Like the other person commented, I use Firefox Plus adblocker on my phone and it’s fine.

It’s an ego thing, he’ll hire a bunch of really expensive lawyers and drag it out as long as he can. This is what the rich do.

" Luddite unite!" - These parents while shaking a fist at clouds.

Anything can be backdoor… In, but I’m really struggling to see how you could do something useful with a dram chip. In theory, if it were smart enough, it could analyze the data that’s being stored and manipulated in some way, but there’s no way a dram module would have the processing power and brains to do anything useful with this.

And memory manipulation would be about the most it could accomplish because the dram modules themselves don’t have signal lines that can control anything. They basically have data alliance address lines, return lines, power ground and control circuitry. They can’t affect the rest of the motherboard/ computer other than subverting data… And computers tend to be pretty good at catching memory that doesn’t store data properly.

If you tried hard enough, you could figure out a scenario where this could work, but I don’t think this is something we really need to worry about.

I have an echo show in my kitchen. It displays ads, but they’re super easy to ignore. They’re just basically text pictures on the screen when it’s not being used and on topics that I selected.

I’m pretty massively against ads, but the echo show’s don’t bother me in the least. If Alexa Plus starts giving me verbal ads or injecting them into things then it will quickly find its way into the trash can.

This is the real take away from all this. xAI is trying hard to keep up with the big-boys and has to pay a shit ton of money just to be in the game. xAI’s revenue will be in the deep red for a long time at this rate.

“digging thru trash and bunch of obscure websites for info, using critical thinking to filter and refine your results”

You’re highlighting a barrier to learning that in and of itself has no value. It’s like arguing that kids today should learn cursive because you had to and it exercises the brain! Don’t fool yourself into thinking that just because you did something one way that it’s the best way. The goal is to learn and find solutions to problems. Whatever tool allows you to get there the easiest is the best one.

Learning through textbooks and one way absorption of information is not an efficient way to learn. Having the ability to ask questions and challenge a teacher (in this case the AI), is a far superior way to learn IMHO.

The thing is… AI is making me smarter! I use AI as a learning tool. The absolute best thing about AI is the ability to follow up questions with additional questions and get a better understanding of a subject. I use it to ask about technical topics and flush out a better understanding that I ever got from just a text book. I have seem some instances of hallucinating in the past, but with the current generation of AI I’ve had very good results and consider it an excellent tool for learning.

For reference I’m an engineer with over 25 years of experience and I am considered an expert in my field.