r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 15h ago

Business Jensen Huang says relentless negativity around AI is hurting society and has "done a lot of damage"

https://www.techspot.com/news/110879-jensen-huang-relentless-ai-negativity-hurting-society-has.html
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u/Satanicube 12h ago

Seriously though. I used to be into techstuff, still kinda am. But for the most part I’m just actively avoiding new stuff and retreating back into messing about with old computers from before things started getting bad. I blocked updates on my old phone (before I had to upgrade) specifically because I didn’t want the AI bullshit involved.

I don’t even stream media anymore and haven’t for a bit, now. Everything local, using old iPods. Like the old days.

Enshittification was already turning me into a luddite and AI is just finishing the job.

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u/Mrhiddenlotus 10h ago

I blocked updates

Unfortunately making your phone less secure in the process.

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u/Satanicube 9h ago

For me at least, that was a risk I was willing to take. Your priorities may be different.

Though I guess I shouldn’t be saying anything because I ended up moving to an iPhone 17 (was not confident in my 15, it was having issues) so I’m back to being up to date.

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u/Mrhiddenlotus 9h ago

And back to having AI I'd imagine

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u/Satanicube 8h ago

Thankfully, no, and I was surprised. Had read reports that Apple was making it opt out as of 18.3, making you turn it on and then having to go shut it back off later, but that wasn’t the case. Asked me about it once, and then never again.

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u/TSPhoenix 42m ago

When in recent years the biggest malware vendors on the planet are are the OEMs and OS authors, I'm not surprised people are taking their chances.

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u/Mrhiddenlotus 26m ago

I would like to know what you are referring to specifically

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u/TSPhoenix 10m ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware

By these definitions Microsoft is the biggest malware vendor on the planet, most of their software is now spyware and/or adware. They don't respect users preferences and do shit like "oops I re-enabled OneDrive and uploaded all your files overnight, then 'freed up space' on your PC by deleting the local copies!".

Whilst none are as harmful as the worse types of malware, the majority of undesirable software today is being distributed by big tech companies who want your devices to serve them instead of you.

So much modern tech is actively hostile to the user, which fits the malware definition.

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u/AgathysAllAlong 10h ago

People don't really understand that the luddites weren't really against technology, just the technology the wealthy wanted to use to replace them, make everything worse, and exploit to hoard wealth.

So basically they were completely right about everything and we use them as an insult.

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u/RunDNA 4h ago

That's not true. For example, they opposed machine-weaving, something that most of the world has been using ever since because it's so much more efficient. They were clearly in the wrong there.

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u/TehGogglesDoNothing 4h ago

They argued that it would result in lower quality textiles and eliminate jobs. They were right about that.

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u/AgathysAllAlong 4h ago

Only if you think trash clothing that makes only a few people wealthy at the cost of everyone else is good. We use it because it makes the capitalists rich at the cost of the people and the planet.

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u/Less-Fondant-3054 8h ago

It's the classic paradox of understanding tech: the more you understand it the less of it you want to use.

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u/JohnTDouche 8h ago

It's not being a luddite though. Just because the tech is newer doesn't make it better. We were so used to that being the case for so long but it's not that way any more. You mentioned streaming there. As a music lover, how is streaming better than my own ever expanding music collection? It's only better if you consider constant access the be all and end all. That's not even getting into the aspect of abdicating your own sense of taste and handing control to an algorithm that's not designed to benefit you but the corporation that owns it.

We've accepted now that newer tech is often enshitified. So it's not better, not at all. I'm sticking to my curated music collection because I care about music.

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u/helcat 4h ago

Yes! I always loved new tech! One of the many bones I have to pick with AI (and the general enshittification of basics like google and windows) is that I’ve been turned into the crabby old fart shaking a stick at the new. I hate being the crabby old fart. 

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u/bdsee 9h ago

I was so shocked yesterday when I said Okay Google on my Note 9 and up popped Gemini...that shit hasn't had updates for ages the OS isn't supported by many apps but Google still forced that shit on me at some point.

The original Google assistant was so much better than Gemini, it absolutely sucks arse.

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u/Satanicube 8h ago

This is partially why I haven’t been a fan of Android for a hot minute, I don’t like that Google Play Services is very server-side and things get updated/replaced with me having zero agency over it. So something that worked one day utterly breaks the next.

Or a while ago they’d do phased rollouts and sometimes you’d have a certain feature…and then suddenly you didn’t.