Discussion
I understand the point of this [formerly serious newspaper that has devolved into fluff] profile of #MarissaMayer (former CEO of Yahoo!) may be rage bait, so I am not including a link to it.
But ouf, reading these words (which have been widely circulating online) has been painful, especially as a mom.
You can't think of 3 qualities that make your child special, so you ask an AI Assistant? NO, NO, NO, NO. UNACCEPTABLE.
I imagine Marielle reading this and my heart breaks for her.
@_elena what the actual fuck
@_elena The hard part of this problem is limiting myself to three bullet points for my kids!
Still wouldn't use an AI.
To be fair, engineers are not famous for stuff like that. In that the only thing that changed in 20 years is that the person had someone (or some...THING..¹) to ask help from.
_
¹ thank you William Shatner and Twilight Zone.
@_elena Is so crazy I don’t even believe those things. They make stories to sell their crap and don’t mind liying on their lifes (or maybe they are as awful)
@_elena note from the field: this is not how people act who like cracking hard problems
@datn indeed! Plus thinking about three qualities of your child is NOT a hard problem. It's the easiest thing!
@_elena I know, right? reportedly she was "overwhelmed" by the task.
i guess that given she saw it as hard, her approach ought to have been something like "*knuckle crack* let's begin with love"
instead it was "phone a fake friend made of stolen shit"
@_elena dear god. I hope this is just a misguided made up anecdote to sell her AI platform. However, it also wouldn't surprise me if this actually happened.
@_elena it looks like an ad, to be honest. If the protagonist would have been a ciswhite heteroman, I would have believe it. «ALEXA: Daughter? Do I have a daughter?».
@cibersheep Mayer infamously went back to the office 2 weeks after giving birth (and she worked remotely the first week after the birth of her children).
I'm beginning to question how well she knows her own children - since bonding with them doesn't appear to be a priority. I feel terrible typing this, but what is the point of being a billionaire when you can't even take time off to spend precious time with your offspring? Isn't this the most important thing in life?
@_elena @cibersheep Same as it ever was. Going back in history, noble families & plantation owners had wet nurses and nannies and tutors. For many people, but especially the rich, children are like a prized breed of show dog they own amongst their other possessions.
They don't maintain their own gardens either, just own them. And ownership means being able to decide who is excluded from them.
@_elena @cibersheep i) not if you’re a sociopath embedded in utterly anti-human US corporate culture and ii) you don’t get that far up the ladder in any corporation without being an utter sociopath
@_elena @cibersheep Because billionaires are addicts. They are addicted to amassing more wealth and it gives them dopamine hits like nothing else in their lives, including children. It's the exact same behavioral pattern that gambling addicts experience and it's not much different than other addictions including drugs and alcohol. The only important thing for them is the dopamine hit. All other brain circuitry has long been circumvented.
There definitely does seem to be something amiss with those who amass such enormous financial figures?
I wouldn't know firsthand. I tend to have the opposite sorts of problems (debts and poverty and homelessness seem to be my reasons for overworking underpaying jobs).
"what is the point of being a billionaire when you can't even take time off to spend precious time with your offspring?"
That in particular, I really wonder! Not that I have a billion dollars, let alone billions, yet I am pretty sure I would want to never go into an office again if I had those sorts of funds and would prefer to share space and time with those most meaningfully important to me if I were blessed in such realms.
I have no need nor desire for "flying cars" or cars with rockets that can drive upside down or do kick flips either, because: we already invented planes, and rockets and I don't think combining them is particularly beneficial to or for anyone. Billionaires (or maybe he was a trillionaire briefly?) clearly have other ideas.
Too many Thneeds.
Meanwhile, Gil Scott-Heron's "Whitey on the Moon" (1970) is as salient as ever; perhaps contemporaneous language about Mars or not needing rocket cars? Would keep up with the times? I could probably imagine some apropos rhymes.
CC: @_elena@mastodon.social @cibersheep@mastodont.cat
@_elena uff. I mean, not that everyone has to agree, but I think is sad. Again, I'm not example of anything as money is not my priority (and that show a privilege)... and part of a «Modern Family», but prioratizimg a company vs your family would have made miserable.
@_elena I remember when she made every remote yahoo employee come to the office while she built a nursery at her office exclusively for her daughter.
she is awful.
@_elena The AI also came back with three of the most basic, common and expected responses. That alone should disqualify it.
I would never hold it against the daughter but if I were the teacher and there was a way to just kick mom out of the school...
@_elena IKR! I was now sitting here thinking of all the many qualities my son has. Thinking of three is absolutely no problem at all for me.
Why are people outsourcing their entire thought process to AI?!
@harib_murshidi @andycarolan @_elena Dazzle, her "personal assistant"
@tipoqueno @andycarolan @_elena It's an #AI not an actual personal assistant (a human personal assistant) 😐
@andycarolan Same vibes as Sam Altman suggesting that parents create a personalized GenAI podcast for the drive to school... (instead of actually talking to their children). These people are not well and they are responsible for widely deployed technologies. Critical thinking and digital media literacy are more important than ever.
@_elena @andycarolan Solving problems only sociopaths have!
@_elena @andycarolan Tech is run by sociopaths. I cannot consider this in other terms any longer.
@_elena @andycarolan perfection: "these people are not well"
@_elena Surely this is parody? Right?!
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@_elena reminds me of a recent realistic tv show about moms and daughters. the mom of an olympic champion (!) were asked to say some good qualities of her daughter. she thought really hard for a while, and came up with "she can handle pressure well". and when she was asked to say some weaknesses. and she came up instantly with a whole long list of "messy room" "has a cat" (!) "eat snack/junk food" "not punctual" ....