Ahead of a Syracuse, New York, stop on his “Bigger & Weirder” tour, Yankovic revealed to Syracuse.com in an interview published this week that he was offered “a nice pile of money” to appear in a commercial for business-focused software, but he backed out once he realized the ad would involve AI. “I’m not a fan of AI,” he said.
It’s remarkable how pretty much every last person that I had respect for before the AI craze have been against or at least wary of it, with none of them going all-in on the concept.
Meanwhile, both personally and internet-wide, every single person that I already was familiary with who has come out unambiguously simping for AI has been someone I already thought was just insufferable.
This is a terrible take. It’s not an “Al craze”, he’s been around for years and years at this point, and he’s way more than just a concept.
And I think it’s unfair to cast people that agree with him as “simping for Al”, just because we agree with him ffs
That took me a second there…
Why did we ever make I and l look the same…
Amazing pattern isnt it?
We sure are a likeable bunch of irrationally hate-filled Neo-Luddites, aren’t we? We make a great angry mob. I can’t wait to see what we can all blindly hate next!
We have never used AI and we never will.
Funny of you to invoke the Luddites. Have you ever actually read about the Luddites beyond the pop-culture use of them as dismissive of people reluctant about technology? They were far from irrationally hate-filled.
They objected to the mass unemployment, child labor, and pathetic wages of the time. Living conditions for working class had broadly worsened. Significantly facilitated by technology that facilitated the owners inflicting those conditions. The technology had undermined the leverage of the working class. Rather than the technology making it better for all, it was a way to concentrate wealth into a smaller few and harm the welfare of others. So in early days, they would damage the instruments of the industrial exploitation. The government response was to make such damage to property even without any personal injury punishable by death, and started killing people of the movement before the movement escalated to any violence on people, protecting the wealthy at the expense of the working class.
Anyway, folks have similarly offered a great deal of legitimate grievances on the realities of AI usage, it also is far from irrational. For the folks referenced in this article, it’s how the technology in practice has harmed art, and it’s hard to disagree with that sentiment as we get bombarded by waves of slop that superficially resembles content, but is ultimately devoid of substance. Also, again we are seeing ambitions of even further concentrating wealth without real plans to have anyone share in hypothetical boons.
Yes, slop is all AI can make! It steals all the art and it only makes slop! The decision to hoard all of the productivity gains is AI’s, too. It’s another of its slop decisions! We must hate the technology, or else the world will end. Hating is our most effective strategy. Let’s tell people who find benefit in AI to “STFU” and “Fuck off” so they know that only us, the technology haters, are intelligent.
I sure do love being part of an angry, hate-filled mob. You guys are the best!
I’ve never used AI and I never will.
I call it the mirror test. It’s like looking in the mirror and recognizing it’s a mere reflection or not.
Of course, not all people who are anti-AI are necessarily folks I will agree with on other things, even assholes get it right on occasion. But it certainly has been the case that the non-assholes have been very consistently like Weird Al here…