Inspired by a recent talk from Richard Stallman.
From Slashdot:
Speaking about AI, Stallman warned that “nowadays, people often use the term artificial intelligence for things that aren’t intelligent at all…” He makes a point of calling large language models “generators” because “They generate text and they don’t understand really what that text means.” (And they also make mistakes “without batting a virtual eyelash. So you can’t trust anything that they generate.”) Stallman says “Every time you call them AI, you are endorsing the claim that they are intelligent and they’re not. So let’s let’s refuse to do that.”
Sometimes I think that even though we are in a “FuckAI” community, we’re still helping the “AI” companies by tacitly agreeing that their LLMs and image generators are in fact “AI” when they’re not. It’s similar to how the people saying “AI will destroy humanity” give an outsized aura to LLMs that they don’t deserve.
Personally I like the term “generators” and will make an effort to use it, but I’m curious to hear everyone else’s thoughts.
I support Stallman’s take. I think just saying “Fuck AI” is going to have almost zero effect on the world. I think we need to add nuance, reasoning, be accurate… Tell people WHY that is, so we can educate them. Or convince them to do something… Understand how these things work and why that’s good or bad to form an opinion… “Fuck AI” alone isn’t going to do any of that.
There’s literally nothing you could possibly do from an internet forum to have an effect on the world. This is for fun.
Brother if you ain’t shaping discourse you’re being shaped by it
Hah, I love this. Stealing it.
Shaping online discourse doesn’t matter, not on the scale we can effect as individual users. Billionaires shape online discourse with their algorithms and bots, what the fuck are you going to do to fight that? If you even begin to possibly threaten them they just deplatform you. That’s why we’re all on a niche subforum on a niche website.
If you want to do something that matters you have to log off.
Crazy idea… fight that? It really doesn’t seem like you’re having fun either though man, maybe take your own advice
I have fun getting really fucking mad.
At least I think I do. I keep doing it, after all.
There’s nothing no one person can do unless they’re very influential, but in aggregate, our real world thought patterns on a societal level are mostly dominated by online discourse.
I guess sometimes I’m wrong here. I’ll usually try to have a positive effect on the world. And do something about the things I perceive as wrong. Also it’s not really “fun” to me to discuss ludicrous RAM prices, burning of money, bad effects on the environment… I think that’s more a serious matter.
I get what you’re saying, though.
I think you’re doing great bud. Keep it up :)
Thx 🍻
Forums aren’t serious business, nothing important ever happens here.
Use forums to learn and be exposed to new ideas, to socialize, to obtain skills, to be informed, but remember that nothing you say on the internet really matters that much. If you aren’t doing this for fun, what’s even the point? You’re just wasting time.
Unrelated but here is list of things I find to be some of the most important activities I can think of:
Idk. The internet is a tool, I guess? I use forums to get my computer problems solved. Help other people with their woes… I talk to random strangers and learn something about their perspective on the world. Or what it’s like in a remote place… Talk about relationship issues. In the old days I’d use them to coordinate activities, projects. Sell used stuff or buy old hardware…
I mean you’re probably right, With social media, a lot of places lost meaning and it’s more memes and random noise. But I’d argue that’s not what the internet is about. Specifically internet forums.
But we’re all free to use them however we like. I’m not the Grinch, having fun is a perfectly valid thing to do, and should be part of the equation 😉
Ultimately I like to think I’m not just confined to armchair activism. I’ll mix online activities, real-world activism. I’ll do projects. Our hacker groups helped avoid Chatcontrol and their online actividies have an impact on people’s lives… Stallman changed the world… It’s a thing people can do if they like.