it's written on the package ;)

Last but not least, even though I'm certainly not a fan of Amazon, it must be said that their Amazon Basics colored pencils are very, very good if you like softer pencils like the Prismacolors. For the price, they're a real bargain. The issue is that, beside being Amazon branded, they only sell sets so one can't buy a single color when needed.

Hard to say. It mostly depends how much people are willing to purchase those useless goods and, then, how many people are willing to provide them an easy way to purchase those at the cheapest cost. If it's not China, it could be some other place. Think fashion if you want to understand how I consider the issue: it's a huge business with little sense to it when you think about it. Most people own way too much clothes already, more then what they would need in their lifetime but it's still not enough and they keep on buying more following trends and fashions, spending good money on something they don't need and they happily completely disregard the many environmental issues as well as the human ones (modern day slavery, child labor and so on). Because it's what they like and what they want an,d because it's so easy to buy a new pair of jeans or a skirt.

Most people are lazy and they like simplicity above anything else. Simplicity helps them stay lazy. They like that even above saving money or protecting their fundamentals rights as citizens (or to keeping breathable the air and the water they need to stay alive), they like it more than getting a better (but more demanding) education, and so on. We're lazy everywhere, most of us at least. And I mean everywhere, including here when commenting: I got two comments, including yours, to my message while a majority of people silently downvoted it. The thing is their clicking of a button won't help anyone (certainly not me) understand why my comment may or may not have deserved to be downvoted but writing and explaining their point of view, or their reasoning, instead of simply clicking that button is already too much work for them.

So, yeah I may be wrong that's a sure thing but I don't think a tax will change much in the amount of waste we create. Alas, it will be produced (and purchased) from some other place, end of the story.

isn't that the case for every country to favour national buyers over foreigners? It's a real question (even though I'm French ;)