I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of things, and where we are heading.
At what point do we consider the internet “useless”? It must be coming very soon (less than 2 years), since the majority of content will be AI generated and targeted, which drives down the value for users even further.
Once original ideas vanish, and you can’t trust any text/audio/video/photo you see, what will be the point? It’s like the internet will simply be a video game world with next to no value.
And I can’t see how society can possibly reverse this.
Let me ask you this: assuming you use the internet for information rather than entertainment, would the internet be useful if the majority of content ends up being AI generated (not fact checked, not accurate, and not original)?
What if the overwhelming content you come across could neither be verified as true, and the majority of comments (including here on Lemmy) were bots? Would you still use it?
For me, it would stop being useful. Almost like a library only carrying fiction, when I’m trying to research a topic.
For entertainment, sure, it’ll be great for sucking the attention from people without having to invest in skill to be good at something. Hell, if you currently find YouTube shorts and Tiktok to be “good content”, then it’ll be around forever. Corporations and advertisers love this technology.
if the majority of content ends up being AI generated
yeah…
The majority of the internet is porn. Literally. That doesn’t mean that every information you look up is porn. Just because there exist much of it doesn’t mean wikipedia and other credible sites will suddenly just disappear.
And honestly, while AI generated articles are absolute garbage, it’s not like LLMs you can chat with are completely useless.
Again, I’ll separate entertainment from informational, since entertainment can be garbage, and still be consumed.
Bad information doesn’t help anyone.
it’s not like LLMs you can chat with are completely useless.
The problem is, you wouldn’t know unless you know.
With a legitimate website that has human writers, editors, and fact-checkers, they can at least have creditability and a reputation to uphold.
Far too many randomly generated websites have a lot of information, but without any guardrails. If you know enough about a topic, you’ll realise that the information on these AI sites are pretty much useless. That is, you couldn’t use them as a source because enough of the info is bad/incorrect/incoherent, that it’s like asking a toddler who may or may not give you a valid question.
I’ve contacted a manufacturer of bike stuff, and their support is given by AI. While the answers you get sound like they could be right, it’s like getting an answer from someone who heard something about something from a friend. When you actually ask for a human, the answer is often different (and correct).
There is no accountability, or credibility, or responsibility, or integrity with AI. It has no reputation to lose if the information it provides is bad or not.
I know that AI isn’t going away. I’d personally be OK with some human verification system for websites, and would be more than willing to use a filtered version of the internet that blocks AI generated content. Call it curated or whitelisted, but I want my information to come from a human being.
Satire and parody are the only legitimate uses of AI, as those are explicitly transformative works. There’s another channel I like that makes songs that are actually funny.
Satire and parody are the only legitimate uses of AI
…text to speech, dictation apps, translation systems, enemies in video games, chess bots, cancer discovery, image, video and file compression, cluster algorithms, CGI, world generation, etc.?!
But the way we are seeing it being utilised is often simply to flood every corner of the internet with spam, bad information, low quality content, and loads of filler.
I’m personally amazed by what AI can do with photo generation, music creation, and other creative work.
But at the same time, I want to know that it’s AI generated and not passed off as human created content. Especially with written content.
AI-based tools can be amazing, but only if ethics are applied to their use.
But you know they are spam, so it’s something you can avoid. But what if the majority (over 80%) of the calls you receive can’t be identified as spam. At some point, you may be wasting far more time than it’s worth to keep using a phone without some major whitelist/blacklist system.
Also, what happens when the outbound calls you make are answered by AI, and you don’t know? If this AI is giving you replies that are word salad, how long are you willing to tolerate it?
I’ve been getting text messages now from companies that I actually do business with, but they are spam. Calls from companies that I have accounts with, and they are scams. At some point, SMS and phone calls will be more trouble than its worth.
And the thought of either having to go without it, the pain of replacing it, or the frustration of being strung along in a scam are not thoughts I want to have.
The internet will never be useless. There will always be a large number of sites that are not capitalist hellholes that only exist to steal user’s data or scam users or do other malicious things. This may be down to things like credit unions, federated social media, and non-profits that exist to make the world better, but there will always be something that is out there that keeps it from being useless.
There will always be a large number of sites that are not capitalist hellholes that only exist to steal user’s data or scam users or do other malicious things. This may be down to things like credit unions, federated social media, and non-profits that exist to make the world better, but there will always be something that is out there that keeps it from being useless.
No doubt that there will be people who still have morals and will run sites and services that don’t completely screw people.
But at some point, you won’t be able to tell which are legit, and which aren’t. AI generated websites can make any scam site look completely legitimate, fake thousands of testimonials, have bots post about it on every major website (Reddit, YouTube, etc.) without being caught, etc.
The currency of the internet is no longer about what’s valuable to users, but what’s valuable to bad actors, data thieves, and marketers.
There will be a tipping point when the bad far, far outweighs the good, and I’m curious to know when society decides that the internet isn’t worth using anymore.
We are well past the tipping point of malicious websites being indistinguishable from legit sites unless tou pay attention to extra informatjon like the address bar. I would say that most of the websites I used to enjoy have gone to shit between ads and ditching their better writers for cheaper staff or AI. Most of the internet is crap.
But there is stilll enough helpful content that the whoe thing isn’t worthless and I doubt it ever will be.
But there is stilll enough helpful content that the whoe thing isn’t worthless and I doubt it ever will be.
The people creating that content will fade away.
They are going to be competing with a tireless algorithm that can out out 1000x the content they can, with next to no “staff”.
Those AI content creators will be making money for someone, and legitimate content creators won’t be able to keep up unless: they use AI content creation; or have a business model that will probably result in all legitimate websites being paywalled, filled with ads, or becoming a marketing platform for brands (worse than what modern day YouTube is like).
I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of things, and where we are heading.
At what point do we consider the internet “useless”? It must be coming very soon (less than 2 years), since the majority of content will be AI generated and targeted, which drives down the value for users even further.
Once original ideas vanish, and you can’t trust any text/audio/video/photo you see, what will be the point? It’s like the internet will simply be a video game world with next to no value.
And I can’t see how society can possibly reverse this.
Saying the internet is going to be “useless” in less than two years might be one of the wildest takes I have ever read.
Let me ask you this: assuming you use the internet for information rather than entertainment, would the internet be useful if the majority of content ends up being AI generated (not fact checked, not accurate, and not original)?
What if the overwhelming content you come across could neither be verified as true, and the majority of comments (including here on Lemmy) were bots? Would you still use it?
For me, it would stop being useful. Almost like a library only carrying fiction, when I’m trying to research a topic.
For entertainment, sure, it’ll be great for sucking the attention from people without having to invest in skill to be good at something. Hell, if you currently find YouTube shorts and Tiktok to be “good content”, then it’ll be around forever. Corporations and advertisers love this technology.
yeah…
The majority of the internet is porn. Literally. That doesn’t mean that every information you look up is porn. Just because there exist much of it doesn’t mean wikipedia and other credible sites will suddenly just disappear.
And honestly, while AI generated articles are absolute garbage, it’s not like LLMs you can chat with are completely useless.
Again, I’ll separate entertainment from informational, since entertainment can be garbage, and still be consumed.
Bad information doesn’t help anyone.
The problem is, you wouldn’t know unless you know.
With a legitimate website that has human writers, editors, and fact-checkers, they can at least have creditability and a reputation to uphold.
Far too many randomly generated websites have a lot of information, but without any guardrails. If you know enough about a topic, you’ll realise that the information on these AI sites are pretty much useless. That is, you couldn’t use them as a source because enough of the info is bad/incorrect/incoherent, that it’s like asking a toddler who may or may not give you a valid question.
I’ve contacted a manufacturer of bike stuff, and their support is given by AI. While the answers you get sound like they could be right, it’s like getting an answer from someone who heard something about something from a friend. When you actually ask for a human, the answer is often different (and correct).
There is no accountability, or credibility, or responsibility, or integrity with AI. It has no reputation to lose if the information it provides is bad or not.
I know that AI isn’t going away. I’d personally be OK with some human verification system for websites, and would be more than willing to use a filtered version of the internet that blocks AI generated content. Call it curated or whitelisted, but I want my information to come from a human being.
Satire and parody are the only legitimate uses of AI, as those are explicitly transformative works. There’s another channel I like that makes songs that are actually funny.
https://youtu.be/MLJ3vchmlZg?si=2kPQFeMPAJMOr-UO
Edit: https://youtu.be/HY_JW5Swjhc?si=TG7nT7LVZy8fwyYK
…text to speech, dictation apps, translation systems, enemies in video games, chess bots, cancer discovery, image, video and file compression, cluster algorithms, CGI, world generation, etc.?!
That statement is just ridiculous
Sorry I really did mean in published media
I agree with all of that. AI has it’s valid uses.
But the way we are seeing it being utilised is often simply to flood every corner of the internet with spam, bad information, low quality content, and loads of filler.
I’m personally amazed by what AI can do with photo generation, music creation, and other creative work.
But at the same time, I want to know that it’s AI generated and not passed off as human created content. Especially with written content.
AI-based tools can be amazing, but only if ethics are applied to their use.
Conversely, I still need to make and receive important phone calls even though the vast majority of calls I receive are spam
But you know they are spam, so it’s something you can avoid. But what if the majority (over 80%) of the calls you receive can’t be identified as spam. At some point, you may be wasting far more time than it’s worth to keep using a phone without some major whitelist/blacklist system.
Also, what happens when the outbound calls you make are answered by AI, and you don’t know? If this AI is giving you replies that are word salad, how long are you willing to tolerate it?
I’ve been getting text messages now from companies that I actually do business with, but they are spam. Calls from companies that I have accounts with, and they are scams. At some point, SMS and phone calls will be more trouble than its worth.
And the thought of either having to go without it, the pain of replacing it, or the frustration of being strung along in a scam are not thoughts I want to have.
The internet will never be useless. There will always be a large number of sites that are not capitalist hellholes that only exist to steal user’s data or scam users or do other malicious things. This may be down to things like credit unions, federated social media, and non-profits that exist to make the world better, but there will always be something that is out there that keeps it from being useless.
No doubt that there will be people who still have morals and will run sites and services that don’t completely screw people.
But at some point, you won’t be able to tell which are legit, and which aren’t. AI generated websites can make any scam site look completely legitimate, fake thousands of testimonials, have bots post about it on every major website (Reddit, YouTube, etc.) without being caught, etc.
The currency of the internet is no longer about what’s valuable to users, but what’s valuable to bad actors, data thieves, and marketers.
There will be a tipping point when the bad far, far outweighs the good, and I’m curious to know when society decides that the internet isn’t worth using anymore.
We are well past the tipping point of malicious websites being indistinguishable from legit sites unless tou pay attention to extra informatjon like the address bar. I would say that most of the websites I used to enjoy have gone to shit between ads and ditching their better writers for cheaper staff or AI. Most of the internet is crap.
But there is stilll enough helpful content that the whoe thing isn’t worthless and I doubt it ever will be.
The people creating that content will fade away.
They are going to be competing with a tireless algorithm that can out out 1000x the content they can, with next to no “staff”.
Those AI content creators will be making money for someone, and legitimate content creators won’t be able to keep up unless: they use AI content creation; or have a business model that will probably result in all legitimate websites being paywalled, filled with ads, or becoming a marketing platform for brands (worse than what modern day YouTube is like).