I don't connect my smart TVs to the internet at all (not even for software/firmware updates)
I do all my streaming through a Roku. (no camera and I don't use the voice function).
so far this has worked out fine for me. But if they start requiring you to connect to the internet to "activate" your TV (or Roku) or keep it connected so it will work, I will probably go to a monitor solution.
I'm not worried about my Roku listening to me. I am more concerned about my smartphone listening to me.

Anything I feed into an AI/LLM I wouldn't count on being 'private' or 'owned'.
Ever

It was after all the half life 2 source code was stolen that they came up with Steam. (idk if it was already a work in progress or not). But imho hackers sort of made Steam a necessity if Valve wanted to make money off of HL2 and all the effort that went into it.
I'm not a big fan of DRM, but I get why the companies have done it. Because there are plenty of people who want to enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor and not pay a penny for it.
I don't like when when I can't make backups of my audio/video/game disks (for my own use, in case of disk failure) and have to buy another one. Or when the DRM requires an internet connection every time I start it up.

What usually happens is something new and hot comes out and everyone things it will solve all society's ill and and bring world peace. So everyone jumps on board.
After a while, when it becomes clear to most what this new thing is actually capable of and where it is actually useful, then most people jump off it onto the next new shiny thing.
examples include bluetooth, agile, self-driving cars, EVs

Would it be fair to say that in all the LLMs the AI is just tallying up all the connections and patterns it sees without really "understanding" the data?
And that the answers it gives are from a best match pattern search?
imho the AI won't ever achieve the ability to reason. (Not saying AI doesn't have good uses)

IBM workforce world wide is almost 300,000. so a 'few percent' is still thousands of jobs. IBM has a history of 'rebalancing' their workforces and businesses, and they often have stealth layoffs. I used to work there so I've seen it.. Most of the time it doesn't make the news.

Do you really believe that sulfur will stay in the stratosphere and not eventually drift down and cause acid rain?

Windows 11 - crap
Windows 10 - ok
Window 8 - crap
Windows 7 - ok
Windows Vista - crap
Windows XP - ok
Windows ME - crap

Wait for Windows 12

I'm a contractor on about the 4th cloud migration project for a worldwide organization. I'm not an expert on the cloud, but here's my two cents.
As usual, the migration I'm part of is just a 'lift and shift' operation (meaning they want the cloud to run just like their data center). They are following the IaaS model.
On one hand, it makes sense for a world-wide organization to use the cloud for the availability and redundancy. On the other hand, just lift and shift is the easiest going to be the most expensive, (easy=expensive).. The real cost savings, if they are to be had, would be to refactor the databases, webservers, and so on to take advantage of the cloud infrastructure, depending on whether you want IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS. Only with SaaS could you get away with a minimal IT staff and IaaS would need much more staff. Maybe using the cloud native databases or serverless would work better and cost less overall than IaaS and your IT staff still running 'classic' databases and webservers. Or what about containers?
Lift and Shift might be a good way to start to keep your company running, but then there needs to be the effort (and budget) to refactor your code and data to take advantage of the cloud based on how you want to run it.
Like I said, not an expert but learning. Every time I read a story like this, I am left with a feeling of 'they' haven't really explored how to best use the cloud. The project I am currently on is the third one to go to AWS. In studying up on AWS they have many tools to track your usage and billing, and many tools to estimate your costs. And there are caveats on which storage you use and how you want to move your data around and what that will cost.
I would like to see some case studies by people who are familiar with what it takes to operate an on-premises set-up versus and properly configured cloud setup. Such a case study would hopefully give metrics on what it costs and how much effort to refactor existing code into a cloud project that maximizes efficiency/cost savings (for a true comparison, rather everyone jumping on the latest hotness and then jumping off six months later after their half-assed effort didn't work out)

Why not have fake AI to stack on top of all the other fakery that's going on.

Fake News
Fake Facts
Fake Polls
Fake Studies
Fake Experts
Fake Scientists
Fake Lawyers
and now for something almost completely different
Fake AI

DISCLAIMER: This post was written by AI (or was it?)

What you will often hear from management is: "if it ain't broke, don't update it"
This depends on how much is changed in the new version, and whether there is major work to accommodate the new version or not.
It also depends on if the formerly free version isn't free anymore.
Like EPPlus. Where I work we use the last free version of EPPlus all over the place, and there is no budget for a newer, licensed version, not to mention how much effort it might take to update our code to the new version. And that won't change unless the free version EPPlus is no longer available or doesn't work any more due to other code changes.
We also use dotnet 4.7.2 framework, and will probably stay on that till the end of time unless/until it stops working or management approves the budget to refactor our code into some version of dotnet core.

Aren't we there already? The last time I bought a physical media game was years ago.
While I have 'bought' games on Steam, I don't have the physical media. So at any time Steam could yank it like any of the 'bought; shows on video streaming services.

Working on another project destined for the "cloud". My dept head challenged everyone to get an aws cloud professional certification. cloud professional is all about the myriad of services aws offers and the myriad of tools to help you migrate to the cloud, manage what services you have selected in the cloud, and what tools there are to figure out what you need and what it will cost.
While certs have a limited amount of actual usefulness outside of stuffing your resume, they do a service in that you have to spend some time becoming familiar with the subject of the certification.
In studying for the aws cp exam, I have been rather impressed (or as much as I can be without actually having to use it) with what aws has available and the breadth of offering and tools.
imho the problem isn't the aws cloud, but the people who didn't know how to use it. There are plenty of tools and documentation to help you figure out what the best fit of cloud services for you. Plenty of tools and documentation to help you project your needs and bills and plenty to help you. once you are setup to monitor what you are using and tools to analyze your bills. and so on.
It would be helpful if someone out there has had actual experience with trusted advisor, cost explorer, migration services, and too many other tools to mention, and can tell us how well the tools work or how good the documentation.

Like it has been caught making up court cases when asked for legal briefs? The latest is the lawyers for Michael Cohen.

When they were training up ChatGPT, did they teach to tell what is fiction? imho the fake cases cited were from tv/movie scripts they fed it.

And then wondering why morale tanks and company loyalty disappears. Especially with more possible layoffs.

Duh

Was involved in a 'merger' years ago (another company bought us out) and I remember all the meetings to smooth our ruffled feathers.
The most memorable line from my company's HR guy, who I thought was an honest, standup guy, was 'the truth is a moving target'.
yay