DigitalDilemma

Horror

Certainly traumatised me as a child.

You can’t trust an inherantly untrustworthy industry.

The problem is that to make a good AI, you need a lot of input and we know from leaks and reports that many/most of the major players deliberately ignored copyright to train their models. If it was reachable, they used it. Are using it. Will use it. Like Johnny 5, there’s no limit to the data they want, or that their handlers want to feed them with. They’re the Cookie Monster at a biscuit factory.

So when the question of trust comes up, you’d have to be pretty forgiving to overlook that they’re built on foundations of theft, and pretty naive to assume these companies have suddenly grown ethics and won’t use your data and input to train with, even when you’re using commercial systems that promise they won’t.

Even in the event that there is an ethical provider that does their utmost to ensure your data doesn’t migrate (these do exist, at least in intention), this is an incredibly fast moving, ultra-competitive market where huge amounts of data are shifted around constantly and guardrails being notoriously hard to accurately define, let alone enforce. It’s inevitable stuff will leak.

GPSLogger, the GOAT.

Not only recording GPX daily and uploading them to the cloud for me to record walks, rides and all movements, but also sending location data to a selfhosted Traccar server. Disappeared off Google Play due to problems keeping it listed there, but still available on Fdroid.

Well, I’m absolutely certain people have taken lifelong orders for less than your example, but I’m thinking more about situations where someone is left alone, homeless and without any other options. Government aid is often slow to arrive, especially if you’re a single man, and homeless charities are always overstretched. Even today, it’s not such a stretch to imagine someone turning to God in their hour of need.

(I’m athiest btw, I’m not arguing that it’s a good option, only that some people may see it as their only option and honestly, there are worse)

First, I don’t trust the police.

Fine, then check any reasonable statistical study that you might trust. Resisting a violent robbery will significantly increase the chance you you get seriously injured or killed.

You’re 4.5 times more likely to be seriously injured or killed if you’re armed when attacked. Even if the attacker isn’t armed, they often end up using your weapon against you.

Beware your ego making you think you’re better than the statistics.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090930121512.htm

Disagree. Your chances of survivability go up significantly by not resisting - see @Corporal_Punishment’s reply.

Good example.

But don’t many join these days because of some personal calamity where they’ve already lost much? The church takes them in, gives them purpose and a roof over their heads.

(I say “these days” as historically, under primogeniture, the second son of a wealthy lord would often be given to the church to give them purpose/keep them out of the way of the firstborn. Daughters were similarly steered into a nunnery to avoid the parents having to pay a substantial dowry)

Perspective?

• I’m promoting something.
• You’re advertising at me.

They force a sense of urgency and have well rehearsed routines to skirt around these type of questions.

Ultimately, if the mark is too sceptical, they’ll realise they’re wasting their time and move on. Plenty of others, it’s not worth trying that hard.

Clearly the best advice is “Build your PC a year ago”

(I originally put this first para at the end, but it’s pretty important, so putting up top) Be aware that just because we’re autistic, it doesn’t mean we’re not bad guys. He might be grooming her, he may already have more personal information than he should, and he may be targetting autistic children specifically. If you think that is the case, go to your parents or the police. I know that’s the last thing you’ll want to do, but the consequences if he is can be life changing or fatal.

(Original follows) Fellow autist here, if that matters, but probably not.

No, it’s not mean. People come and go out of each others lives all the time. Your time with this guy is clearly over - if it feels less than fun or has become uncomfortable or weird, move on. Why not? You don’t owe him anything.

As you know, autistic people are no strangers to being obsessive, and putting that alongside a lack of awareness when we’re pushing personal barriers, we can be really annoying. I don’t recommend you accept any money or gift cards from this guy, even to buy your GF a new tablet. That will give him a bigger feeling of entitlement and certainly gives him power over you.

Just stop communicating. No explanations, no apologies, both of you just stop and block. If he tries to contact you after that, or by other means, that’s creepy af and definitely report.

Advertising revenue.

Not just America - all Western countries did.

We made it expensive to manufacture goods due to labour costs and well-meaning but crippling environmental protections and couldn’t compete on price.

At a certain level, it is going to be a chore to determine who is or is not slopping up with AI media. Not every asset comes out with six fingers and a half-melted face.

That’s a good point. I think a lot of people are dismissing AI content because there’s this fallacy and desire to believe it’s all “slop”. It’s willfully ignorant to wave it all away like that. Sure, we’ve all seen the stupid stuff, and it’s really annoying, but we absorb the good stuff without even knowing it. Anyone claiming they can reliably spot AI generated images is fooling themselves even at this early stage.

I’d like to know when something is real, especially real art and even pictures of nature, but I don’t think I can.

bleddy 'ell

Commercial and explicit spam. Report and block.

People change, and with bigotry, they’ve often been changed by others.

He may not always have been like that, so it’s okay to like someone once and not at other times. Best advice I can give is listen to your inner moral compass. If something sounds wrong, it probably is.

(very) Late diagnosed autistic guy here.

Thank you for writing that.

One of the revealing things about realising this is what I am is looking back at a long life and realising a lot of people thought of me as rude, or that I was being deliberately awkward. I’ve certainly lost one job because of it, lived a life that’s largely friendless (IRL anyway) and doubtless missed a thousand opportunities through not being aware of them. There’s also an element of cause and effect - sometimes you know pretty quickly that someone’s not going to warm to you, so you just shut them out mentally. It’s expensive for me to make the effort to be normal and as I’ve got older I’m less willing to waste this time and energy.

I see it as very positive that so many people are aware of neurodiversity now, especially younger generations, and their first thought when someone behaves differently isn’t always that they’re deliberately being an assehole. Sometimes they are, of course, especially those with particularly bigoted views, but not always.

My point is that you don’t know the actual truth. Nor do I. We can’t.

Bots and paid agents are not a new technique - in ancient times, countries would send spies undercover into enemy territory to sow discord. To rabble rouse and change public opinion. It’s the same now, just the tools have changed. No news source is entirely unbiased, even word of mouth is influenced. The only way you can determine the truth is by seeing it with your own, naked eyes. And even then, your own personal bias can change the context.

Reddit is a platform where its’ easy to get the ears of a lot of people, so it’s a big target. It’s not Reddit’s fault, and Lemmy would suffer exactly the same if we had the numbers they do.

What is different now on the world stage, mostly thanks to Trump, is that there’s no longer even any pretence to truth. The most powerful person in the world lies constantly, and his example proves that works. No shame, no integrity, no honesty - just lies and crude manipulation.