#AI Employees Features

[marketingprofitmedia]

AI Employees Review – Generate Unlimited AI Contents In 60 Seconds

Welcome to my AI Employees Review Post, This is a genuine user-based AI Employees review where I will discuss the features, upgrades, demo, price, and bonuses, how AI Employees can benefit you, and my own personal opinion. This is the World’s First First AI App Preloaded With Google’s Highly Trained 25 AI Employees Completes All Your Marketing Tasks In Less Than 60 Seconds!

Imagine, Companies are constantly seeking ways to streamline operations, maximize efficiency, and gain that crucial edge over the competition. In this relentless pursuit of progress, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force, promising to revolutionize the very fabric of how we work. One such offering capitalizing on this AI revolution is AI Employees. This service claims to provide a virtual workforce of AI-powered assistants, each programmed to tackle an array of marketing tasks. From crafting compelling content and managing social media campaigns to analyzing data and generating reports, AI Employees promises a one-stop shop for businesses seeking to supercharge their marketing efforts. But is AI Employees the key to unlocking explosive growth

AI Employees Review: What Is AI Employees?

AI Employees pitches itself as a game-changer in the marketing world, offering a virtual pool of AI-powered assistants specifically designed to tackle a multitude of marketing tasks., acting as an extension of your in-house team. From crafting social media posts and churning out blog articles to managing ad campaigns and analyzing data, AI Employees promises to handle a wide range of marketing activities with speed, efficiency, and 24/7 availability.

Imagine having a tireless content creation machine churning out fresh content or an AI analyst poring over data sets to identify hidden trends, all without needing breaks or exceeding their budget. This is the enticing proposition behind AI Employees. But before you jump on the AI bandwagon, this review will equip you with the knowledge to assess if this virtual workforce can truly deliver on its promises.

AI Employees Review: Overview

Creator: Akshat Gupta

Product: AI Employees

Date Of Launch: 2024-May-16

Time Of Launch: 11:00 EDT

Front-End Price: $17 (One-time payment)

Official Website: Click Here To Access

Product Type: Software (Online)

Support: Effective Response

Discount: Get The Best Discount Right Now!

Recommended: Highly Recommended

Bonuses: Huge Bonuses

Skill Level Required: All Levels

Refund: YES, 30 Days Money-Back Guarantee

<<>> Click Here & Get Access Now AI Employees Discount Price Here <<>>

AI Employees Review: About Authors

At the helm of AI Employees is Akshat Gupta, a visionary driving innovation in AI technology throughout 2024. Gupta brings his wealth of expertise to the forefront, dedicating himself to developing pioneering solutions that simplify and streamline website creation for users globally.

Recognized as a prominent leader in the field, Gupta continually inspires and empowers others to leverage the potential of AI in achieving their goals and maximizing their online capabilities.

He has earned his reputation through the creation of numerous products such as KidTales PLR, AI DeepSongs, SiteFlow AI, CreativeAI 2.0, AI GameZone, AI VideoBooks, AI AppMaker, AI VideoSong, VoiceGPT AI, ExplainerVideoz, FlipBooks, MazeMaker, eBookMaker, and many others.

AI Employees Review: Features

World’s First AI App Preloaded With Highly-Trained 20 Google AI Employees

Built-In Voice & Keyword Command Feature

Create & Sell Limitless AI Content & Marketing Materials

AI Employee “Rhyan Anderson” — Creates World-Class Websites In Any Niche & Language

Sales Funnel Specialist “Olivia Roberts” Create High-Converting Sales Funnels

Email Campaign Manager “Emily Johnson” Sends Unlimited Email & SMS Campaigns For You

Graphic Designer “Aisha Khan” Crafts Ultra-HD AI Images, Art, Logos & Graphics For Maximum Conversion

AI Employee Liam Murphy Creates Ultra-HD 4K AI Videos

AI Employee “Emma Brown,” Writes High-Converting Copies & Blog Posts

Voice-Over Artist “Sarah Mitchell” Generates Unlimited AI Voice-Overs

Music AI Expert “Leonard Johnson” Composes AI Music & Video Songs In Any Language

Course Developer “Murli Vijay” Creates & Sells Best-Selling AI Courses

SEO Expert Tom Wilson Ranks Your Websites & Pages On The First Page Of Google & Yahoo

AI Expert “Isabella Rossi — Manages Your Social Media Accounts & Posts.

Chatbot Developer “Sandeep” Creates & Embeds Unlimited Chatbots For Better Engagement & Sales.

Emily Davis Create Stunning eBooks & Flipbooks With A Single Keyword

AI Employee “Mireille Darc” Provides Unlimited AI Stock Media Assets

AI Employee “Daniel Victor” Creates Stunning AI Avatar Videos In Any Niche

Paul McGrath Does All The Affiliate Marketing For You

Ai Employees Mobile Edition

Lifetime FREE Updates

24*7 Support & 100% Uptime Guaranteed

Step-By-Step Training Videos

Exclusive Bonuses

AI Employees Review: How Does It Work?

You’re Just 3 Clicks Away From Getting Access To Our Highly-Skilled Google’s AI Employee Team That Completes All Your Marketing Tasks Less than 60 seconds!

STEP #1: Login & Command

Give keyword or voice commands about your desired AI Content or Marketing Materials.

STEP #2: Generate

AI Employee Harnesses The Power Of Google’s Highly Skilled AI Employees & Creates Your Desired AI Content & Marketing Materials Instantly.

STEP #3: Profit

Start profiting by selling these high-in-demand marketing contents to your clients or on freelancing platforms like Fiverr & Upwork while filling up your pockets.

<<>> Click Here & Get Access Now AI Employees Discount Price Here <<>>

AI Employees Review: Can Do For You

Google’s Latest AI Employee Team Creates All Your Marketing Materials In Less Than 60 Secs.

Give a Simple Keyword Or Voice Command & Get Your Tasks Done Instantly.

Done-For-You, 20 Highly-Experienced AI Employees Working For You 24*7 Non-Stop.

Command AI Employee “Rhyan Anderson” — Who Creates World-Class Websites In Any Niche & Language For You Instantly.

Create High-Converting Sales Funnels Using Your Sales Funnel Specialist “Olivia Robert.

Send Unlimited Email & SMS Campaigns Using Your Email Campaign Manager “Emily Johnson.

Craft Ultra-HD AI Images, Arts, Logos & Graphics For Maximum Conversion With Single Keyword.

Command Your Video Creator Liam Murphy — Who Creates Jaw-Dropping 4K AI Videos Instantly.

Craft High-Converting Copies & Blog Posts Using Your AI Employee “Emma Brown

Generate Unlimited AI Voice-Overs In Any Language With Voice-Over Artist “Sarah Mitchell

Compose AI Music & Video Songs In Any Language You Want Commanding Your Music AI Expert “Leonard Johnson.

Create & Sell Best-Selling AI Courses With Your Course Developer “Murli Vijay

Rank Your Websites & Pages On The First Page Of Google & Yahoo With SEO Expert.

Command Social Media Expert “Isabella Rossi — Who Manages Your Social Media Accounts & Posts.

Create & Embed Unlimited Chatbots For Better Engagement & Sales.

Create Stunning eBooks & Flipbooks With A Single Keyword By Commanding “Emily Davis”

AI Employee “Mireille Darc” Provides You Unlimited AI Stock Media Assets Instantly.

Create Stunning AI Avatar Videos In Any Niche Commanding AI Employee “Daniel Victor”

Your Affiliate Manager — Paul McGrath Does All The Affiliate Marketing On Your Behalf & Lets You Enjoy The Free Profits.

Fire All Your Expensive Tools & Services.

Commercial License Included — Create & Sell as Many Assets As You Like To Your Clients.

Newbie Friendly, Easy-To-Use Dashboard.

Iron-clad 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee.

AI Employees Review: Verify User Feedback

AI Employees Review: Who Should Use It?

Affiliate Marketers

E-Com Store Owners

Freelancers

CPA Marketers

Blog Owners

Video Marketers

Content Creators

YouTubers

Product Creators

Website Owners

Personal Brands

And many others

AI Employees Review: OTO’s And Pricing

Front End: AI Employees($17)

OTO1: AI Employees Unlimited ($27)

OTO2: AI Employees DFY ($47)

OTO3: AI Employees Automation ($37)

OTO4: AI Employees AI Audience ($37)

OTO5: AI Employees Agency ($67)

OTO6: AI Employees Reseller ($97)

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AI Employees Review: My Unique Bonus Bundle

My Unique Bonus Bundle will be visible on your access page as an Affiliate Bonus Button on WarriorPlus immediately after purchase.

And before ending my honest AI Employees Review, I told you that I would give you my very own unique PFTSES formula for Free.

AI Employees Review: Demo Video

Just Watch The AI Employees Demo Video Down Below To Get All The Details:

>>For More Details Click Here<<

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AI Employees Review: Money Back Guarantee

You’re In Safe Hands With Our 100% Risk-FREE, Iron-Clad 30 Days Money Back Guarantee

The simple fact is that we won’t take your money if, after buying AI Employees, you don’t think you got what you paid for. Delivering a high-quality product with zero dissatisfied consumers is our goal. In the event that we fail to meet your expectations, your money is not worth it. Well, you may get a complete refund if we don’t live up to your expectations by letting us know within 30 days. Heck, as a thank you, we’ll even offer you some more tools to help you grow your company and sales like never before. In any case, you only benefit.

AI Employees Review: Pros and Cons

Pros:

Efficiency Boost: AI automates repetitive tasks, freeing human teams for strategic work.

Productivity Powerhouse: Work 24/7, churning out content and analyzing data tirelessly.

Cost-Effective Solution: Potentially cheaper than hiring additional human employees.

Data-Driven Decisions: Provides insights to optimize marketing strategies and maximize results.

Cons:

You cannot use this product without an active internet connection.

In fact, I haven’t yet discovered any other problems with AI Employees.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

Q. What exactly are AI Employees?

World’s First AI App Supercharged With Google’s Highly Trained & Experienced 20 AI Employees That Completes All Your Marketing Tasks

Q. Do I need some prior skills or experience to get started?

AI Employees is 100% newbie-friendly with an easy-to-use dashboard.

Q. What happens if I don’t see results?

We’ve got you covered. If you don’t see your desired results with AI Employees just let us know within the next 30 days and we’ll refund you every penny.

Q. What if I get confused along the way?

Don’t worry we have exclusive detailed video training for you that shows all the required steps.

Q. What if I get confused along the way?

Don’t worry we have exclusive detailed video training for you that shows all the required steps.

Q. Is This Compatible with both PC, Mac, Android, And iOS?

It works on any device.

Q. How Do I Lock-In My Discount?

Click the button below to get the AI Employees at the lowest price.

AI Employees Review: My Recommendation

AI Employees offers a glimpse into the future of AI-powered marketing automation. While it boasts increased efficiency and data-driven insights, limitations in creative output and human oversight remain crucial considerations. Carefully weigh the potential benefits against the drawbacks to determine if AI Employees aligns with your marketing goals. The platform may be a valuable stepping stone for businesses seeking to automate tasks and gain data analysis, but true marketing success likely resides in a thoughtful blend of human creativity and AI assistance.

<<>> Click Here & Get Access Now AI Employees Discount Price Here <<>>

Check Out My Previous Reviews: OverLap AI Review, AI CaptureFlow Review, FlexiSitesAI Review, WP Defense Review, HostDaddy Review , Valor App Review, Crypto Cloud Review.

Thank for reading my AI Employees Review till the end. Hope it will help you to make purchase decision perfectly.

Disclaimer: This AI Employees review is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Before making a purchase decision, we recommend conducting your own research and exploring the software.

Note: Yes, this is a paid tool, however the one-time fee is $17 for lifetime.

[awkward-teabag]

I keep seeing people respond to the Microsoft Recall bullshit with there's an ability to disable it and that misses the point. Several points in fact.

It's only a matter of time until an update bugs/"bugs" it and re-enables it without warning so people who had previously disabled it think they're in the clear until their info is leaked or they get a warning they're low on storage space.

If people don't have admin rights, they may not be able to disable it. Laptops given by work or school lock down what people can do with them, some going as far as dictating which browser one has to use on them. Even if you don't need admin rights to disable Recall, you may not have the ability to do so without losing the laptop and/or job and/or education.

I'm unsure of how it would handle multiple accounts but if it can be locked by someone else to always be enabled, children and people in abusive situations would also be unable to disable it. Even if it can't be locked, disabling it could result in punishment from a parent or the abuser.

Is it really disabled or is it "disabled" in that what the user sees is it being disabled while it's still collecting information and/or sending information to Microsoft in the background?

Such a feature should never have been automatically enabled in the first place. It's bad, predatory design to have such a feature enabled from the start and to expect users AKA customers to go out of their way to look up and then opt-out of something.

If disabling it really disables it, it can still result in stress and concern that it's not. The vast majority of people do not have the skills or knowledge to look into the OS guts to give themselves peace of mind that it really truly is disabled.

I'm sure I'm missing some, too.

TLDR is disabling is a bandaid someone else may rip off for you, someone may hurt you if you use, it may not work at all except as a placebo, and should have never been needed in the first place.

[jcmarchi]

How Enterprise SaaS Companies Can Thrive in an AI-Driven World

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/how-enterprise-saas-companies-can-thrive-in-an-ai-driven-world/

How Enterprise SaaS Companies Can Thrive in an AI-Driven World

AI continues to dominate conversations surrounding modern knowledge work, weaving itself into the everyday processes of countless industries. As businesses continue to find utility in AI, sentiment towards it hovers somewhere between cautious optimism and outright skepticism.

Within the business world, many are seeing the technology’s usefulness while also grappling with its potential to alter the way many job roles function. It appears the fear that AI will wholly replace or eliminate jobs has largely faded and has been replaced by change fatigue; workers are being asked to make the most of AI to unlock its potential, and that is upending long-established positions.

SaaS companies are specifically under mounting pressure to stay competitive as AI continues to transform how systems function within organizations. By embracing AI, however, enterprise SaaS companies can leverage what they do best while supercharging their output to offer clients the best of both worlds.

Where AI Poses a Threat to SaaS

As AI becomes more ingrained in business, it’s changing how companies deploy and engage with SaaS platforms. Many SaaS companies are now asking: How will my business be affected by the rise of AI?

There’s no definitive answer, but there are some clues to help inform a business’s long-term viability. The things AI does well —  report generation, content generation, insight gathering, and more — can be a threat to SaaS platforms that focus on those outputs.

Broadly speaking, though, the biggest fear surrounding AI isn’t necessarily on the macro level but rather on the individual worker level. Companies will still need SaaS platforms to tackle a number of business cases, but certain roles that focus on AI’s core competencies may be at risk of augmentation. That’s not to say these jobs will be eliminated entirely, but there may be an increased focus on leveraging AI to maximize productivity and value, and therefore an increased pressure on these employees to learn, understand, and incorporate AI into their daily work.

Of course, with AI’s exponential growth and adoption, it’s impossible to say what the next five years of development will mean for SaaS companies. Analyzing risk means understanding a business’ strengths and comparing them with the areas in which AI excels. What’s clear is that AI is a powerful tool, and the platforms and workers who harness it the most effectively will be better off in the long run.

Why AI Can’t Replace SaaS Platforms

One of the more interesting applications of AI is its ability to write code. Business leaders have long theorized that AI could generate the code needed to create SaaS solutions, but when you spell it out, it feels a bit like science fiction: a business sees a software need, describes the product to an AI engine and voila, you have a custom-built SaaS platform.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), we’re not much closer to that reality now than we were 30 years ago. The technical skill required to create the complex systems that underpin SaaS platforms is far beyond what generative AI can conjure and will still require human input for the foreseeable future.

SaaS providers contain deep domain expertise that businesses rely on. If businesses could describe a SaaS platform in enough detail to where AI could generate software around it, they may not need a SaaS vendor in the first place. Understanding the ins and outs of their particular industry is key to SaaS success.

Knowing an industry is big, but knowing a product is even bigger. SaaS platforms understand their product better than anybody, and their robust customer relationships mean they understand their clients’ use cases better than any technology as well. One of the keys to long-term SaaS viability is the ability to know how a client can use their product to maximize its efficacy for their business.

Finally, SaaS platforms rely on established data ecosystems that make them indispensable for their clients. These ecosystems work to conform to industry standard data protocols and aid in data governance and security. They also help enable integrations with other platforms and provide a consistent data language that helps build scalable solutions.

How Embracing AI Gives SaaS Platforms the Edge

Taking the long view, it’s clear that AI isn’t a replacement for SaaS platforms but a tool to supercharge performance. The platforms that understand how best to integrate this technology will distinguish themselves in a crowded field. As AI continues to evolve, these capabilities are not just going to be differentiation points but table stakes for all SaaS platforms.

Integrating AI-driven features like robust, on-demand insights and enriched report generation gives clients the ability to turn raw data into something actionable the moment they need it. Reducing the lag between data collection and implementation is a major advantage for agile businesses.

AI is also excellent at enabling personalization at scale. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of user behavioral data and preferences to deliver highly tailored and customized experiences. Creating an adaptable platform based on the needs and preferences of the end user not only improves user satisfaction but also drives higher engagement and platform utility, ultimately making the platform more valuable to clients.

Last but not least, AI can help bolster operational efficiency in SaaS platforms. Integrating natural language processing guides, chatbots, and other instructional elements can help clients make the most of the platform without needing one-on-one interactions from the provider. Through AI, SaaS leaders can reduce the need for manual intervention, minimize errors, and speed up service delivery.

Even though AI is new and exciting, and it sometimes feels like businesses want to replace all of their current vendors with the latest AI tool they can get their hands on, clients don’t want to eliminate their investment in SaaS platforms. What they want is to know that the platforms they’re investing in are leveraging modern technologies like AI in the most effective ways possible. For SaaS providers, integrating AI helps bolster platform business cases and demonstrates to clients a willingness to adapt to the times.

[nexaei]

Beat the Productivity Plateau! Choose the Right Platform to Unleash Your Potential

For modern businesses, efficient collaboration is the linchpin of success. It’s the adhesive that binds teams, streamlines workflows, and fosters innovation. Yet, amidst the vast array of collaboration platforms, finding the one that optimally fuels productivity and unleashes boundless potential is a real challenge. Let’s delve into the intricacies of selecting the ultimate collaboration platform and cut through the clutter.

The Cost of Poor Collaboration Frameworks

Before delving into the nuances of platform selection, it’s pivotal to confront the stark reality of subpar collaboration frameworks.

Inadequate communication breeds inefficiency, siphoning valuable resources and stunting organizational growth. This is a serious issue that we cannot afford to ignore. Indeed, more than 50% of teams are leaking revenues because of poor collaboration and communication. Hence, investing in a robust collaboration platform becomes a strategic move to mitigate these risks and elevate team performance.

Building a Central Pane of Glass: Centralization 

When considering collaboration platforms, the assurance of scalability is paramount. The platform you choose should not only cater to your current team size but should also effortlessly expand to meet future demands, all while maintaining optimal performance. Opting for a platform that acts as the central hub for all collaboration workflows, regardless of whether your team is a dozen strong or a hundred, provides an invaluable resource for fostering synergy and driving collective success.

Do your Systems Play Nice? The Question of Compatibility 

Compatibility is a crucial factor in the complex web of organizational infrastructure. The collaboration platform you choose should not just integrate with existing systems and processes, but do so seamlessly, ensuring a harmonious synergy across your entire digital environment. This ease of integration should instill confidence in your team, knowing that the platform will work in tandem with your current setup. 

A solution that seamlessly integrates with project management software, CRM systems, and communication tools is not just a luxury, but a necessity. It’s what you need to maintain operational fluidity and maximize efficiency. By adopting such a platform, you can ensure that your operations run smoothly, without any hiccups or disruptions.

Shoring Up Your Defenses

There’s no denying that we’re living in the age of digital warfare when prioritizing robust security measures is part of every business playbook. Your collaboration platform must also boast fortified defences to shield sensitive company data from cyber threats and thwart unauthorized access.

From stringent encryption protocols to multi-factor authentication mechanisms, opt for platforms that prioritize security. Safeguarding the sanctity of your organization’s digital assets fortifies trust and underpins operational integrity.

Build it and They Will Come (As Long as it’s User Friendly)

Adopting a collaboration platform with a user-friendly interface is essential for driving adoption and maximizing productivity. Your chosen platform should boast an intuitive interface that facilitates seamless navigation and task execution. Empower your team members to become proficient users through self-learning and exploration. The more comfortable they feel, the more readily they’ll embrace collaboration as a core aspect of their workflow.

Responsive Design for an On-the-Go World

In today’s hyper-mobile landscape, liberating collaboration from the confines of the office is paramount. Your chosen platform must offer robust mobile accessibility, empowering team members to collaborate seamlessly, regardless of geographical location.

Look for platforms equipped with productivity features optimized for mobile devices. This ensures that your team can collaborate effortlessly, whether they’re working remotely, traveling, or on-site, enhancing operational flexibility and fostering a culture of productivity on the go, giving you peace of mind about the efficiency of your teams.

Balancing Employee Experience with Admin Control

The goal for any modern organization should be to find the delicate equilibrium between empowerment and control – a key component of organizational harmony and efficiency. Even as you foster a collaborative environment akin to social media applications, it’s equally important to maintain a level of administrative oversight and governance.

Look for platforms that offer robust administrative controls and management options, enabling your enterprise to drive value while providing teams with the freedom to collaborate creatively. By striking this balance, you cultivate a culture of innovation while safeguarding organizational objectives and compliance standards.

Documentation and Support is Everything

Investing in a collaboration platform is not merely a one-time transaction; it’s a commitment to continuous improvement and evolution.

Ensure your chosen platform provides comprehensive training resources and ongoing support to empower team members to maximize their potential. From interactive tutorials to personalized coaching sessions, equip your team with the knowledge and tools they need to thrive. Prioritize platforms that champion self-learning and mastery, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.

Cost vs. Features: It Needn’t be a Tradeoff

As you navigate the landscape of collaboration platforms, the age-old debate of cost versus features inevitably surfaces. While it’s tempting to gravitate towards budget-friendly options, evaluating its value proposition holistically is essential. Assess your team’s unique needs and prioritize features that will significantly impact productivity and collaboration. 

Typically, this will include real-time and asynchronous messaging, video conferencing, file sharing and storage, integrations, and task management. The 80/20 rule can prove extremely helpful here—companies tend to rely heavily on 20% of features, which contribute to 80% of productivity. Bearing this in mind, you can take steps to reduce complexity and also cut avoidable costs.

Remember, a robust collaboration platform invests in your team’s success and organizational growth. Strike the perfect balance between cost and functionality to unlock maximum value and propel your team towards unparalleled success. Colab is India’s indigenous collaboration platform meant to tackle the country’s unique productivity challenges – and forge our pathway towards growth, success, and new possibilities.

Speak to our experts to learn how Colab can help your team overcome the productivity plateau and reach new heights.

So here ends the second part of my series! In my next segment, I’ll delve into employee well-being and how to foster more efficient collaboration. Stay tuned!

[zvaigzdelasas]

During a keynote speech in New York on Monday from the managing director of Google's Israel business, an employee in the company's cloud division protested publicly, proclaiming “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide.”

The Google Cloud engineer was subsequently fired, CNBC has learned[...]

There was more internal controversy this week, also tied to the crisis in Gaza.

Ahead of an International Women's Day Summit in Silicon Valley on Thursday, Google's employee message board was hit with an influx of staffer comments about the company's military contracts with Israel. The online forum, which was going to be used to help inform what questions were asked of executives at the event, was shut down for what a spokesperson described to CNBC as "divisive content that is disruptive to our workplace."[...]

In recent weeks, more than 600 Google workers signed a letter addressed to leadership asking that the company drop its sponsorship of the annual Mind the Tech conference promoting the Israeli tech industry. The event on Monday in New York featured an address from Barak Regev, managing director of Google Israel.

A video of the employee protesting during the speech went viral.

“No cloud for apartheid,” the employee yelled. Members of the crowd booed him as he was escorted by security out of the building.

Regev then told the crowd, “Part of the privilege of working in a company, which represents democratic values is giving the stage for different opinions."

A Google spokesperson said the employee was fired for "interfering with an official company-sponsored event" in an email to CNBC on Thursday. "This behavior is not okay, regardless of the issue, and the employee was terminated for violating our policies." The spokesperson didn't specify which policies were violated.[...]

Ahead of Google's International Women's Day summit on Thursday, called Her Power, Her Voice, some women filled the company's internal discussion forum Dory with questions about how the Israeli military contract and Google's AI chatbot Gemini are impacting Palestinian women. Some of the comments had hundreds of "upvotes" from employees, according to internal correspondence viewed by CNBC.[...]

Another highly-rated comment on the forum asked how the company is recognizing Mai Ubeid, a young woman and former Google software engineer who was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza along with her family late last year. (Some employees and advocacy groups gathered to honor Ubeid in New York in December.)

One employee asked, "Given the ongoing International War Crimes against Palestinian women, how can we use the 'Her Power, Her Voice' theme to amplify their daily struggles?" The comment received over 100 upvotes.

"It's essential to question how we can truly support the notion of 'Her Power, Her Voice,' while at the same time, ignoring the cries for help from Palestinian women who have been systematically deprived of their fundamental human rights," another said.

As the number of comments swelled, Google prematurely shut down the forum.

8 Mar 24

[mostlysignssomeportents]

An open copyright casebook, featuring AI, Warhol and more

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

Few debates invite more uninformed commentary than "IP" – a loosely defined grab bag that regulates an ever-expaning sphere of our daily activities, despite the fact that almost no one, including senior executives in the entertainment industry, understands how it works.

Take reading a book. If the book arrives between two covers in the form of ink sprayed on compressed vegetable pulp, you don't need to understand the first thing about copyright to read it. But if that book arrives as a stream of bits in an app, those bits are just the thinnest scrim of scum atop a terminally polluted ocean of legalese.

At the bottom layer: the license "agreement" for your device itself – thousands of words of nonsense that bind you not to replace its software with another vendor's code, to use the company's own service depots, etc etc. This garbage novella of legalese implicates trademark law, copyright, patent, and "paracopyrights" like the anticircumvention rule defined by Section 1201 of the DMCA:

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-lawsuit-takes-dmca-section-1201-research-and-technology-restrictions-violate

Then there's the store that sold you the ebook: it has its own soporific, cod-legalese nonsense that you must parse; this can be longer than the book itself, and it has been exquisitely designed by the world's best-paid, best-trained lawyer to liquefy the brains of anyone who attempts to read it. Nothing will save you once your brains start leaking out of the corners of your eyes, your nostrils and your ears – not even converting the text to a brilliant graphic novel:

https://memex.craphound.com/2017/03/03/terms-and-conditions-the-bloviating-cruft-of-the-itunes-eula-combined-with-extraordinary-comic-book-mashups/

Even having Bob Dylan sing these terms will not help you grasp them:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/25/musical-chairs/#subterranean-termsick-blues

The copyright nonsense that accompanies an ebook transcends mere Newtonian physics – it exists in a state of quantum superposition. For you, the buyer, the copyright nonsense appears as a license, which allows the seller to add terms and conditions that would be invalidated if the transaction were a conventional sale. But for the author who wrote that book, the copyright nonsense insists that what has taken place is a sale (which pays a 25% royalty) and not a license (a 50% revenue-share). Truly, only a being capable of surviving after being smeared across the multiverse can hope to embody these two states of being simultaneously:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/21/early-adopters/#heads-i-win

But the challenge isn't over yet. Once you have grasped the permissions and restrictions placed upon you by your device and the app that sold you the ebook, you still must brave the publisher's license terms for the ebook – the final boss that you must overcome with your last hit point and after you've burned all your magical items.

This is by no means unique to reading a book. This bites us on the job, too, at every level. The McDonald's employee who uses a third-party tool to diagnose the problems with the McFlurry machine is using a gadget whose mere existence constitutes a jailable felony:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cold-war

Meanwhile, every single biotech researcher is secretly violating the patents that cover the entire suite of basic biotech procedures and techniques. Biotechnicians have a folk-belief in "patent fair use," a thing that doesn't exist, because they can't imagine that patent law would be so obnoxious as to make basic science into a legal minefield.

IP is a perfect storm: it touches everything we do, and no one understands it.

Or rather, almost no one understands it. A small coterie of lawyers have a perfectly fine grasp of IP law, but most of those lawyers are (very well!) paid to figure out how to use IP law to screw you over. But not every skilled IP lawyer is the enemy: a handful of brave freedom fighters, mostly working for nonprofits and universities, constitute a resistance against the creep of IP into every corner of our lives.

Two of my favorite IP freedom fighters are Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle, who run the Duke Center for the Public Domain. They are a dynamic duo, world leading demystifiers of copyright and other esoterica. They are the creators of a pair of stunningly good, belly-achingly funny, and extremely informative graphic novels on the subject, starting with the 2008 Bound By Law, about fair use and film-making:

https://www.dukeupress.edu/Bound-by-Law/

And then the followup, THEFT! A History of Music:

https://web.law.duke.edu/musiccomic/

Both of which are open access – that is to say, free to download and share (you can also get handsome bound print editions made of real ink sprayed on real vegetable pulp!).

Beyond these books, Jenkins and Boyle publish the annual public domain roundups, cataloging the materials entering the public domain each January 1 (during the long interregnum when nothing entered the public domain, thanks to the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, they published annual roundups of all the material that should be entering the public domain):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/20/em-oh-you-ess-ee/#sexytimes

This year saw Mickey Mouse entering the public domain, and Jenkins used that happy occasion as a springboard for a masterclass in copyright and trademark:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/15/mouse-liberation-front/#free-mickey

But for all that Jenkins and Boyle are law explainers, they are also law professors and as such, they are deeply engaged with minting of new lawyers. This is a hard job: it takes a lot of work to become a lawyer.

It also takes a lot of money to become a lawyer. Not only do law-schools charge nosebleed tuition, but the standard texts set by law-schools are eye-wateringly expensive. Boyle and Jenkins have no say over tuitions, but they have made a serious dent in the cost of those textbooks. A decade ago, the pair launched the first open IP law casebook: a free, superior alternative to the $160 standard text used to train every IP lawyer:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140923104648/https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/openip/

But IP law is a moving target: it is devouring the world. Accordingly, the pair have produced new editions every couple of years, guaranteeing that their free IP law casebook isn't just the best text on the subject, it's also the most up-to-date. This week, they published the sixth edition:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/openip/

The sixth edition of Intellectual Property: Law & the Information Society – Cases & Materials; An Open Casebook adds sections on the current legal controversies about AI, and analyzes blockbuster (and batshit) recent Supreme Court rulings like Vidal v Elster, Warhol v Goldsmith, and Jack Daniels v VIP Products. I'm also delighted that they chose to incorporate some of my essays on enshittification (did you know that my Pluralistic.net newsletter is licensed CC Attribution, meaning that you can reprint and even sell it without asking me?).

(On the subject of Creative Commons: Boyle helped found Creative Commons!)

Ten years ago, the Boyle/Jenkins open casebook kicked off a revolution in legal education, inspiring many legals scholars to create their own open legal resources. Today, many of the best legal texts are free (as in speech) and free (as in beer). Whether you want to learn about trademark, copyright, patents, information law or more, there's an open casebook for you:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/14/angels-and-demons/#owning-culture

The open access textbook movement is a stark contrast with the world of traditional textbooks, where a cartel of academic publishers are subjecting students to the scammiest gambits imaginable, like "inclusive access," which has raised the price of textbooks by 1,000%:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/07/markets-in-everything/#textbook-abuses

Meanwhile, Jenkins and Boyle keep working on this essential reference. The next time you're tempted to make a definitive statement about what IP permits – or prohibits – do yourself (and the world) a favor, and look it up. It won't cost you a cent, and I promise you you'll learn something.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/30/open-and-shut-casebook/#stop-confusing-the-issue-with-relevant-facts

Image: Cryteria (modified) Jenkins and Boyle https://web.law.duke.edu/musiccomic/

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

[maxwellatoms]

Do you think the new division of Cartoon Network Studios will end up exploiting and abusing AI to make new cartoons of their old properties?

I wouldn't put it past any studio to do this.

We're at the end of The Animation Industry As We Know It, so studios are going to do anything and everything they can to stay alive.

The way I see it is:

AI "art" isn't actually art. Art is created by humans to express ideas and emotions. Writing prompts allows a computer to interpret human ideas and emotions by taking other examples of those things and recombining them.

Just because something isn't art doesn't mean that humans can't understand it or find it beautiful. We passed a really fun prompt generation milestone about a year ago where everything looked like it was made by a Dadaist or someone on heavy psychedelics. Now we're at the Uncanny Valley stage. Soon, you won't be able to tell the difference.

It's not just drawings and paintings that are effected, but writing and film. It's every part of the entertainment industry. And the genie is out of the bottle. I've seen people saying that prompt-based image generators have "democratized" art. And I see where they're coming from. In ten years, I can easily see a future where anyone can sit down at their desk, have a short conversation with their computer, and have a ready-to-watch, custom movie with flawless special effects, passable story, and a solid three act structure. You want to replace Harrison Ford in Star Wars with your little brother and have Chewbacca make only fart sounds, and then they fly to Narnia and fistfight Batman? Done.

But, sadly, long before we reach that ten year mark, the bots will get hold of this stuff and absolutely lay waste to existing art industries. Sure, as a prompter I guess you can be proud of the hours or days you put into crafting your prompts, but you know what's better than a human at crafting prompts? Bots. Imagine bots cranking out hundreds of thousands of full-length feature films per minute. The noise level will squash almost any organic artist or AI prompter out of existence.

AI images trivialize real art. The whole point of a studio is to provide the money, labor, and space to create these big, complicated art projects. But if there are no big, complicated art projects, no creatives leading the charge, and no employees to pay... what the fuck do we need studios for? We won't, but their sheer wealth and power will leave them forcing themselves on us for the rest of our lives.

The near future will see studios clamp down on the tech in order to keep it in their own hands. Disney does tons of proprietary tech stuff, so I'm sure they're ahead of the game. Other studios will continue to seek mergers until they can merge with a content distribution platform. I've heard rumors of Comcast wanting to buy out either WB or Nick. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. The only winners of this game will be the two or three super-huge distribution platforms who can filter out enough of the spam (which they themselves are likely perpetuating) to provide a reasonable entertainment experience.

400,000 channels and nothing's on.

I do think that money will eventually make the "you can't copyright AI stuff" thing go away. There's also the attrition of "Oh, whoops! We accidentally put an AI actor in there and no one noticed for five years, so now it's cool."

One way or another, it's gonna be a wild ride. As the canary in the coal mine, I hope we can all get some UBI before I'm forced to move into the sewers and go full C.H.U.D.

[akunya]

“companionship.”

pairings: android!hex haywire x m!reader

summary: can a robot and human fall in love?

tw: HYPNOSIS, NONCON, manipulation, yandere, etc. robot sex, voice fetish, onahole, voyeurism. size difference, belly bulging, etc.

notes: i love this cliche au of sex robots and things like that, so here’s my take on it.. with hex.

it’s probably terrible and i guess caters a certain niche, but let me know what you guys think.

today was it - the day you’ve been waiting for! finally, after all your hard work throughout the year, you saved enough money to buy your own, state of the art, artificial intelligence assistant.

and, luckily for you, today was also the grand debut of a brand new line of androids: xsoliel.

your hands were as shaky as ever waiting in line at the mall, double checking your savings to assure yourself you weren’t dreaming. nijisanji’s new line of androids were practically everything anyone could ask for: equipped with unique and interesting designs and personalities for each member, xsoliel offered a variety of services: whether it was for your own selfish pleasure or to help with manual labor, there was surely somebody for you.

..or so, that’s how the commercial sounded anyways. you silently thanked humankind for blessing the world with this era of companion-droids. seeing the ad nearly a year ago, you were star struck at the first all-male line nijisanji had debuted: luxiem.

unfortunately, they were sold out and only resold at steep prices— but, a few lucky online bloggers raved about their features, endless posts about how amazing it was to have an assistant of your own. while they could’ve surely been exaggerating, ever since that moment, you put money aside each week, even taking on extra jobs to make a little more cash to achieve your dream.

and it was finally time to reap your benefits.

while you didn’t know much about xsoliel nor intended to coincidentally buy an android of your own on the day of their newest launch, that didn’t stop you from checking them out. reading the blurbs about each member peaked your curiosity even higher. “a delinquent? people really think of anything these days, huh?” chuckling, you let yourself playfully criticize each member. you quickly bit your tongue, thoughts coming to a halt after reading about a certain individual.

“..what kind of name is hex?” muttering to yourself, you couldn’t hide the faint blush on your face as you stared at the model inside of the store. sleek attire, it almost made him look like a professor than a robot. paired with optional glasses (why did he even need those? can’t he see perfectly?), hex’s design made your heart flutter. his official advertisement described him as a nurturing, gentle servant, perfect for new customers to start off with. illustrated to have a deep, nearly hypnotic voice, hex’s programming was assured to have his users satisfied and satiated with their purchase.

swiping your card at the checkout, you really hoped you made the right choice, signing off a couple waivers and documents the employee had given you.

just a week later, you realized you didn’t regret your decision at all.

living with an ai assistant could only be described as luxury. hex truly was made with a “newbie” owner in mind, and the way he spoke to you sometimes made you wonder who was really in charge. his sweet, charming voice, along with how gentle and kind he was towards you, lifted your spirits instantly.

for instance, hex was a wonderful outlet to talk to when things went wrong — and, as if it was magic, nearly every problem you spoke about washed away the next morning! your problems with coworkers quickly diminished, and you even got the raise you’ve been praying for months now. he’d always offer such delicate touches, hugs and shoulder massages when he notices you’re pent up from a long day. you couldn’t fight off the dreamy, floaty headspace you were in when he was around.

not to mention, hex even did some of the chores while you were at work without being told to. even though you felt too guilty to ask him to clean the house, he didn’t seem to mind, making sure you came home to a clean room and nicely folded laundry each day. hell, he even told you he was looking into cooking, something that wasn’t originally included in his list of abilities. hex seemed to go above and beyond for you each time, amazing you each day.

it was a normal friday night, and you were with him as you always were, spending most of your time with the robot.

“y/n, why don’t you ever want to use me for something else..?” the question made your face feel warm, hairs standing on the edge. you two were cleaning up the kitchen after preparing dinner. laughing awkwardly, you tried to shrug off his curiosity, shining a plate with a dish towel. “well, id never want to force you to do something you didn’t like, silly.”

hex’s brow furrowed, a hint of anger resting beneath the surface. who said i didn’t want to?” for an android , the way he spoke was jarringly natural. your eyes widened in surprise, speechless for a moment. hex talked so nonchalantly about sex, but you had to remind yourself he was still a robot after all. as human as his synthetic skin and olive eyes may look, he lacks a beating heart and flesh.

“i-im not sure i want to. im just not interested in that type of stuff right now..” you let your voice trail off, sitting and washing in silence before hex spoke up dangerously close to your ear.

“you don’t have to lie, baby. i can hear you in the middle of the night when you touch yourself.” his deep voice made you shudder, unable to move. didnt you tell him to shut himself off during the nighttime? you were sure you ordered him not to snoop around, especially on nights that you planned to indulge in yourself. gulping, you laughed awkwardly as hex didn’t seem to budge.

“ah, s-sorry for disturbing you, ill try and keep it down next time..” his hand enveloped your own, forcing you to meet his gaze. goodness, his hands were big. warm, soft, inviting — strong, too. hex squeezed your hands, not bothering to stop when you winced from the pain, smiling. “you don’t have to keep it down. you should let me help you.” the way hex spoke was as if he was demanding you, not letting go until you gave him an answer. “it’s what i was.. made to do, anyways.” his voice was filled with solemn, playing with your heartstrings.

the silence was weighing on your thoughts, biting your lip in anticipation. hex knew how to make you uncomfortable, how to give into his desires and requests even when you didn’t want to — on the surface, at least. “alright, i will..! next time ill let you help me, okay?” you huffed, hex letting go of your hands and putting them on your shoulders instead. “good boy. you’re listening so well.” you hated how warm his praise made you feel.

the next night you needed help came sooner than you thought, shamefully letting hex in when he knocked on the door. the android wasted no time making himself comfortable in your space.

“a-ah, hex, slow down! please!” his hand was wrapped around your fleshlight, pumping vigorously as you squirmed in between his legs. your back was pressed against his chest, caged in the ai’s arms as he pleasured you. he caught you trying to use it to get yourself off, and figured he’d give it a try.

except, he failed to mention that his hands also had a vibrating feature. the soft yet firm jelly of the fleshlight practically whirred against your dick, making the experience all too elevating, groaning as hex held you in his arms. this has to be what those bloggers were raving about, right? hex held the toy at the tip of your cock, squeezing a bit to snap you out of your thoughts. you practically sobbed out, eyes tears from how good his touch felt on your skin.

“yknow, when you look so vulnerable like this, it makes me want to ravage you. who knew my master could be so slutty?” you whined at that, the ai chuckling deeply. you could truly stop him by force if you wanted to, considering you were technically his owner, but god did he make it hard. spreading your legs open so he could continue to jerk you off like the pathetic loser you always were. feeling another orgasm coming, your moans started to get louder, nails digging into hex’s synthetic skin.

“shh, goodness y/n. you’re going to wake up the neighbors if you keep moaning like a slut. hmm..” the man hummed to himself, shuffling around while you were distracted. “maybe i should give you something more, right?” before you knew it, his cock was circling your hole, causing you to panic.

“wait, h-hex! that’s too much, im already tired!” you tried to fight back, scrambling in his lap. his hands held up underneath your legs, holding you in place with his strength. of course he could overpower you — he was a robot, for gods sake. even though you were still painfully hard, you couldn’t imagine having sex with an ai of all things.

that is, until you felt something whirr against your ass.

oh.

of course, that part of him vibrates too. why wouldn’t it? as if hex couldn’t be too good at what he does already, it was as if his manufacturer wanted to overkill him with all these extra functions. hex laughed at your stillness, kissing the back of your neck. “i promise it feels good.”

he didnt bother giving you any warning either, nor waiting for an answer, slamming your hips down and shoving himself inside. even if his cock was lubricated, it still hurt like hell, making you cry out in pain. you’ve never felt so full before — just how big was he? you remember a conversation with the clerk at the store that day when you first bought hex. they had asked you about sizes.. but you thought they were just talking about his height, opting for the biggest size they had available. what an idiot. no wonder the clerk blushed a bit at your response.

slowly, hex rolled his hips against yours, his dick stretching you out against your will. “i always imagined us like this, baby. id take care of you, and you’d.. well, take it.” hex smiled, groaning in your ear as his dick nearly stirred up your insides. your brain couldn’t think of anything to say in response, too full to retaliate against the androids firm grip.

“you look stupid, baby. can you feel me? riiight here? look at how well you’re taking me.” hex’s cool fingers pressed against your stomach, nudging the bulge from his cock and making you whine even louder. your poor little cock was like a fountain, leaking nonstop as his pace didn’t falter.

it felt as if you were the one helping him out in this position. the ai was unexpectedly loud in bed, moaning and whispering about how well behaved you were, and how he’ll spoil you like this everyday from now on. every day? could you even handle that? with how he was taking control, surely there was something wrong with his wiring. you started to think about how to return and maybe get someone to take a closer look at his hardware, before a painfully deep thrust snapped you out of your thoughts.

“o-oh!” you were embarrassed by the yelp you let out, your body trembling before finally releasing, soiling the sheets underneath you two. “it seems like you’re doing a lot of thinking today, y/n. what could possibly be on your mind other than me?” hex, amused, chuckled in response, kissing and licking the back of your neck. “good boy. that’s it, let it out. only think of me from now on, okay?” his voice felt so dreamy; so hypnotic.

“y-yes sir,” you managed to mutter our, much to hex’s chagrin. he didn’t need any recovery period since he wasn’t human, so the robot simply got back to milking you dry, pounding into your tight hole like an animal in heat.

you’d never find out that hex’s model was recalled for several malfunctions and viruses, he made sure of that.

how else would he give you everything so easily?

[callalillywrites]

His Scarred Omega Part 1

Alpha!Bucky really put me in a chokehold the past couple of days. I wasn't even trying to write his story just yet. Was actually trying write a one-shot that would happen after the main story, but yeah, he quite changed my mind and this feverish, 7-part story came to be in two days.

This is set in the same universe as Their Sweet Omega (aka It Takes All Packs to Make It Work). You don't really have to read that story first, which features Alpha!Jake Jensen with Beta!Pre-serum Steve Rogers and their Omega!Reader, but I would love it so much if you did. They hold my heart as much as Bucky does.

Relationship: Alpha!Bucky Barnes x Omega!Reader

Word Count: 1450

Summary: While helping out his friends, Bucky makes a shocking discovery. He's got a daughter he never knew existed.

Warnings: not much in this part beyond one shell-shocked Bucky

A/N: I wrote this story really fast as I mentioned above. It’s proofread but all mistakes are my own.

I also do not give permission for my work to be copied or posted on other sites or fed into an AI machine.

*****

Bucky is a weak man.

He really is.

All it takes a pretty face making those awful puppy eyes at him, and he’s putty in Angel’s hands.

She doesn’t play fair, either, enlisting Steve’s equally effective puppy-dog eyes.

Bucky kowtows in less than five seconds though he’ll forever say it took more than that to get him to agree to help them.

Spooky Season is right around the corner.

Angel and Steve feel bad for telling Jake he can’t buy any more big decorations for their home. It’s already overflowing as it is, but they do know he’s been eyeing a couple of pieces. He really is the best Alpha for them as Jake’s constantly doting on them and taking such good care of them.

One of said pieces is what Angel and Steve have wrangled Bucky into this whole mess.

They drag him to the store to pick up said piece, needing his Alpha strength and build since the piece weighs more than the two of them combined plus some. No way they can get it home, let alone carry it into their home. Delivery isn’t an option, either, without paying triple what the item costs.

So, he’s there and eyeing the piece with them.

A few grumbles come out under his breath. “I’m holding you to your promise, Angel.”

Angel simply smiles at him, knowing she still has his help and nods. “I haven’t forgotten. Name the date, and I’ll be there. We’ll take down that ogre boss together.”

“Your truck will hold this, won’t it, Buck?” Steve can’t help asking, seeing the piece himself and having his own doubts about this plan he and Angel came up with for Jake.

Bucky eyes the box holding the piece for another few moments before he finally nods. “It’ll be a tight fit, but I’ll make it work.”

With that, the trio begin working on pulling the giant statue from the low shelf and onto the flatbed cart they snagged from an employee.

With that successfully done, Angel quickly grabs up a spare ticket for the cashier to scan since the barcode is poorly placed on the bottom of the box. Not something they’re going to want to deal with and slow down the few lanes open at this time of day.

“I’ll go ahead and pay for it if you two want to start making your way to the truck,” Steve says, taking the ticket from Angel and rushing off before she can think to argue.

Bucky bites back a smile when he sees and hears Angel huff at Steve’s retreating back.

“The punk is gone, Angel,” he says.

“He promised we’d split this gift.” Angel turns back to Bucky with a look he’s come to understand all too well in the almost two years he’s known her now. He does his best to brace himself as she grabs the front of the flatbed cart. “Time to do some extra shopping, I guess. If I can’t use my money on Jake, then I’m going to use it on Stevie.”

Shaking his head, Bucky knows better than to try and dissuade her at this point. “How are you going to hide this gift from him when he’s with us?”

Rather than answer, Angel just gives him a mischievous look that has him bracing for whatever he’s about to witness.

He can’t help wondering how Jake handles these two most days as Angel drags him towards the art supply aisles of the store. A basket somehow ends up in the crook of her arm where she’s already tossing several items within it. How that happened, he can and will never be able to explain.

Within five minutes, she has the basket overflowing with supplies.

Bucky can make out a lot of the brands that Steve really likes, including some of the more expensive items that Steve only splurges occasionally to get himself.

When Angel is satisfied with her overflowing basket, she grabs hold of the flatbed and helps him maneuver toward the front of the store again.

Seeing the satisfied grin on her face, Bucky can’t help wondering if he’ll ever find someone who wants to spoil him as much as Angel, Steve, and Jake spoil each other. That’s the kind of love Bucky wants, but he’s not sure it’ll ever be in the cards for him.

It’s on their way back that they overhear a young girl, probably no older than 8 or 9 as she whined about one of the latest costume trends. “All the girls are going as Harley Quinn this year, Auntie. Please? Please?”

The woman’s voice niggles at Bucky as he overhears the woman say, “You can go as a butterfly or a witch, but I draw the line at Harley, Gracie. We can talk about Harley when you’re older.”

“Mama would’ve let me go as Harley,” the young girl named Gracie grouses back. “I wish she was here instead of you.”

Bucky isn’t sure why or how it’s possible, but it’s like he can feel the disappointment and sadness of the woman at the young girl’s words. No doubt the woman is an Omega, but he’s never had such a reaction to someone like this before. He briefly wonders if Jake has had this reaction with either Angel or Steve before. A mental note is made to ask Jake later about it.

When they round the corner, Bucky gets his first glimpse of the Omega and the young girl named Gracie.

He forgets how to breathe as he takes in the familiar features of a woman he never thought to see again. A woman who’d been little more than a young lady when he last saw her.

Has it really been almost ten years since he’s seen her?

Yet, it’s not the Omega from his past that captures his focus as much as Gracie does.

The little girl’s appearance is enough to send Bucky to his knees.

It’s not possible.

It can’t be.

Yet, there’s no denying this Gracie looks just like him. The same dark hair. The same crystal blue eyes. Even her nose and mouth match his as they pout up at her aunt.

“You okay, Buck?” Angel asks, her gaze going between him and the Omega with the little girl. “Bucky?”

Her questions don’t go unnoticed, either, as the Omega turns her attention to them. Her eyes widen and her lip instantly goes between her teeth. A gesture that Bucky recalls she does when she’s feeling guilty about something.

No one speaks for another full minute.

At least, not until Steve happens upon them and sees the Omega.

“Sapphire, is that really you?” Steve asks before his gaze drops to the little girl.

Bucky knows he’d be laughing at Steve’s comically shocked expression if he could just get the ability to breathe and function back into his own body.

“Who is this?” Steve finally asks with a soft smile at the little girl. He holds out his hand to the little girl and introduces himself.

“I’m Gracie.”

She adds her last name as she takes Steve’s hand.

Steve’s gaze bounces between Gracie and Bucky. It’s clear he’s coming to the same conclusions Bucky already has made at seeing the little girl.

Gracie is his kid, and Dot is her mother.

Dot, the woman who broke his heart all those years ago with a Dear John letter. The same woman who has given birth to his child and never bothered to tell him.

“So, I think we need to talk,” her aunt says, her gaze never leaving Bucky.

Bucky nods, drawing on his inner alpha to help him regain control of himself.

“Yeah, we do.”

He wants answers, and he’s going to make sure he gets them one way or another.

“Tomorrow at noon?” her aunt asks, naming a quiet café not too far from the store.

Bucky nods again, then turns his attention to Gracie.

A small smile grows on his features as she’s lost interest in Steve and has turned her attention to him. Her eyes study him in a way that he knows he’s done with others throughout his life. She’s taking note of everything about him, and he can only hope he doesn’t end up disappointing her.

Whatever doubts he might have, they disappear the longer he and Gracie measure each other.

She’s his.

When she holds out her little hand to him, he has to swallow the emotions clogging his throat as she introduces herself. It takes him a few tries before he can tell her his name in return.

Now, he has to make sure he doesn’t lose any more time than he’s already lost with her.

*****

Main Masterlist

[oriistar]

The Sun, The Moon, And Their Star

Prologue

Sun and Moon x GN Reader

Summary: Following the rebuilding of the Freddy Fazbear Pizzaplex after the mysterious fire, salvage teams managed to uncover the burnt remains of their main animatronic cast- including their former daycare attendant. With their body being too damaged to repair, Freddy Fazbear Entertainment Co makes the executive decision to split the two halves Into their own bodies and revamp their personality chips, installing state of the art ai systems to give them a more lifelike feel. Although happy to finally be free of the restrictions of their old body, Sun and Moon discover that their new Ai includes a plethora of new emotions, triggered by the new daycare employee that works alongside them..

Warnings: Slight Angst, Mild Body Horror.

Intense heat and lapping flames melting plastic. Black smoke clouding their vision and the horrifying sight of the daycare crumbling around them. Those were the last things both Sun and Moon could recall before their systems crashed and they fell into darkness. They weren’t sure what started it but their collective conscience had agreed on one thing: This was the end of the road for them. They fought as hard as they could to escape, to get as far away as they could, but their mechanical body had failed them. Their exterior shell had all but melted off, leaving a trail of molten plastic in their wake as they desperately tried to find any way out. The faint memory of bidding one another goodbye lingered before they blacked out, so how? How was Sun awake right now, staring up at a slightly familiar ceiling. 

His system had booted up only a few minutes ago, his memories flooding through his mind as he tried to process what was going on. In his head he had tried to talk to Moon like he was so familiar with but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t hear his other half or feel anything from him. It made him feel.. anxious? That was new. He had never felt anxiety before, his personality chip was nowhere near advanced enough to allow him to feel any emotions that weren't already programmed into him. Things like that were reserved for the more popular animatronics, such as the main band. 

The thought of the four main animatronics made more anxiety build, followed by a hollow feeling in what he assumed was his stomach region? He really wasn’t sure yet. How many of the others had survived the fire? Were they okay too? His mind was running wild with horrid possibilities that made him feel something akin to nausea. His face contorted into an uncharacteristic grimace as he thought about it. Wait. His face was moving? Certainly not. But it definitely felt that way. He wasn’t sure. In fact, he wasn’t sure of anything. Not even sure if him being powered back on was real or not. He would have tried to move but for some reason his body wasn’t responding. His assumption was fried wires. Of course his body would suffer a great deal of damage after all he had been through. He didn’t even want to know what his body looked like right now. 

Suddenly, he heard the sound of a door opening somewhere to his left and footsteps approaching. “Oh, you’re finally booted up. That’s good.” An unfamiliar voice said. Sun was surprisingly able to turn his head enough to see who it was. Their features were unfamiliar to him but he recognized the Parts and Services uniform they wore. So that's where he was. “W-what happened..” He muttered weakly, surprised by how different his voice sounded. The employee gave him a sympathetic look and typed something into a computer. Whatever code they imputed had given Sun his mobility back and immediately he sat up and looked his body over. It was.. different. Instead of hard plastic, his exterior was now a soft and plush foam. His arms were also a consistent orange color instead of being broken up by the former ugly gray that used to color the tips of his fingers and forearms. The ribbons and bells on his wrists had been replaced, along with his usual satin striped pants. The employee waited until he had finished examining his body to explain the situation to him.

“The old Pizzaplex burnt down a little over a year ago. The company was able to salvage you and the other animatronics but your bodies were.. Unrepairable.” They explained, moving to grab something off the desk next to the computer. “Luckily all of your memory chips were in working condition but yours, and all of the others, got new personality and body upgrades. You might be feeling some new things so take it slow and have a look.” They held up a hand-held mirror which allowed Sun to see his new face model. He was shocked to say the least. Instead of the permanent plastic molded smile, his face had been replaced by a soft silicone that was colored light orange. Instead of his unmoving white eyes, he now had vibrant blue ones and the full capability to blink even if he technically didn't need to. His cheeks and the bridge of his new nose were also dotted with darker orange freckles. The new silicone texture of his face was what allowed for his facial features to move. It surprised him, how almost human he looked. The inside of his mouth even had a moving tongue! Most likely to make it look more real when he talked. 

“It's different, huh? You look a lot more like the old posters now. I think it's definitely an improvement but I'm sure it will take you a little to get used to.” The employee said as they took the mirror away and set it back down by the computer. Sun was definitely thankful for the change. Being able to express himself was new but welcome, and he was sure his appearance would be much more appealing to children now. There was still something wrong though. “Moon.. how come I can't hear him anymore?” He asked cautiously, still confused as to why he couldn't hear Moon in his head like usual. The employee turned their attention back to him and shook their head. “Right, I forgot to tell you. Moon is no longer part of your program, meaning that you’ll no longer change forms when the lights are off. You’re just Sun now.” They smiled as if that was good news, but Sun felt like he’d throw up if he was capable of such a thing. That pit in  his stomach had returned and he must have looked absolutely horrified because the employee was quick to back track. “I mean, he’s not gone, don’t worry! They just decided to separate the two of you. Moon has his own body now and upgrades that are very similar to yours.” The employee explained in an apologetic tone. 

Sun was relieved that Moon was okay, but he didn’t know how to feel about them no longer being part of one another. Ever since their creation, Sun and Moon had been together. Hearing each other's thoughts, sharing the same body, and finding comfort in one another that they were both sure no one else could possibly understand. Sure it was frustrating sometimes having to share a body, but now knowing that he’d never have the experience again, never having Moon so close.. It felt wrong. He gulped and willed himself to think on the bright side. If he and Moon were split then that meant Moon would be able to play with the kids with the lights on, and neither of them would fear randomly switching if the lights happened to switch on or off at random. Most of all, Sun figured it’d be nice to physically see Moon, to be able to hug his brother and do all sorts of activities together. It was weird and would certainly be an adjustment but maybe this really would be a good thing in the long term.

“Where is he?” Sun asked after he got a handle on his thoughts. The employee smiled at that, “Moon was quicker to boot up than you were. He was just as confused but once he processed everything I brought him to the new and improved daycare” They said. Sun slowly nodded. The employee had mentioned the daycare being ‘new and improved’ so he assumed that they had to completely rebuild it and probably the rest of the Pizzaplex. He simmered in his thoughts for a bit before he turned back to the employee. “I think.. I’m ready to go?” He said, feeling nervous but ready to see Moon and the new daycare. The employee nodded, “Follow me then.” They said, leading the way out of parts and services. 

Walking back to the daycare took a lot longer than it probably should have. The pizzaplex was very different and Sun couldn’t help but stop and stare at the new additions everytime they passed through a new area. Eventually they did make it to the daycare and Sun’s previous anxiety was replaced by excitement as he rushed around, gushing over all of the new installments. A brand new play area with new and crazier play structures. There were two ball pits now, in the shape of a sun and moon. Above the ball pit, the curtain covered entrance leading to Sun and Moon’s green room was still there and he was relieved to see it. There was a separate area for crafting, and even a new area for meal times. A brand new gift shop, and what looked like a special room dedicated to nap times that was padded with a large glass wall so it was easy to see inside. They had even rebuilt the theater and made it more kid friendly. As excited as Sun was about the new daycare, he was most excited about finding Moon in the vast space. 

“Moon! Where are you!” He called out excitedly, pushing open the new doors to the play area. From behind one of the play structures, a figure emerged. “Sun? Is that really you?” Moon said, sounding like he was in disbelief as he stood and stared. Where Sun had stayed relatively the same, Moon had changed drastically. His body seemed to be made of the same materials as Sun’s was, his face fully moveable as well. The soft baby blue silicone was complemented by warm orange eyes, no longer the terrifying red from his old design. Instead of freckles though, Moon’s face was decorated by slightly darker periwinkle spots to mimic the craters on the moon. His outfit was what changed the most however. He had a similar blue hat on, though the star pattern was more busy and the bell on the tip of the hat was replaced by a golden star charm. Instead of a ruffled collar, he wore a small blue cape with a white fluffy rim that was secured in place by a golden ribbon. His pants were flared at the bottom with the same star pattern as his hat and held up by another golden ribbon tied with a bow at the back that had a bell in its center. 

The outfit was so very him, and it only convinced Sun more that their split would turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Sun grinned happily and he swore he would cry if he could. He rushed over and enveloped Moon in a bone crushing hug, laughing happily as he squeezed his brother tightly. Moon was surprised at first but soon his face reflected Sun’s grin as he moved to hug him back just as tightly. They'd have plenty to talk about later but for now they were both content with holding onto one another like their very lives depended on it. Moon was back to himself, free of whatever corruption in his code made him so hostile. They were together again and more importantly, they were safe. Getting used to their new bodies and emotional capabilities would take a bit but both of them were looking forward to the Pizzaplex’s reopening and hopefully this time around things would turn out how they were always meant to be.

Masterlist ᐤ Next Part

All of my writing is original work created by me. Please do not repost, translate, or alter them in any way.

[shortformblog]

More on the Automattic mess from my pals at 404 Media:

We still do not know the answers to all of these questions, because Automattic has repeatedly ignored our detailed questions, will not get on the phone with us, and has instead chosen to frame a new opt-out feature as “protecting user choice.” We are at the point where individual Automattic employees are posting clarifications on their personal Mastodon accounts about what data is and is not included.  The truth is that Automattic has been selling access to this “firehose” of posts for years, for a variety of purposes. This includes selling access to self-hosted blogs and websites that use a popular plugin called Jetpack; Automattic edited its original “protecting user choice” statement this week to say it will exclude Jetpack from its deals with “select AI companies.” These posts have been directly available via a data partner called SocialGist, which markets its services to “social listening” companies, marketing insights firms, and, increasingly, AI companies. Tumblr has its own Firehose, and Tumblr posts are available via SocialGist as well.  Almost every platform has some sort of post “firehose,” API, or way of accessing huge amounts of user posts. Famously, Twitter and Reddit used to give these away for free. Now they do not, and charging access for these posts has become big business for those companies. This is just to say that the existence of Automattic’s firehose is not anomalous in an internet ecosystem that trades on data. But this firehose also means that the average user doesn’t and can’t know what companies are getting direct access to their posts, and what they’re being used for.

This story goes deeper than the current situation.

[birdietrait]

pretty sure the ai features that were mentioned were not generative ai (could be wrong, idk), but i'm still wary of it tbh. it kinda feels like they're testing the waters in a way? and they've already laid off so many employees, i can imagine people working for ea are feeling uneasy about it

[jcmarchi]

What Went Wrong With the Humane AI Pin?

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/what-went-wrong-with-the-humane-ai-pin/

What Went Wrong With the Humane AI Pin?

Humane, a startup founded by former Apple employees Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, recently launched its highly anticipated wearable AI assistant, the Humane AI Pin. Now, the company is already looking for a buyer.

The device promised to revolutionize the way people interact with technology, offering a hands-free, always-on experience that would reduce dependence on smartphones. However, despite the hype and ambitious goals, the AI Pin failed to live up to expectations, plagued by a series of hardware and software issues that ultimately led to a disappointing debut.

Chaudhri and Bongiorno, with their extensive experience at Apple, set out to create a product that would seamlessly integrate artificial intelligence into users’ daily lives. The AI Pin was envisioned as a wearable device that could be easily clipped onto clothing, serving as a constant companion and personal assistant. By leveraging advanced AI technologies, including large language models and computer vision, the device aimed to provide users with quick access to information, assistance with tasks, and a more intuitive way to interact with the digital world.

The AI Pin promised a range of features and capabilities, including voice-activated controls, real-time language translation, and the ability to analyze and provide information about objects captured by its built-in camera. Humane also developed its own operating system, CosmOS, designed to work seamlessly with the device’s AI models and deliver a fluid, responsive user experience. The company’s vision was to create a product that would not only replace smartphones but also enhance users’ lives by allowing them to be more present and engaged in the world around them.

Hardware Issues Right Away

Despite the sleek and futuristic design of the Humane AI Pin, the device suffered from several hardware shortcomings that hindered its usability and comfort. One of the most significant issues was its awkward and uncomfortable design. The AI Pin consists of two halves – a front processing unit and a rear battery – which are held together by magnets, with the user’s clothing sandwiched in between. This design proved problematic, as the heavy device tended to drag down lighter clothes, causing discomfort and an odd sensation of warmth against the wearer’s chest.

Another major drawback of the AI Pin was its poor battery life. With a runtime of just two to four hours, the device failed to provide the all-day assistance that users expected from a wearable AI companion. This limitation severely undermined the product’s usefulness, as users would need to constantly recharge the device throughout the day.

The AI Pin’s laser projection display, which beamed information onto the user’s palm, also faced challenges. While the concept was innovative, the display struggled to perform well in well-lit environments, making it difficult to read and interact with the projected information. Additionally, the hand-based interaction, which required users to tilt and tap their fingers to navigate the interface, proved cumbersome and often led to distorted or moving visuals, further compromising the user experience.

Software and Performance Problems

In addition to the hardware issues, the Humane AI Pin also suffered from several software and performance problems that severely impacted its usability. One of the most glaring issues was the device’s slow voice response times. Users reported significant delays between issuing a command and receiving a response from the AI assistant, leading to frustration and a breakdown in the seamless interaction promised by Humane.

Moreover, the AI Pin’s functionality was limited compared to smartphones and smartwatches. Basic features such as setting alarms and timers were notably absent, leaving users to rely on other devices for these essential tasks. The company’s decision to forgo apps in favor of a voice-centric interface also proved to be a drawback, as it restricted the device’s versatility and potential use cases.

The value of the AI Pin’s assistant capabilities was also called into question. While the device aimed to provide contextual information and assistance based on voice commands and camera input, the actual performance often fell short of expectations. The AI’s responses were sometimes inaccurate, irrelevant, or simply not helpful enough to justify the device’s existence as a standalone product.

Pricing and Subscription Model

The Humane AI Pin’s pricing and subscription model also contributed to its lackluster reception. With an upfront cost of $699, the device was significantly more expensive than many high-end smartphones and smartwatches. This high price point made it difficult for consumers to justify the purchase, especially given the AI Pin’s limited functionality and unproven value proposition.

In addition to the steep initial cost, Humane also required users to pay a monthly subscription fee of $24 to keep the device active and access its AI features. This recurring expense further compounded the financial burden on users and raised questions about the long-term viability of the product.

When compared to more affordable and capable alternatives, such as the Apple Watch, the AI Pin’s pricing and subscription model seemed even more unreasonable. For a fraction of the cost, users could access a wide range of apps, enjoy seamless integration with their smartphones, and benefit from a more robust set of features and performance capabilities.

The Future of Humane

Following the disappointing launch of the AI Pin, Humane finds itself in a precarious position. The company is now actively seeking a buyer, hoping to salvage some value from its technology and intellectual property. However, the challenges in finding a suitable acquirer are significant.

Humane’s asking price of $750 million to $1 billion seems unrealistic, given the AI Pin’s poor reception and the company’s lack of a proven track record. Potential buyers may be hesitant to invest such a large sum in a company whose first and only product failed to gain traction in the market.

Additionally, the value of Humane’s intellectual property remains questionable. While the company developed its own operating system, CosmOS, and integrated various AI technologies into the AI Pin, it is unclear whether these innovations are truly groundbreaking or valuable enough to justify the high asking price. Industry giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft are already heavily invested in AI and wearable technologies, and they may not see Humane’s offerings as a significant addition to their existing portfolios.

As Humane navigates this difficult period, it is crucial for the company to reflect on the lessons learned from the AI Pin’s failure. The experience highlights the importance of conducting thorough market research, setting realistic expectations, and ensuring that a product delivers tangible value to users before launching. Humane’s story also serves as a cautionary tale for other startups in the wearable AI space, emphasizing the need to balance innovation with practicality and user-centric design.

The AI Pin’s failure serves as a reminder that innovation alone is not enough to guarantee success. Products must offer tangible benefits and solve real problems for users, and they must do so in a way that is both accessible and affordable. The wearable AI assistant market remains an exciting and promising space, but future innovators must learn from Humane’s missteps to create products that truly enhance users’ lives.

[mariacallous]

Several of the most prominent alt-weekly newspapers in the United States are running search-engine-optimized listicles about porn performers, which appear to be AI-generated, alongside their editorial content.

If you pull up the homepage for the Village Voice on your phone, for example, you’ll see reporting from freelancers—longtime columnist Michael Musto still files occasionally—as well as archival work from big-name former writers such as Greg Tate, the Pulitzer Prize–winning music critic. You’ll also see a tab on its drop-down menu labeled “OnlyFans.” Clicking on it pulls up a catalog of listicles ranking different types of pornographic performers by demographic, from “Turkish” to “incest” to “granny.” These blog posts link out to hundreds of different OnlyFans accounts and are presented as editorial work, without labels indicating they are advertisements or sponsored.

Similar content appears on the websites of LA Weekly, which is owned by Street Media, the same parent company as the Village Voice, as well as the St. Louis–based alt-weekly the Riverfront Times. Although there is a chance some of these posts could be written by human freelancers, the writing bears markers of AI slop.

According to AI detection startup Reality Defender, which scanned a sampling of these posts, the content in the articles registers as having a “high probability” of containing AI-generated text. One scanned example, a Riverfront Times story titled “19 Best Free Asian OnlyFans Featuring OnlyFans Asian Free in 2024,” concludes with the following sentence, exemplary in its generic horny platitudes: “You explore, savor, and discover your next favorite addiction, and we’ll be back with more insane talent in the future!”

“We’re seeing an ever-increasing part of old media be reborn as AI-generated new media,” says Reality Defender cofounder and CTO Ali Shahriyari. “Unfortunately, this means way less informational and newsworthy content and more SEO-focused ‘slop’ that really just wastes people’s time and attention. Tracking these kinds of publications isn’t even part of our day to day, yet we’re seeing them pop up more and more.”

LA Weekly laid off or offered buyouts to the majority of its staff in March 2024, while the Riverfront Times laid off its entire staff in May 2024 after it was sold by parent company Big Lou Media to an unnamed buyer.

The Village Voice’s sole remaining editorial staffer, R.C. Baker, says he is not involved with the OnlyFans posts, although it appears on the site as editorial content. “I handle only news and cultural reporting out of New York City. I have nothing to do with OnlyFans. That content is handled by a separate team that is based, I believe, in LA,” he told WIRED.

Likewise, former LA Weekly editor in chief Darrick Rainey says he, too, had nothing to do with the OnlyFans listicles when he worked there. Neither did his colleagues in editorial. “We weren’t happy about it at all, and we were absolutely not involved in putting it up,” he says.

Former employees are disturbed to see their archival work comingling with SEO porn slop. “It’s wrenching in so many ways,” says former Riverfront Times writer Danny Wicentowski. “Like watching a loved home get devoured by vines, or left to rot.”

This is a new twist in the grim growing world of AI slop. WIRED has reported on a variety of defunct news and media outlets that have been resurrected by new owners and stuffed with AI-generated clickbait, from a small-town Iowa newspaper to the beloved feminist blog the Hairpin. In the case of the alt-weeklies and OnlyFans listicles, the clickbait is appearing alongside actual editorial content, both archival and new.

It is unclear how this effort has been coordinated between the sites, or whether there are several parallel efforts ongoing to produce OnlyFans-centric listicles. LA Weekly and the Village Voice are both owned by the same parent company, Street Media, and some of their OnlyFans content is identical. Meanwhile, the Riverfront Times publishes its OnlyFans blogs under the byline “RFT staff.”

Street Media owner Brian Calle did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment. Chris Keating, the Riverfront Times’ former owner, says he is bound by a confidentiality agreement and cannot name the new buyer, but that he “does not believe” Calle is part of the purchasing company controlling the new Riverfront Times.

Daniela LaFave, an Austin-based SEO expert who is bylined on the majority of the Village Voice OnlyFans blog posts as well as some of the LA Weekly posts, confirmed to WIRED that she is the same person named as the author. She declined to answer whether she used AI tools to create the posts.

Another frequent byline on the Village Voice and LA Weekly posts, “Jasmine Ramer,” has published 910 articles primarily for these two outlets in the past year, according to the public relations platform Muck Rack. (Sample headlines: “Top OnlyFans Sluts 2024” and “Top 10 Finnish OnlyFans & Hottest Finnish OnlyFans 2023.”) There is a profile on LinkedIn listed as a senior staff writer at LA Weekly for an Austria-based woman named Jasmine Ramer, but there is little other digital footprint for the writer. When Reality Defender analyzed the profile photo on Ramer’s LinkedIn account, it found it was likely AI-generated. There is also at least one other account using the same photo claiming to be a digital marketing executive in the UK. (WIRED did not receive a response when it asked Ramer for comment via LinkedIn.)

OnlyFans is an online porn behemoth, one which has spawned numerous cottage industries, like professional proxy chatters who impersonate the platform’s stars. There are marketing agencies devoted to promoting OnlyFans creators, and many social platforms from Reddit to X are swarmed with bots trying to entice potential customers. These efforts are known as “OnlyFans funnels.”

Risqué sex ads have played a major role in the rise and fall of some alt-weeklies. The founders of Village Voice Media, which once owned the Village Voice, LA Weekly, and the Riverfront Times as well as other US-based alt-weeklies, created the classified website Backpage.com in 2004 to compete with Craigslist. It created a lucrative revenue stream, buoying many titles for years, but ginned up major controversy for hosting sex ads.

Vice President Kamala Harris, serving as California attorney general at the time, dubbed the company “the world’s top online brothel” in 2016 and arrested its founders and CEO for facilitating prostitution. With this recent history in mind, the decision to lean into sexual advertorial is especially brash.

It may be that these alt-weeklies are creating these blog posts in an effort to drum up web traffic to their sites, which could in turn help boost digital ad sales. They may also be accepting money from the accounts or from representatives of the accounts promoted, which would mean the posts were unlabeled advertorial. “Online ads, print ads, they all dried up,” Rainey says. “But this OnlyFans stuff is there.”

“OnlyFans has no financial arrangement with these outlets,” an OnlyFans spokesperson who identified herself only as “Brixie” told WIRED via email.

“I think the creators are paying,” says Luka Sek, SEO manager for an OnlyFans promotion company called SocialRise. “An agency that handles multiple models, or someone doing the marketing for such agencies.”

Whatever the reason, it marks a grim new pit stop for declining media publications, one in which blatant SEO bait sits side by side with culturally valuable archival journalistic work and, in the case of the Village Voice, ongoing contemporary reportage.

Tricia Romano, a former Village Voice writer who recently published an oral history of the newspaper, The Freaks Came Out to Write, sees the arrival of AI slop as keeping with the recent deterioration of alt-weeklies. “This is the logical dystopian conclusion,” she says. “But who’s reading it?”

[shotgunanon]

i love how you have jellyfish and black pearl cookie as your header of your blog😭😭😭

but my question was what was your main idea that you had for you TADC au if you dont mind me asking…

my main idea was a si-fi world made by a c/and/a employee-{pomni} she was sucked into the world along with a few of her co-workers they wandered the world for years and years on end[which was 8-10 years] pomni and half of the group blacked out {pomni - Jax- ragatha} this blackout lasted 16 years| which was a feature pomni set in this simulation game so irl their bodies only aged the years they actually stayed-\in the game world everything changed the people and ai changed and became evil so pomni jax and ragatha/gangle zooble and kinger later on\ help takeout these threats..and maybe som

most ships are non cannon like jax x gangle x ragatha- i just think it would be a cute thing to happen

caine x pomni is cannon

jax x ragatha is also cannon

kinger x queenie is cannon although queenie was abstracted

any other ships are not cannon nor will be marked as such

this is pretty much just the overall summary.

{this did indeed change}

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Monopoly is capitalism's gerrymander

For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel THE LOST CAUSE (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

You don't have to accept the arguments of capitalism's defenders to take those arguments seriously. When Adam Smith railed against rentiers and elevated the profit motive to a means of converting the intrinsic selfishness of the wealthy into an engine of production, he had a point:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

Smith – like Marx and Engels in Chapter One of The Communist Manifesto – saw competition as a catalyst that could convert selfishness to the public good: a rich person who craves more riches still will treat their customers, suppliers and workers well, not out of the goodness of their heart, but out of fear of their defection to a rival:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/#fear-is-their-mind-killer

This starting point is imperfect, but it's not wrong. The pre-enshittified internet was run by the same people who later came to enshittify it. They didn't have a change of heart that caused them to wreck the thing they'd worked so hard to build: rather, as they became isolated from the consequences of their enshittificatory impulses, it was easier to yield to them.

Once Google captured its market, its regulators and its workforce, it no longer had to worry about being a good search-engine – it could sacrifice quality for profits, without consequence:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

It could focus on shifting value from its suppliers, its customers and its users to its shareholders:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/15/they-trust-me-dumb-fucks/#ai-search

The thing is, all of this is well understood and predicted by traditional capitalist orthodoxy. It was only after a gnostic cult of conspiratorialists hijacked the practice of antitrust law that capitalists started to view monopolies as compatible with capitalism:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/20/we-should-not-endure-a-king/

The argument goes like this: companies that attain monopolies might be cheating, but because markets are actually pretty excellent arbiters of quality, it's far more likely that if we discover that everyone is buying the same product from the same store, that this is the best store, selling the best products. How perverse would it be to shut down the very best stores and halt the sale of the very best products merely to satisfy some doctrinal reflex against big business!

To understand the problem with this argument, we should consider another doctrinal reflex: conservatives' insistence that governments just can't do anything well or efficiently. There's a low-information version of this that goes, "Governments are where stupid people who can't get private sector jobs go. They're lazy and entitled." (There's a racial dimension to this, since the federal government has historically led the private sector in hiring and promoting Black workers and workers of color more broadly.)

But beyond that racially tinged caricature, there's a more rigorous version of the argument: government officials are unlikely to face consequences for failure. Appointees and government employees – especially in the unionized federal workforce – are insulated from such consequences by overlapping layers of labor protection and deflection of blame.

Elected officials can in theory be fired in the next election, but if they keep their cheating or incompetence below a certain threshold, most of us won't punish them at the polls. Elected officials can further improve their odds of re-election by cheating some of us and sharing the loot with others, through handouts and programs. Elections themselves have a strong incumbency bias, meaning that once a cheater gets elected, they will likely get re-elected, even if their cheating becomes well-known:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gold-bars-featured-bob-menendez-bribery-case-linked-2013-robbery-recor-rcna128006

What's more, electoral redistricting opens the doors to gerrymandering – designing districts to create safe seats where one party always wins. That way, the real election consists of the official choosing the voters, not the voters choosing the official:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP

Inter-party elections – primaries and other nomination processes – have fundamental weaknesses that mean they're no substitute for well-run, democratic elections:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/30/weak-institutions/

Contrast this with the theory of competitive markets. For capitalism's "moral philosophers," the physics by which greedy desires led to altruistic outcomes was to be found in the swift retribution of markets. A capitalist, exposed to the possibility of worker and customers defecting to their rival, knows that their greed is best served by playing fair.

But just as importantly, capitalists who don't internalize this lesson are put out of business and superceded by better capitalists. The market's invisible hand can pat you on the head – but it can also choke you to death.

This is where monopoly comes in. Even if you accept the consumer welfare theory that says that monopolies are most often the result of excellence, we should still break up monopolies. Even if someone secures an advantage by being great, that greatness will soon regress to the mean. But if the monopolist can extinguish the possibility of competition, they can maintain their power even after they cease deserving it.

In other words, the monopolist is like a politician who wins power – whether through greatness or by deceit – and then gerrymanders their district so that they can do anything and gain re-election. Even the noblest politician, shorn of accountability, will be hard pressed to avoid yielding to temptation.

Capitalism's theory proceeds from the idea that we are driven by our self-interest, and that competition turns self-interest into communal sentiment. Take away the competition, and all that's left is the self-interest.

I think this is broadly true, even though it's not the main reason I oppose monopolies (I oppose monopolies because they corrupt our democracy and pauperize workers). But even if capitalism's ability to turn greed into public benefit isn't the principle that's uppermost in my mind, it's what capitalists claim to believe – and treasure.

I think that most of the right's defense of monopolies stems from cynical, bad-faith rationalizations – but there are people who've absorbed these rationalizations and find them superficially plausible. It's worth developing these critiques, for their sake.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/18/market-discipline/#too-big-to-care