The generative “AI” hype cyclone is sweeping across the internet as companies like Google, Microsoft, and Adobe pour billions into the technology.
It’s a net negative for small blogs like this one. Years poured into creating content are slurped up within minutes to be later regurgitated by chatbots. This week, I’ve learned that the world’s most popular search engine will push links to websites even further below their endless ad boxes to make space for their ML-generated stew.
Nilay Patel noted on The Verge yesterday that Google provided terrible advice to the “why is the lever not moving all the way” question by a film photographer in their joyous Gemini video ad. Their highlighted advice was to *just open the camera back* (which would destroy the film), quickly followed by a clip of a guy happily taking pictures after the fact.
Apologists will claim that film jams require opening the camera back. But as someone who’s been shooting film for over 13 years with very old cameras, I tell you this never happens. It’s a made-up scenario (with even worse “AI” responses) that a trillion-dollar company didn’t bother to think through before adding to their public ad.
Dmitri May 16, ‘24