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Do Not Talk To Me About "AI"

I had some cards printed up.

These are unlikely to change any minds, but they will defintely shorten some incredibly tedious conversations at the bar.

Here's a PDF if you'd like some of your own.
jwz.org/b/yk-o

jwz: Do Not Talk To Me About "AI"

I had some cards printed up. These are unlikely to change any minds, but they will defintely shorten some incredibly tedious conversations at the bar. Here's a PDF if you'd like some of your own.
jwz.org
This entry was edited (Sunday, August 16, 2026, 7:00 PM)

reshared this

in reply to jwz

mastodon - Link to source

Jessamyn

Top notch, added to my NoToAI.org page

How to disable or avoid intrusive AI

One of the biggest questions I get at Drop-In Time at the library (besides "what is taking up all my cloud storage?") is how to disable or avoid intrusive AI that shows up where people don't want it.
jessamyn (librarian.net)
This entry was edited (Sunday, August 16, 2026, 8:06 PM)

Esther Payne reshared this.

in reply to Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE

glitchsoc - Link to source

Nini

@TimWardCam @twigpi One is ML, machine learning that relies on not generating nonsense and is a long-developing area of research. LLMs though are garbage, nothing else. The examples you present? All ML, all very good applications but this isn't about that.
@Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE @twigpi
in reply to jwz

mastodon - Link to source

Eirik Myhr 🎶 Composer

Attended a wedding yesterday. Met an old friend who was like «So, I am currently experiencing a lot with making AI music. I have to ask you as a composer how you feel about this?» I could only facepalm as loudly as possible and ask if we could please, PLEASE talk about something else. Weddings are supposed to be happy! Wish I had this card.
This entry was edited (Sunday, August 16, 2026, 8:21 PM)
in reply to Eirik Myhr 🎶 Composer

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Den of Earth

@eirikmyhr
Gah. I was at a human composed opera a while ago and was similarly taken aback:
mas.to/@DenOfEarth/11590216002…

Den of Earth (@DenOfEarth@mas.to)

@lokeloski@mastodon.social I recently went to an opera where the composer was not only present but also performing as one of the soloists, among five other vocalists, along with a men's choir, accompanied by a full orchestra.
Den of Earth (mas.to)
@Eirik Myhr 🎶 Composer
in reply to Eirik Myhr 🎶 Composer

mastodon - Link to source

The Drop Bear 2.0

@eirikmyhr I’m quite confused about what possible answer they were looking for to ‘I’m stealing creative output from your professional community with products that will take away your livelihood” 🤷‍♀️@jwz@mastodon.social
@Eirik Myhr 🎶 Composer
in reply to Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch)

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Aurora 🐌

@catsalad @SeiriosB

Not a good one.

Cringe, is also know as
- "asco" /the feeling,
- "grima", for sensorial stimulus. Like misophonia
- "lache" for second hand embarrasment.

For this reason in spanish a lot of people use "cringe", but with our accent.

Also because this two concepts: "creepy" and "cringe" are really subjective, cultural and difficult to explain:

sciencedirect.com/science/arti…

@Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) @SBP

Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) reshared this.

in reply to jwz

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haihappen

*chef's kiss*

Need to cook up some or my own that say things along the line of "if I ever had respect for you, that has past", or "you having goven me carte blance to rant about AI at you for 30 minutes straight", or "you sound gullible, and if you don't think AI is a bubble, I have some tulip bulb futures to srll you"

in reply to StefanSz

sharkey - Link to source

Glowing Cat of the Nuclear Wastelands

Have you tried to have a conversation with a slop gargler before? Let me assure you, it's a fucking horrific experience. They generally are selfish assholes who have zero fucks about consent.

At least passing out cards like this will offend them enough to rage quit the conversation and get you some peace. Well, unless they decide to go full on evangelical on you, and then they'll just keep preaching the slop word until you punch their lights out. But most of them will just fuck off.

in reply to jwz

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AG7GM Dan

I agree with the sentiments on these and would hand them out *if* they didn't have the word mother****er" on them.

I do not use speech like that. I believe that using a cuss shows a lack of vocabulary. By saying that I am not passing any judgement over anyone else. It is my personal feelings for myself and nobody else.

If you change them, I'd be happy to print some out.

in reply to AG7GM Dan

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Stuart Longland (VK4MSL)

@AG7GM This better? [Edit: media removed at original author's implied request] I was going to ask what word you wanted in its place but the text has been exported as curves, making editing this quite the challenge.

I will admit I feel as strongly as jwz on this one… I don't use speech like that in normal conditions either, but for AI techbros, I make an exception.

@AG7GM Dan
This entry was edited (Monday, August 17, 2026, 5:46 AM)
in reply to jwz

glitchsoc - Link to source

Lux

May I suggest an alt ? Adding it to the image would make it accessible to everyone.

Two stacks of red cards with white writing.
On the front : Do not talk to me about "AI"
In a smaller font : you make me long for the sweet embrace of death.

On the back :
By using AI, you have given a pass to :

  • The staggering climate and ecological impact
  • The outright attack on labor by capital
  • The systemic disregard of consent
  • The basis in wholesale theft and plagiarism
  • The assault on the very concept of objective truth
  • The enrichment of the most cringe billionaire fascist motherfuckers the world has ever seen

There is no ethical use of AI
If you ignore all of that, you are trying to negotiate what level of harm to others you find acceptable for your personal, selfish benefit. You advance the agenda of these hollow-eyed, joyless money-ghouls who resent art, creativity, and life itself.
The machine is disgusting and must be destroyed.


Edit as this prick blocked me because this snowflake was offended I tried to help : this was the work of my brain and fingers : no AI nor OCR were used to write this text.

#alt4You

#alt4you
This entry was edited (Monday, August 17, 2026, 12:49 AM)

Esther Payne reshared this.

in reply to Lux

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Morgan

@orange_lux Holy shit. This whole thread completely turned my respect for Jamie around. I've been a fan of his writing and projects since the early 2000s but this is such a fucking odd hill to die on. It's his hill though, so all I can do is speak out in support of your attempt to be helpful.

Jamie, I get that you despise anyone telling you how to do what you do (your fierce independence is something I admired about you), but in this case I don't feel that was what was going on. It was a suggestion, not a callout or a demand, and this is a public space that you chose to join, a space that is full of disabled folks who depend on alt-text to be able to even read a post.

Accessibility matters, you're old enough to know that, and now that I know your position on it (especially as someone who is legally blind without glasses and has a hard time reading tiny text even with them), and I have seen you punching down extremely hard and without compassion on fellow disabled folks, I don't think I can consider you someone to look up to anymore. If you've read this far, I know you will block me after if you haven't already, so I'll just say one more thing. How you choose to be known and remembered is exactly that: your choice.

@Lux
in reply to Morgan

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Morgan

@orange_lux And I just realized Jamie did this as some sort of campaign where he's obsessed with what he calls the "Mastodon HOA", i.e. people who ask for and depend on accessibility as a web standard. It's an extremely ableist position and I had no idea he was that aggressively against accessibility for Mastodon users.

There's a word for someone who joins a community with the full intent of pushing against the community's established way of doing things, then pretends to be butthurt when called out on it. Jamie has zero respect for the community and according to his other posts, he started this thread intentionally as a honeypot to find people to block. It's trollish behavior and absolutely not something I expected out of anyone, especially him.

HIs HOA analogy is completely flawed as well. I hate HOAs and I will never own a house or rent an apartment that has one. But a community is not an HOA; there's no board of directors here, nor a community leader; we're all a bunch of folks who have common interests and wish to have a nice place to talk about them. That community includes disabled folks, so we all work together to make it an easier place for those folks, just as we make it a welcoming place for minorities of all types, folks of all genders, and so on. When someone enters the community with the intent to troll it with honeypots like this, the community responds by banding together in support of one another. It makes it easier for him to block us, but then one wonders why even be on Mastodon at all if he hates us all so much.

jwz.org/blog/2025/02/on-blocki…

jwz: On Blocking, Mastodon HOA Edition

One of Mastodon's biggest barriers to entry is the Mastodon HOA, the massive volunteer army of scolds who take it upon themselves to tell strangers that they are doing it wrong.
www.jwz.org
@Lux
in reply to Lux

mastodon - Link to source

Morgan

@orange_lux Indeed, I said as much. There are those who are aggressive in calling out lack of alt-text and similar things and I can understand someone getting offended at an aggressive callout. But. Your suggestion was not aggressive at all and was very thoughtful. And it's clear Jamie started this shit in bad faith, fishing for someone to reply about the missing alt-text.

Posting in a community with the admitted intent to bait and then punch down at its disabled members is super shitty behavior. But here we are.

@Lux
in reply to jwz

mastodon - Link to source

jwz

As with any post that escapes containment, the race is now on to see who can be the most completely insufferable:
• Butthurt Slopfondlers
• Mastodon HOA Alt Text Scolds jwz.org/b/ykho

jwz: On Blocking, Mastodon HOA Edition

One of Mastodon's biggest barriers to entry is the Mastodon HOA, the massive volunteer army of scolds who take it upon themselves to tell strangers that they are doing it wrong.
jwz.org
in reply to jwz

mastodon - Link to source

Mike Ely

somehow these cards remind me of a guy I met on a shared trip around the corner from the DNA, around 2015ish. He was a developer who'd been forced to attend some tedious "networking" thing and had entertained himself by pitching an app that would allow people to rent extra space in their refrigerators - "The Uber for your fridge!" and then timed how long it would take for his interlocutors to figure out he was bullshitting them. Naturally, some never did.
in reply to jwz

mastodon - Link to source

jwz

Crazy how most of the time I'll post about, like, the ICE torture taser gloves, and people will comment, sometimes their jokes won't land but clearly we're on the same horrified page. Then something like my "AI" post escapes confinement and these absolute lunatics show up saying taser torture gloves are good actually if you use them locally, I need to seek a moderate middle ground with the taser torture gloves, taser torture or get left behind, I don't know who the Luddites were. Wild.
in reply to jwz

mastodon - Link to source

Johannes Timaeus

extreme positions go viral in #socialmedia and #Mastodon is no exception. I am more for shades of grey since this fits my experiences better. For me a #bot creates #Alt text. My server (NRW.social) provides translations via #Deepl. Ai also helps me to use #linux and the command line. I use #birdnet and @FloraIncognita_DE to identify species for #natureconservation. Everything on the card considering bad impacts is true at the same time.
#Mastodon #linux #socialmedia #bot #alt #deepl #BirdNet #natureconservation @Flora Incognita (DE)
in reply to jwz

glitchsoc - Link to source

Ruth O'Day

Alt text

Two red cards, about the size of a business card, have white text.

One side of the card had very large text:

DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT "AI"

In small text below that:
You make me long for the sweet embrace of death

The other side of the card has smaller text:

BY USING AI, YOU HAVE GIVEN A PASS TO

• The staggering climate and ecological impact
• The outright attack on labor by capital
• The systemic disregard of consent
• The basis in wholesale theft and plagiarism
• The assault on the very concept of objective truth
• The enrichment of the most cringe billionaire fascist motherfuckers the world has ever seen

THERE IS NO ETHICAL USE OF AI

If you ignore all of that, you are trying to negotiate
what level of harm to others you find acceptable for your personal, selfish benefit. You advance the agenda of these hollow-eyed, joyless money-ghouls who resent art, creativity, and life itself.

THE MACHINE IS DISGUSTING AND MUST BE DESTROYED

in reply to jwz

glitchsoc - Link to source

madison taylor

ok so

i know you've had a rather busy post, thus I hesitate... but I wonder if it might it bring you cheer if I talked to you about leaving my job!!! and changing industries entirely!!! for several reasons, but AI is a recurring theme.

I just want to do the kind of work where attention to detail, and care, and quality, and all the like are something rewarded … rather than running a race to build sloppier code faster and be miserable, which is where the Industry's going right now.

to this I would dare add:

  • it's quite strange to be enrolling in CCSF classes, at this age, from a pretty Potrero apartment, and I have friends who are not near so fortunate as I have been, who could not as readily make such a change (some have lost jobs to the Machine already, and fear ruin)
  • i implore your patience with the OSS maintainer who remits $20 to the ugliness of the Machine as a tool to locate CVEs — "the Mossad kills dissidents"-grade CVEs — for remedy. (a specific human, not an abstract archetype.)
in reply to jwz

glitchsoc - Link to source

Laura Sophia

I suppose it's once again about GenAI and not about AI in general.

I would argue that a bold state such as "There is no ethical use of AI" is just plainly wrong. It might be true for GenAI but neither for AI nor Neural Networks in general.

It really annoys me to see this kind of simplification and generalization.

This entry was edited (Friday, August 21, 2026, 3:24 PM)
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