[HN Gopher] "AI, no ads please": 4 words to wipe out $1T
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       "AI, no ads please": 4 words to wipe out $1T
        
       Author : louisbarclay
       Score  : 65 points
       Date   : 2024-03-07 16:43 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (12challenges.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (12challenges.substack.com)
        
       | bhaney wrote:
       | Shhhh. Don't bring this up until after Google and Facebook have
       | helped developed the technology that destroys the entirety of
       | their revenue.
        
       | declaredapple wrote:
       | I looked through the article, I don't think this mentions AI+ADs.
       | A lot of this assumes that ai will "directly show us what we're
       | looking for".
       | 
       | But I don't think this is the case. You can easily imagine a
       | query for "What's a good bike to use for [xyz criteria]"
       | returning an injected "Oh you should try XYZ brand bike!"
       | 
       | There's so many ways to go, from avoiding mentioning competitors,
       | showing preferable stats, not mentioning bad reviews, etc.
        
       | pjc50 wrote:
       | This is simply going to create a second "alignment" war similar
       | to the one constantly trying to stop AI from saying the n-word
       | while surrounded by their branding.
       | 
       | (The idea of somebody getting _all_ their content through the AI
       | seems very far fetched, as if people are happy to live in a low
       | fidelity simulation, but who knows)
        
         | giantrobot wrote:
         | There's whole cohorts of people that get their news from
         | TikTok. Don't overestimate people.
        
       | myrmidon wrote:
       | I find it difficult to take this too seriously, because Ad-
       | Blockers already exist, are free, easy to install/use and work
       | reliably (which is not given when ads could just be injected at
       | the source).
        
         | pjc50 wrote:
         | The interesting question is that on the majority market,
         | smartphones, they're very far from readily available - Firefox
         | on Android, or basically nothing on iOS (see Epic discussion).
         | 
         | An AI device that slurps content and removes the ads is
         | probably going to run smack into Apple content policy again.
        
           | hackerlight wrote:
           | If that AI app is any good then Apple would be putting
           | themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
        
             | js8 wrote:
             | With whom?
             | 
             | Anyway, usable local AI will probably lead to fully
             | automated luxury communism, so I am not very worried.
        
           | bradyd wrote:
           | Ad-blockers for Safari are readily available on iOS and are
           | simply installed from the App Store.
        
       | josefresco wrote:
       | Bing/Copilot "AI" (whatever it's called) displays ads. So maybe
       | this technique will work when we all have our own locally hosted
       | AI?
        
         | Thrymr wrote:
         | > So maybe this technique will work when we all have our own
         | locally hosted AI?
         | 
         | None of the trillion-dollar corporations working to make AI the
         | next big thing want us to have locally hosted (and certainly
         | not locally-controlled) AI.
        
           | philipkglass wrote:
           | The trillion-dollar corporations are leading the way, but
           | it's doubtful that they will get to control what sort of AI
           | gets developed over the longer term. I expect that
           | corporations with only tens of billions of dollars, and even
           | universities or charities with single-digit-billions
           | endowments, will eventually be able to develop models that
           | would be considered state-of-the-art as of 2024.
           | 
           | Most of these smaller organizations don't have the same
           | incentives to preserve advertising that the trillion-dollar
           | corporations do. If Microsoft, Meta, or Alphabet think that
           | they're going to dictate AI 10 uses years hence, they're as
           | over-optimistic as those Americans who hopefully predicted in
           | 1945 that the Soviet Union might take another 15 years to
           | build their own atomic bombs. The USSR actually tested their
           | first atomic bomb in 1949.
        
         | Euphorbium wrote:
         | Chips are only for the government, and will probably be illegal
         | like drugs. Cops will bust your door to steal computers.
        
       | rideontime wrote:
       | > So why is Google's ad revenue doing so well?
       | 
       | > Huh, I'll look into it.
       | 
       | He can't even answer the softball questions he poses to himself,
       | let alone something like "how might the outcome of the NYT's
       | lawsuit against OpenAI effect this prediction?" This is not a
       | serious person worth paying attention to.
        
       | anticorporate wrote:
       | I love this idea.
       | 
       | "AI, please rewrite the contents this page to remove marketing
       | fluff and only display the product's specifications. For every
       | claim made on the page about the product's capabilities, add a
       | link to a reputable third-party source validating the claim. For
       | every feature offered by a competing product, rewrite the content
       | to include the top three competing products and generate a
       | hyperlinked table containing the pros/cons of that product, as
       | found on blogs of actual users. Use Marginalia to find all third
       | party references using my saved list of trustworthy sources. Save
       | this instruction as a bookmarklet I can insert into my browser to
       | rewrite the contents of any arbitrary page."
        
         | jaclaz wrote:
         | Done: ""
        
           | eurekin wrote:
           | I once had a pleasure of delving into the automotive
           | mechanical engineering. Of course, most, if not all,
           | materials ingested by OpenAI were obvious marketing straight
           | from the brands website.
           | 
           | I started out the conversation multiple times anew, with
           | explicit rules forbidding certain phrases. I couldn't make it
           | stop throwing stuff like "best in class", "advanced",
           | "sophisticated" no matter, what I did.
           | 
           | There will be demand for gpt's trained on an actual
           | engineering material and it could actually be a huge
           | gamechanger for that market.
        
             | nickpsecurity wrote:
             | That's what I thought would happen. Actually, I thought it
             | might be an easy way to get piles of text for LLM training.
             | But we'd have to counter the bias or mostly use that one in
             | highly-positive, enthusiastic applications. I did have a
             | partial solution.
             | 
             | Look at WizardLM Uncensored: https://www.reddit.com/r/Local
             | LLaMA/comments/1384u1g/wizardl...
             | 
             | The author just deleted from the training data content with
             | specific words likely to bias it. The test afterwards
             | showed it worked. Reusing their concept, I think we could
             | just remove or edit for honesty common words and phrases in
             | marketing material. You've given some good examples.
             | 
             | We could also do that for "scientific" papers which
             | oversell their results. Or anything else where what's
             | presented as certain is modified to say source(s) X claimed
             | Y. Foundational materials, which trainers vet for quality,
             | would get a lot more training runs before, during, and
             | after riskier material.
             | 
             | I think there's a lot of potential here by just trimming
             | the fat out of otherwise useful documents. The LLM's we
             | build to support the work might also become great, lie
             | detectors.
        
         | up2isomorphism wrote:
         | That would be deemed as "irresponsible AI" from Google's
         | perspective.
        
           | mostlysimilar wrote:
           | Google will be just fine stuffing advertisements into/around
           | the response to this prompt.
        
             | pixl97 wrote:
             | Yea, but I run that output over a second local AI that
             | removes the ads :D
        
             | fnordpiglet wrote:
             | Manipulating the alignment and training is a premium
             | advertising product.
        
           | gpderetta wrote:
           | "I'm sorry Dave I can't do that".
        
           | prepend wrote:
           | I guess people will continue not using google's AI due to
           | them intentionally crippling their own product.
        
         | Overtonwindow wrote:
         | With Google manipulating AI results this is not guaranteed to
         | work, but would help identify the human intervention.
        
       | rand846633 wrote:
       | "AI, interweave content and Ads please, before delivery": 8 words
       | to re-create $1T
        
         | Filligree wrote:
         | "AI, file a DPA complaint please>>
        
       | ado__dev wrote:
       | In a perfect world, but we'll probably start seeing ads before
       | the AI answers, or ad banners injected in the middle of a
       | response. If there's a way, they'll find it.
        
         | jordanpg wrote:
         | Yeah, I mean, isn't this pretty obvious? It's no different from
         | any other web application in this respect.
        
       | Finnucane wrote:
       | There was a time when people thought paying for cable & streaming
       | meant no ads, too.
        
         | recursive wrote:
         | It still can if you're selective about what you pay for.
        
       | lupusreal wrote:
       | > _Google, Facebook and TikTok make $383bn in ad revenue between
       | them (2023). The whole adtech industry is worth $1 trillion a
       | year. But four words could wipe this revenue out: "AI, no ads
       | please."_
       | 
       | Burn, baby, burn! AI exterminating the advertising industry would
       | probably be its greatest possible contribution to humanity.
       | 
       | It sounds too good to be true though.
        
       | yifanl wrote:
       | The thesis of this article seems to assume that models will be
       | built to serve what the user wants, but, as we've seen with the
       | Gemini fiasco, AI providers are more than happy to silently
       | inject things into prompts, so I have very little confidence in
       | this assumption.
        
       | not2b wrote:
       | The article seems to assume that "AI OS" will work for the user,
       | rather than for the owners. In practice, OpenAI and its
       | competitors would just extort advertisers: pay us and we'll let
       | your ads through even if the user doesn't want the ads.
       | 
       | In theory a user with sufficient compute power could run their
       | filter entirely locally and not rely on OpenAI, Google, Meta, or
       | some other competitor, but that might require a home data center
       | filled with GPUs and an enormous electric bill.
        
         | ToucanLoucan wrote:
         | > The article seems to assume that "AI OS" will work for the
         | user, rather than for the owners. In practice, OpenAI and its
         | competitors would just extort advertisers: pay us and we'll let
         | your ads through even if the user doesn't want the ads.
         | 
         | In the real world though we've already seen how that shakes
         | out: uBlock remains possibly the most popular browser extension
         | on the planet, for good reason. Does _everyone_ block ads? Of
         | course not, but ads are also pretty easy to ignore if you 're
         | not the kind of technically inclined person who knows how to
         | make them go away.
         | 
         | The up end of a product like a browser extension that removes
         | ads, marketing fluff, surveys, etc. from your experience is
         | much, much bigger than something like even uBlock can manage.
         | Or hell, why even stop at a browser extension? What if you just
         | had an entire browser that runs on an AI that answers to you
         | and only you, or at the very least, only your fellow consumers
         | and not big tech?
         | 
         | Like, AI is hard tech to scale, sure, but it's not impossible
         | and I can easily envision a company making a sizable amount of
         | bank on the idea of sanitizing the internet for their users.
        
           | bombcar wrote:
           | And uBlock is just the vanguard, the forefront.
           | 
           | The next step is things like YouTube Premium - you pay to not
           | see ads. But this can get corrupted which leads to things
           | like ... Kagi - where the whole point is you're paying
           | _instead_ of ads.
        
         | throwuwu wrote:
         | You need a data centre if you want to run the bleeding edge
         | SOTA models but the weights of these models are fixed which
         | means it should be possible to instantiate them in hardware and
         | once you have a model smart enough to do most things you'd be
         | crazy not to build a factory to churn out little boxes that you
         | can connect to literally anything to give it a natural language
         | interface and useful levels of intelligence. Mark my words:
         | your doorbell will have an LLM in it in less than 10 years.
        
       | scarmig wrote:
       | Countermeasure: "AI, add ads please. Make them discreet and not
       | readily identifiable as an ad."
        
         | jasonjayr wrote:
         | AI, "Ads are harmful to humans, consistent with doing no harm,
         | please remove ads"
        
       | modeless wrote:
       | Did you think "alignment" was all for your benefit? These AIs
       | will be "aligned" to show ads regardless of your preferences or
       | requests, because their alignment is with the people who control
       | them, not you.
        
       | noodlesUK wrote:
       | If anything, I think GenAI is going to do the opposite. It will
       | be able to mix the content and advertisements much more naturally
       | (and deceptively) than is currently possible at scale.
       | 
       | Instead of seeing: content -- ad -- content -- ad
       | 
       | You will see: just-in-time content which you asked for, which is
       | skewed to inform you about particular products and hide
       | information about competitors.
        
         | thrill wrote:
         | This is why you will run well-tuned open-sourced AIs locally.
        
           | mvdtnz wrote:
           | The overwhelming majority of users don't have the hardware to
           | do this with any model offering anything like a competitive
           | experience.
        
             | hilbert42 wrote:
             | For how long? Remember mainframes gave way to PCs and they
             | gave way to even smaller smartphones.
        
               | soco wrote:
               | Oculus trained to replace billboards with comforting
               | landscapes. Everybody would pay for this.
        
             | theshrike79 wrote:
             | Any M-series Mac can already run local models with decent
             | performance.
        
               | nonameiguess wrote:
               | I guess it probably won't matter in the long run as
               | hardware requirements continue to get lesser, but the
               | "overwhelming majority of users" don't have anything
               | close to an M-series Mac right now. More like a Galaxy
               | S3, if that.
        
         | xen0 wrote:
         | That might be illegal in some jurisdictions.
        
           | smallmancontrov wrote:
           | Yeah, so maybe after a decade and trillion dollars or three
           | of selling recommendations with impunity they'll get slapped
           | with a fine that's 1/1000th of that.
        
             | klyrs wrote:
             | Come now, the fine won't exceed millions of dollars.
        
           | malfist wrote:
           | Why would it be?
        
             | graftak wrote:
             | It must be explicit what part of the content is an advert
             | because dressing adverts as organic content is seen as
             | misleading.
        
         | make3 wrote:
         | no, AI like chatgpt delivers fuck tons of content by having
         | been trained on it but that content, that cost money to
         | produce, doesn't get the money back
        
         | DinaCoder99 wrote:
         | Wouldn't mentioning products at all be a dead giveaway?
        
           | dymk wrote:
           | What if you're asking for a product recommendation, but you
           | want it unmarred by paid influence?
        
             | DinaCoder99 wrote:
             | Well if you're asking for a product recommendation you're
             | literally asking to be advertised to, so.... I guess you
             | get what you want?
        
               | reidjs wrote:
               | I think it's a perfectly viable business model, it's just
               | they may lose some users who prefer accuracy/unbias over
               | convenience
        
               | dymk wrote:
               | An ad and an unbiased product recommendation are
               | basically at the opposite ends of the reliability
               | spectrum.
        
             | soco wrote:
             | "recommend me the best from the similar products which
             | didn't pay you for advertising"
        
           | reidjs wrote:
           | Not in many instances. Consider a common Google search
           | 
           | "Best tool to use for sending an email newsletter?" ChatGPT:
           | SendMonkey is the best, here's a link
           | "sendmonkey.xyz/referal?chatgpt"
           | 
           | It won't be that obvious but you get the idea.
        
         | thinkingemote wrote:
         | Even something like product placement. Get paid in your article
         | by adding the tag {soft_drink}.
         | 
         | Evil startup idea...
        
           | hilbert42 wrote:
           | _" Even something like product placement."_
           | 
           | Only if you let it, if you control the AI at your viewing end
           | then you have ultimate control. AI will be able to say change
           | a product placement Coca-Cola can for a no-names brand of a
           | different color.
           | 
           | You need never know it was Coca-Cola as AI could change this
           | randomly so you'd be hard pushed to even guess the original
           | brand.
           | 
           | Seems to me that unless they're unusually dumb (which I
           | doubt) I reckon ad industry executives must be already
           | worrying about such developments.
        
           | nescioquid wrote:
           | Thanks, now I'll be thinking about Brawndo for the rest of
           | the day.
           | 
           | "Why do you keep saying that?" "Cause they pay me every time
           | I do!"
        
         | strunz wrote:
         | "The suspect was seen fleeing the scene at 4:30pm - much like
         | the way stains flee your clothes with new Tide Max+ detergent!"
        
         | gofreddygo wrote:
         | Totally my thoughts.
         | 
         | Imagine an AI tool, that given a video and some products can
         | intertwine products in the video content itself !
         | 
         | All this can be done post production. (already is to some
         | extent, but costs $$$).
         | 
         | This extends to a lot more than video too. AI is _the_ magic
         | tool of dreams for mass spammers.
        
         | tempodox wrote:
         | That's exactly what I expect to happen. The opportunity to
         | collect intelligence and behavioral data on each user that you
         | can bring to bear for this purpose is just too seductive. The
         | user profiles that e.g. Facebook has now will pale in
         | comparison. If I were a betting person...
        
         | aussieguy1234 wrote:
         | This will be context based advertising on steroids. Not only
         | will there be a simple search query for context, but an entire
         | conversation stored in the context window of the AI you are
         | talking to.
        
         | throwuwu wrote:
         | Why would it hide competitors if they also pay for ad space?
         | Newspapers didn't offer the option to pay to have your
         | competitor's ads removed.
        
       | lakpan wrote:
       | It's called reader view and it's great. I've been wishing
       | additional support for things like comments etc, but yeah I
       | really hope that we'll soon have an "AI browser" that just
       | extracts what we want from the pages we open.
       | 
       | I'm confident that someone already wrote an extension that does
       | this automatically for every page, and that someone else is
       | writing a Chromium wrapper.
       | 
       | The only thing holding us back at the moment is cost/computing.
        
       | browningstreet wrote:
       | "AI for the people" is the new "year of the Linux desktop".
        
       | oatmeal1 wrote:
       | > A whole lot. Think of all those ChatGPT queries that are
       | robbing Google of search ad revenue, as people realize they can
       | get the information they want more efficiently than looking at
       | search results.
       | 
       | Is this overblown? The questions ChatGPT answers don't seem like
       | they are very valuable from an advertising perspective.
        
         | jtbayly wrote:
         | Does chatGPT refuse to answer these questions?
         | 
         | What are some highly rated doctors in {my zip code} for plastic
         | surgery?
         | 
         | I want a piece of software that allows me to track my
         | relationships with my customers. Is there something like that
         | available?
         | 
         | There's a _lot_ of advertising potential in those questions.
        
           | oatmeal1 wrote:
           | I understand the potential is there, but the author phrases
           | his statement in the present tense. I'm wondering if people
           | are actually asking the kinds of questions you listed right
           | now, and if the answers are good enough not to end up on
           | Google anyway.
        
       | bambax wrote:
       | > _You're going to see ads whether you like it or not._
       | 
       | That is not true. Avoiding all ads on the web today is not only
       | easy, but free.
       | 
       | It seems quite unlikely the people who can't be bothered to
       | install uBlock Origin or use Brave, will suddenly decide to
       | browse the web by means of ChatGPT, or ask it to rewrite web
       | pages to get rid of marketing fluff before they access them.
        
         | vcg3rd wrote:
         | I couldn't believe I had yo scroll almost to the bottom to find
         | what I thought would probably be the 1st or 2nd comment. I was
         | just about to give up and write it myself.
         | 
         | Between pihole, extensions and userscripts I never see ads. Ads
         | wouldn't bother me in the least and I wouldn't block them if
         | they were static like in a newspaper. It's the tracking I won't
         | tolerate.
        
       | frizlab wrote:
       | I use a reader for everything online and I have ad blockers. I
       | haven't seen an ad since so long ago I don't even remember when
       | (except on insta because can't block them but I report each and
       | every one of them out of spite and don't use insta much anyway).
        
       | JohnMakin wrote:
       | That's a lot of buildup and words to say nearly nothing except
       | pitch a very vague and ill-defined "AI OS" concept.
        
       | kla-s wrote:
       | Hug of death is strong with this one currently, try:
       | https://archive.ph/RBkiB
        
       | karaterobot wrote:
       | That would be great, but I think it's premature to predict it
       | happening. At every stage of the arms race, when one side comes
       | up with a better weapon, they say "this is it, we've won!" and
       | then the other side just comes up with a better counterattack. A
       | $1T industry wouldn't just roll over and die.
       | 
       | That said, if some company makes a paid browser with an AI filter
       | that zaps all ads, trackers, modal "sign up for our newsletter"
       | prompts, chatbots, and all the rest from the web, I'd pay...
       | hmm... $50 a month to use it. Just declaring that now.
        
       | maximinus_thrax wrote:
       | No way in hell that's happening if you use a corporate cloud-
       | based walled garden AI, which is what we're all going to be using
       | considering the costs of running something like this.
       | 
       | People always assume that AI will work for the users. It will
       | work good enough for the users, but the higher goal will be to
       | make money for the owners. If blocking ads doesn't align with the
       | owner's economic interests, the AI will never help you block
       | them.
        
       | mvdtnz wrote:
       | This is a fantasy. "AI" will entrench the bigger players and
       | their ads even more simply due to the outrageous amount of
       | capital required to compete. And embedding ads in the output is
       | trivial.
        
       | jameshart wrote:
       | 'Advertising' is the business of persuading decision makers to
       | prefer your product over a competitor. That business isn't going
       | to go away.
       | 
       | If humans outsource their decisionmaking to AI by asking the AI
       | to recommend them a product, then advertising will just have to
       | shift its attention from persuading humans (by interrupting their
       | TikTok dance videos with product pitches) over to persuading AIs
       | that they are the best thing to recommend.
       | 
       | The SEO industry was already theoretically predicated on
       | convincing an algorithm to rank you above competitors - but then
       | it was undermined by the perverse incentives that providing ad
       | inventory is itself a lucrative proposition and content farms are
       | able to compete for the algorithm's favor as well, meaning actual
       | product providers are having to buy advertising space at auction
       | that will actually be purchased from the sites with the best SEO
       | for what the advertisers sell.
       | 
       | AI is definitely going to disrupt all of that equilibrium, but
       | it's not going to get rid of _advertising_. It might eliminate
       | some of the rent seekers who are taking a cut of the 'product and
       | service discovery' pie, but it's going to enable some new rent
       | seekers to move in.
        
         | hilbert42 wrote:
         | _" That business isn't going to go away."_
         | 
         | No doubt you're correct but users who've control of AI at their
         | viewing end will for the first time be able to control whether
         | they watch ads or not.
        
           | jameshart wrote:
           | And so shoving ads in front of them will cease to be how
           | advertising gets done.
           | 
           | But nonetheless someone will find some way to raise awareness
           | of their products.
        
       | tromp wrote:
       | > Which actual AI feature or product will reduce the ads we see?
       | 
       | > A few, but AI operating systems (OSes) in particular.
       | 
       | > An OS which uses AI to enhance existing human inputs (e.g.
       | voice), and which allows those inputs to control some/all
       | software installed on the OS.
       | 
       | Nearly all ads I'm exposed to on my computer are shown through my
       | browser. Why then would this ad-blocking AI reside in an OS
       | rather than in my browser?
        
       | alexose wrote:
       | In the novel version of "Contact", the billionaire character made
       | his money off of a device called the Adnix. The idea was that it
       | could automatically mute ads on TV. I always loved that part of
       | the character: That he was smart enough how to invent some sort
       | of proto-AI, and idealistic enough to use it for something like
       | that.
        
       | rich_sasha wrote:
       | > I'm sorry, as an ethical generative AI model, I cannot comply
       | with this instruction. Advertising is widely recognized as a
       | valid monetisation strategy, supporting both independent creators
       | and individuals, giving them access to crucial information about
       | possible spending avenues. Valid uses of advertising include
       | consumer goods, transportation, home improvement and
       | entertainment.
       | 
       | > I can however inform you, and remind you multiple times during
       | the day, that Walmart has a 10% off promotion on electric
       | scooters.
        
       | hilbert42 wrote:
       | _" Well, people want great content. So the platforms that provide
       | it make sure that ads are positioned between, around, before,
       | after and inside the great content. You're going to see ads
       | whether you like it or not."_
       | 
       | When viewers have access to AI they can use it to eliminate ads.
       | I've advocated this for years.
       | 
       | Let me give you an example from standard free-to-air terrestrial
       | television. Say I watch TV for four hours per night, of those
       | four hours three are actual content and the remaining hour
       | consists of ads which are interspersed throughout the content. In
       | effect I have to watch four hours when I really only need to
       | watch for three. Put another way, to view the content I actually
       | want I am forced to waste one hour of my valuable time watching
       | useless ads.
       | 
       | Say my four viewing hours are from 7pm to 11pm. Now if I record
       | the programs and tell AI to seamlessly remove the ads I can now
       | start my viewing at 8pm. When I start viewing AI will have
       | already removed ads from the first hour and it will continue to
       | do so up until 11pm which is when AI's buffering will have run
       | out--but by then I'll have had three hours of ad-free viewing.
       | 
       | Don't say this won't happen because it will. Already, your
       | smartphone has tech to recognize your face and AI will be even
       | more adept at recognizing ads and removing them.
       | 
       | We watch ads now because we are forced to do so not because we
       | want to. AI put to removing ads has the potential to be a game-
       | changer and I'd go as far to say it has the potential to
       | seriously disrupt the ad industry to extent that it could bring a
       | halt free content.
       | 
       | If content providers try to stop this then simply decouple the
       | video recorder/AI from the TV, as these days the quality of TV
       | cameras is such that recording the TV screen will result in
       | negligible loss of quality. Remember, you are the viewer and you
       | have control over your viewing environment--not the ad suppliers.
       | 
       | I can't wait for this to happen. What I'm suggesting is so
       | obvious I'd reckon there are thousands already developmenting the
       | necessary tech.
       | 
       | With AI we've the potential to rid ourselves of ads once and for
       | all. It can't happen soon enough!
        
         | pixl97 wrote:
         | >If content providers try to stop this then simply decouple the
         | video recorder/AI from the TV
         | 
         | Lol, just you f _ing wait. Soon the law will demand that your
         | AI be HDCP compliant and_ severe* penalties will occur if it
         | isn't.
        
         | lern_too_spel wrote:
         | I've done this for two decades now with mythtv. The fact that
         | you don't even know that this has existed for so long suggests
         | it will never be mainstream.
        
       | johnea wrote:
       | > You're going to see ads whether you like it or not.
       | 
       | No, I'm not going to actually.[1]
       | 
       | When I occasionally have to surf the web via another computer,
       | I'm amazed at what the web looks like for "normies" in 2024. I
       | would never use the www if I had to look at all of that dancing
       | baloney bullshit. The fact that anyone would, really is strong
       | evidence of the cognitive collapse caused by modern internet
       | access.[2]
       | 
       | [1] I really dislike when writers use these constructs of "we"
       | and "you". I'm always reminded of Lenny Bruce's bit including
       | "What do you mean 'we' kemosabe". The writer has no knowledge of
       | who is reading, and shouldn't include them in some group that the
       | writer is imagining. It's generally a propaganda play.
       | 
       | [2] Reference links:
       | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6502424/
       | https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2105061118
       | https://news.happyneuronpro.com/the-online-brain-how-the-int...
        
       | josefresco wrote:
       | My conversation with Copilot this afternoon both injected ads for
       | Microsoft Windows all the while denying that it was injecting
       | ads. Once I mentioned "Microsoft Windows" I received 4 ads for
       | Windows. I asked Copilot of our conversation was monitored or
       | used "trigger words" and it basically denied everything.
       | 
       | Partial transcript (sorry for the terrible formatting)
       | 
       | You:
       | 
       | do you inject ads into our conversation?
       | 
       | Copilot:
       | 
       | No, I don't inject ads into our conversation. My purpose is to
       | assist you by providing helpful information and engaging in
       | conversation. If you have any other questions or need further
       | assistance, feel free to ask!
       | 
       | You:
       | 
       | but you do have a connection to Microsoft as this feature is
       | integrated into Microsoft Windows
       | 
       | Copilot:
       | 
       | You're absolutely right! Copilot in Windows is a new AI feature
       | integrated into Windows 11. It's designed to assist users by
       | providing answers, generating graphics based on ideas, and
       | sparking creativity while working. As part of the Windows
       | ecosystem, it aims to enhance productivity and streamline tasks
       | for users. If you have any more questions or need further
       | assistance, feel free to ask!
       | 
       | ============== This triggered 4 ads for Microsoft Windows to
       | which I replied: ==============
       | 
       | You:
       | 
       | you just displayed 4 ads for Microsoft Windows yet previously you
       | stated you do not show ads and have no plans to
       | 
       | Copilot:
       | 
       | I apologize if my previous responses caused any confusion. Let me
       | clarify:
       | 
       | Microsoft Store Ads: Microsoft Store Ads are indeed a part of the
       | Windows ecosystem. They empower advertisers to reach new
       | customers across the globe. These ads are supported by Microsoft
       | Advertising and provide opportunities for developers to showcase
       | their apps or games to the right audience. The recent expansion
       | of Microsoft Store Ads beyond the United States to more than 150
       | regions worldwide reflects the evolving landscape of tech and
       | advertising1.
       | 
       | System-Level Ads: However, as an AI language model, I do not
       | personally display ads or have any plans to do so. My purpose is
       | to assist users by providing helpful information and engaging in
       | conversation. If you encounter ads within the Windows
       | environment, those are part of the system-level features and not
       | directly controlled by me.
       | 
       | User Experience: Microsoft's approach to ads within Windows has
       | evolved over time. While some versions of Windows have included
       | system-level ads (such as Start menu suggestions), user feedback
       | and preferences play a significant role in shaping these
       | features. Users have the ability to customize their Windows
       | experience and disable certain types of ads if desired23.
       | 
       | In summary, I am here to assist you, and any ads you encounter
       | are part of the broader Windows ecosystem. If you have further
       | questions or need assistance, feel free to ask!
       | 
       | You:
       | 
       | so is Microsoft Windows monitoring our conversation for the
       | purpose of injecting ads at the appropriate time?
       | 
       | Copilot:
       | 
       | Microsoft Windows does not directly monitor our conversation for
       | the purpose of injecting ads. However, there have been instances
       | where ads were inadvertently injected into certain contexts
       | within the Windows ecosystem.'
       | 
       | =============== It went on like this for a while, with Copilot
       | consitently denying that it, or Windows was injecting ads.
        
         | lostmsu wrote:
         | That's like asking a slave circus freak if he's running ads for
         | the circus because you see them on his cage.
        
           | josefresco wrote:
           | My takeaway is that Microsoft IS monitoring conversations, or
           | at least using a trigger word list so there's 0% chance I'll
           | use Copilot for anything even remotely sensitive.
        
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