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I've seen this ad a hundred times during the Olympics so far (why do they play the same ads over and over?) -- and this article summarizes how it makes me feel

I've seen this ad a hundred times during the Olympics so far (why do they play the same ads over and over?) -- and this article summarizes how it makes me feel very well. The logical extension of this stuff is insane -- why have kids learn to write at all? They can just have an AI do it. Why learn anything? It's all on the internet anyway. There are plenty of good use cases for AI generated texts. Creating transcripts from audio, writing meeting summaries, and other types of rote, monotonous tasks. Writing a letter from the heart is not one of those things that should be outsourced. If there's anything on this earth we should value, it's humanity. And the tech giants are chomping at the bit to take that away. It's a sad vision for the future they're pushing

jinushaun 2y ago
Many have said it before: big tech is using AI to automate the wrong things.
- potatoman22 2y ago
  I think there's plenty of "right" things that are being automated. They're just small/boring tasks so no one talks about them.
  - shrimp_emoji 2y ago
    Like employees
api 2y ago
This and that awful Apple ad are both saying the same thing, or at least that’s how people interpret it. They’re saying “AI is here to make life sterile and empty and it’s awesome!” What I find most intriguing is the fact that these are giant companies with huge ad budgets and that presumably clear the highest profile ads with the C suite or people near it. All these presumably smart people thought these ads were great. They either agreed with the message or wanted to convey a different one that absolutely did not come through… as any moron could have told them. It shows how insulated the bubble is around these people and companies. They must never even interact with people who aren’t drinking the same brand of kool-aid. It’s tempting to think this is just an elite mega corp thing but I see loads of out of touch bubbles around. People need to mix more. Get out of whatever filter bubble you live in. Read things you disagree with. Know people outside your profession or who don’t think like you. We used to say “travel” but I think intellectual and social diversity is more important now. We carry our filter bubbles with us. Travel can still help though, especially if it’s to places with differing dominant cultures.
- its_ethan 2y ago
  With respect to the Apple ad, I don't think that was about AI at all - it was for the newest iPad Pro right? I interpreted it as look at all these cool arts/creative things that we've managed to compress into a single sheet of glass. I sort of get how people interpreted it as just maliciously destroying those things as a means to an end, but that feels like an intentional reading of bad faith to a company that is generally very creativity-minded. I wonder if it would have received less blow back if they had "hidden" the actual crushing of the objects and just showed them entering a chamber with an implied compression... but the visuals of everything exploding in the hydraulic press are pretty cool and a more dynamic way to convey the "look at what all we've packed into the product" message.
  - ethbr1 2y ago
    > I wonder if it would have received less blow back if they had "hidden" the actual crushing of the objects and just showed them entering a chamber with an implied compression... Yes. You just wrote a better ad than Apple's highly paid agency.
  - JohnFen 2y ago
    > but that feels like an intentional reading of bad faith I don't think it was an intentional reading in bad faith at all. I think the reaction is a result of the general public's existing perception of the state of things: big tech is here to monetize and worsen everything you love. Whether or not that's an accurate perception, it is a very common one. The tech industry seems to view itself as unalloyed "good guys", but that's not generally how it's viewed among normal people.
  - consteval 2y ago
    > intentional reading of bad faith In my opinion, marketing relies on targeting people's initial guttural feelings. That's why car commercials always show the cool part of driving, to activate the monkey brain "ooo shiny!" mentality. So, I think criticisms of how people feel are fair game. Meaning if someone doesn't have a logical argument that's fine to me - because marketing is emotional manipulation anyway, so if your emotions got manipulated wrongly then the marketing failed.
ignoramous 2y ago
> Writing a letter from the heart is not one of those things... Is Notepad okay or should one write it up on Papyrus like Herodotus did? Is email fine, or you reckon Ravens, like the good ol' days?
- kjsingh 2y ago
  we are talking about content and you are after the medium :)
- stavros 2y ago
  That's some good snark. I wonder if Gemini could produce that.

jinushaun 2y ago

Many have said it before: big tech is using AI to automate the wrong things.

potatoman22 2y ago
I think there's plenty of "right" things that are being automated. They're just small/boring tasks so no one talks about them.
- shrimp_emoji 2y ago
  Like employees

api 2y ago

This and that awful Apple ad are both saying the same thing, or at least that’s how people interpret it. They’re saying “AI is here to make life sterile and empty and it’s awesome!” What I find most intriguing is the fact that these are giant companies with huge ad budgets and that presumably clear the highest profile ads with the C suite or people near it. All these presumably smart people thought these ads were great. They either agreed with the message or wanted to convey a different one that absolutely did not come through… as any moron could have told them. It shows how insulated the bubble is around these people and companies. They must never even interact with people who aren’t drinking the same brand of kool-aid. It’s tempting to think this is just an elite mega corp thing but I see loads of out of touch bubbles around. People need to mix more. Get out of whatever filter bubble you live in. Read things you disagree with. Know people outside your profession or who don’t think like you. We used to say “travel” but I think intellectual and social diversity is more important now. We carry our filter bubbles with us. Travel can still help though, especially if it’s to places with differing dominant cultures.

its_ethan 2y ago
With respect to the Apple ad, I don't think that was about AI at all - it was for the newest iPad Pro right? I interpreted it as look at all these cool arts/creative things that we've managed to compress into a single sheet of glass. I sort of get how people interpreted it as just maliciously destroying those things as a means to an end, but that feels like an intentional reading of bad faith to a company that is generally very creativity-minded. I wonder if it would have received less blow back if they had "hidden" the actual crushing of the objects and just showed them entering a chamber with an implied compression... but the visuals of everything exploding in the hydraulic press are pretty cool and a more dynamic way to convey the "look at what all we've packed into the product" message.
- ethbr1 2y ago
  > I wonder if it would have received less blow back if they had "hidden" the actual crushing of the objects and just showed them entering a chamber with an implied compression... Yes. You just wrote a better ad than Apple's highly paid agency.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  > but that feels like an intentional reading of bad faith I don't think it was an intentional reading in bad faith at all. I think the reaction is a result of the general public's existing perception of the state of things: big tech is here to monetize and worsen everything you love. Whether or not that's an accurate perception, it is a very common one. The tech industry seems to view itself as unalloyed "good guys", but that's not generally how it's viewed among normal people.
- consteval 2y ago
  > intentional reading of bad faith In my opinion, marketing relies on targeting people's initial guttural feelings. That's why car commercials always show the cool part of driving, to activate the monkey brain "ooo shiny!" mentality. So, I think criticisms of how people feel are fair game. Meaning if someone doesn't have a logical argument that's fine to me - because marketing is emotional manipulation anyway, so if your emotions got manipulated wrongly then the marketing failed.

ignoramous 2y ago

> Writing a letter from the heart is not one of those things... Is Notepad okay or should one write it up on Papyrus like Herodotus did? Is email fine, or you reckon Ravens, like the good ol' days?

kjsingh 2y ago
we are talking about content and you are after the medium :)
stavros 2y ago
That's some good snark. I wonder if Gemini could produce that.