Being seen in an AI social world
Thanks to Samantha Cole at 404 Media, we are now aware that Automattic plans to sell user data from Tumblr and WordPress.com (which is the h
This post came to my attention today.
It’s difficult to put my feelings (and thoughts) into words right now. I know consent has been a difficult topic in the technology world for a while, and it’s no surprise the whole AI thing became so pervasive so quickly given the absurd investment these companies made in making it the trending topic of the decade and a toy accessible to anyone.
I have many questions, regarding the computational power dedicated to a tool that’s geared towards destroying creative work, a tool that fails so fundamentally in understanding the process of creating art yet claims to surpass it. I have questions regarding the energy and water costs of keeping the massive servers they certainly need, when scarcity is an ever present threat in a world that heats up more every year. I question all the dedication and investment when we have far more pressing issues of illness, hunger, inequality, and the list could go on.
I question why are we living in a world that’s incapable to control the greed and maliciousness of companies who exploit their users at every new development.
I don’t usually talk about myself a lot here, but I’m also a UX/UI designer, so I’m familiar with the process of Design Thinking, of creating a product based on the user needs…and features that hide themselves subtly to make the users fall into a trap is just hostile design. This is the world of hostile design. I don’t get respect as a user, as a creator, as a worker, as a citizen. If I did, my representatives would have the balls to stop all these policies and decisions from companies that want to leech me.
They want to chew my art, spit me out of the market and confine me to this horrible online experience.
I’m not sure what I should do at the moment. Maybe I’ll take all my art posts down from tumblr, maybe I’ll create a telegram channel later to post my art and talk to people. I have no idea which is the best route at the moment. I felt pressure to “put me out there and be seen” my whole life.
Interact with viewers.
create a fan base.
But it feels like no platform respects me enough right now, and I’m not willing to give up all of me. Opt-out is not enough.
Sorry for the long post.