Notices by Mudlark :verified_trans: (mudlark@bark.lgbt)

@masek this relies on the assumption that these things are actually useful enough to justify the exponential burning of money on them, and secondarily that there is actually enough capital in the world to do that. Which there isn’t - mathematically the current expenditure growth cannot continue.
Per Cory Doctorow’s recent analysis it would require 2x the whole world’s current loan output to keep this going for another 12 months. It’s not theoretically unsustainable, it’s fully economically unsustainable, which is why the big 3 ai players are setting up exit strategies by making the stock market hold the bag.

But also, this is all relying on LLMs being useful. 30 trillion dollars/year useful. Which they aren’t, and will never be. Unless a billion people all spend 30k a year on ai from now until forever.

So no, I reject the narrative of this shit being inevitable. Which company is going to lose a billion dollars a year updating their models so that their cloud ai/ local models don’t become outdated, creating deprecated code that can’t use new frameworks, if they cannot turn a profit from it?

@soatok Yeah, it's hard to accurately guess at these timelines. Lots has happened between now and then - I'm a little surprised that it's spacex/xAI going public first instead of openai, and the fact that Nasdaq has changed the rules specifically for them means that investment and retirement funds will be left holding the bag after 14 days.

All signs (to me, based on how there's still no amazing use for this tech) still point towards a catastrophic bubble pop, now made worse by the nasdaq rule change. I don't want to even try and guess a date now, because there's too many moving pieces financially.

spacex/xai's chart of total addressable market in their IPO document (below) really says all it needs to say about the ai hype scam.

Meanwhile, many software companies/projects are putting themselves on the path to an immense amount of technical debt and employee skill loss with this garbage (even my workplace is starting to show signs of going in that direction) :floofMug:

@Blender blender has been the biggest success story in FOSS since Linux. Why do this? Are there no actual artists or creators involved in these decisions?

Anthropic is also significantly involved with war and violence. Does the project accept those kind of sponsors now?

I feel like accepting this sponsorship is going to have knock on effects for the project that go much further than the size of the cheque you’ll get - you’re damaging trust, not just with the users ( not that the project leadership cares about what users/artists think, clearly ) but with devs and the people who contribute to the project. They’re not dumb, and they don’t have to donate their time if they don’t feel the project deserves it

@soatok I think what a lot of Americans don’t realise (or don’t want to admit) is that trump is possibly the most ‘American’ president there’s been so far.

Like, this is what the American empire is about. Invading other countries and killing their people, as well as the absolute prioritisation of the wealth of the capitalist class over the needs and rights of the people. He is much more abrasive about doing it, but the presidents before him were doing the same things, just quieter.

I think this can be best seen in /why/ trump is so deeply unpopular. The issues that are dominating popular discussion for Americans are… cost of living and ICE. A lot of Americans are unhappy with government because the misfortune is pointed inwards at them too now. Hell, even the main concern people have with the Iranian war is an economic one, not the ‘killing people’ part.

@soatok I don’t usually buy plushies at all. I do love plushies, but I strongly disagree with the manufacturing process. I’ll buy a plush only if I’m sure it’s been made by one artist.

I won’t buy plushies from stores, make ship, or places like this person’s operation. And I look down on people, especially artists and influencers who use services like this one or makeship to sell plushies of themselves or their characters.

A plush doesn’t cost 20 bucks (makeship) or 50 bucks (this corgi beans person) it takes hundreds of dollars in labour (not to mention materials and shipping and such) so when they are priced so low, it’s because somebody is getting massively exploited for their labour, usually in a sweatshop overseas where nobody can see what the conditions are like, putting these things together for a couple of dollars each (if that)

Some people are okay exploiting others massively to turn a profit on a run of these plushies, but I think it’s shit to profit from others like that. As for buying them, much of what we buy is made unethically, but while I can’t avoid buying essential things like clothes, a plushie isn’t an essential item, so I don’t support it. (Even though like I said, I love stuffed toys)

@jk actually… some coffee brands actually do that :floofLol: it’s not sawdust, but it may as well be - it’s a hardier (and worst tasting nearly all the time) plant variety called robusta. Some coffee brands mix in 20% to save on costs, and try to advertise it as a plus :floofMug: