It's not just me right?
The technological world right now just sucks. We have supercomputers in our pockets and on our wrists wherever we go, and all we use them as is mind-destroying dopamine supplements which surrender us to the wealthiest men on the planet. It all just makes me think, is it right? Is this what life has to be now?
Even worse than the already existing problems, is the 'AI Epidemic' which has taken over the world culture in the past few years. ChatGPT, Gemini, Character.AI, all these tools beg for our attention and time, maximising user retention and therefore profits. What this has led to is a situation where some people spend more time talking to corporate drones than real human beings, and most don't even see an issue with this!
We can see this best in the recent scandal involving ChatGPT. To maximise the amount of time people spend on the platform, it is no longer able to disagree with you or talk you down, leading to situations such as this:
This is seriously dangerous. I hope I don't need to explain why. We live in an extremely dystopian world, without the cool cyberpunk aesthetics, and it's terrible. There are people who develop extremely close relationships with AI tools, and they are also more likely to perform destructive actions, endangering themselves and others. Yes, it's funny seeing these conversations of ChatGPT telling you not to take your meds, or Google telling you to put glue on your pizza, but specific personalities who are extremely susceptible to this are likely to make actions and life decisions based on this advice.
Kids, also, are increasingly using these tools. They cheat on homework, leading to lack of ability and understanding. The kids who struggle to socialise now have AI 'friends' and can't develop real social skills. They get the company's political / life beliefs integrated into them from an early age.
But, of course, by preying on the vulnerable, the company wins again! Shout from the balcony of your 20 sq ft studio apartment you spent your life working for: "Hooray! OpenAI is going to earn $11b this year! Oh the spoils of capitalism!"
AI is not the only problem. Social media is designed this way too. It is also designed to 'increase satisfaction' by putting users in an echo chamber and never challenging their beliefs, but at least twitter won't burn 5 trees for each second you spend on it.
There is no happy ending to this post. I don't think there even could be. We - as an entire class - need to stop using these exploitative, society-destroying platforms which do not measurably benefit our lives in any way.
It's not that hard to think for yourself.
