mrmaplebar

@mrmaplebar@fedia.io

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We own the hardware, but not the experience anymore — Big Tech keeps building smarter, more connected devices, but the user experience feels more intrusive, more confusing, and less human⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  The supreme irony of that message coming from Windows Central...

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Expert: EU Commission wants an "unlimited special legal zone" for AI⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Fuck no. The fact that AI needs special carve-outs from existing laws just goes to show how fucking stupid and gross it is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump, 79, Rants Incoherently About Robots and AI⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Mental gymnastics 🎖

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump, 79, Rants Incoherently About Robots and AI⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  This dumb fucking child rapist

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nearly all of Spotify has been scraped and is available via torrents⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I wish I could think anything positive about this, but I can't imagine anyone who actually cares about music needs or wants this. Instead it'll almost certainly be used as an illegal and unethical dataset to further train bullshit AI to make slop songs. As easy as it is for people to claim "preservation", I do have to question the motives of stuff like this...

  Fuck AI. Support your favorite human artists.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Grindr CEO Says App Will Be “AI-First” and “Not in the Business of Politics”⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Gay sex is famously apolitical. 🙄

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Vince Zampella, video game developer behind 'Call of Duty' franchise, killed in mountain road crash⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Fuck man...

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What free to play games can run smoothly on my old laptop?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart - A super fun and challenging Mario Kart style game made in the original Doom engine.

  CatsEyeXI - An unofficial, custom Final Fantasy XI MMO server with fast leveling, solo play and many quality of life features. (Following guides is still recommended, because it's a complicated and vague game at the best of times!)

  ETLegacy - A free to play version of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, a fun and fast team-based first person shooter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Putting aside the massive ethical and legal implications of blatantly exploiting human culture and works in the name of corporate profits...

  I really hope they aren't expecting us mere mortals to pay for AI generated games and media.

  Because if I end up losing my job to a robot that was trained on my own stolen words, images, code and sounds, paying $70 for some slop is right down at the bottom of the list of things I want to do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Sure, they could have used Mickey Mouse, a gray box, or a low poly model whipped in Blender in 5 minutes... After all, that's what people have been doing for like 30 years. None of those things would have required the mass industrialized exploitation of millions of people's work and culture. None of those things would add value to some tech bros business.

  As a side note, something tells me that if they had used Mickey for their placeholder art it wouldn't have "accidentally" found its way into the final game.

  Plus... how do I know they didn't use AI as the basis for all of the art in their game? For all I know, AI was central to setting the aesthetic of this game due to being at the very front end of their production pipeline. Hard to know, especially when they are so sketchy about it. (At least Larian were bold/stupid enough to admit that the concepts for their game start with AI.)

  It cheapens the game and undermines whatever work they actually did.

  Calling your game "indie" when you're actively exploiting artists to make it is like calling your Etsy store "diy" despite knowing that it's a bunch of Chinese dropped shipped junk made by children in a sweatshop. It's disingenuous at best.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Unless the model that they used was trained entirely on artwork that was public domain, creative commons, licensed or owned, then its basically certain that it wasn't used responsibly.

  You cannot make something on a foundation of someone else's exploitation and be considered responsible, ethical, original or independent.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Denmark wants to ban VPNs to unlock foreign, illegal streams – and experts are worried⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Some US States

  None of the even remotely good ones. Why is Denmark trying to be Alabama, again?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Denmark wants to ban VPNs to unlock foreign, illegal streams – and experts are worried⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Gotta give Denmark credit, they're really going for the Shittiest Western European Country Award. Granted, I'm from the USA and we're obviously an unmitigated disaster, but like, what the fuck are you guys doing? Competing for attention?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jimmy Carr on Why Everyone Is Wrong About AI⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Bad take for two reasons:

  1. Being consistently funny requires intellect and general cleverness. You can't be quick witted if you're stupid.

  2. More importantly we are all mostly ignorant. You could have a PhD in 3 topics and have spent years in higher education, and you still know only a tiny speck of all that there is to know.

  I'm not a fan of Jimmy Carr, especially after the Saudi shit, and I fucking hate AI. But the idea that we shouldn't value the opinions of artists is pretty dumb. There are plenty of smart artists with interesting things to say and unique perspectives.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Disney invests $1 billion in OpenAI, licenses 200 characters for AI video app Sora⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Definitely not just a coincidence.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Disney invests $1 billion in OpenAI, licenses 200 characters for AI video app Sora⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  People are acting like this is a win for OpenAI and the AI industry, but I think this is potentially a major victory for IP holders like Disney.

  Up until now, the core assumption from the industry around AI has been that it is all fair use, and thus no license (or even so much as basic consent) was needed to train on copyrighted works or produce output resembling specific trademarked IP.

  Now Disney and OpenAI have come to an agreement that explicitly allows OpenAI to produce videos of their characters, but from what I can tell does not allow them to train on Disney's works to do it.

  This deal lasts only 3 years, and so what happens is they don't renew it 3 years from now? What does it mean for the other AI companies that are producing Disney IP without this agreement? What about all the other character and person likenesses that Sora is producing without any such agreement?

  Essentially, I think this has allowed Disney to put the ball back in their court. They are deciding who does and doesn't use their characters. They have put value into the idea of licensing trademarks for AI use. And I think this sets a dangerous precedent for AI companies, because what does this mean for all of the IP holders who they aren't in an agreement with?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Regarding Gainax Co. Ltd (Studio Kharas Statement on Gainax Closure after 42 Years of Production)⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Sad it had to go out so terribly. Hopefully their legal actions will be a stepping stone to getting rights to FLCL back.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says people need to find success in traditional factory jobs again: ‘Every successful person doesn’t need to have a PhD’⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The only factory I'll work for is this pitchfork factory. 🧜‍♂️

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US government uses Halo images in a call to 'destroy' immigration, Microsoft declines to comment⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Image

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  All signs are that we are getting the new VR headset first.

  Yeah :(

  And it is probably in Valve's best interest to let other people drive the HTPC consoles. They are not going to be cheap since "1024 at 40 FPS" doesn't scale all that well to a 50 inch 4k display. So let other integrators deal with that. Just release the steam controller 2 already.

  I'm not sure this is a good idea, personally. The original Steam Machines and the ROG Xbox Ally are pretty good indicators that it's not very smart to rely on OEMs to drive major change in the PC market.

  The current gen consoles are basically already just standard AMD x86-64 PCs that just happen to be running locked down proprietary OSes. So it really seems like low hanging fruit to me for Valve to just put out a price-competitive Steam Machine "console" akin to the Steam Deck that boots into SteamOS and otherwise is a normal PC that with a normal UEFI bootloader. That seems both technically easier and cheaper to do than putting out yet another prohibitively expensive VR/AR device.

  As a fan of Linux and FOSS, my main concern is that Valve misses a big window of opportunity by failing to capitalize on the current weakness of Xbox and Windows during this awkward transition period from traditional consoles to PCs.

  When Valve put out the original Steam Machines, people didn't understand why they would want a computer in their living room that didn't run Windows. But now the Steam Deck has shown people that Valve can deliver a console-like PC gaming experience that gives people the best of both worlds. SteamOS has a compatibility disadvantage, but a huge UX advantage. They've finally sold people on the concept that Windows is not the alpha and omega of PC gaming. But I think Microsoft understands that too, and the only reason that they're doing what they're doing today is because they clearly see SteamOS as a huge threat in the living room.

  But as the saying goes, you gotta "strike while the iron is hot".

  So if Valve sits back and allows Windows to continue to catch up to SteamOS in terms of gaming UX, then I think it's very possible that Microsoft could sell a lot of Windows-Xboxes, killing a lot of the interest in Steam Machines.

  And I'll say that you can get a really nice AMD NUC HTPC for under 500 bucks that can handle "steam deck games" on a TV. And I THINK I have a way to get Display Port -> HDMI 2.1 that I need to sit down and test.

  True, I can build my own Steam Machine by just throwing Bazzite on just about anything that's reasonably capable. I've been tempted, I'm just waiting to see what Valve has up their sleeve.

  But it's not me that I'm worried about. Mass appeal comes from a company like Valve or Microsoft putting out a dedicated gaming box for a decent price that comes preinstalled with a gaming OS. I just hope it's Valve and Linux, and not Microsoft and Windows...

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft's OpenAI losses hidden as part of $4.7 billion 'other' expense — stake in AI company still doesn't turn a profit as companies grapple with ongoing contract negotiation⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Putting aside my ethical and cultural issues with training generative AI for a second, I have no idea what the appeal of this stuff is as a product.

  Like, if they want me to pay a monthly subscription, what do they expect me to do with it? I have zero interest in chatting to a computer that's not thinking and is just stringing together words based on probabilistic bias, and I have zero interest in making or consuming AI-generated media. I don't want an AI "girlfriend", nor do I want an AI to play a video game for me. Finally, I don't see the value in having an AI tell me things that it summarized from various internet sources when we all know that the chances of it "hallucinating" (aka: making shit up or generally being totally wrong) is extremely high and basically unavoidable.

  So, aside from the basic novelty of talking to your computer, what the hell is the point of all this?

  Personally I wouldn't pay $2/month for LLMs, let alone $200/month...

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It's starting to get annoying waiting for Valve to announce a Steam Machine and having to listen to Microsoft's future Xbox-as-a-PC plans instead.