The fact that they’re pivoting to full enshittification is the strongest signal yet that the AI bubble is collapsing. There won’t be an AI-driven mass-unemployment revolution this time around. OpenAI has given up on trying to build that.
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Anyone else concerned that the AI bubble is actually an everything bubble, and more or less represents the devaluation of the US dollar? We have a lot of debt, we can’t necessarily keep raising interest rates to slow down spending (as that would make the debt’s impact far greater), and so they’re printing money onto the deficit. Meanwhile, you have the White House eye balling cryptocurrency, letting banks hold it alongside gold, … what does all of this mean?
https://www.theblock.co/amp/post/333107/jpmorgan-debasement-trade-bitcoin-gold
https://matrixmag.com/chinas-gold-corridor-a-structural-shift-in-the-global-financial-order/
i hope it means you the US collapses, we get invaded, or coup’d, and start to feel the pressure we put on the rest of the world.
It doesn't mean anything. You're just rules by greedy idiots.
Everything means something because meaning is created, not discovered. They can be greedy, idiots, and still know how to come out on top of a failing empire.
I really think there’s a lot more to this than meets the eye. There being winners implies there being losers also. If the ultra wealthy can come out on top, it leaves the rest of the US with a debased currency on bottom.
Is gold up 2x since 2 years ago, or is the US Dollar loosing its purchase power at a rate not seen since 1970s (Nixon took USD off gold) and 2008-11 (global housing crisis)?
Suddenly, Elons stock-performance based bonus benchmarked at $1T makes some sense…
You can make fictious meaning out of everything. That doesn't mean there is meaning.
You’re confusing what I mean. Of course you can make fictitious meaning out of anything. But all meaning is created. All of it. No meaning is discovered.
To say there is no meaning, it represents the depth of ingenuity rather than the depth of reality. Everything has meaning. For example, it might mean something about the past that lead to these circumstances, the potential futures, potential present intentions or lack thereof…
Whether or not you think the meaning fictitious is another topic altogether. If you’re saying there is no meaning, and so therefore any meaning must be fictitious, then you’re just prematurely shutting the door on every perspective which disagrees with yours.
What you say means nothing to me. See?
Yes, I do see. You’re conflating what has no meaning to you with what has no meaning at all. They aren’t the same thing, though.
So you do understand. In your fantasy world you can believe whatever fantasies you want. They doesn't mean they have meaning.
You’re welcome to hold whatever abstract position you like, but the claim that context I’ve raised is “meaningless” misses the point. Meaning isn’t inherent in the universe—it’s created by observers—so dismissing context as meaningless is simply incoherent. Context is meaning.
I’m not here to debate metaphysics. I’m here to discuss the economic implications of current events: (1) China’s push to build a gold-backed, highly liquid, transferable settlement asset, (2) Russia’s claim that the U.S. may pursue similar moves that could undercut the dollar, (3) gold doubling per USD in the last two years and the long historical context that introduces, and (4) the everything bubble we’re in right now. The question is what these signals imply for the future, not whether signals “mean nothing.”
If you believe they point to a different outcome, offer a substantive alternative. Otherwise, insisting that everything is meaningless adds nothing to the discussion; it only reveals the limitations of your perspective, which I’m uninterested in. That, limited, world view is the safe “fantasy land” here…
In my fantasy world? Alright friend, you can take whatever high level position you want and forever repeat your incorrect points. As a matter of fact, however, there is no essence to meaning in the universe. Meaning is derived from the observer. So your point about the validity of meaning is fruitless: there is no such thing as a meaningless piece of context. Context is meaning. Unless you are so narrow minded in your fantasy land as to believe in such limitations, the meaning is there somewhere. I would encourage the interested reader, not those of whom are only interested in preserving their shallow ideological pool, to consider for a moment that the world is far more complex than is immediately obvious.
As for you, on the other hand, I fail to understand why you’ve tethered my curiosity to the dispute of whether meaning is pervasive to all things—or not. Meaning is what you make of it, and you’ve clearly made nothing of it, and I clearly can not help you see beyond such boundaries, so I will (hopefully) end this discussion now. I am not interested in debating my philosophies. That’s just not what I came here for.
My goal was to discuss the meaning of various macroeconomic market activities, alongside the (very real) efforts China is taking to develop their own gold-backed liquid, transferable, monetary-grade asset that can serve like a global banking/settlement medium. As well as, Russias claim that, the US is moving toward a similar move which would deface US currency.
This debate is about what future these completely valid signs point toward. It’s not about the validity of signage. It’s not about whether meaning is inherent or not. Nor is about fantasy land ideology. It’s about economics. If you think the signs mean something other than what they suggest, be my guest and introduce a novel idea. Otherwise, like I said before, I don’t care whether you think the signs may or may not mean “nothing.”
“Nothing” doesn’t even make sense in this context. It’s akin a statement like “global warming means nothing.” Duh, you make the meaning. If all you can think of is “nothing,” it says more about you than the actual affairs of the world.
Damn that's crazy bro. Sorry that thappenes to you or didn't happen. Idk
"You want to know how to combat your depression? Sure, but what about a cold Pepsi first?"
“Please drink verification can to read about how to combat your depression.”
Lol :)
I suppose identifying AI is going to be a lot easier when users copy and paste answers that contain some sort of ad roll.
It’s gonna be really hard to argue your Grapes of Wrath essay wasn’t AI generated when you submit without proofreading and don’t catch the sponsored ad for Walmart+ grocery delivery.
I don't know that I agree. AI will continue to grow stronger and heartier, just like Campbell's new Extra Chunky™ All Americanado™ Chicken Noodle Soup.
After reading this I’m convinced we’ll not only know it’s AI but be able to identify which platform. We’ll get to a point where people will go must’ve used Gemini it’s the only one still serving Factor ads 😂
Imagine it writing your essay about Nazi Germany for you and in the middle it asks you whether you think Göring would have enjoyed a Big Mac right about now.
Once this rolls out, there will be epic memes and screenshots about it... :)
I feel like nobody read the article. It mentioned an “ad carousel” which would be a fairly standard way to offset costs on free plans. I don’t see that specifically as being enshitification. Now, if they start altering AI responses, that is definitely enshitification. I have no doubt they will eventually get there, but I don’t think that’s what this article is about.
All ads are enshitification.
Excellent question! When I am sad about my dad dying, nothing helps me like the cool refreshing taste of an ice cold Coca-Cola™. Click here to buy one on Doordash™ right now!
No matter how profitable a company is (which doesn't apply here) it can't resist increasing profits even more. They are all like an AI being told to make paperclips and not stopping until they have converted the entire mass of the universe into paperclips.
Well, in this case, how unprofitable a company is. OpenAI hemorrhages money like no other.
Too bad larger LLMs require ungodly amounts of VRAM, or self-hosting would be a good alternative. LLMs have their uses, but they’re not useful enough to put up with ads.
You can get by surprisingly well on 20b parameter models using a Mac with decent ram or even 8b parameter models that fit on most high end (eg 16gb) model cards. Depends on your use cases but I almost exclusively use smaller local models.
I have a RTX 4060 low-profile in my 2U server and am limited to 8GB of VRAM for anything I self-host at the moment. I may consider a larger chassis with a better GPU in the future.
I think we’ve hit the end times for AI. The biggest player in the space OpenAI couldn’t be profitable by selling its services to business, nor directly to consumers. Subscription moneys nor licensing its models is working too. So the last avenue they have is this, shilling to marketers hoping for scrap.
On top of Nvidia having to stop selling RAM I think the breaks are about to hit AI and hard once the current supply runs out. I wonder how long that could take?
You're having a conversation in ChatGPT and all of a sudden you're being bombarded with questions like how swell it'd be to buy something from Amazon or play this shitty-ass app game with MTX.
What a timeline...
First it was ignorantly stupid, now it'll be purposefully misleading towards ads. Who could have seen that coming?
Where's the end of work life as we know it that we were promised?
Sounds like my AI usage is gonna fall from "infrequent" to "never", if the ads are indeed unblockable...
Oh no. I'll have to look at ads while I make use of their fantastic and totally useful product, oh yeah, never mind.
Ads are bad mmkay?
~ These guys
Also these guys:

This is interesting, because “add ads” usually means margins are slim, and the product is in a race to the bottom.
If ChatGPT was the transcendent, priceless, premium service they are hyping it as… why would it need ads?
Companies have already been SEOing LLMs for a few months now. There are companies who have a panel of participants who are willing to share their data, and this is then used to estimate what people might be searching on LLMs and now to optimise content so that it shows up on responses across LLMs.
Ads was the logical direction for LLMs and has always been the only pathway to any substantial revenue.
This is a great way to drive users to competitors.
FYI https://www.deepseek.com/en and https://chat.qwen.ai/ don't have ads.