The Human Ai Institute® reposted this
“Enshittification” has been defined as the word of the year by the Macquarie Dictionary,” the national dictionary of Australia, an event that is more humorous than impactful, but nonetheless symbolizes how the internet has declined over the last few years. Originally coined by the author Cory Doctorow, it has become a great description of how many internet services have deteriorated. Article says: “Google search is filled with garbage. The internet is clogged with SEO-farming websites that clog up results. Facebook is an endless stream of AI-generated slop. Zoom wants you to test out its new #AI features while you’re trying to go into a meeting. Twitter has become X, and its owner thinks sharing links is a waste of time. Last night I reinstalled Windows 11 on a desktop machine and got pissed as it was finalized and Microsoft kept trying to get me to install Onedrive, Office 360, Call of Duty Black Ops 6, and a bunch of other shit I didn’t want.” The Australians define the word as “the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.” On LinkedIn, there are more ads, more memes, and more superficial nonsense, probably generated by #AI. Please remember that all of this reduces our productivity. Why has this happened? “The market demands geometric growth. Companies want the numbers to go up. As Silicon Valley has run out of wonders and #innovation, it has turned to mining its existing customer base by making its products worse. If you’re lucky, they’ll sell you the cure. Most of the time they’re just trying to make a sale. What are LLMs like ChatGPT if not the final attempt of the Valley to devour and regurgitate the user-generated internet back into our mouths?” “Writer Cory Doctorow coined the term #enshittification in an essay about Amazon in 2022. He was talking about what a nightmare it’s become to shop on the site. I recently experienced this when buying a new CPU (which is why I reinstalled Windows.) The processor I wanted, a Ryzen 7 9800x3D, is in high demand. I got it a few weeks ago from Amazon, but it required navigating a list of scam listings selling the CPUs below MSRP to find a reputable retailer. I was eventually able to find an order fulfilled by Amazon itself, but it wasn’t the first one Amazon tried to sell me.” Doctorow said one of the reasons the word caught on was that it’s a bit naughty. “Somehow, giving people a minor license to be a bit rude is a magic key that opens the door to a longer, more thoughtful conversation. Not for everyone who uses the word, but that’s fine. If ten million people use the word colloquially, and 10 percent of them go look up what I have to say about it, that’s a million normies that I get a chance to radicalize.” See my recently published book: Unicorns, Hype and Bubbles. #technology #startups #artificialintelligence #hype #ethics