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The A.I. business influencer guys must be stopped
- wayeq 3y ago"It’s obviously not the only place--there’s lots of activity on the homepage of the rationalist-terrorism cell LessWrong" This made me curious what the general consensus of LessWrong is outside of LessWrong.
- janalsncm 3y agoTo me, this is an issue with the recommendation system. Twitter having fired so many of their engineers is barely functional as it is and is hardly in a position to devote engineering talent to improving feed quality when the kitchen sink is on fire.
- smoldesu 3y agoWhy do we need to stop them? I despise these chumps too, but I also control the content I consume. Non-technical business types have always made lofty promises online, you can avoid them by not using for-profit soapbox platforms like Twitter, Substack and Medium.
- jason-phillips 3y agoWhy do we need to cure cancer?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- CharlesW 3y agoCancer, the 2nd leading cause of death worldwide, is maybe a histrionic metaphor. I'd guess the actions of Gary Vaynerchuk wanna-be's are probably not in the top 10.
- Flatcircle 3y agoThis is so funny. I've noticed these lame influencers shilling AI strategies on twitter even though I don't follow them. But the algorithm sees engagement from others so it thinks I'll like it too. There's a pattern developing on twitter (and other socials). Life coach types, just shill the next big thing. It was Crypto, then NFTs, now AI. Wonder what will be next?
- dmix 3y agoIt will be whatever trendy business topic comes up. The "hustle" people have been doing this forever and they are just clinging on to keywords that get traffic. It has little to do with the topics themselves. The funny thing the biggest export of these hustle guys is teaching other people how to jump on keywords for attention.
- mquirion 3y agoEMPs to kill the AI. (I kid. (mostly))
- ianbicking 3y agoThe Blue Check payola is making it worse too, there's always been these influencer folks (sometimes doing paid ads just to do their shtick) but now that a blue check gives you a substantial algorithm boost, and just about every influencer pays for one, that group is taking up more and more space.
- rsynnott 3y agoIt was actually kind of AI before, too. Everyone seems to have determinedly forgotten about it now, but there was a brief period a few years back when chatbots were going to take over the world (remember Microsoft Tay), and a lot of VCs lost a lot of money. Then everyone agreed never to talk about it again, seemingly.
- minimaxir 3y ago> Underrated aspect of paid checks and longer tweets with amplification is that Twitter 2.0 has basically recreated LinkedIn broetry. https://twitter.com/RMac18/status/1650265151227174912 https://twitter.com/RMac18/status/1650265151227174912
- Flatcircle 3y agoLinkedin Broetry is such a great phrase!
- minimaxir 3y agoThe phrase was coined years ago partially by the same writer: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/why-are-these-posts-taking-over-your-linkedin-feed-because https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/why-are-these-p... LinkedIn discourse hasn't changed since.
- abalashov 3y agoI'm one of those people who keeps learning neologisms from 2017 and thinking they're new -- I guess that's what it means to be pushing 40 -- but I'm not ashamed to say that "broetry" is my new word of 2023. I don't care if everyone else has moved on, I'm bringing it back, complete with the wide-eyed wonder and innocent delight of a child discovering a new kind of play for the first time. This is brilliant. Thank you giving vocabulary to a concept hitherto ineffable, or at least unwieldy and difficult to bracket within my existing verbal facility. Broetry!
- rsynnott 3y agoI hadn't realised this had a name (I'd always just called it LinkedIn-spam), and "broem" is perfect.
- ly3xqhl8g9 3y agoAs an Alliterations Anonymous associate, LinkedIn Lunatics [1] also has its appeal. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/LinkedInLunatics https://www.reddit.com/r/LinkedInLunatics
- yeldarb 3y agoThis post spends a lot of time criticizing the "pointless line breaks" but not a lot of time on why this is a problem or "must be stopped". Block or mute the people that annoy you and move on; problem solved.
- minimaxir 3y agoIt's contributing to the massive signal-to-noise decline on tech related topics on Twitter lately. As an open-source AI developer myself I'm discouraged because anything I'd release would be drowned out by hypebros.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- thelogicguy 3y agoAlong with this, this type of hype conditions people to view the subject as a scam. The rampant comparisons to crypto are an example of it. People making those comparisons are largely talking about the people who talk about the technology rather than the technology itself.
- dmix 3y agoTwitter has always been something that requires constant vigilance to curate your feeds. Of course searching generic keywords for extremely trendy topics like "A.I." will be full of low quality tweets. Maybe this is new because your interest/hobby tech is now associated with the "hustle" trend jumpers but it's always been that with with startups so I'm used to it. Otherwise whining about how low budget social media users "Must be stopped" instead of just blocking/unfollowing and moving on is a waste of life because they aren't going away.
- janalsncm 3y agoI have never had success with Twitter’s algorithm or expecting their search to surface good results for topics I care about. A much more effective way is to find experts in that field and follow them directly. Your feed will have a much higher signal to noise ratio.
- fdgsdfogijq 3y agoSometimes I am jealous of these people. They arent doing the corporate grind, and they arent even really doing the startup grind. They are shilling stuff on the internet and avoiding spending their lives working. I know a few, they live great, though frugal lives. I go to my job at prestigious big Co and often wonder who the smart one is, me or them
- CharlesW 3y agoIt's not dumb to sell shovels during a gold rush. And the thing is, almost anybody can do it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- rambojohnson 3y agobut some would rather harp on and hate on it on hackernews instead.
- smoldesu 3y agoMost people ought to be afraid of the AI salesman. They're equally as harmful as the cryptobro, selling some nebulous tech that the layman will always misinterpret. Their profitability layer is being able to confuse and obfuscate the components that go into their business, as well as being able to outwit their customers. I'll proudly hate and harp on those folks anywhere I go. I won't go as far as to claim they "must be stopped", but internally I'd wager most people are waiting for these guys to shut up already.
- nluken 3y agoThese guys aren't so much selling shovels as selling advice on which shovel to buy despite the fact they've never dug a hole before.
- rockemsockem 3y ago
- greenie_beans 3y agolol. glad you associated that jason guy with these rats
- superkuh 3y agoThe term "AI" is only ~60 years old and less in the public awareness. There's a chance of it's public connotations being overloaded by the success of scammers transitioning from "crypto". It's yet another hot market selling things that most people don't and won't understand so the same tricks apply. When people hear about "crypto" now they think of the highly public scams (effective pre-mines, nft, "stable" coins, etc) instead bitcoin.
- russian-troll 3y agoHype train goes forward. Where are NFT influencers now?
- orwin 3y agoRebranding into AI influencers.
- rvz 3y agoAI bro grifters on Twitter? News at 6 PM.
- vagab0nd 3y agoI'm not really concerned. More likely, we are currently experiencing a calibration phase for a new technology, during which individuals are attempting to gauge others' understanding and interest in it. Right now, everybody is shouting "You have to look at this awesome thing!!", while in fact others are already aware of it, or even tired of it. Hence the complaints. This will pass quickly.
- rchaud 3y agoThe issue isn't that they're shilling AI. It's that the algorithm rewards these low-value hustlers because they create "engagement" with their spammy threads that pollute the feed. I have seen this exact pattern with other things like "front-end development", "stocks and investing" and many other topics where there's money to be made by selling something to somebody. It gives the whole of Twitter a cynical, soullessness that's growing by the day.
- gabereiser 3y agoI just assume everyone on Twitter is a bot. Saves me the hassle of dealing with the platform.
- poulsbohemian 3y ago"One of the handful of things Twitter still has going for it is that it’s the main place people are talking about A.I" This is a really strange way to start an article, because I can tell you that here in small town middle of nowhere America, even the old guys down at the VFW hall are talking about AI. I can't get through a full day without someone at random (at Rotary, in the grocery checkout line...) talking about it. Which tells me there's probably as much "get rich quick" and other "gold rush" type BS happening here as there is good computer science.
- officeplant 3y agoI can keep track of what grifts have made it to the main stream purely by my boss asking me if I'd heard/made money on X yet. As if I'd be here if I made bank off of crypto/nfts/etc. He's in his 70s now and keeps asking for ideas on making it big because the timeshares he bought of some man made island resort didn't play out.
- paulpauper 3y agoAI hype is the successor to crypto hype, which in 2022 flamed out. I think at least AI has more practical applications compared to crypto and is not nearly as scammy. Many investors lost huge money with crypto; I do not see the same for AI.
- JohnFen 3y agoYes, LLMs have practical applications. But the crypto-style hype that is happening is bringing a reek to the space that it doesn't deserve. There's a real risk that AI will end up being viewed through the same lens cryptocurrency is viewed with now, regardless of practical applications. > Many investors lost huge money with crypto; I do not see the same for AI. Oh I absolutely do see this coming. The difference between this and cryptocurrency is that the amount and scope of the damage won't be as wide-ranging.
- highwayman47 3y agoWhy does everyone dislike them?
- tomrod 3y agoTypically because their content is low value and high noise.
- hintymad 3y agoStopped by whom? I'm not sure how "stop paying attention to the contents if you don't like them" can't work for us.
- dmix 3y agoThe Committee of A.I. Tweeters should sanction them or take away their license to post low quality tweets
- fwlr 3y agoNot to be dismissive but it seems like a skill issue to me. I have the thread emoji muted, that does 90% of the work. I had to click “don’t show me this guy” (not “don’t show me this topic”) on maybe half a dozen that slipped through, and then it seems like the algorithm got the message. Just curate better and the problem goes away.
- JohnFen 3y ago> Just curate better and the problem goes away. This need to constantly curate is what made me leave Twitter years ago (well before Musk bought it). It's just too much work too little reward.
- rchaud 3y agoThere are hundreds if not thousands of people doing this exact hustle. You'll be spending a lot of time trying to decapitate that hydra.
- fwlr 3y agoWhatever algorithm they’re using is a capable assistant, I only had to decapitate a few heads and it learned to slay that hydra for me.
- alex_young 3y agoIf you don't like reading Twitter, maybe quit reading Twitter?
- abeppu 3y ago1. If you're still on bird-app, I feel it's important to ignore the "For you" tab and strictly look at the "Following" view, and follow only people whose posts you consistently appreciate. The noise ratio is so high now, and not just about AI. > What they share across platforms and fields is less any particular insight and more a deep and abiding faith in the accuracy and power of a still-developing technology about which not much is known (and where what little is known is often kept secret by the private companies developing it). 2. I think specifically _because_ most people won't understand it at a deep level, and it is still a bit inchoate but with potentially wide scope, it _invites_ influencers who don't know or don't care to know what they're talking about in the same way as crypto, the web, DNA sequencing, or nuclear fission. We were promised nuclear cars and planes, medical care tailored to our personal genetics, a global computer that democratizes access to all human knowledge, and useful and ubiquitous digital currencies. Even when the tech is really transformative, the early pundits aren't going to have an accurate view of what the transformation will look like. And it doesn't help that we didn't hold the line on saying "ML" instead of "AI".
- danaris 3y ago...For as long as Musk allows people to ignore those who have paid him to shove their words in front of as many eyeballs as possible. I really don't expect the "Following" view to remain safe from this for long.
- rsynnott 3y agoChanges like that will hasten Twitter's loss of relevance, though; there's a bit of a balance there. If you literally can't use Twitter without getting the blue-check brigade in your face, more people will leave.
- rchaud 3y agoStuff like this is why people want to block Blue badges. But hucksters on Twitter have been around since well before the acquisition. AI is just the latest snake oil they're selling. Previously it was NFTs, blockchain, dropshipping, 101-level coding 'tips'. Social media algorithms have always embraced bullshittery. There's a reason why "influencer" is a 4 letter word.