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This Week in Anime - AI Is Here, But Who Is It Helping?


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Doctorkev



Joined: 17 Feb 2018
Posts: 87
Location: Scotland
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 11:35 am Reply with quote
Thanks guys, for the discussion of a super-relevant topic.

On the subject of "what/who is AI for?", then surely the answer is "soulless corporate overlords and their shareholders" and no-one else.

Once upon a time we naively thought that AI would be one of those major, labour-saving aspects of a futuristic utopian society where mankind would transcend the need for soul-crushing menial work, instead leaving time for individuals to focus on self-betterment via the creative arts.

Now we have media mega-corporations replacing artists and writers with AI algorithms that spit out empty facsimiles (eternal, iterative plagiarism) of whatever human creative work has been fed to them.

It'll lead to less jobs in creative and tech industries, leading to a poverty of popular culture and creativity the world over. Companies don't care about the quality of product so much as the volume and cost to produce it. The proliferation of low-effort AI solutions is a no-brainer from a purely economic POV. People are expensive, and if they're removed from the workflow, then profits increase.

The numbers must forever increase, Milord. Growth must be eternal.

The problem is, corporations making a quick buck from AI employee-replacement forget their initial purpose. Corporations are meant to exist for the benefit of their workers - hence the term "corporate" - for the benefit of many. Increased corporation use of AI doesn't benefit workers, as it's not being used to make work easier, it's being used to replace workers. It doesn't benefit consumers either, as the product is demonstrably poorer.

All AI does is provide profit opportunities for those who are already rich.

Eventually they'll find a way to replace pesky, opinionated, inefficient and unpredictable human consumers with AI too, then we'll all be screwed.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2911
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 11:40 am Reply with quote
I just read the first two bubbles and knew I would not need to read anything else. Sure, you think ai is for the execs be que you live in an anti ai bubble. Just touch some grass and you can see the places where ai is helping the consumers and creators.

But the fun thing is that , I dont even need to show them, time will do.
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Sheleigha



Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 1674
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 2:19 pm Reply with quote
maximilianjenus wrote:
I just read the first two bubbles and knew I would not need to read anything else. Sure, you think ai is for the execs be que you live in an anti ai bubble. Just touch some grass and you can see the places where ai is helping the consumers and creators.

But the fun thing is that , I dont even need to show them, time will do.


In the context being used of anime subbing, who actually benefits? The customer, who wants accurate subs that sound like real english? The workers, who will most likely be cut down on in numbers?

The tech industry has currently has purged tens of thousands of jobs in just in the past year. Why? The main goal is to make money, save money, and to look good on their shareholders who invest in them. Are they making better products or providing a better service in doing so? Does this benefit the customer?

AI *can* have its uses, like in the biotech field it can be very useful, but overall? When it's something companies are all jumping in on (similar to mobile games, and NFTs in days' past), it's clearly looking out for only one thing, and it's not to help employees or the customer.
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Arale Kurashiki



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 781
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 2:27 pm Reply with quote
maximilianjenus wrote:
But the fun thing is that , I dont even need to show them, time will do.

"Don't ask me to explain what I mean because I refuse" ok good post dude
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Avec ou Nous



Joined: 17 Feb 2023
Posts: 154
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 2:36 pm Reply with quote
Shaleigha wrote:
AI *can* have its uses, like in the biotech field it can be very useful, but overall? When it's something companies are all jumping in on (similar to mobile games, and NFTs in days' past), it's clearly looking out for only one thing, and it's not to help employees or the customer.


Why are you citing mobile games as being some kind of fad or failure when they're like the biggest things out there essentially and eclipsed other forms of video games?

Anyway, AI will benefit the consumers and executives. Consumers for getting more product in more languages than previously possible, and possibly with more translations they prefer, and executives for cutting costs. The only real people who lose out are the people who's jobs will be replaced. But that's par for the course for all advances in technology.

I agree that fighting against it is a losing battle though. People can either accept it and adapt or be left behind as the world marches forward ahead without them. If you've ever used Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant then you've already used machine learning technology whether you realized it or not.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 02 May 2011
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 2:49 pm Reply with quote
This is currently linked in the article. As far as general public opinion goes, the majority of consumers in the United States do not trust AI.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/public-against-ai-poll

If executives can't convince consumers that AI technology benefits them and is trustworthy, it doesn't matter how good it is. They won't use it, and investment will drop.

Quote:
Trust in AI is down globally from 61 percent in 2019 to just 53 percent, per the Edelman poll. In the US, where employment insecurity is on the rise and an untold number of people either have lost jobs to AI or expect to, that percentage is lower, with just 35 percent of people now saying they trust the tech whereas 50 said they trusted it five years ago.


Last edited by ANN_Lynzee on Thu Mar 07, 2024 2:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Arale Kurashiki



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 781
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 2:49 pm Reply with quote
Avec ou Nous wrote:
Shaleigha wrote:
AI *can* have its uses, like in the biotech field it can be very useful, but overall? When it's something companies are all jumping in on (similar to mobile games, and NFTs in days' past), it's clearly looking out for only one thing, and it's not to help employees or the customer.


Why are you citing mobile games as being some kind of fad or failure when they're like the biggest things out there essentially and eclipsed other forms of video games?

They're citing them as being something companies all jumped on for monetary reasons and nobody else's benefit. Which is a correct assessment of the history, since they pretty much ruined video games for everyone except executives.

Also, "it will get more translations to exist" - google translate already exists and is right there. If all you want out of a translation is for it to technically be English words, then that's not new and people have been using it to make glut for decades.
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Fluwm



Joined: 28 Jul 2009
Posts: 1056
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 3:20 pm Reply with quote
ANN_Lynzee wrote:
If executives can't convince consumers that AI technology benefits them and is trustworthy, it doesn't matter how good it is. They won't use it, and investment will drop.


I hate to say it, but this seems wildly, impossibly optimistic to me. Company's may not advertise their use of AI tools, but they're so much cheaper than, you know, a team of actual human employees, that they'll never abandon no matter how much consumers don't like it.

We've already seen this happen with tech support and customer service -- all replaced with simple chat it's that tend to regurgitate the same useless information easily found elsewhere. For many companies, if you have a problem, even simply finding a way to try and contact a human being is all-but impossible. And everyone hates this. And it's been that way for years.

As far as my own experience speaks, I have seen precious little in my life to make me think that consumers have ever had any real power to change things for the better short of collective action, and that, too, is often insufficient.[/i]
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Ryuji-Dono



Joined: 26 Apr 2018
Posts: 1242
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 3:38 pm Reply with quote
Fluwm wrote:
ANN_Lynzee wrote:
If executives can't convince consumers that AI technology benefits them and is trustworthy, it doesn't matter how good it is. They won't use it, and investment will drop.


I hate to say it, but this seems wildly, impossibly optimistic to me. Company's may not advertise their use of AI tools, but they're so much cheaper than, you know, a team of actual human employees, that they'll never abandon no matter how much consumers don't like it.

We've already seen this happen with tech support and customer service -- all replaced with simple chat it's that tend to regurgitate the same useless information easily found elsewhere. For many companies, if you have a problem, even simply finding a way to try and contact a human being is all-but impossible. And everyone hates this. And it's been that way for years.


As far as my own experience speaks, I have seen precious little in my life to make me think that consumers have ever had any real power to change things for the better short of collective action, and that, too, is often insufficient.[/i]


Ahem, Sonic movie redesign and New Coke.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 02 May 2011
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 3:46 pm Reply with quote
Fluwm wrote:

As far as my own experience speaks, I have seen precious little in my life to make me think that consumers have ever had any real power to change things for the better short of collective action, and that, too, is often insufficient.


Throughout history, there have been various instances where changes were abandoned because the general populous wouldn't adapt to them or didn't want them, even in cases where those particular changes were more efficient. The poster above mentioned the Sonic redesign and New Coke when it comes to consumer blowback. Two others that come to my mind are the failed U.S. adoption of the metric system in schools (and in general) in the mid-70s and the alternative QWERTY keyboards. I'm sure there are others.
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Arale Kurashiki



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 781
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 3:56 pm Reply with quote
Comparing a design in a kids movie and the flavor of a soda to broad, sweeping worldwide corporate decisions seems... weird.

But I would also say that I don't even trust "consumers" to want things to be better or good, yeah. Companies have a funny way of convincing people that their decisions are somehow to peoples advantage even when they're not. I thought something similar about the assertion in this article that anime fans want reasons to use piracy. That's certainly one angle to approach this from, but I feel like many internet people in the present day think AdBlock is criminal activity, let alone piracy, which is "inaccessible" because it requires you to learn things instead of paying money(?). The average human in 2024 is excessively capitalistic in thought, and subscription services which give you the mere privilege of watching a video file are ultimately the successful mainstream option no matter how much complaining about them has become equally mainstream.
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OpenYourEels4TheNextFeels



Joined: 14 Nov 2023
Posts: 141
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 4:06 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Hold on! I have to take back every bit of concern and skepticism I've expressed in this conversation. "My magma gets fucked!!" is one of the rawest lines any human or robot has ever published, and we need more!

Glad to see a reference to one of my favourite Kamen Rider Build memes!
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varmintx



Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 1240
Location: Covington, KY
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 4:09 pm Reply with quote
maximilianjenus wrote:
I just read the first two bubbles and knew I would not need to read anything else. Sure, you think ai is for the execs be que you live in an anti ai bubble. Just touch some grass and you can see the places where ai is helping the consumers and creators.

But the fun thing is that , I dont even need to show them, time will do.

I think ya'll are missing the obvious joke here: that this post was generated by AI.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5522
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 4:25 pm Reply with quote
Arale Kurashiki wrote:
The average human in 2024 is excessively capitalistic in thought, and subscription services which give you the mere privilege of watching a video file are ultimately the successful mainstream option no matter how much complaining about them has become equally mainstream.
People pay for the convenience that streaming offers. Whenever I watch a film or Anime that is not available for streaming, I have to search it out, download it, convert it so it will play on my TV(I have an external hardrive that I connect to my Blu-Ray player), and even then I still sometimes run into issues with video quality.

We sadly no longer live in the golden age of streaming, but I can still load up one of them on my Firestick or Apple TV and watch a film or anime without any hassle. We are still at a stage where streaming is still the superior option to pirating.
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Sheleigha



Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 1674
PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 4:26 pm Reply with quote
Arale Kurashiki wrote:
Comparing a design in a kids movie and the flavor of a soda to broad, sweeping worldwide corporate decisions seems... weird.

But I would also say that I don't even trust "consumers" to want things to be better or good, yeah. Companies have a funny way of convincing people that their decisions are somehow to peoples advantage even when they're not. I thought something similar about the assertion in this article that anime fans want reasons to use piracy. That's certainly one angle to approach this from, but I feel like many internet people in the present day think AdBlock is criminal activity, let alone piracy, which is "inaccessible" because it requires you to learn things instead of paying money(?). The average human in 2024 is excessively capitalistic in thought, and subscription services which give you the mere privilege of watching a video file are ultimately the successful mainstream option no matter how much complaining about them has become equally mainstream.


So with this, even with things like Sonic or Coke, the matter is that if people will not spend money on said product, you just lost a huge investment as a company, so why continue down that same road? There are differently some arrogant companies that will stick to their guns no matter not, and when they fail after being laughed at previously, they can blame it on something else. Remember the Quibi streaming service that no one asked for or wanted, but told that it was perfect for short attention span Gen Zs? Yeah that failed incredibly, especially with the GIANT investments and huge expensive office they had banking on it all. When it failed, it was blamed on COVID because "no one was commuting" (which was their focused intended time for... viewing these videos). Some companies learn well with backlash, like Xbox One over a decade ago with "lol physical games" (and seeing how the competitor did at the time...)

The excuse people will use for piracy is endless, but in the end, there will always be some won't spend money no matter what, even if the service was peak. Every time these things come up as something like "well, guess I will pirate this now" or "glad I'm pirating this!" always made to prove a point or something. The problem now though, is that pirated copies, being mostly rips from sub services, will be the very thing they didn't want in the first place anyways, if CR goes the way of AI-everything.

Adblock is one of those things where some websites can barely be used in terms of the sheer amount of ads everywhere, and only 10% of content in some cases (I cannot use an actual news website and actually try to READ something). The way how advertising works online has never been good, and honestly has gotten worse over the years. Pop-ups and forced scroll-bys between paragraphs are such a burden. They pay the bills, but ruin the viewer experience. I'm not against advertising, but just with HOW it's done in those ways.

Subs in general are a tricky one... they went from a thing of cheap convenience, to prices being pushed up almost yearly in some cases. But, when even car companies want to lock you out of features without having a sub, we are almost at their whim because "that's just how things are now". I have a Netflix sub, shared with family too. There is still plenty of good content on there, and I want to support the good content to have it continue, but I hate the practices of "how can we keep retaining our company growth..." We might not like it, but it can be incredibly hard to push back on, but might as well try.
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