Showroom7561

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.

The majority of the internet is porn.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ask AI to translate that and see what it comes up with. LOL

I’m lucky to live in a country where sleeping outside is easily possible, safe, and legal

Unfortunately, this is not the case for Ontario, Canada, unless I wanted to go WAAAAAAY up North to extremly wild Crown Land (where the bears are).

This is probably the biggest barrier, because standard campsites charge as much as a hotel, even if you are camping without a large vehicle.

Even without much training, it’s easily possible to cover 100km / 60 miles in a day on flat ground, if your bike fits you. Cycling clothes also help a lot.

Yeah, 100km is very doable. I've been aiming for 200km+ lately, but even then, it sucks that these are out-and-back rides. Still, I come back wanting to ride more :)

It doesn’t even need to be an epic month-long adventure.

I try to regularly spend the entire day on my bike when I have the chance. I've yet to do an overnighter, but just being on my bike brings joy to my life.

There isn't a single person on the planet who can tell me that running an errand by car brings them happiness and peace, but I get to experience that every. single. time.

To tour by bike would be an absolute dream!

I'm happy to read about areas that are actually accessible. I don't use a wheelchair or walker, but I'm very aware of the need to have accessible infrastructure. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that my municipality, and the several nearby, do NOT have accessible trails for people to enjoy the outdoors.

We're talking complete design failure, from tall curbs at entrances/exits of trails, to dangerous slopes on the trails themselves.

Then you have sections that are intentionally narrowed to prevent cars and motorcycles from entering, but they are designed in a way where someone in a wheelchair couldn't possibly fit through them, or manoeuvre through them without getting tangled.

These same deficiencies are experienced by able-bodied people who might be using a trike or child trailer with their bike, so it affects a large number of users along these trail systems.

Even worse are trails where there appear to be SPEED BUMPS, intentionally set, but for whom?? To slow down a speeding person in a wheelchair? To trip up someone using a walker? To slow down cyclists instead of cars?

Jesus Christ, design infrastructure for humans, not machines.

Mike Darmon said that with issues like city budget shortages, it will be a while before the proper infrastructure is built for those participating in active transportation.

Inexcusable.

How can municipalities manage to always find tens of millions of dollars to make driving more convenient, but there's always no money to make walking or cycling safer?

HINT: It's because they are wasting tens of millions of dollars to make driving more convenient.

And these hit-and-runs are out of control. Mandatory sentencing of at least 15 years needs to be considered for someone like that. Coward.

Yes, very useful on rural roads and quieter suburban streets. It also works well on trails where e-scooters/e-bikes might ride up behind you without warning (to pass).

But in a city, the radar just goes off constantly, so it's less useful if you only ride in busy city streets.