• 4 Posts
  • 1.51K Comments
Joined 3 years ago
cake
Cake day: August 5th, 2023

help-circle
  • No offense meant but I don’t have a Bluesky and I don’t go there. I also have no idea if I’m supposed to have seen this video and so on.

    The baseline of the joke is basically “tech oligarchs are aliens or machines” which is a well known and kind of player put joke that has been made repeatedly at the expense of literally almost every tech oligarch who’s heading a tech company today. Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Sataya Nadela, Sunsar Pichai, and Mark Zuckerberg have basically all had this joke made about them especially in regards to how they schill AI.

    Even if it’s not a self insert it follows the same basic premise of saying something we all agree with as the punchline. I don’t consider the HAL or Mr burns reference to be particularly funny but I’m not trying to trash talk this comic or the other one (which I also didn’t find particularly funny).

    I’m just pointing out the difference in reaction and also wondering if this is a holdover from the comics community where people read an opinion they agreed with and then regurgitated it over here.

    Much though I like the anti-ai community, I am willing to admit that something like this comic and the other one normally would do numbers with its users and not receive a lot in the way of backlash or open dislike except by trolls who frequent the community to start arguments.




  • There is a distinct possibility that when people like the guy you were talking to “retire” or get forced out, these corps will hire you (a person without the degree but with the passion to do the job). In pretty much all cases you should assume that they will be taking advantage of you in any way they can, including by looking to use your much cheaper labor to fill the holes the other guy left when they retired.

    They will pay you a fraction of what they paid him regardless of your skill. They will avoid any and all training so they don’t have to increase your pay. They will try to force you to use AI rather than building skills you will need to progress in a career like this. And when you give pushback they will force you out either by outright firing you or by making things so miserable you abandon your job. They will continue to do this to anyone they can get on the hook. Probably even after the bubble pops (using local models instead). They don’t want knowlegable humans because those people can ask for what they want and will advocate for it. Those people know what they are worth. They want patsies.















  • A lot of people think that these companies want to become too big to fail but I suspect something else is going on as well.

    Step 1. Make/pioneer new tech or buy it.

    Step 2. Get investors onboard with it so that you can get a lot of seed money.

    Step 3. Invest in the infrastructure to support widespread use of the technology.

    Step 4. Develope the technology even though it has known flaws.

    Step 5. Let those known flaws stir the pot and cause uncertainty in the market.

    Step 6. If the technology fails and the bubble pops, get government bailout.

    Step 7. Use money from bailout to buy up the infrastructure and components at a ridiculously rock bottom rate using these companies own money.

    Step 8. Use a combination of bailout money and insurance to make the investors whole (or as whole as their contract stipulates).

    Now at step 9 you are left with a bunch of commodities that tech companies need (data centers, supply lines for components, better power infrastructure, a knowlegable tech work force etc). And you don’t have to pay astronomical prices because the bottom fell out of the market.