Thread by @KrisAtLarge

the unseemly rush to shove @sama / @OpenAI / #ChatGPT "artificial general intelligence" into all our products—whether we want #AGI or not, but capitalists don't really care about our desires, only *their* desires—is put into some perspective: it's rebound from @Meta.

(1/x)

with its uncanny instinct for choosing only *stale* ideas to monetize, the #technology / #programming industry decided—for a while—that the next big high-tech thing that EVERYBODY would be forced to love would be "the #metaverse", which already exists in video games.

(2/x)

it also exists in @SecondLife, and in @nealstephenson and who knows how much other science fiction. people have been running around in computer-animated "avatars", of varying degrees of complexity and detail, for decades. @Meta and #MarkZuckerberg were wheel-reinventing.

(3/x)

but Zuckerberg was undoubtedly applying the same logic that Lee Iacocca applied to @Chrysler and which Steve Jobs impressed upon @Apple. Chrysler didn't invent cars; Steve Jobs didn't invent MP3 players or smart phones. but that didn't matter—only the *image* mattered.

(4/x)

@elonmusk (even though he's a ludicrous joke compared to Iacocca or Jobs) benefits from the same rock-star image. @Tesla didn't invent #ElectricVehicles; @SpaceX didn't invent rocketry. but what matters most is the _rock star_ made them and sold them: the "genius" #CEO.

(5/x)

it's honestly kind of hilarious to think that #MarkZuckerberg and @facebook / @Meta thought they could bank on something similar—there was nothing special about their 3D-avatar thingummy, but they thought that the #Facebook name would carry the project through.

(6/x)

which is *silly* because @facebook is like @Microsoft and @Windows: it's something you use because you're mostly FORCED to use it. it's the thing that's on all the school computers, it's what's in all the workplaces. you don't use Facebook or Windows because you LIKE them.

(7/x)

Windows has zero rock-star appeal (remember Steve Ballmer though? he did try). Facebook was not better off. #MarkZuckerberg is positively fishlike in personal aspect; @facebook / @Meta exists because Zuckerberg did crimes. there was little hope for its #metaverse squib.

(8/x)

you can see why @sama's sort of thingummy won out in the race to some sort of useless but salable "killer app". #capitalism loves "killer apps", whether or not the idea is any good—cf. @elonmusk's fixation on the "X App". #ChatGPT is like a magic glue or fix-it product.

(9/x)

the #metaverse was a big heavy-duty graphical thing, hard to get into, hard to sell—rather like an #MMO that never many customers. (see what I mean about @Meta not really doing anything new?)

but @sama's all-in-one #AGI stuff? use it to patch ANY hole in your enterprise!

(10/x)

it was a far more *salable* idea that made much bigger promises—especially because @sama and the @OpenAI boys, in common with much of the elite #programming set (and the #business and #investment people who gamble on them), think they've created life or something.

(11/x)

I daresay that @sama's purported beliefs about the intelligence of his creations wouldn't prevent him from pulling the plug arbitrarily—after all, Sam Altman IS extremely racist and bigoted, and therefore has no reliable respect for life. except maybe his own.

(12/x)

(I'm not even sure @sama respects @jaltma's life so very much—bigots tend to keep their eyes on the main chance, if you know what I mean. their loyalties are of the tidal kind...they come and go.)

~Chara of Pnictogen