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Its never been more exhausting to be online than in 2024. While its been clear for some time that monetization has shifted social media into a different beast, this year in particular felt like a tipping point. Faced with the endless streams of content thats formulated to trap viewers gazes, shoppable ads at every turn, AI and the unrelenting opinions of strangers, it struck me recently that despite my habitual use of these apps, Im not actually having fun on any of them anymore. Take Instagram. I open the app and Im greeted by an ad for bidets. I start scrolling. Between each of the first three posts at the top of my feed is a different ad: lingerie, squat-friendly jorts, shoes from a brand selling items that appear to be dropshipped from AliExpress at a markup. Then, thankfully, two memes back to back. I fire off the funny one to five of my friends in a way that feels obligatory. After that, another ad, then a bunch of seemingly off-target Reels from accounts I dont even follow. Minutes pass before I encounter a post by someone I know in real life. Oh yeah, its time to turn off suggested posts again, something I have to do every 30 days or my feed will be filled with random crap. But before I get a chance to do that, Im distracted by a Reel of a cat watching The Grinch. Then by a Reel of a guy with a tiny chihuahua in his coat pocket. Curiosity gets the better of me and I open the comments, where people are angrily writing that the dog must be suffocating. Oh no. I scroll to the next Reel, a video Ive seen several times before of a rooster marching around in a pair of pants. Below, everyones fighting about whether its cruel to put pants on a chicken. Is it? Next, a video of a girl doing her makeup, where men are commenting that this should be considered catfishing. Deep sigh. I realize 30 minutes have somehow passed and I close Instagram, now in a worse mood than when I opened it. Ill compulsively return in an hour or so, rinse and repeat. Its not just an Instagram problem. On TikTok (which may or may not get shut down in the US very soon), the For You page has me figured out pretty well contentwise and the presence of toxic commenters is minimal, but every other post is either sponsored or hawking a product from the TikTok Shop. And its too easy to get sucked into the perpetual scroll. I often avoid opening the app at all just because I know Ill end up getting trapped there for longer than I want to, watching videos about nothing made by people I dont know and never will. But it still happens more frequently than Id like to admit. These days, it feels like every gathering place on the internet is so crowded with content thats competing for and successfully grabbing our attention or trying to sell us something that theres barely any room for the social element of social media. Instead, were pushed into separate corners to stare at the glowing boxes in our hands alone. Fittingly, Oxford announced at the end of November that its Word of the Year for 2024 is brain rot, a term that expresses the supposed consequence of countless hours spent on the internet consuming stupid stuff. Just as fitting, Australias Macquarie Dictionary chose enshittification, which describes how the platforms and products we love get ruined over time as the companies behind them chase profits. (It was also The American Dialect Societys 2023 Word of the Year). Social media platforms were in theory designed around ideas of friendship and connection, but whats playing out on them today couldnt feel further from genuine human interaction. Facebook if you even have an account still might be where youd go if you really wanted to see updates from family and other people you know IRL, but its UI has become so cluttered with recommended Reels and products that it feels unusable. Twitter, where it was once fun to keep up with live discourse around major events or fandom happenings, no longer exists, and X, its new form under Elon Musk, is filled with bots and political propaganda. On the other hand, Threads, an offshoot of Instagram and Metas answer to Twitter/X, took off this year and it quickly became a hotspot for copy-paste engagement bait, a problem so bad that Adam Mosseri has publicly acknowledged it. The Threads team has apparently been working to get it under control, but I still cant scroll through my For You feed without seeing a dozen posts that are either just regurgitated memes being passed off as original thoughts, or questions to the masses that are crafted with the intention of stirring the pot. The same feed is otherwise dominated by viral videos that are ripped off from other creators without credit and pop culture commentary that almost always devolves into sex- and genderism. I often step away from Threads feeling the need to go scream in a field. Threads doesnt have DMs, meaning all conversations take place in public. It finally gave users the ability to create custom feeds around searchable topics in November, but those topic pages are generally still riddled with bait-style posts, just more subject-specific versions. Thats meant so far that its been pretty hard to find communities to authentically connect with. It all feel so impersonal. It doesnt help that Threads Following feed currently isnt the default view and theres no way to change that (though Threads recently began testing the option). And at the end of the day, its 275 million or so monthly active users doesnt include all that many people I actually know, especially outside of the media industry. The same goes for fediverse social networks like Mastodon and Bluesky, which are far less populated but have a cliquier feel. Visiting those platforms feels like walking into a room full of people who all know each other really well, and realizing youre the odd one out. But at least Bluesky nor Mastodon arent poorly veiled shopping experiences. (Threads isnt at the moment, either, but ads are reportedly coming). Maybe it all comes down to burnout in the era of excessive consumption, but lately Ive found myself wishing for a place on the internet that feels both inviting and human. Im sure Im not alone. In recent years, weve seen alternative social apps pop up like BeReal, Hive and the Myspace-reminiscent entrants SpaceHey and noplace, all aiming to bring character and interpersonal connection back into social media. But none have quite cracked the code for lasting mainstream adoption. Discord and even Reddit to some extent address the same person-to-person need, yet they share more in common with proto social media chatrooms and forums than with the sites that sprung up during the social heyday. Meanwhile, Meta is increasingly pushing AI across its apps. Just this summer we got the chatbot-maker, AI Studio, which Meta touted not only as a way for users to create AI characters, but for creators to build an AI as an extension of themselves to reach more fans. Rather than talk to your real friends or make new ones around a common interest, you can deepen your parasocial relationship with celebrities, influencers and fictional characters by chatting with the AI versions of them. Or, pick from several AI girlfriends you can now find in the menu of your DMs. Weve completely lost the plot, I fear. Ive started dipping back into Tumblr here and there, if only to see a less chaotic, more curated feed and relish in the reminder of how fun customization can be. A few friends have mentioned that theyve been doing the same. But given the platforms past policy upheavals and its current AI partnerships, its not exactly an online oasis either. As if on cue, I was recently served a mock Tumblr poster during my evening scroll that felt uncannily apt: we didnt get better. the rest of the internet just got worse.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/in-2024-using-social-media-felt-worse-than-ever-170047895.html?src=rss
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Following months of speculation, OpenAI has finally shared how it plans to become a for-profit company. In a blog post penned by its board of directors, OpenAI said Thursday it plans to transform its for-profit arm into a Public Benefit Corporation sometime in 2025. PBCs or B Corps are for-profit organizations that attempt to balance the interests of their stakeholders while making a positive impact on society. As we enter 2025, we will have to become more than a lab and a startup we have to become an enduring company, OpenAI said, adding that many of its competitors are registered as PBCs, including Anthropic and even Elon Musks own xAI. [The move] would enable us to raise the necessary capital with conventional terms like others in this space. As part of the transformation, OpenAIs nonprofit division would retain a stake in the for-profit unit in the form of shares at a fair valuation determined by independent financial advisors, but would lose direct oversight of the company. Our plan would result in one of the best resourced non-profits in history, claims OpenAI. Following the reorganization, the for-profit division would be responsible for overseeing OpenAIs operations and business, while the nonprofit arm would operate separately with its own leadership team and a focus on charitable efforts in health care, education and science. OpenAI did not state whether CEO Sam Altman would receive an equity stake as part of the restructuring. Last year, OpenAIs board of directors briefly fired Altman before bringing him back, in the process sparking the institutional crisis that led to this weeks announcement. According to some estimates, OpenAIs for-profit arm could be worth as much as $150 billion. In 2019, OpenAI estimated it would need to raise at least $10 billion to build artificial general intelligence. In October, the company secured $6 billion in new funding. The hundreds of billions of dollars that major companies are now investing into AI development show what it will really take for OpenAI to continue pursuing the mission, OpenAI said. We once again need to raise more capital than wed imagined. Investors want to back us but, at this scale of capital, need conventional equity and less structural bespokeness. Despite this weeks announcement, OpenAI is likely to face multiple roadblocks in implementing its plan. In addition to its ongoing legal feud with Elon Musk, Meta recently sent a letter to Californias attorney general urging him to stop OpenAI from converting to a for-profit company, saying the move would be wrong and could lead to a proliferation of similar start-up ventures that are notionally charitable until they are potentially profitable.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openais-for-profit-plan-includes-a-public-benefit-corporation-163634265.html?src=rss
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The recent rollout of iOS 18.2 finally brings many of the promised Apple Intelligence features, like Genmoji and Image Playground. One such long-awaited tool is Visual Intelligence, a feature currently reserved for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max that was first introduced at the companys September event. What is Visual Intelligence? Visual Intelligence is Apples answer to Google Lens. It leverages the camera system and AI to analyze images in real-time and provide useful information. This can help people learn more about the world around them and is particularly handy for shopping, looking up details about a restaurant or business, translating written text, summarizing text or having something read aloud. It can also integrate with Google Image Search and ChatGPT. Are there any caveats? There are two caveats. The Apple Intelligence rollout has been something of a convoluted mess, and this trend continues with Visual Intelligence. For now, the tools only work with the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, which are the beefiest of the companys recent handsets. Apple has indicated that the feature could eventually become available for older models. Google Lens, after all, has been around since 2017, which was when the Pixel 2 was the hottest handset on the block. Theres also a wait list, which is true of all Apple Intelligence features. To join the list, head to settings and look for Apple Intelligence & Siri. Then click on Join Waitlist. Once approved, the software will be ready to use. How to use Visual Intelligence As of this writing, the only way to launch Visual Intelligence is to long-press the Camera Control button. Thats the new control interface on the bottom right side of the handset. Once pressed, the Visual Intelligence interface will open up. Apple Now the fun begins. Just point your phone at something and select ChatGPT, via the bottom left icon, or Google Image Search, via the bottom right icon. Alternatively, if the visual field includes text, tap the circle at the bottom of the screen. The phone can also be pointed at a business to obtain useful information. How to interact with text Hover the phone in front of the text, activate Visual Intelligence and tap the circle at the bottom of the screen. This will analyze the text. Once analyzed, there are a few options. Tap Translate at the bottom of the screen to translate the text into another language. Tap Read Aloud if you want the text to be read aloud by Siri. Tap Summarize for a quick summary of the copy. The tool will also identify contact information in the text, like phone numbers, email addresses and websites. Users can take action depending on the type of text. For instance, tap on the phone number to give it a ring. Other actions include starting an email, creating a calendar event or heading to a website. Tap the More button to see all of the available options. Tap Close or swipe up to end the session. How to interact with a business Visual Intelligence can provide details about a business thats directly in front of you. Just open up the tool and point the camera in front of the signage. The name of the business should appear at the top of the screen. Tap Schedule to see the hours of operation or tap Order to buy something. View the menu or available services by tapping Menu and make a reservation by touching Reservation. To call the business, read reviews or view the website, tap More. Swipe up or tap Close to end the session. This feature is currently only available to US customers. What to do with ChatGPT Start by pointing the camera at an object. Activate Visual Intelligence and tap the ChatGPT icon on the bottom left side of the screen. Tap the Ask button for information about the object. We used it on a bottle of hand cream, which it properly identified. After that, a text field will appear for follow-up questions. Users can ask whatever they want, but results may vary. We asked ChatGPT where to buy the hand cream and how much it costs. It performed admirably at this task. Yay shopping. Engadget/Cherlynn Low Tap the "Close" button or swipe up to remove all fields, which will also shut down Visual Intelligence. What to do with Google Image Search Choosing Google Image Search will bring up a Safari dialog box that contains similar photos pulled from the web. A good use case here is finding deals. We took a photo of a bottle of hand cream and the Safari results had plenty of different price points to choose from. However, users have to find the best deal and complete a purchase on their own. Engadget/Cherlynn Low Tap the "Close" button to eliminate these results and then swipe up from the bottom of the screen to shut down the tool.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/how-to-use-visual-intelligence-apples-take-on-google-lens-150039141.html?src=rss
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