This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
It’s the Wild West days of AI, just like the internet in the 90s. Do what you can with it now, because it’ll eventually turn into a marketing platform. You’ll get a handy free AI model that occasionally tries to convince you to buy stuff. The paid premium models will start doing it too.
Remember that you, the reader, don't have to take part in this. If you don't like it, don't use it - tell your friends and family not to use it, and why.
The only way companies stop this trend is if they see it's a losing bet.
Oh they'll force you to use it. It will be shoved into every service you use, also ones you need to use. You will not be able to do your work, access government services, or live your life without going through them.
Late stage capitalism has killed the free market a while ago.
Use at work is a secondary factor. If end stage customers refuse to use a service because of a certain trait, that trait becomes unprofitable.
As an example, my friends and I will never play Valorant because of the invasive anti-cheat system; most people don't care.
We all have a choice, even if it means giving up some conveniences. It would seem that most people either don't know or don't know better.
Millions of businesses are so innovative they are choosing the same basket to put all their eggs in.
Capitalism sure is fun. Simply side economics plus massive deregulation is sure to provide humanity with it's salvation.
It's crazy Google will lose its search dominance and all its money in my lifetime. Android will probably be the only thing left when I die.
Not even sure about that though. There are many ideas already to "revolutionize" the OS market where your device basically becomes a sole wrapper for AI, ditching the concept of apps etc. I assume it would center around some agentic bullshit or so.
The last 20 years has basically been entirely a troubling trend in tech.
Tech companies don't really give a damn what customers want anymore. They have decided this is the path of the future because it gives them the most control of your data, your purchasing habits and your online behavior. Since they control the back end, the software, the tech stack, the hardware, all of it, they just decided this is how it shall be. And frankly, there's nothing you can do to resist it, aside from just eschewing using a phone at all. and divorcing yourself from all modern technology, which isn't really reasonable for most people. That or legislation, but LOL United States.
Tech companies don’t really give a damn what customers want anymore.
Ed Zitron wrote an article about how leadership is business idiots. They don't know the products or users but they make decisions and get paid. Long, like everything he writes, but interesting
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/
Our economy is run by people that don't participate in it and our tech companies are directed by people that don't experience the problems they allege to solve for their customers, as the modern executive is no longer a person with demands or responsibilities beyond their allegiance to shareholder value.
Can confirm. The more you deal with people who have climbed to the tops of corporate ladders, the more it becomes clear that it's all vibes. It's all people telling stories to other people who tell stories about those stories.
The peter principle is wrong - in an oversized corporate structure, there is no upper bound for incompetence. You can keep rising for no reason, because after a certain point other people just trust that you know what you're talking about, and the people that know better work around you instead.
The people beneath you can't trust the people above you enough to explain the situation, the people above you don't really listen to the people beneath you anyway, and so plenty of middle managers just muddle through and constantly make shit up to justify their own existence, while everyone above and below is left in the dark about what's really going on.
Decisions are constantly made by people without any real connection to the consequences, and it shows. With the everything.
Nothing I can do to resist?
Microsoft is shoving this copilot in all its products? Alright, Linux and open source it is.
Google is bugging with its spyware? Well, I only use a Pixel phone, and ironically, its the best phone to put GrapheneOS on it.
Gmail? I don't remember when I opened mine the last time...
All what's really remaining right now is a good YouTube alternative.
Google has gotten so fucking dumb. Literally incapable of performing the same function it could 4 months ago.
How the fuck am I supposed to trust Gemini!?
google search got dumb on purpose, a whistleblower called it out - if you spend longer look on the search pages they get more "engagement" time out of you....
I was fucking irked when I wanted to use Hey Google to add something to my grocery list. I had switched to Gemini not realizing its scope, and suddenly Gemini was needing voice permission then some other seemingly unrelated, unnecessary permission (can't recall exactly but something like collaborative documents) to add to my grocery list. Fuck that. Then it seemed very difficult to find the setting to switch back to Google assistant, but I eventually found it.
I find this current timeline so confusing. Supposedly we're going to have AGI soon, and yet Google's AI keeps telling you to stick glue on pizza. How can both things be true?
It's the same reason why they removed the headphone jacks from phones. They don't want to give you a better product, they want you to force youbto use a product, even if it's worse in all aspects
Whoa don't come for Bluetooth like that. I like not having tangled wires and janky earbuds/headphones, especially because my clumsy ass used to snap the cords all the time by accident.
I do agree though that we should get the choice to use headphone jack or bluetooth. I also miss having a jack since I have to use my charging port to connect to my car radio...
Edit: My comment is an implication that I want phones with headphone jacks. I know that phones have headphone jacks and bluetooth. Why am I getting downvoted?
There are some outlandish rumours that it's possible for a device to have... both Bluetooth and a headphone jack.
Impossible! It's never been done!
My previous phone was like that. And had a better DAC that some of the cheaper converters.
The rich are cashing in our tax dollars to try to automate their control of an enslaved human race.
They will do anything besides just pay taxes and contribute to society
It's not even that
tech is under the helm of dipshit MBAs who have no idea of the technologies of the companies they control. They're all about the generative AI because it looks like a massive shortcut to compensate for their complete and utter lack of technical ability and talent.
Luckily, 90% of what Google goes all in on fails. I remember Stadia and Google Glass.
imagine if a company said they're going all in on quality instead
But higher quality ≠ more profits
AI apparently makes investors wanna dump in all their money tho
I work with ServiceNow for my job and a couple weeks back was the big knowledge 2025 conference in Vegas. The CEO came out for the opening keynote and opened with some like, "ah yea, doesn't it feel good to be an AI company?" and I didn't here a single cheer from the crowd, just polite applause. They have gone all in on AI, have made it completely unaffordable, and have just been shoehorning it into everything. I hope every one of these companies that that goes big on AI crashes and fails. They've already cut the employees, so the only people affected are the ones making the cash, so fuck em.
the fuck does service now even need AI for?
I hate any company I work for that uses ServiceNow. And now it's getting worse??
The Sunk Cost fallacy is strong
What tech company isnt going "all in" on AI? We just had Google I/O and AI was literally the only thing they talked about.
The two thing I use most, by far, from Google, is gmail and basic search.
Gmail, I'm looking to move away from it now, but I currently have every little addition to it disabled. Basic inbox and tags, no automatic filtering, no categories, no nothing.
Search, my browser is set to open the "web" tab with the query, no transformation, no summary, no "for you", no AI garbage, no "we thought you wanted video so there's only video in the replies". It still works fine.
Basically, none of what they added for years… maybe decade at this point, had held a glimmer of interest from me. It feels like this trend will continue. I just want something very basic that works.
Switch over to the Qwant search engine for your basic search and a good email provider like Tutamail or Proton. I have for a few months and there really is no reason to go back. It's simple and it works.
Gemini.
The twins.
Castor and Pollux.
They were tricked by their cousins and started the whole Trojan War.
Google did the same thing with Google Plus they went all in on social and it failed miserably
Guess my next phone is coming from Oneplus or Fairphone.
bUt AnDrOiD!!!
...can be chained to its desk and limited, I agree.
