Anybody considering leaving Twitter?

[Todd]

I've already seen AI generated reviews on Google Maps.

AI "news" articles pop up on MSN.  They are easy to spot - they have better grammar than most online human scribes, but are even more vapid. 

[DavidW]

Oh, it's the AI's doing the scraping... now that all makes sense.

Well, the immediate solution that comes to mind probably isn't achievable then, or it would have been done already... something like have a separate website with a copy of everything (post/tweets), backed up daily that the AI can use for training, instead of affecting a site with user traffic.

Well for sure that is what is happening with Reddit.  I don't really know what is going on with Twitter because I don't use it.  They could be just trying to capitalize on the minority of whales that disproportionally use the platform without punishing the casual users.

[Karl Henning]

AI reviews?!  Scary!

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching a YouTube video (something like "Five Great Noir movies") The narrated summaries were so formulaic and repetitive I thought, "Either this is an unusually dull person, or AI."

[Karl Henning]

Cross-post:

How to talk about AI (even if you don't know much about AI)

[Pohjolas Daughter]

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching a YouTube video (something like "Five Great Noir movies") The narrated summaries were so formulaic and repetitive I thought, "Either this is an unusually dull person, or AI."

That could explain some of the commentaries that I've seen on  youtube.  Very robotic sounding (stilted) and no real information.

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Cross-post:

Thanks!  I'll check that out! 

PD

[DavidW]

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching a YouTube video (something like "Five Great Noir movies") The narrated summaries were so formulaic and repetitive I thought, "Either this is an unusually dull person, or AI."

I saw a whole video on it

Definitely becoming a problem.

[Spotted Horses]

That could explain some of the commentaries that I've seen on  youtube.  Very robotic sounding (stilted) and no real information.

PD

If it is true, as Elon Musk alleges, that AI is being trained by scraping tweets, perhaps AI should be rebranded AS, artificial stupidity.

[Karl Henning]

As a tech naïf myself, I don't have a prediction about what will happen, but can report my own profoundly mixed feelings. On Twitter, I've made friends, discovered great articles, learned to reevaluate old adversaries, and been amused and enlightened.

On the other hand, the site has arguably played a big role in degrading public discourse. It has rewarded snark and cynicism at the expense of nuance and enabled cyberbullying. Elon Musk has made all of that worse. If it dies or becomes a desiccated husk of its former self, I will miss it but not mourn it.

RTWT here.

[Que]

Quote from: Mona Charen
As a tech naïf myself, I don't have a prediction about what will happen, but can report my own profoundly mixed feelings. On Twitter, I've made friends, discovered great articles, learned to reevaluate old adversaries, and been amused and enlightened.

On the other hand, the site has arguably played a big role in degrading public discourse. It has rewarded snark and cynicism at the expense of nuance and enabled cyberbullying. Elon Musk has made all of that worse. If it dies or becomes a desiccated husk of its former self, I will miss it but not mourn it.

Unfortunately misbehaviour that is not limited to Twitter, but it does seem to be a free haven.

[T. D.]

If it is true, as Elon Musk alleges, that AI is being trained by scraping tweets, perhaps AI should be rebranded AS, artificial stupidity.

Exactly!

I was intending to post precisely this sentiment, except using the acronym AI = Artificial Imbecility.

[brewski]

Still hanging on for the moment, but it seems clear that Twitter's new owner views the platform as a plaything, at best. I've made some good friends via Twitter, but those days seem over, and I'm on it less and less each week.

Oh well.

-Bruce

[T. D.]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-05/instagram-unveils-threads-app-a-major-threat-to-musk-s-twitter

[Que]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-05/instagram-unveils-threads-app-a-major-threat-to-musk-s-twitter

Makes sense, now is any aspiring competitor's chance.

[amw]

I always found Facebook/Instagram  harder to use than Twitter because they don't show you content in chronological order, making them useless for following breaking news stories or local transit alerts etc. Of course Twitter also got pretty useless for that towards the end.

That said, much depends on who ends up using any of the Twitter clones. I'm not really interested in any social network dominated by brands, influencers, celebrities, video content, or even individual journalists for that matter, but I would like a place where I can hear brief text-based updates from government agencies, news organisations, and total nerds with large amounts of useless knowledge. If the Instagram app fulfils that purpose (which I doubt it will) I'm satisfied.

[Jo498]

Twitter seems to work again as usual within my volume of use (which might be well within the restriction of a non paying user). It seems there was some general problem last weekend.

[Todd]

Makes sense, now is any aspiring competitor's chance.

Huh?  Meta is one of the largest tech companies in the world - it's hardly an "aspiring competitor".

Anyway, may the best billionaire win!

[JBS]

I always found Facebook/Instagram  harder to use than Twitter because they don't show you content in chronological order, making them useless for following breaking news stories or local transit alerts etc. Of course Twitter also got pretty useless for that towards the end.

That said, much depends on who ends up using any of the Twitter clones. I'm not really interested in any social network dominated by brands, influencers, celebrities, video content, or even individual journalists for that matter, but I would like a place where I can hear brief text-based updates from government agencies, news organisations, and total nerds with large amounts of useless knowledge. If the Instagram app fulfils that purpose (which I doubt it will) I'm satisfied.

Also my general attitude.

[JBS]

Twitter seems to work again as usual within my volume of use (which might be well within the restriction of a non paying user). It seems there was some general problem last weekend.

Are you using an app or a desktop browser to read it? The restrictions (if they remain) seem to have affected apps, not desktops.

[Karl Henning]

Remember: Musk's offer to buy Twitter was just a big bone-headed troll which backfired. He had no actual plan for operating it.