Just over the last few years it went virtual reality, blockchain and crypto crap, and now chatbots.

What will the next fad be? I'd like to know so I can convince one of these VC ghouls that they should give me money for vaporware.

  • Tabitha ☢️[she/her]
    hexbear
    64
    3 months ago

    The technology behind LLMs is a 1000000x force multiplier for scammers, spammers, astroturfers. For your average person, it's like Spell Check 2.0.

    A lot of companies are taking their existing AI-less SaaS products and are looking to upcharge $10-$50/month for reselling you a handful of "Open"AI API calls.

    The free and open web is closing shop because they don't want to be scraped by LLM trainers. Or because Google algorithms allow a rando to buy a domain, put a "reword this article" LLM proxy over your website to steal all your organic traffic.

    big-cool

    • AernaLingus [any]
      hexbear
      48
      3 months ago

      I am becoming more and more convinced that we are going to have to RETVRN to webrings and manually curated directories

        • AernaLingus [any]
          hexbear
          5
          3 months ago

          Can you recommend any directories/webrings in particular? I'm obviously looking back on things with rose-tinted glasses--I wish Google would just work properly like it used to--but I think it's a good way to break out of the big tech bubble.

      • fox [comrade/them]
        hexbear
        6
        3 months ago

        I've seen a couple of them out there. Discoverability is utter trash but I think that's what you'd expect from super niche "welcome to my intersite!" type microcommunities

  • Coolkidbozzy [he/him]
    hexbear
    36
    3 months ago

    Contenders include tesla's humanoid robots, neural implants for the average consumer, using quantum computers for tasks they aren't meant for, and a flying car startup that accidentally sparks a dozen miniature 9/11s

  • keepcarrot [she/her]
    hexbear
    33
    3 months ago

    I feel like of the VC tech buzzes, the "ai" thing has had the most use to the capitalist class as a tool of labour discipline. It doesn't have to be that good (read: good at what it says it does) to do that.

  • BioWarfarePosadist [she/her, they/them]
    hexbear
    33
    3 months ago

    They'll finally invent teleportation, but it's the most unhealthy version of it, but because it's so hyped up, the ultra wealthy use it all the time not realizing you lose 0.001% of all your mass each time you do it, until an influencer realizes he lost weight using the teleporter and uses it over and over again, until he had teleported away approximately 1% of his body weight. Unfortunately a large amount of that small percentage was most of the wall of his Aortic valve, causing him to internally bleed out in a single minute, when it inevitably tore mid teleport.

    • Parsani [love/loves, comrade/them]
      hexagon
      hexbear
      33
      3 months ago

      Even with the downsides, that is describing something which actually works. That disqualifies you from VC funding.

      • BioWarfarePosadist [she/her, they/them]
        hexbear
        13
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        I mean, the chat bots work great for programming, github copilot was great. Cryptocurrency was honestly the best way to buy drugs for a while. Most things VC are into have a small narrow space they are actually good for, but then they get used for business and finance and it all goes to shit... Just like anything captured to be used for business and finance.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        hexbear
        15
        3 months ago

        I think about the continuity of consciousness problem all the time. To die, to sleep. To sleep perchance to dream?

        • buckykat [none/use name]
          hexbear
          6
          3 months ago

          A creature whose biochemistry is so dependant on discontinuity of consciousness that it will literally go insane and die if its consciousness is continuous for too long: "oh no if my consciousness is discontinuous in a different way that means I've died and been replaced!"

    • rtstragedy [she/her]
      hexbear
      8
      3 months ago

      ngl aortic dissection is one of my fears, so i'll pass on the teleporter

  • buh [any]
    hexbear
    29
    3 months ago

    Theranos but for cum

    • ICantStopSuckingDick [comrade/them]
      hexbear
      20
      3 months ago

      Ok this is gonna be awesome, trust, me. Imagine you got a friend who likes to fluff, a friend who likes to blow loads, a friend who likes to get blasted, and a friend who likes to swallow. Alright, we get it, you're privileged. The average person only knows one person who likes one thing. Now imagine an app that automatically does match making and schedules the fluffer, the blast target, the swallower, and the package to all meet up just in time do their roles. We'll call it Swallumloads. First, we'll need a blockchain, we'll call the tokens Strokens, and the match making will be powered by a 4 way reverse auction. The roles in highest demand will be offered Strokens (Swallumloads tokens) and the roles in least demand will receive tokens. Think of it like Uber for boners.

  • ChaosMaterialist [he/him]
    hexbear
    27
    3 months ago

    It's going back to On-Prem computing, driven by large reductions in VC funding. This will drive tools and products that make the transition easier. It'll reach a hype pitch as everybody rediscovers how to run their own servers, until the maintenance bit comes 'round and The Cloud (aka, managed services) makes a comeback.

    • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
      hexbear
      7
      3 months ago

      Honestly I hate leasing but it makes sense for this. Just have several tiers of "needs most performance" to "dentists office" and lease down, as the tier above outgrows the last best thing, the tier below considers it an upgrade. This hardware has way more life than people realize. The leasing company can even handle some on-prem maintenance.

      • ChaosMaterialist [he/him]
        hexbear
        3
        3 months ago

        I expect this to happen right after local datacenters, but before those datacenters start hosting VPS offerings.

  • Evilphd666 [he/him, comrade/them]
    hexbear
    22
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    sicko-charging A.I. laywers that make judges and supreme court irrelevant - but the training data is stuck on a 8-1 conservative slant.

          • buckykat [none/use name]
            hexbear
            13
            3 months ago

            Nah, the palm pilots were actually okay, I'm talking like windows xp tablet pc edition

            • Parsani [love/loves, comrade/them]
              hexagon
              hexbear
              5
              3 months ago

              That does live on in touscreen laptops though, but I know what you mean. I'm still skeptical about the vision pro having the same effect.

              • buckykat [none/use name]
                hexbear
                5
                3 months ago

                I'm not necessarily predicting that AR will actually succeed or be useful, just that a lot of VC money will try to jump on the bandwagon now that Apple has

        • glans [it/its]
          hexbear
          8
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          first tablet i ever saw was one of these. Wish I'd had $100 to buy one.

          Show

          Show

          Show

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]
            hexbear
            9
            3 months ago

            I've always been bummed that video chat has been practical for years and years, and the only people i ever video chat with are doctors. : (

            • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]M
              hexbear
              9
              3 months ago

              Why be on video when for the majority of people and conversations, just voice is 100% as good and you don't have to be seen? People hate being perceived, that's why people hate work zoom calls so specifically. "This could have been a phone call or email."

              Anecdotally, I think there's a neurotypical-neurodivergent divide on video calls, but it's definitely understudied.

            • sappho [she/her]
              hexbear
              4
              3 months ago

              Video chat is pretty much my entire social life now due to COVID. Met the vast majority of my current friends over Zoom. I know you said earlier you're still masking - if you don't know where to find video chat social events for covid-conscious people I can get you some links.

        • Dessa [she/her]
          hexbear
          5
          3 months ago

          I remember being excited that my Nintendo DS had a calculator and a notepad

          • buckykat [none/use name]
            hexbear
            4
            3 months ago

            Was that a DSi thing? I don't remember my old DS having those. Or do you mean the poketch inside pokemon diamond/pearl?

            • Dessa [she/her]
              hexbear
              3
              3 months ago

              Maybe it was 3ds?

              The notepad was the ine with Nikki or whatever though that got banned because some creep tried to groom kids with it.

  • Egon [they/them]
    hexbear
    18
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    ARG
    Cathode Ray Tube computers like in fallout
    MySpace
    Web1 but somehow bad
    Just actual slavery ™️

  • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]
    hexbear
    18
    3 months ago

    The amount of time I waste at work talking about “AI” I stg

    Probably the worst part about this is the massive number of data centers and power / CO2 emissions being spent on a solution in search of a problem

  • geese_feces [comrade/them, love/loves]
    hexbear
    16
    3 months ago

    Transparent displays. Samsung and LG were showing off transparent screens at CES this year. Transparent TVs will be extremely expensive and not practical at all but they look cool so it will be the new techbro status symbol.

  • @Great_Leader_Is_Dead
    hexbear
    15
    3 months ago

    Weird I thought the ChatBot stuff was actually a bit more legit than these other things. Like, not in that it was actual AI or anything but that it worked well enough that actual proper capitalists, not just VC "nouveau" riche dorks, were considering using it for actual stuff, or at least trying to.

    A decent amount of people on the lefty web seemed worried about it shrug-outta-hecks

    • Parsani [love/loves, comrade/them]
      hexagon
      hexbear
      23
      3 months ago

      The chatbots are being used as cover to lay off a bunch of workers, and will further shittify the service sector, but I'm slowly becoming convinced that it will fizzle out soon once its clear it won't be what they have convinced themselves it is.

      VR and crypto are still around, but neither are the groundbreaking "world will be fundamentally changed forever" technologies they were convinced of at the time.

      • Dolores [love/loves]
        hexbear
        14
        3 months ago

        The chatbots are being used as cover to lay off a bunch of workers, and will further shittify the service sector

        i don't think these are going away soon so i wouldn't consider it 'fizzled', maybe it'll lose hype but i don't think it's going to be a comparable debacle to 'metaverse' bullshit

    • @jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
      hexbear
      19
      3 months ago

      There was that news article recently where a chat bot told a guy a completely false policy, and the company tried to say they're not accountable for what the boy says.

      That's about the tier I expect chat bots to operate at

    • BigHaas [he/him]
      hexbear
      8
      3 months ago

      Soon we're gonna get generative ai + formal verification for things like software development, and truck drivers will be entirely replaced. It's for sure a big deal. The next decades gonna be fun

      • @Muehe@lemmy.ml
        hexbear
        2
        3 months ago

        truck drivers will be entirely replaced

        Oh, the thing Elon predicted will happen "within the next year" repeatedly for the last ten years will finally happen for real? This is starting to feel like that in-joke about fusion reactors.

    • Tabitha ☢️[she/her]
      hexbear
      7
      3 months ago

      but that it worked well enough that actual proper capitalists

      that's precisely the problem, it works a little too well for them, and they have the money to use it against you.