alt Hacker News>That's why we have technology in the first place, to improve our lives, right?
No, we have technology to show you more and more ads, sell you more and more useless crap, and push your opinions on Important Matters toward the state approved ones.
Of course indoor plumbing, farming, metallurgy and printing were great hits, but technology has had a bit of a dry spell lately.
If "An always-on AI that listens to your household" doesn't make you recoil in horror, you need to pause and rethink your life.
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> you need to pause and rethink your life.
If you can't think of an always-on AI that listens but doesn't cause any horrors (even though its improbable to get to the market in the world we live on), I urge you to exercise your imagination. Surely, it's possible to think of an optimistic scenario?
Even more so, if you think technology is here to unconditionally screw us up no matter what. Honestly - when the world is so gloomy, seek something nice, even if a fantasy.
I don't think that ads _have_ to be evil.
When I look at Google, I see a company that is fully funded by ads, but provides me a number of highly useful services that haven't really degraded over 20 years. Yes, the number of search results that are ads grew over the years, but by and large, Google search and Gmail are tools that serve rather benevolently. And if you're about to disagree with this ask yourself if you're using Gmail, and why?
Then I look at Meta or X, and I see a cesspool of content that's driven families apart and created massive societal divides.
It makes me think that Ads aren't the root of the problem, though maybe a "necessary but not sufficient" component.
I really hope, that before I will get old and fragile, I will get my smart robotic house, with an (local!) AI assistant always listening to my wishes and then executing them.
I rather have the horror of being old and forgotten in a half care like most old people are right now. AI and robots can bring emporerment. And it is up to us, whether we let ad companies serve them to us from the cloud, or local models running in the basement.