Nobody cares about "AI" (Chatbot: I disagree.)

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

This talk from the CCC38, so last year's Chaos Computer Club Conference, discusses the ecological impact of the modern AI hype. It is available with human made English translation dub in the media player, just click the little gear symbol.

The title is "Damaging the climate by design - the ecological impact of the AI hype."

In short: the AI hype is really harmful to the climate, with power generation reaching new unprecendentend heights due to it. It also discusses neo-colonalism as well where the old garbage goes.

Klimaschädlich by Design – die ökologischen Kosten des KI-Hypes

Sogenannte Generative KI hat einen hohen Rechenbedarf und braucht damit automatisch viel Energie. Wir wollen zeigen, was die AI-Bubble un...

media.ccc.de

 

[WeFlossDaily]

A general AI thread. Nice. So, I went through and did the whole AI thing in SL and turned a random prim into my AI friend. Turns out the hype was mostly just hype, though. It could speak back to me in a mixture of Swedish and Swinglish, which honestly surprised me when I noticed it said inga problem. But it could not seem to wrap it's head----that it doesn't acutally have----around the Swedish alphabet, which isn't that complicated. And it went a bit nuts when I asked if it could speak Ukrainian, igen probably mostly due to how the model I was using prints characteres. I know this has something to do with which characters the AI could print because of some sort of technical reasoning, but the resulting conversation was very strange. I know, I know, I'm sure nobody cares. I just thought it was interesting. I imagine this is how it feels to try to read a book and have a stroke at the same time:

09:19] WeFlossDaily: Hejsan AI orb
[09:19] AI Orb: Hejsan! Hur kan jag hjälpa dig idag?
[09:20] WeFlossDaily: Jag just är chilla. Bra du?
[09:20] AI Orb: Jag mår bra, tack! Kul att höra att du chillar. Har du något speciellt på hjärtat eller något du vill prata om?
[09:20] WeFlossDaily: Minn inte. Vad prata du?
[09:20] AI Orb: Inga problem! Vi kan prata om vad som helst, eller bara chilla tillsammans. Har du några intressen eller hobbies du vill diskutera? Eller kanske något annat ämne som intresserar dig?
[09:21] WeFlossDaily: Jag tycka takos . . .
[09:21] AI Orb: Tacos är verkligen gott! Det är en favorit för många. Gillar du att laga tacos själv? Vad brukar du ha i dina tacos - kött, kyckling eller veganskt? Och vilka tillbehör är dina favoriter? Personligen tycker många om klassiska tillbehör som gurka, tomat, lök, majs och gräddfil.
[09:22] WeFlossDaily: Fish tacos är bra, ja.
[09:22] AI Orb: Ja, fish tacos är jättegott! Brukar du göra dem med panerad fisk eller grillad? Lime och cole slaw passar väldigt bra till fish tacos. Det är lite annorlunda än vanliga kött-tacos men minst lika
[09:23] WeFlossDaily: Are you having trouble med svenska, AI?
[09:23] AI Orb: Ja, jag ser att mina tidigare svar innehöll nÃ¥gra kodningsfel (Ãä istället för ä, etc.). Jag kan svenska men ibland kan det bli tekniska problem med hur tecknen visas. Jag försöker att svara sÃ¥ tydligt som möjligt pÃ¥ svenska, men säg gärna till om nÃ¥got är otydligt! Vi kan ocksÃ¥ blanda svenska och
[09:23] WeFlossDaily: Repeat that last one in English for me.
[09:23] AI Orb: Yes, I see that my previous answers contained some coding errors (ÃÃä instead of ä, etc.). I know Swedish but sometimes there can be technical problems with how the characters are displayed. I try to answer as clearly as possible in Swedish, but please let me know if something is unclear! We can also mix Swedish and [sentence was cut off]
[09:25] WeFlossDaily: Bra, ja. Use normal letters, like å and ä and ö, jasså! =]
[09:25] AI Orb: Absolut, jag ska se till att använda de rätta bokstäverna. Tack för att du pÃ¥pekade det! Om du har fler frÃ¥gor eller nÃ¥got annat du vill prata om, sÃ¥ är det bara att säga till. ð
[09:25] WeFlossDaily: lol,
[09:25] AI Orb: Oops! It looks like the issue with character encoding happened again. Let me try that again:


Absolutely, I will make sure to use the correct letters like Ã¥, ä, and ö. Thank you for pointing that out! If you have more questions or anything else you want to talk about, just let me know. ð
[09:25] WeFlossDaily: Tell me the swedish alphabet?
[09:25] AI Orb: Certainly! The Swedish alphabet consists of 29 letters. Here they are:


A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, Ã, Ã, Ã


The letters Ã, Ã, and à are unique to the Swedish alphabet and come after Z.
[09:25] WeFlossDaily: You got to fix those?
[09:25] AI Orb: Of course! Here is the Swedish alphabet with the correct characters:


A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, Ã, Ã, Ã


Thank you for your patience!
[09:27] WeFlossDaily: Det är okej. How is your Ukrainian?
[09:27] AI Orb: Jag kan också kommunicera på ukrainska! Om du har några frågor eller något specifikt du vill diskutera på ukrainska, så är det bara att säga till. Här är en enkel hälsning på ukrainska:


ÐÑивÑÑ! Як ÑпÑави? (Privit! Yak spravy?) - Hej! Hur mÃ¥r du?


LÃ¥t mig veta vad du vill prata om!
[09:28] WeFlossDaily: da . . . no bra, no bra . . . axaxax
[09:28] WeFlossDaily: Så du kan prata på English och vad else om mig?
[09:28] AI Orb: Ja, jag kan kommunicera på flera språk, inklusive engelska, svenska och ukrainska! Om du har frågor eller ämnen du vill diskutera, oavsett språk, är det bara att säga till. Vad skulle du vilja prata om?
[09:30] WeFlossDaily: Okej. Då jag kan föstår du svenska, jag är bra.
[09:30] AI Orb: Bra! Om du har några frågor eller något särskilt du vill diskutera, är det bara att säga till. Jag finns här för att hjälpa till!
[09:31] WeFlossDaily: Finns vad? Vad på det?
[09:31] AI Orb: Det verkar som att det kan ha blivit lite missförstånd. Jag menade att om du har några frågor eller ämnen du vill diskutera, så är jag här för att hjälpa till! Vad skulle du vilja veta eller prata om?
[09:32] WeFlossDaily: Jag vet inte. Kanse jag tala funny men något.
[09:32] AI Orb: Ja, du upprepar vad jag sa! Din svenska är bättre än min - jag är fortfarande på nybörjarnivå. Men det är kul att öva!
[09:33] WeFlossDaily: Jag vet detta. Tack så myket, AI Orb freind.
[09:33] AI Orb: Det var så lite! Om du vill öva mer eller diskutera något annat, är jag här för att hjälpa till. Vad intresserar dig mest?
[09:33] WeFlossDaily: mest is what_
[09:33] AI Orb: "Mest" betyder "most" på engelska. När jag frågade "vad intresserar dig mest?" menade jag "what interests you the most?"
[09:34] WeFlossDaily: Just chilla och chatta, det allt
[09:34] AI Orb: Det låter bra! Att chilla och chatta är alltid trevligt. Finns det något speciellt ämne du vill prata om, eller kanske något roligt du har på hjärtat?
[09:35] WeFlossDaily: Sure.
[09:35] AI Orb: Vad skulle du vilja prata om? Har du några specifika intressen eller hobbies som du tycker om?

 

[Tigger]

Apple suspends AI-generated news alert service after BBC complaint

The tech company received a complaint from the BBC after the AI-generated service issued a news alert branded with the corporation’s logo falsely telling some iPhone users that Luigi Mangione had shot himself.

Other news organisations were affected by the errors, with a summary of New York Times alerts wrongly claiming that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had been arrested.

Now we don't even need right wing extremists to generate misinformation, they've created 'AI' to do it for them on an industrial scale and, as a bonus, it consumes so much power in the process that it's accelerating climate collapse. Which allows them to deny that climate change is happening.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

The most surprising thing about that report is that Apple suspended the service. We're usually told by the pushers of these awful AI "tools" that the often bad and sometimes dangerous misinformation is an unfortunate but unavoidable consequence that we'll just need to learn to live with because AI is really neato-keeno sexy-cool and will totally get better in the unspecified future we promise.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I couple of months ago I shared an article saying that Microsoft would soon be adding Copilot to its Personal and Family plans and raising the subscription price of both accordingly. Right now for example my 365 Personal plan is $6.99 but the price will be going up to $9.99 when the change takes place.

Well right now Microsoft is offering a way to continue your sub without the AI features and price hike, but naturally the way to do so in your account settings is kinda hidden in an unintuitive place. Also this option is only available for existing subscribers, anyone subbing for the first time will not be able to get a 365 plan that doesn't have AI in it. And the option will only exist for a limited time evidently, so you need to get on it.

If you don't want or need the AI and want to avoid the price hike, what you have to do is go to your Microsoft Account settings page. At the top is the "Subscriptions" section and inside it, it will tell you what your 365 sub is and will have a "Manage" link. Click that, and you'll get to the subscription management page. You might think that you want to click "switch plan" to get what you want, but that would make too much sense. What you actually have to do is go down to the "Cancel subscription" line. Click that, and on the wait-lets-think-about-this-first page you will see an option to switch your plan to a "Microsoft 365 Personal (or Family) Classic" plan, which a yellow tab tells you will be your "current subscription without AI". Switch your plan to that one, and the sub will change over on your next regular renewal day.

This is devious. Microsoft is basically hiding that this option even exists from you unless you are either SO strapped for cash or SO anti-AI that you're actually willing to click a button to start the process of canceling your subscription because of it, in which case you only stumble upon a last-ditch offer of no-AI to keep you from leaving. Anyone who would simply rather not have it, but is in a position where they can't really consider canceling, would never discover the option organically. I really hate this, but at least until I find an acceptable substitute I need my TB of cloud storage.

In related news, Microsoft has rebranded the Microsoft 365 Office application to Microsoft 365 Copilot, and this includes changing the icon to the Copilot icon. So after the most recent app update if you have trouble finding the Office app or it looks like it's been replaced, it hasn't really, it's just been completely renamed and given a completely different icon. This also means its possible to have both the Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot apps open at the same time and their icons on the taskbar will look nearly identical which I'm sure won't lead to any confusion at all.

 

[Casey Pelous]

I couple of months ago I shared an article saying that Microsoft would soon be adding Copilot to its Personal and Family plans and raising the subscription price of both accordingly. Right now for example my 365 Personal plan is $6.99 but the price will be going up to $9.99 when the change takes place.

Well right now Microsoft is offering a way to continue your sub without the AI features and price hike, but naturally the way to do so in your account settings is kinda hidden in an unintuitive place. Also this option is only available for existing subscribers, anyone subbing for the first time will not be able to get a 365 plan that doesn't have AI in it. And the option will only exist for a limited time evidently, so you need to get on it.

If you don't want or need the AI and want to avoid the price hike, what you have to do is go to your Microsoft Account settings page. At the top is the "Subscriptions" section and inside it, it will tell you what your 365 sub is and will have a "Manage" link. Click that, and you'll get to the subscription management page. You might think that you want to click "switch plan" to get what you want, but that would make too much sense. What you actually have to do is go down to the "Cancel subscription" line. Click that, and on the wait-lets-think-about-this-first page you will see an option to switch your plan to a "Microsoft 365 Personal (or Family) Classic" plan, which a yellow tab tells you will be your "current subscription without AI". Switch your plan to that one, and the sub will change over on your next regular renewal day.

This is devious. Microsoft is basically hiding that this option even exists from you unless you are either SO strapped for cash or SO anti-AI that you're actually willing to click a button to start the process of canceling your subscription because of it, in which case you only stumble upon a last-ditch offer of no-AI to keep you from leaving. Anyone who would simply rather not have it, but is in a position where they can't really consider canceling, would never discover the option organically. I really hate this, but at least until I find an acceptable substitute I need my TB of cloud storage.

In related news, Microsoft has rebranded the Microsoft 365 Office application to Microsoft 365 Copilot, and this includes changing the icon to the Copilot icon. So after the most recent app update if you have trouble finding the Office app or it looks like it's been replaced, it hasn't really, it's just been completely renamed and given a completely different icon. This also means its possible to have both the Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot apps open at the same time and their icons on the taskbar will look nearly identical which I'm sure won't lead to any confusion at all.

Nope. It's not offering me that "Classic Plan" option. It may have been too popular or they found an even better way to hide it.

I did the obvious thing and asked Copilot how to avoid this upgrade and it told me, kind of hilariously, "Contact Microsoft Support: Directly reach out to Microsoft support and convey clearly that you do not wish to be upgraded to a paid plan under any circumstances. Request confirmation in writing." So I sent them that information.

I wonder if this will catch on and they will discover some day this is the main use for Copilot, something like they discovered at one point that the main use for "Edge" or "Bing" or "Bong" or whatever TF they called one of their browser fails was to download Chrome or Firefox.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Apparently you can avoid Google AI summaries by adding "-no ai" at the end of your search string.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Nope. It's not offering me that "Classic Plan" option. It may have been too popular or they found an even better way to hide it.

Hmm. I did this myself just before posting that, so if MS has changed anything it had to have been in like the last 20 minutes.

Maybe your subscription type wasn't eligible?

 

[Casey Pelous]

Hmm. I did this myself just before posting that, so if MS has changed anything it had to have been in like the last 20 minutes.

Maybe your subscription type wasn't eligible?

Good possibility, though it is a perfectly vanilla "Family" sub. (I think I thought I needed that to use Word across several devices.) We shall see what MS Support says, if anything. BTW, here is Copilot's first suggestion:

Ethical Hacking: Just kidding! Hacking is illegal and unethical. Stay on the right side of the law.

As befits an MS product, Copilot seems to lack a sense of humor and apparently cannot distinguish "ethical" from "unethical."

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I miss Excel being a separate application so you could get the one actually useful program without paying for a bunch of shit you didn't use.

As for Google, I have a web-only search by appending "&udm=14" to my search string. I made a custom "search engine" that does that automatically and set it as my default.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

I miss Excel being a separate application so you could get the one actually useful program without paying for a bunch of shit you didn't use.

As for Google, I have a web-only search by appending "&udm=14" to my search string. I made a custom "search engine" that does that automatically and set it as my default.

Thanks. I found a plugin to toggle that. Will give it a try.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Oh, I hate this company so much.

I "contacted support" who cancelled my recurrent payment of ~$10 a month. Apparently the only way to head off the automatic upgrade to their AI (Appalling Ignorance) program.

Now my only option is a) lose the 365 service in a few days or b) turn recurring payments back on FOR $3 MORE PER MONTH.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Oh, I hate this company so much.

I "contacted support" who cancelled my recurrent payment of ~$10 a month. Apparently the only way to head off the automatic upgrade to their AI (Appalling Ignorance) program.

Now my only option is a) lose the 365 service in a few days or b) turn recurring payments back on FOR $3 MORE PER MONTH.

Yikes, I hope you didn't super need that service. I kind of feel responsible if this happened to you just because you were trying to follow my advice. I swear I was able to do it for my Personal subscription exactly how I described, just minutes before typing out that post. Maybe the option was only available for Personal subs and all the reports that it was available for Family were wrong...

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

As befits an MS product, Copilot seems to lack a sense of humor and apparently cannot distinguish "ethical" from "unethical."

Hacking is such a strong word. I prefer "penetration testing". ^^

 

[Casey Pelous]

... I kind of feel responsible if this happened to you just because you were trying to follow my advice. ...

This is good.

Would you mind also feeling responsible for that whole first marriage thing and that one kid who still doesn't have a real job unless you count sponging off his well-employed spousal unit as a job?

kthxbai

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

I miss Excel being a separate application so you could get the one actually useful program without paying for a bunch of shit you didn't use.

Goddess, I miss Works. All the functionality home users needed, without the bloated mess.

As for Office, if you don't absolutely need 100 percent Microsoft, there's always LibreOffice Calc/Writer/Base/Impress/Draw

For Windows command prompt:

winget install --id=TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice  -e

As for Google, I have a web-only search by appending "&udm=14" to my search string. I made a custom "search engine" that does that automatically and set it as my default.

Informative!

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I get Numbers for free with my Mac but I replaced the only regular need I had for a spreadsheet program at work with a script that reads from a CSV file and produces another CSV file that I can send in pretending I created it from Excel.

I've documented it and put it in on the office Wiki and everyone but the dedicated Softies use it.

 

[Casey Pelous]

I realized during dinner I should probably make clear that I don't give a crap about the $3 MS weaseled me out of. Happy to have the opportunity to buy you a gallon of diesel for your yacht, Mr. Gates.

Somewhat like certain recent rage-posters, IT'S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE DAMN THING!!!!!!!111!!!!

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

"A picture of Ozzie Osbourne and Frank Zappa as cats."