Is AI the Devil? BONUS: Weekly Doom Holes, Bluesky users reject AI app, book reviewer fired, etc.

Jesse and Jenn work through this week's AI headlines. Yes, they can trigger stress and anxiety, but we find ways to laugh and enjoy being human, even in these modern times. It might be the ultimate way to rebel!

Here are the story links:

New York Times freelance book reviewer fired for using AI that stole from The Guardian

Bluesky users outright reject AI app ATTIE, MSN

SoftBank takes out a loan to invest in OpenAI, Yahoo News

Scarecrow surveillance are popping up everywhere, KTLA News

Hey you, Flock cameras! Use Deflock.me to tell them to flock off! from Substack

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Fucking clankers, fucking clankers, fucking clankers.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Jen, look, look, look, look, look what I found. Can you see this? It's gonna be backwards. See what it says? Radio Studio. Radio. I found an old radio studio sign.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Are you gonna put that up behind you?

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Yeah, why not? Yeah, that is neat. My plan is to build a set behind me, like that looks like the match game.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

So, uh, when we do Doom Halls, you know you can do that virtually if you use AI. You could do it right now.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that, mom. Virtual. I can cut a sheet of plywood. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Oh my god, what if your dogs bonk their heads on it? They're trying to get to you instead because you always pick them up and hug them.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

I'm gonna do it where I can wheel it in and wheel it out. Oh, that's so brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

What you need is one of those, you know, the old you know what?

SPEAKER_02 1:12

It just came to me. Yeah, like an old chalkboard on casters, exactly. Everybody who's not our internet's like chalkboard. What's what's chalk board?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

The fuck is it? Who's using chalk? Chalk talk. They think we're talking about Kansas, you know, the University of Kansas, chalk talk.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Oh yeah, no, it's where I'm not. I'm talking about like if like in the back in the olden times before the wars.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Do you remember? Did you ever have to clean the erasers as punishment? Who are you talking to? Of course I had to clean it. I did too. Wow, we would have been friends, we would have gotten in so much trouble.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

And all damn, I got called into the vice principal's office so much, it's like I had my own chair in there.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

I I got called to the principal's office, and you know what I said? I started with the compliment. I said, Well, finally, I have a woman for a principal, and she was like, Whatever you did, I love you, but you're forgiving you being smart.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

No, I was uh I was always in trouble. Travis, Travis Summerlin calling me in there and be like, Now boy, I don't know what you're up to this time.

unknown 2:23

I'd be like, Mr.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Summerlin, I ain't do nothing, but I did, and he knew it. He knew he knew he called me in there one time. It was like, Hey, uh, what are you gonna do about this uh yearbook problem? I go, yearbook problem. What? Yeah, so they were silly enough to make me editor of the yearbook when I was a senior, and so uh I love that, yeah. And so uh I I he goes, uh, and and I mean this was like 1990, so this was big money back then. He's like, yearbook's like 22,000 in the hole. And I was like, Why did I do that? I just I like I just got elected to this position.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Oh my god, yeah, that is some pressure.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Yeah, so I threw a bake sale.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

That's like an extra added doom. You threw a bake sale? Yeah, we always did car washes in eastern Washington.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

We yeah, I had to do some of that crap, yeah. Uh and like it didn't do anything. He just wanted me to did.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

You have to sell those chocolate bars, the world's greatest chocolate chocolate bars.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Yes, I fucked around with band.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

But did you ever have to sell for band pizza kits?

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Pizza kits. No, we had we had to sell candles, us too, and we had to sell uh chocolate bars, us too. Uh we sold something else, like a like posterfuls to a to win a trip somewhere, wrapping paper, wrapping paper kits.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

We had to do that too.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

I think yeah, it was uh we we you know we had to do all that crap. Hit me with a doom hole. I don't know. All right, let me see. Just pick one. No, I got one. You do? I was rambling on about being in trouble.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

You were rambling?

SPEAKER_02 4:15

No, of course not.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Teasing you.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

This is from the rap, everybody. The rap, the rap. Okay, rap.com. All right, uh, from March 30th. So it's fresh off the doomhole. Wow, it is. The New York Times fires freelancer over AI plagiarism. The New York Times cut ties with freelancer Alex Preston on March 30th after discovering he used an AI tool to help draft the January 6th book review that contained similarities to an August Guardian book review. Oh my god. The paper appended uh appended an editor's note, notified the Guardian, and said unauthorized AI use and unattributed text violate its journalistic standards. Preston admitted the error and will no longer write for the paper.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Huh. Oh my god, but it's also proof that AI grabbed the Guardian's review and just basically cribbed it. So he used AI, but then AI, there's more proof that AI just steals stuff.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Yeah, I think the gist of this, all right. Well, you know what? I'll just let me let me actually just look at it. Editors have pended the note to a book review written earlier this year by a freelance critic who told the Times after publication that he had used an AI tool to assist him in producing the piece. The tool produced similarities to a book review published in The Guardian, which our editor's note makes clear. For staff journalists and freelance writers alike, reliance on AI and inclusion of unattributed work by another writer, is a serious violation of the Times' integrity and fundamental journalistic standards. Preston told the Times he had not used AI to help draft any of his stories. The paper notified The Guardian about the similarities, and on Monday added an editor's note, blah, blah, blah. The spokesman that Preston, who had written six reviews between 2021 and 2026, will no longer write for the paper. Preston told the rap in an email he used an AI editing tool improperly on a draft I had written, and then he failed to catch overlapping language from the Guardian review. He says he took responsibility immediately. The Timesman vocal about man maintaining transparency and journalistic ethics as it experiments with generated. So yeah. We don't know what the tool was. It had to have been more severe for them to because I mean, isn't Grammarly like a basically it's an editing tool that has an AI component now? Because it used to just be an editing thing.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

I know, but it it adds these suggestions to make it. I mean, they definitely very heavy with the AI.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

I feel like from what I'm reading here, is that it did suggest things and probably to suggest things to his review, it was pulling stuff out of the Cigardian review.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 7:34

So he may not have you know what makes me mad about this is how many young journalist students would die for the opportunity to write some actual book reviews for the New York Times. And he he just basically walked into that job, and you know, he's been there for five years, you said 2021 to present until he was fired. Uh he took it for granted.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Yeah, I mean, and to the you know, uh, he he it does say he was a freelancer that you know had written for the times, but uh just to get yourself uh I mean just to get yourself published in any capacity in a paper like the Times. Yeah, couldn't actually write original script or original what is he the journalistic journalistic equivalent of like uh the the kid that makes their their parents go to the the the save on drugs at like uh 9 45 at night because they have to do a project project in the next day, you know exactly poster board and glue and uh it's gotta be turned in tomorrow, you know. What do you what are you doing, bro?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Like uh thanks for the warning, or I need three dozen cupcakes by tomorrow morning for school. I'm like, oh, I'll be up all night.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

I bet you got hit by that too.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Just a few times. I mean, really, my kids were so good when they were in they gave me prior warning. They were they were wonderful, they're the shit, man. Aww, good humans. Well, let's doom hole that one.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Not the kids, but the that's this rider guy.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Doom hall, doomhole kids are angels, doom hole, doom hola. Don't see me, Ricola, but that's an opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Doom hola. I know that horn though. God, I was just so brief when you were using that horn. That was bad. Is that when you had the doctor's appointment?

SPEAKER_02 9:35

No, yeah, no, okay, it should have been though. Wasn't related. I really thought I was headed to ER. Okay. This is irrelevant. Blue sky users respond with overwhelming disgust to platform's new AI. Oh, good for them. In quotes, cool. How do we block it? This is by our buddy Victor Tangerman again at Futurism, everyone.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Futurism. We love you.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Uh, in its early days, Twitter alternative blue sky tried to paint itself as a safe haven from the onslaught of AI. Yeah. Promising in November 2024 that it had no intention of scraper, scraping user-generated posts to train AI models. It was a shot across the bow, clearly aimed at its rival X, formerly Twitter. Still Twitter.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Yeah, everybody calls it Twitter. Whatever.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Which uh it it's it it's Twitter and it's GIF, everyone. It starts with a fucking G. I thought it was ja, like a soft G. No, I know, I know, I know. It starts with a fucking G. That's me. Victor didn't write any of that stuff, which had recently changed and he didn't cuzz. No, he didn't, he didn't, but I bet you if we you know we have a couple drinks, we can we get him off. Yeah, had recently changed its terms of service to allow just that. And since then, backlash to AI slop and relentless AI integrations has grown to new heights.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah, it has. I mean, I like to think we contributed to that.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Victor's not wrong, he isn't so it shouldn't come as a surprise that Blue Sky's abrupt foray into AI isn't sitting well with its notoriously anti-AI user base. Yeah, specifically the company's chief innovation officer, Jay Graber. Oh my god. Graber. Maybe it's one B. Oh, that's Graber. Okay. Sorry, Jay. Jay Graber, who stepped down as CEO earlier this month. Oh, Jay, Jay was like, Yeah, I'm getting the fuck out of here.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Before this happened, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

To focus on exploring new ideas.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Hope he doesn't end up at Substack.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

Yeah, at the company announced a new AI app called Addy. Uh A-T-T-I-E and a conference over the weekend. Addy, which interim CEO Tony Schneider referred to as a new product that's not part of the Blue Sky app, in an interview with TechCrunch, allows users to essentially vibe code, vibe code their own custom feed using natural language prompts or even build their own blue sky app alternative on top of the service's atmosphere protocol. Wow. How long do we sit in meetings to come up with some bullshit like Atmosphere Protocol? No kidding. Yeah. An ecosystem of interperable social applications. Inter. I don't know what word. I don't look. I'm from East.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

I feel like they made it up.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

I don't know what that fucking word is, but I know that I can tell you right now that atmosphere protocol is bullshit.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

It feels like it because it's sky, isn't it? Blue sky. And so everything's atmosphere. You know what?

SPEAKER_02 13:29

What does this fucking word mean? How do you say it? Makes me so mad.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

You're at war with one word. Can you hear me clicking over there? I can feel it. I can feel the the tension between you and this word. Interoperable.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Oh, interoperable. Relating to systems, especially of computers or to oh, so this is a bullshit word too. Yeah, it is relating to systems, especially of computers or telecommunications that are capable of working together without being specifically configured to do so. Well that's called interconnected. Why did we need an in-pronounced word? Integrated word.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

I thought integrated was the same word.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

I I mean it just made up a word. What are the fucking synonyms for this? Well, I'll I'll do a deep dive later. I'll write a whole Substack post.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

I know I feel it coming. You're so mad about it.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

There's a word that I couldn't pronounce, and like I'm mad at it. Okay. You control it, you shape it without having to write code or know how to set up these feeds, Schneider enthused. Now that's all good in theory, okay? I guess. Because I mean, remember when like remember when it remember when like making a blog used to be such a pain in the face, it was it was terrible.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Yeah, the blocks and it was awful. Yeah, yeah, but at the same time, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

It never lined up like you wanted it to, and yeah, or it never lined up for me anyway. Never until I I was just like, fuck if you know fuck fuck fuck blogs. I'm just gonna go be a stripper. That's what I said.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

That's probably what a lot of people said.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

I know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Wow, blue sky. I bet you a lot of people left them after this, they were probably really pissed.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Uh, let's get to where people are pissed.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Okay, given the immediate reactions to the new app, it may struggle to catch on. Uh-oh. These ought to be good.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Thanks. We're good. No need to explain it further. One user replied to Graber after she announced it in a Saturday post. Oh, cool. Another one added. How do we block it? Yeah. Me looking for who the fuck wants this. Yeah. Reads the caption of a meme. Yeah. Uh Graeber appeared to be aware of the inflow of hatred for the idea. When a user told her that we don't want it, she replied with a curt, then don't use it. It's a separate app. That's how you get the people on your side.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Oh my god, the passive aggressive war over a blue sky.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Once again, thank you, Victor.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Victor, I'm happy for you using Addy. Yeah. That is messed up, man. Once again, man, nobody nobody wants that. Nobody wants any of this shit. You if you want to vibe code your feed anywhere, what you do is go, oh, I really like the vibe of Jesse, for example, on Substack. So let me see who he follows. And you go, Oh, those are cool people. Maybe I'll like follow them. Or you have an artist, you're like, Oh, I I love this, so I'm gonna go check out who they're following. Exactly. But you make your own vibe code, you do don't need some AI interface. And this Graber, wow, I wonder if she's gonna be toast because I wonder how many users they lost over it.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

I mean, I don't know. I don't, I don't really know what I mean. I okay, I went to Blue Sky um just to check it out, as I did all things at the time, right? I had I and I wasn't even leaving Twitter for it. I'd been off Twitter for years, and I don't know, it was just kind of like like it's it's the same thing as that. Uh what's the one that what's the Zuckerberg one? What threads, threads, threads oh threads, threads called threads, yeah. Yeah, it's but it's the same thing, yeah. You know what I mean? It's just uh yeah, so it wasn't for you. Well, it's just remember how much fun it used to be to interact with everybody on Twitter and how much room we used to have. It used to be. It doesn't matter which Twitter-like platform you switch over to, it's the same thing because people aren't fun anymore.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Except for on Substack. I feel like we found we have found some fun people. Well, let's doom hole that one. Yeah, good riddance. Is that it for this week, or did you got anything else for us? Our ears. We so hated that one.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

I don't I'm really I'm I'm I'm very damaged by that word. I can't even remember what it was.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

I can feel you're so sad about it. It's not only damaged, you're kind of sad about it.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Uh, we don't need to read this dumb story, but here's just a headline for you. Soft bank is taking on a new$40 billion loan to help it cover its$30 billion commitment to invest in open AI.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Oh, so they're taking out a loan to give money to open AI. Yeah, who's loaning this money? I'm telling you, it's all a game, it's all a game.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

Same bag of money. It's one big techno circle jerk, is exactly what Ponzi scheme.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Yeah, it just keeps going around a circle. I agree. Yeah, I know. And you were seemed really down about that yesterday. And I was just like, no, I am manifesting that this thing is gonna blow up and nobody's gonna want to save it. I feel like this is a very special time because we're starting to see indicators where even if politicians have to pretend they care about humans more than this AI, you know, um Silicon Valley billionaires, they're going to. They're gonna wear that hat because they want to be re-elected. And I just think it's we're they're not gonna say it's too big to fail, it's not gonna be a thing with this, I swear. That's just that that's just what I keep seeing because nobody's gonna fall on this knife. Who's gonna fall on this knife?

SPEAKER_02 19:53

I mean, open AI just raised another 120 billion, you know what I mean? Really, did they? Yeah, but really did they? I could be off on the number, but it's over 100 billion. It's right around who is it more Microsoft?

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Because them and Microsoft are in a pissing match right now. Yeah, I know. I don't, I don't they're competing for the same contracts right now with Palinter and all the other ones. So it's like, who who the fuck is coming up with this money?

SPEAKER_02 20:17

I feel like I was just like, you know what? This is this is all gonna collapse, and then uh it's gonna be a thing where like uh well, we can't let all the tech companies fail, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 20:28

So like I know you are really down, we're paying it off, you know. But I I am really focused on what weaving a new storyline where it all collapses on itself. That's where my head should be.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

But it's what let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

I know. Well, because you're a human being, and I get there some days too, and then you get me laughing. That's why we're doing this doom hole is to get it all out there instead of inside of us, which is so toxic.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

And I'm not even a genius. If I don't know anything about finances, Nova said you're a genius. Well, okay, Nova did, yeah. Nova's also a clanker that doesn't remember who I am after she told me I was a genius, but but you know what I mean? Like, I'm just feeling I'm just a normal, I'm just a normal dude, and I'm like sitting there going, This isn't real.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

No, it doesn't feel real at all. I mean, if they're if they're rolling in the money, but yet they're all also the same week. There's headlines where they're mothballing data centers. They had names for them, they broke them into three parts because they couldn't be like one big thing, and they had to break it into a number of parts because they couldn't get the money together for them, they couldn't get the GPUs together, whatever the things are, the CPUs, all the things they couldn't get their act together. Um, and funding was dropping off their stock or whatever, certain stocks have been kind of falling out this week. None of it's fucking real, and they don't take it seriously. The infrastructure. Impact that they could be having on actual markets and actual human beings. They don't care. This is why they're all building bunkers. Yeah, like with thousand acres around them.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Where they don't have the scarecrows. That was the weird thing I learned about this week is you know, we all have those big box stores and different things where they have um those, they look like a white box at the bottom, and then they have a tall pole, and then there's like some solar panels, and there's usually a blue light and a camera at the top. Those actually have a name. We talked about it um during the episode about policing, predictive policing. They're called scarecrows. Um, and they're collecting all this data. And I don't even know what it has to do with what you're saying, but I think that a lot of people hate them. Like I now see them, and now that I know that they're called scarecrows, I go into a parking lot and go, I don't really need to shop here. And I turn around and I leave and I find it at a mini mart or somewhere else because they're so off-putting.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

Have you ever gotten one of those pictures in the mail where like you were three miles over the speed limit and they took a picture of you and like send you a ticket?

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Oh, that's so creepy. Well, yeah, no, are those those flat cameras?

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Yeah, well, I mean, and they've had those things for years. They people hate that shit. You be out like and you catch me going three miles over the, you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Yeah, but that made me want to look it up. Okay, so um, no, but the flock cameras, there's actually a website. I can't find it right now. I did like it yesterday on Twitter or X, but there's a uh there's a website that you can go to and you can navigate your way to different things uh and avoid those flock cameras. And it's very amazing that somebody thought to do that. Now they're probably using clankers to figure this out, but I kind of love that use of far as I'm concerned. That's good use of clankers, you know what I mean? Yeah, I agree. I think that it's really creepy, but these scarecrows are my thing this week, is they really freak me out and I am avoiding them. Ever since Monique and Alex were on, and they were talking about that bot that was at the store on the east coast, and they were like, Alex, you know, Monique was like, get the fuck away from me, you're freaking me out, get the fuck away from me, and then it blocked their way in the aisle.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

That like robot came up to them that like a thing in Star Wars. Like Alex and Monique are running the other way to stop that thing, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Oh my gosh. Okay, well, I think that's enough doom hauling for this week. That was a good doom hole. Give your dogs some lovens and let them out for God's sakes. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 24:47

I mean, they're they're about to go and see the world being good. They uh the trash man came today, of course, so they're exhausted from that. And uh you know, the cow they saw cows. Oh, they did.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

We had a guy on the ditch with some um earth moving equipment, so I couldn't let Cooper out before, so he's been kind of crossing his paws. He's really excited to go out and go pee, to be honest. Because if he went out, he would hurt himself running down the hill to bark at this guy.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

Yeah, we need to do that. So till next week.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Bye, bye, everybody, fucking clankers, fucking clankers, fucking clankers. Fucking clankers.