Artless 15 - The social beast hunts you 8th February 2025

Opinion

A garden you can't escape

A recent newsletter from Cory Doctorow went into why there need to be fire exists in every social network - a way to leave with your followers that is easy and accessible. If people can't leave, then the network grows arogant an begins to implement bad policies. Like when Twitter said it is not going to promote links to other social networks. Or when Instagram said it is going to fill itself with AI bots. These are moves that no sane user would stand for, but most people have no choice. They can't leave without losing access to their close online friends.

A newsletter service by contrast has built-in portability. If you run one and it gets banned, you cn always export your email subscriber list and use it elsewhere. More and more services now allow for this. Patreon allows you to export your followers emails, so does Medium, so does Substack.

Even among social networks, Mastodon's primary appeal is that you can change your account and take your followers with you. Only yesterday, I tried it and successfully moved to a new Mastodon account.

(You may find and follow me by searching for vimoh@me.dm on Mastodon although I won't be posting there.)

The implosion of AI

I have been watching with some amusement the beginning of AI companies hype coming back to bite them in the posterior. A lot of corporate propaganda (both paid and unpaid) was put out implying that the future is automated and human work has little value now and a lot of us (including me at one point) fell for it. But it is becoming increasingly apparent that that is not going to happen.

Sure, there are many sectors that will benefit from AI. But creativity is not one of them. In fact, the singular refrain I am hearing from everyone with a say is NO. Most people are sane enough to realise that machine output is not and cannot be art. And that humans are not out of the race even by a long shot.

Links

AI startup tells job seekers to not use AI on applications

I think this is telling. The point is not doing the job. The point is being human and having the ability to learn and adapt and have new ideas. No matter how much AI hustlers try to sell you an automated future, people will still be needed.

Meta AI can now use your Facebook and Instagram data

You okay with this? I mean, I am pretty sure that almost one hundred per cent of your personal messaging is happening through WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. You are sharing bank account details, addresses, personal informtation and whatnot. Meta has just openly said it will use all of that to train its AI bot.

Authors Guild will allow you to certify your book as 'Human Authored'

No matter how much AI hustlers tell you that the future of publishing is AI automated, the thing that is becoming increasingly clear is that human-created works are going to be more valuable now, not less.

Do this free course on AI

Here is a free course about LLMs and their impact and the things we all should think about. It's by two professors at the University of Washington, one a biologist and the other an information scientist.

"Learning from the vast amounts of personal information that you generate every day as you navigate the internet, these personalized LLMs will deliver you fully-written AI-articles about your local community, spun to reflect your political leanings. They'll regale you with AI-generated podcasts about your latest hobbies, your favorite artists, the sports teams you follow. And they'll feed you conspiracy-theories designed to reinforce your personal suspicions, whatever they may be, about shadowy forces controlling our world."

Why AI can't tell your emotion

It is one thing to say what one looks like they are feeling and quite another to tell what they are actually feeling. Human perception is more nuanced than just face value.

Ev Williams on "social" media

The other day, Ev Williams came to mind because I had not heard of him for a long time. In case you don't know, Ev was one of the founding minds behind Blogger.com, Twitter.com, and Medium.com. I looked up his blog and found he is starting something called Mozi now. It's a private social network where those you connect with will be actual people you know in real life. I am in two minds and I will not be signing up, but the following paragraph resonated with me.

"Social networks became “social media,” which, at first, meant receiving content from people you chose to hear from. But in the quest to maximize engagement, the timeline of friends and people you picked to follow turned into a free-for-all battle for attention. And it turns out, for most people, your friends aren’t as entertaining as (god forbid) influencers who spend their waking hours making “content.” In other words, social media became…media."

Brooke Cormier wanted 250K Instagram followers. She succeeded

A great wake-up call for artists who go on Instagram to grow their following for one reason and then get stuck there doing something else.

Podcasts are pushing young Australian men towards the Right Wing

It happened in US, it happened in India, it is happening in Australia. As someone who was a great believer in the power of podcasts a few years ago, my optimism has proven both right and wrong. Yes, podcasts were the future. No this lie-filled future is not the one I was dreaming of.

Are you willing to pay for sunlight?

Tech bros had the idea to build homes that are basically holes in the ground and then monetising your need for daylight. You will pay because you don't want to die depressed in the dark. Yay capitalism!