BlueMonday1984

joined 1 year ago
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Microsoft lays off the staff who make the money to fund AI that doesn’t in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 7 points 8 hours ago

As a matter of fact, someone's noted Ed Zitron had called this back in September:

Stubsack: Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 6th July 2025 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 5 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Ed Zitron's planning a follow-up to "The Subprime AI Crisis":

(Its gonna be a premium column, BTW)

EDIT: Swapped the image for one that's easier-to-read

Microsoft lays off the staff who make the money to fund AI that doesn’t in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 18 points 20 hours ago (5 children)

This is pure speculation, but I get the feeling Microsoft's gonna significantly downsize, if not collapse, by the decade's end.

This recent move's gonna kneecap Microsoft's ability to function as a company, and their heavy investment into AI mean they'll likely take the brunt of the impact when the bubble bursts.

Stubsack: Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 6th July 2025 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

New blogpost from Iris Meredith: Vulgar, horny and threatening, a how-to guide on opposing the tech industry

Stubsack: Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 6th July 2025 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

New thread from Baldur Bjarnason publicly sneering at his fellow programmers:

Anybody who has been around programmers for more than five minutes should not be surprised that many of them are enthusiastically adopting a tool that is harmful, destroying industries, sabotaging education, and hindering the energy transition because they feel it's giving them a moderate advantage

That they respond to those pointing some of this out with mockery ("nuts", "shove your concern up your ass") and that their peers see this mockery as reasonable discourse is also not surprising. Tech is entirely built on the backs of workers with no regard for externalities or second order effects

Tech is also extremely bad at software. We habitually make fragile, insecure, complex, and hard to maintain code that backs poor UIs. The best case scenario is that LLMs accelerate already broken software dev processes in an industry that is built around monopolies and billionaire extremists

But, sure, feeling discouraged by the state of the industry is "like quitting carpentry as a career thanks to the invention of the table saw"

Whatever

How to pass an AI coding benchmark: train on the questions in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 12 points 1 day ago

Artificial intelligence and cheating/lying: two great tastes that go together

Stubsack: Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 6th July 2025 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 12 points 2 days ago

New thread from Ed Zitron, gonna focus on just the starter:

You want my opinion, Zitron's on the money - once the AI bubble finally bursts, I expect a massive outpouring of schadenfreude aimed at the tech execs behind the bubble, and anyone who worked on or heavily used AI during the bubble.

For AI supporters specifically, I expect a triple whammy of mockery:

  • On one front, they're gonna be publicly mocked for believing tech billionaires' bullshit claims about AI, and publicly lambasted for actively assisting tech billionaires' attempts to destroy labour once and for all.

  • On another front, their past/present support for AI will be used as grounds to flip the bozo bit on them, dismissing whatever they have to say as coming from someone incapable of thinking for themselves.

  • On a third front, I expect their future art/writing will be immediately assumed to be AI slop and either dismissed as not worth looking at or mocked as soulless garbage made by someone who, quoting David Gerard, "literally cannot tell good from bad".

Stubsack: Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 6th July 2025 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 9 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Dr. Abeba Birhane got an AI True Believer^tm^ email recently, and shared it on Bluesky:

You want my opinion, I fully support acausal robot deicide, and think AI rights advocates can go fuck themselves.

Stubsack: Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 6th July 2025 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 7 points 2 days ago

Alright that’s it: anime streaming needs to return to fansubbing

Fansubs are openly doing it for the love of the anime, so chances are they'd avoid AI slop like the plague (though the CHUDs would be okay with ChatGPT subs if it meant avoiding The Woke^tm^)

(note: this link contains a skintight anime bosom so don’t open it in front of your boss unless your boss is chill)

Good thing I'm a fucking NEET, then

‘AI is no longer optional’ — Microsoft admits AI doesn’t help at work in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 5 points 3 days ago

...Lotus, you clever bastard.

Stubsack: Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 6th July 2025 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
Nate Soares: "Buy my book or everyone dies' in c/sneerclub@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 9 points 4 days ago

Not to mention, these discussions partially enabled the rise of technofascism, making Yudkowsky and friends outright complicit in this shit.

20
Stubsack: Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 6th July 2025 (awful.systems)
 

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. Also, happy 4th July in advance...I guess.)

17
Rolling the ladder up behind us - Xe Iaso on the LLM bubble (xeiaso.net)
20
Stubsack: Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 29th June 2025 (awful.systems)
 

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

10
Some More Quick-and-Dirty Thoughts on AI's Future (awful.systems)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by BlueMonday1984@awful.systems to c/morewrite@awful.systems
0 comments fedilink
 

(No clue why I didn't get around to this earlier, I've had this in drafts for too long.)

Eight months ago, as you probably know, I predicted the current AI bubble would destroy artificial intelligence as a concept, focusing on the unrelenting slop and failures of AI, and on the near-universal backlash it receives whenever it rears its ugly, slop-ridden head.

As it turns out, I had completely failed to recognise the the political elements of this entire bubble. In retrospect, I should've recognised it a lot fucking earlier.

Between Baldur Bjarnason outlining the esoteric fascist elements at the heart of the AI bubble, AI slop's enthusiastic adoption by fascists of all stripes, Damien Williams' notes on authoritarians' love for gen-AI, Ashley Lynch calling AI slop inherently fascist, its become clear the outright fascist nature of AI has been staring me in the face the entire time.

With all that in mind, I'd like to expand on my previous piece with three additional predictions.

  1. AI-as-Fascism

Right off the bat, I expect AI as a concept will pick up a public perception of being inherently fascist, or at least a tool of fascism. Beyond all the ink spilled about AI's fascist nature, Donald Trump going all-in on AI has done plenty to link his administration with the tech, whether through making AI slop of deportees, or letting Elon Musk's AI Powered^tm^ Department Of Government Efficiency go to town on the federal gov.

Long-term, I expect this will hamper future attempts to start new AI bubbles/AI springs, as attempts to revive the tech get treated as morally equivalent to creating the Fourth Reich.

  1. The Wider Tech Industry

On a wider front, I expect the tech industry at large will pick up a similar stench of Eau de Fash as well. Whilst the tech industry has long enjoyed a perception of apoliticality (which James Allen-Robertson has talked about (spoilers for Devs BTW), their own heavy involvement with the Trump administration has done plenty to undermine that.

Between their sucking up to Trump and AI's own stench of Eau de Fash, I can see the public starting to view the tech industry at large as a Nazi bar once the bubble bursts. Silicon Valley's given 'em plenty of reason to do so.

  1. A Bone for The Humanities

Ending this off on a vaguely positive note, I suspect the bubble's burst will earn the humanities some begrudging respect once the dust settles - primarily through cannibalising a fair bit of the cultural cachet that STEM has built up over the decades.

On one front, the slop-nami has given us an absolute torrent of slop flooding the Internet, notable both in its uniquely inhuman shittiness, and in AI bros' breathless adoration of it. Given that, I expect programmers/software engineers will come to be viewed as inherently incapable of making anything on par with anyone who has taken up art as a hobby/profession, and incapable of understanding art with any sort of depth to it.

Additionally, I suspect a stereotype of programmers/software engineers being hostile to art/artists may form, thanks to the rather drastic toll this bubble has had on artists, and the ongoing rhetoric of "democratising art" that the bubble's given us. (The age-old "learn to code" adage may also come back to haunt them as well, if this comes to pass.)

On a wider front, the breathless "AI doomsday" criti-hype, more general over-the-top AI hype, and nonstop hallucination-induced mishaps will likely also contribute to making STEM as a discipline look out-of-touch with reality, making the humanities look grounded and reasonable by comparison as the public looks in confusion at AI bros' inability to recognise LLMs' shittiness for what it is.

27
We started porting LEGO Island to... everything? [MattKC] (www.youtube.com)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by BlueMonday1984@awful.systems to c/notawfultech@awful.systems
4 comments fedilink
 

Good news: a portable version of the LEGO Island decomp just came out, meaning ports to other OSes or devices are now possible.

Hell, there's even a browser port now, available at https://isle.pizza/. If you wanna learn more about the decomp, check out the video I linked.

16
The Psychology Behind Tech Billionaires (www.rollingstone.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by BlueMonday1984@awful.systems to c/sneerclub@awful.systems
2 comments fedilink
 

New Rolling Stone piece from Alex Morris, focusing heavily on our very good friends and the tech billionaires they're buddies with.

(Also, that's a pretty clever alternate title)

14
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 22nd June 2025 (awful.systems)
 

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

18
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 15th June 2025 (awful.systems)
 

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

24
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 8th June 2025 (awful.systems)
 

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. Also, happy Pride :3)

26
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 1st June 2025 (awful.systems)
 

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

17
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 25th May 2025 (awful.systems)
 

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

22
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 18th May 2025 (awful.systems)
 

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

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