“Users are happier when we tell them lies our algorithm says they’ll like. Yes it is also news”
Google won’t stop replacing our news headlines with terrible AI | It now says AI headlines are a ‘feature,’ not an experiment.
Submitted 2 hours ago by throws_lemy@reddthat.com to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theverge.com/tech/865168/google-says-ai-news-headlines-are-feature-not-experiment
Comments
BiteSizedZeitGeist@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Hey guys, stop using Google and Meta and X and Amazon.
They’re kinda ruining civilisation with their terrible ideas and all you get in exchange is news that doesn’t inform you, social interactions that are largely artificial and a permanent inability to use technology which they exploit by selling you enshittification-laden garbage.
The price of their “free” services is way too high. Get rid of them.
Feyd@programming.dev 50 minutes ago
Every time I say this to someone offline, they act like it’s literally impossible. It’s so frustrating
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 36 minutes ago
In some sense they are not wrong.
The average person has no idea how technology works because these companies do everything for them for free in exchange for their private data.
It used to be common that kids would learn how to use computers to pirate music and burn CDs. Now the incentives to learn (free music/movies) is gone because Spotify and Google give you all you want for the low price of your privacy and eternal dependency on them for access to the fruits of technology.
Getting your privacy back means giving up those conveniences and learning to use the technology that you depend on. For most people that is too much to ask.
Luckily the deluge of algorithm enabled propaganda and resultant fascist resurgence have some people questioning this bargain.
Deestan@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Fun experiment: Ask Google if there are more stars in the solar system than grains of sand in a glass of water. See the AI confidently say “yes” and then refresh the query and see it confidently say “no”.
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 1 hour ago
I have experimented and can very often get AI to give whatever answer I want (i.e. on a yes/no) by subtly changing the query. Super easy to manipulate the results.
cabbage@piefed.social 53 minutes ago
The same is predictably true in research, meaning a lot of academic research being produced at the moment is complete crap. https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08825
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Yes, it is annoying to see text written that is confidently asserting nonsense
DandomRude@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
I find the AI audio translation on YouTube, which Google now seems to be imposing as standard, to be the most absurd thing of 'em all: even the intros are so poorly translated that it couldn’t be more ridiculous.
I’m sure many users don’t realize that this is supposed to be a “feature” and mistakenly believe that the foreign-language video they deliberately clicked on is obviously AI-generated because the audio track is so horribly bad.
Well, another reason for Peertube…
hansolo@lemmy.today 2 hours ago
Cool. Well I replaced Google with a million other things that are objectively better.
Oh…is this just some attention thing to try and get me back? Aww… Sorry, G. Look, G, I’m sorry to tell you over text, but it’s over. It’s been over for years. We broke up so long ago, and it was never going to work out anyway. Please just delete me from your contacts list. It’s better this way.
Maeve@kbin.earth 2 hours ago
I disabled the stupid "Discover” feature, which was inanity without AI.
TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 2 hours ago
Did you know that fascist regimes generally prefer dubbing films and tv instead of subtitles because then they get to control what the film or show really says to their captive citizens.
Google is doing the same thing here.