A dedicated community for minority groups and people of color, their interests, and their issues.
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The "dirty truth" isn't just about carbon. It's about colonization of resources.
AI isn't "cloud-based" — it's earth-based. It runs on rare minerals, stolen water, and fossil fuels.
And the heaviest costs aren't paid by Silicon Valley, but by frontline communities: Native lands, Black neighborhoods, rural towns.
We’re told AI will save the planet. But it’s being built on its destruction.
This isn't progress. It's extraction with a neural net.
👉 theitalianuncut.ch
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cloud Computing has revolutionized how we live and work.
Not for the average joe (or jane) it hasn't.
Of course, those trying to sell their services would like us all to think that it has...
Unfortunately, it has, just not necessarily in ways you know. AI is being used by most retail chains to catalogue and classify you when you shop. AI is being used by your job to analyze your behavior and productivity. It's being used by cities to track you. And they're all heavily reliant on cloud service providers.
I get what you mean but conversely, how does it impact let's say a barista? They head to work, clock in, sit there bored until someone makes an order then makes it, the cashier rings it up on a device (whether that uses AI or cloud-based anything as opposed to a desktop in the back room of the store is irrelevant to them), and they go back to trying to look like they are cleaning something.
Or a factory worker? Yeah maybe AI does the back-end scheduling, but however their shifts are determined, isn't it all the same to them?
Are their salaries any higher or lower as a result of using "the cloud"? Do they get PTO now, whereas before AI or cloud computing they did not?
Yes those technologies impact our culture, but I strongly disagree with the wording that it has "revolutionized how we live and work". The CEO seems the most impacted, the worker the least, but the former still lives a cushy life while the latter not so much -> genuinely what has been "revolutionized" there?
In the future though, I believe it could be revolutionary - e.g. if the CEO could use AI to monitor every single worker in the entire company, then (without the need for any human middle management) personally video call them from the golf course to tell them to stop taking so many bathroom breaks, since just bc they chose to have a baby is no reason to "slack off" rather than work!! /s on the latter btw:-P But we don't seem quite there yet?
White-collar workers who can now WFH would have been a major exception, except... (gestures wildly at surroundings) yes we have that CAPABILITY, and seemingly not much desire to actually fulfill it?
Workplaces have always tracked their employees - via cameras, keylogging or similar (lower-resolution methods merely seeing if activity is taking place), or even just eyeballing that people look busy(-ish). Cities have always tracked the people going through it - e.g. speed traps. Yes the scale of it can now be done cheaper and easier than ever before, except... can it? If someone does not take a phone with them, or uses a dumbphone, and drives a dumbcar (hehe, that term does not exist yet - but it SHOULD! also I would like a dumbTV please:-D), then the options get a lot more narrow (not non-existent, as pictures of a vehicle can still be taken, and that could still be analyzed by AI - but again, isn't that mostly the future rather than now, not in terms of capability but in terms of what is used in actual practice?)
I am just not seeing it, or at least I mean that what I do see happening seems mostly jargon-esque and buzzword ego-stroking, much like "AI is transforming EVARYTHANG!", seemingly intended to inflate stock prices more than actually accomplish any particular goal. Palantir in the USA being the major exception... gulp, but that too will need at least a few months to ramp up, rather than already having "revolutionized how we live and work", at least for most (even if nowhere close to quite all) people, again who are not the CEOs nor the increasingly dwindling (these days, sadly) white-collar workforce, and even there the subset of them that have actually been transformed (except... how again? yes cloud engineers work on the cloud, obviously, but before that server engineers worked on servers, and desktop engineers worked on desktops, so that seems not a fair comparison)?
But I am willing to be proven wrong, if you think that I am? :-D
how does it impact let's say a barista?
Starbucks to roll out Microsoft Azure OpenAI assistant for baristas
Or a factory worker?
Facial tracking can be used to track where people are and what they are doing. I can't find any specific examples, but I do remember reading a while back about this being tried in China somewhere.
Are their salaries any higher or lower as a result of using "the cloud"? Do they get PTO now, whereas before AI or cloud computing they did not?
No. No.
Here are some ways the latest wave of AI has affected people off the top of my head:
Those ideas include automatically creating a ticket with IT for equipment issues or generating suggestions for a substitute when a barista calls out of work,
(from the article you linked about Starbucks) - just seems more of the same to me, with the bonus possibility of hallucinations, though tech not working correctly has been a thing since tech itself has existed, like The Wheel. So long as the barista still makes coffee, I have a hard time seeing an AI assistant as "revolutionary" or "transformative"? A couple of recipes written with a marker on a whiteboard seems like it could accomplish most of the same set of tasks, and similarly the scheduling of workers taking time off...
Now job applications you got me on, that really does sound like something that has transformed the entire industry, and very much not in a good way, sigh:-(. Although was that really "AI" that did that, vs. the shittiness of the management? Anyway AI prompted it so yeah, I have to yield that one, even if unfortunately not in the direction that AI made something "better", bc of some property inherent within AI itself, like if it actually functioned as sold (and paid for) where it would connect people hiring to those wanting to be hired in a "better" fashion than previously.
Though misinformation is not unique to AI: Faux News did it daily for decades without the help of AI or barely needing computers even. In fact the Founding Fathers of the USA warned about opening up voting to "the masses" (like without a test for suitability to engage in responsible citizenry type activities, including voting but also just so happening to be aware of what branches of government exist in the first place), so it definitely predates computers, technology, and if we look in the natural world, probably predating even multicellular lifeforms (in fact prions might have messed up proteins even before that early beginning). None of which takes away how truly shitty things are about to become when video "evidence" can be easily faked by a handheld device - that will be transformative for sure, eventually as it becomes more widely used.
But in the meantime baristas still just make coffee, and I doubt they much care what buzzwords managers use to describe why they are claiming that they are going to all be fired:-(.
A couple of recipes written with a marker on a whiteboard seems like it could accomplish most of the same set of tasks, and similarly the scheduling of workers taking time off...
And now you see the point. They're pushing conversational assistants to their baristas, and the expectation will be that they use them. But they do nothing of value. But use it or you're fired.
(Totally not annoyed at this being a thing in the industry I work in.)
Omg is it as "transformative" as AGILE? I shudder to think... people spitting out their coffees everywhere, citing "wow you can really taste that AI infusion"! 🤢🤮😬
It's funny you mention baristas, because Starbucks is using AI to monitor employees, doing "sentiment analysis" to tell if they're against/ unhappy with corporate policies, and even potentially using that info for termination decisions. You can be sure they're also using it to help fight unionization efforts.
I definitely get the impression that you are not aware of how prevalent AI surveillance is currently. Cities can track people using police-linked, privately owned cameras, not relying on cellphones or internet-linked cars, including other methods than facial recognition.
Yeesh, what a world... hey, did you know that you would be prettier if you smiled more, and also liked my post, and subscribed to my channel, yes and initial here, and there too, no no I wanted your first-born child not second, it's an easy mistake but glad we cleared that up, and hey you know what why don't I just go ahead and have you give me your second one as well while I am thinking about it, yeah that would be great... 👍 👔
I knew the police surveillance was possible but not sure how widespread it has practically become.