The New York Times: Apple, Microsoft and Google say AI smartphones and computers will automate tasks like editing photos and wishing a friend a happy birthday. These companies need something from you to make that work: more data. Our tech columnist breaks down what to know.

Apple, Microsoft and Google say AI smartphones and computers will automate tasks like editing photos and wishing a friend a happy birthday. These companies need something from you to make that work: more data. Our tech columnist breaks down what to know.

What the Arrival of A.I. Phones and Computers Means for Our Datawww.nytimes.com Apple, Microsoft and Google need more access to our data as they promote new phones and personal computers that are powered by artificial intelligence. Should we trust them?

oh yeah cuz id love for my friends phone to send me an AI message for my birthday without him even looking at his phone. real meaningful.

Facebook already made important steps to decrease the meaning of birthday greetings. This would go further in that direction.

Deleting and reposting without gross metaphor and with apology for posting without thinking so early in the morning: Yeah, this is the sort of thing that might have invalidated Facebook as a resource for human interaction if Facebook hadn't already taken care of that themselves.

Some good connection happens with Facebook. It's also corrosive. I do think that finding ways to communicate in groups from a distance is important. It needs to be combined with strengthened local communities. I hope that using tech for that purpose will be one of the next developments.

It was an amazing tool for a decade or so, despite numerous issues. It's been genuinely depressing to watch it deteriorate.

leave it to zuck lol

Can't wait til they automate eating strawberries, listening to music, and kissing your spouse.

haha as if the formerly-working class will be able to afford strawberries, music, or a spouse

This reminds me of how there are macros that play some MMORPGs automatically. It's sad.

Ugh!!

my god, think of the time we'll save when we don't have to wish people a happy birthday anymore

No, no, no...

booooooooo. automate actual chores, not the opportunities for human creativity and critical thought.

what if we don't fucking consent? you, NYT, are part of the problem

bsky.app/profile/boaz...

Stop this @nytimes.com. You are pushing the US towards dictatorship. Incredibly bad for the US and for the world in general.

they're not going to stop, it's been their mission for longer than we've been alive

Finally, all meaningful human interaction can be automated with all the personality of a LinkedIn post!

They get that this week make things mean nothing and no one will care right? Ultimately it'll make stuff me inconvenient bc they burned down another social hub

This is why you have no friends.

We are wasting resources we dont have enough of (power and water) for something no one wants.

How am I supposed to be distant and aloof when AI is constantly making my friends think that I’m supportive and emotionally stable?

bsky.app/profile/chec...

super excited for the day AI will be able to take over the most tedious tasks of daily life such as making art, engaging with art, maintaining human relationships, etc., so that I can focus on my true passion: creating value for shareholders

So how did you realise XYZ was your true soulmate? Well, everyone sent me a birthday greeting at exactly 00.01 on the day, except XYZ, who sent it a day late at 09.22 and apologised profusely for it having slipped their mind.

Wishing a birthday is a "task" to be "automated"? Are these people still humans? Do they have computers instead of their brains and hearts? And the only thing we should be worried about is keeping our "data" safe from them? I'm rather worried about how to keep this WORLD safe from them. 😰

I can’t wait for AI to take over the feeling of a sudden cool breeze on a hot day for me. I’m sick of that shit

Garbage. And you promote it. lmao

just stop. nobody wants this garbage even the big tech freaks selling it

Man, these freaks really do hate human interaction and connection, don't they?

What sort of absolutely miserable person hates playing with the pictures they took with friends or sending them well wishes?

Something about using AI to wish a 'friend' a happy birthday seems so pathetic to me. Even if it's a day late, just fucking send a text or something. All it says by using ai is "I don't really care about you enough to send you a real message, but here is a birthday wish anyway"

Nobody Wants This Shit

Our best and brightest are in a room trying to figure out how to automate wishing your friend a happy birthday. It sounds like science fiction but you will see this achieved in your lifetime.

Sounds ghastly. When will they pay us? At least make iPhones free.

Have those companies perhaps tried not being soulless pieces of shit

This post reeks of toadying subservience

This is just a more perverse extension of human beings as the raw material being mined and farmed by tech companies for profit. I want nothing to do with contributing to my own planned obsolescence, so charlatans like Zuckerberg, Musk, Page, Brin can further enrich themselves.

Here’s to hoping that AI and NYT end up in the same place.

Vile. Relegating thoughtful human interaction to soulless “work for a computer to do” is so disgusting. Just shows how antisocial these AI-holes truly are.

The only data they need to collect is how many people fire up the phone for the first time and immediately shut that shit off

Do the aliens or AI itself come up with ideas like automated birthday wishes? One needs to lack any humanity to think a person would enjoy getting automated birthday wishes from loved ones.

I would not appreciate a chatbot saying happy birthday to a friend instead of me. It's meaningless if it doesn't actually come from me.

Futurama predicted this.

that fucking sucks

They’ll push me back to a flip phone, which maybe would be better for me.

I’d rather have a physical birthday card with a handwritten message over digital any day. That’s from a true friend

Exactly why I really appreciate Apple’s approach. They really took a good, privacy first approach to this imo. I’m hoping though that they also license publisher data and don’t steal it like a lot of other AI companies.

Yeah, one question: do any actual human beings work at the New York Times? Do any of you fucking brunchlords have functional relationships, or feel joy about anything beyond licking fascist boots?

We. Dont. Want. It.

It's a scam to allow businesses to pay less for labor created by cultists that believe if they don't do it fast enough the robot devil will send them to robot hell forever, don't need to know anything else

Have they thought about, you know, paying for it?

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