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.
Google is going ‘all in’ on AI. It’s part of a troubling trend in big tech
Submitted 2 days ago by Pro@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
Eggyhead@lemmings.world 22 hours ago
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 1 day ago
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
Taleya@aussie.zone 1 day ago
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.
jsomae@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
AI is not needed to automate the control of the human race. I feel like it’s already an essentially automated problem from the rich’s perspective.
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 1 day ago
AI doesn’t say no, AI doesn’t fight back
WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
it is “automated” by some “peasants” they are already paying “too much”. maybe they want to reduce those costs too.
AI serverparks may consume more power (for now?), but at least they don’t question your commands. maybe that’s how they see it.
sartalon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
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!?
echodot@feddit.uk 1 day ago
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?
ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 1 day ago
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
auraithx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Google just released a video generator that is a ball hair away from perfection. The hallucination rate from their latest models is <1% and dropping you just see cherry picked screenshots.
Emi@ani.social 1 day ago
I assume it’s big tech that has this weird ai they try to sell while the scientists are using different ai for real useful stuff, like the protein something I heard. Or at least that’s what I’d like to believe.
dirthawker0@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
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.
lightsblinken@lemmy.world 1 day ago
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…
ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Luckily, 90% of what Google goes all in on fails. I remember Stadia and Google Glass.
jsomae@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
In that case, we should encourage google to go all-in on climate change, racism, and war; they should back the conservative party as well. Then 90% of those will fail.
jj4211@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I remember some people very vehemently telling me that I was dumb to be skeptical of Stadia, that it really was going to just take over the industry…
flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I still don’t understand how Stadia got out the door the way it did. It was the exact same business model Onlive tried back in the day. And it predictably failed the exact same way.
sandflavoured@lemm.ee 1 day ago
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.
HK65@sopuli.xyz 12 hours ago
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.
match@pawb.social 2 days ago
imagine if a company said they’re going all in on quality instead
Fisch@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
But higher quality ≠ more profits
AI apparently makes investors wanna dump in all their money thoBeerenmix@lemm.ee 1 day ago
We have to find those investors man… its always those investors investors bla, we have to please them…
BassTurd@lemmy.world 2 days ago
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.
AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
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??
theherk@lemmy.world 2 days ago
“Bad” is SN’s claim to fame. Everybody hates it. Apparently, the worse they make it, the more companies will throw money at them.
venusaur@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It actually makes a lot of sense. AI is a good use case for case management. The problem is how much you depend on it without human intervention, but even humans fuck up, especially if they’re following the same rules and processes that the AI tool would. The AI tool just gets through cases faster, so in theory you can sus out root causes sooner.
echodot@feddit.uk 1 day ago
It already has script automation and has had for years so I’m not sure what AI is going to bring to the table.
BassTurd@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Need? None. There are certainly areas that “ai” tools excel at but what I saw was a company literally forcing it into every aspect of the system. Every single booth at the conference, regardless of the topic, made a point to talk about agentic AI. It was my first time there and I left feeling like I got screwed, because I missed out on quality content that I could use in lieu of AI that I’ll never use.
If I were I prospective customer, I’d be looking at other solutions for sure.
friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’ve been playing Watch Dogs Legion so I know how this ends.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
What happens? I don’t mind spoilers
friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Rich people at tech companies replace workers with AI, set up a security force that goes after immigrants, surveil the city with a camera network, try to remove the human from the equation, try to upload human consciousness to the cloud, lots of other AI tech dystopian stuff.
Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
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.
SouthFresh@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The Sunk Cost fallacy is strong
cley_faye@lemmy.world 1 day ago
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.
fattigbrer@lemmy.world 1 day ago
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.
cley_faye@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’m self-hosting my mails; no need for another third party that will decide whatever whenever. The major difficulty is the decades of things that are reliant on the old one.
And I just said that google works fine for search, despite people claiming it’s on the decline, broken, unusable, etc. That’s not to move toward qwant, who are no less shady, burn money (sometimes coming from public money…), and despite wonderful claim of an autonomous index, completely stop working when Bing is down. As far as recommendations for search engine goes, google (and Bing for that matter) are far less disingenuous. All usable search engines these days are backed by the big ones anyway. Something like openwebsearch.eu would be a better alternative, assuming it follows on its promises.
FiskFisk33@startrek.website 1 day ago
For search I’m really happy with Kagi
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 days ago
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.
const_void@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
Apple still lets you disable their AI which I’m grateful for.
tarknassus@lemmy.world 1 day ago
DuckDuckGo has made A.I. results optional, which is a good move.
Companies that are making it fixed can go swimming in lava for all I care (looking at you Google).
MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Yes, THANK YOU!!!
Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 1 day ago
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.
iamkindasomeone@feddit.org 19 hours ago
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.
Phegan@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Google did the same thing with Google Plus they went all in on social and it failed miserably
echodot@feddit.uk 1 day ago
It was actually a really good product, way better than Facebook, unfortunately if you have a social media platform that’s invite only then it’s never going to succeed. I really have no idea why they did it like that.
skarn@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Facebook started out as invite only for a few years so they might have been looking to emulate its early trajectory. Gmail also started that way.
wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Gemini.
The twins.
Castor and Pollux.
They were tricked by their cousins and started the whole Trojan War.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 1 day ago
Guess my next phone is coming from Oneplus or Fairphone.
bUt AnDrOiD!!!
…can be chained to its desk and limited, I agree.
Luffy879@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Since when does Oneplus support Calyx or Grapheme?
callouscomic@lemm.ee 1 day ago
The last 20 years has basically been entirely a troubling trend in tech.
VagueAnodyneComments@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
it’s part of a welcoming trend of who gives a fuck
the less relevant megacorps are the better, i hope they all go all in on fake AI and lose everything whilst choking
Godnroc@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The other day I asked my phone for a measurement conversion while cooking only to be greeted by the new Gemini nonsense. Don’t touch my shit!
Then I was driving and tried to play a specific song, but the Assistant couldn’t get further than dumping me into YouTube Music and hiding my navigation.
So anyways, I just uninstalled Assistant and after failing to find something else I came to Lemmy and saw this.
DMCMNFIBFFF@lemmy.world 2 days ago
from wp:Don’t be evil to Too Big To Care.
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Thankfully I’ve been “all out” on Google for some time.
altphoto@lemmy.today 2 days ago
First of all no thanks and second… How do I totally opt out because we must assume those cretins opted us all in. I’ve opted out one one account. Does that work for everything?
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 2 days ago
To be fair, they kind of have to pivot from search at this point. More and more people are using alternative ways to find information. That cash cow is dying.
tane6@lemm.ee 2 days ago
Read Ed Zitron’s work on google search. It’s dying because they killed it.
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 2 days ago
They certainly didn’t help it by weighing it down with more and more ads.
seven_phone@lemmy.world 2 days ago
To be fair I think it is happening to Google as much as it is to everyone else, we are running down a hill and are going too fast to stop.
ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.world 2 days ago
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.
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 2 days ago
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
wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/
Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
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.
PushButton@lemmy.world 2 days ago
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.
LedgeDrop@lemm.ee 2 days ago
I admire your optimism, but we are pissing in the wind.
Windows 11 is forcing people to throw away functional computers that Microsoft seems “not secure enough” (it’s lacking TMP 2.0)
This means you can get a great deal on one of these “inscure pc”… but in the long run your pc now and tomorrow will have TPM. As time progresses, the use of TPM/attestation will become more and more entrenched in application, web pages, everything. … and Linux, with its 4% user base, will be left out in cold.
Currently, many banking apps won’t run on Graphene (or any custom firmware) due to attestation.
Graphene issued calls for help, because Google is restricting public access to the latest android source code (I cannot find the links atm).
Today things like “email reputation” make it difficult to host your own mail server, so your stuck paying someone who has a better “reputation”.
My point is: today, you and I can resist with some (minor) success, but our days are numbered.
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 2 days ago
Most of the time customers don’t know what they want until you give it to them though. People don’t know they want something when they don’t know it exists.
Vote with your wallet. Make your opinion known. If you’re just a vocal minority then no, it likely won’t make a difference - but if enough people do it, it will. More people need to understand that while they have an opinion, it might not be the majorities opinion and it might be “wrong”.
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
And it’s fucking awful.
People didn’t “want it” neither before nor after it was forced into being a thing, people had no choice because of GPU prices, especially console peasants stuck with their AMD APUs on par with like a GTX 1070 where a middleman built their PC for them under £600 + hundreds in PS Plus/game fees over years to come.
DLSS is even worse cancer than TAA, the washed out blurry slop only looks good on YouTube videos due to the compression. It’s one thing if you’re playing in the extremes of low performance and need a crutch, e.g. steam deck, it’s a whole other when you make your game look like dog shit then use fancy FXAA and motion blur to cover it up so you can’t see.
MCasq_qsaCJ_234@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
It’s basically how any business starts today, whether it’s computers, the internet, or the industrialization of processes.
AI is undergoing the same product life cycle, which is divided into four stages. In Stage 1, a company has a novel product, and it’s the only one, so the price is usually very high and profits are higher.
In Stage 4, there’s fierce competition; the novel product is now available to many companies, the price is usually cheap, and profits are low. Technology companies look for developing sectors to stay in Stage 1 as much as possible and avoid reaching Stage 4.
AI may be between Stage 1 or 2, or perhaps Stage 3 of the product life cycle. Stage 4 is still a long way off, and we’ll only say we’re in that stage if AI becomes very cheap and very common in society.
venusaur@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Not sure how far back you’re talking but for a VERY long time they have been and continue to be in the business of what feeds the machine.
Why do you think we have computers in our possession 24/7? Not because we wanted it, but because they told us we wanted it and it enabled us to be available to feed the machine 24/7. You can work more. You can buy more.
Social media? Feeds the machine.
Television? Feeds the machine.
Cars? Feeds the machine.
Phones. Telegraphs. Fucking lightbulbs.
All used to feed the machine.
ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.world 1 day ago
True, in a broad sense. I am speaking moreso to enshittification and the degradation of both experience and control.
If this was just “now everything has Siri, it’s private and it works 100x better than before” it would be amazing. That would be like cars vs horses. A change, but a perceived value and advantage.
But it’s not. Not right now anyways. Right now it’s like replacing a car with a pod that runs on direct wind. If there is any wind over say, 3mph it works, and steers 95% as well as existing cars. But 5% of the time it’s uncontrollable and the steering or brakes won’t respond. And when there is no wind over 3mph it just doesn’t work.
In this hypothetical, the product is a clear innovation, offers potential benefits long term in terms of emissions and fuel, but it doesn’t do the core task well, and sometimes it just fucks it up.
The television, cars, social media, all fulfilled a very real niche. But nearly everyone using AI, even those using it as a tool for coding (arguably its best use case) often don’t want to use it in search or in many of these other “forced” applications because of how unreliable it is. Hence why companies have tried (and failed at great expense) to replace their customer service teams with LLMs.
This push is much more top down.
Now drink your New Coke and Crystal Pepsi.