I have Apple Music and it's FINE, but I'm annoyed at how often I have to authenticate myself for my own goddamn music. Now, a lot of the music is stuff that I already own that I've uploaded to Apple to match for me, but I want to be able to say that I own my music, that I can take my ball and leave any time I want.

The main reason I still use Apple Music/iTunes is that there is STILL no music player with smart playlists as good. I still have playlists that are things like, "select 25 songs by least recently played from the compound list of other playlists that are selected by rating and play frequency". I've looked, and nothing else is remotely as powerful. But I want to be in control of that music so if one day I decide I'm gonna put it on an SD card and just play music only on a physical device hooked up to speakers and never use my phone again or whatever, I have that option.

And I love some of the artists whose albums are in my library as streaming only. I want them to get paid for the amount of enjoyment I derive, and I know that streaming rates are absolute garbage. Return me to the days of the iTunes Music Store and CD Baby and Bandcamp. (I still buy from Bandcamp quite a lot. More this year.)

It wouldn't be news if you looked at their terms of service -- which you should. The ToS explicitly say they use a combination of automated systems, human review, and reports to identify and investigate violations of their usage terms, including violence, abuse, fraud, impersonation, disinformation, foreign influence campaigns , abusive sexual content, and academic dishonesty. This includes "anonymous" sessions that are saved for a minimum of 30 days. You have no expectation of privacy from the provider's compliance teams.

This is *absolutely* standard among the major online players. So why not use a local AI workstation with a couple of big-ass GPU cards in it to run the campaign? That's what they *should* have done. But the major online players like ChatGPT and Claude are much better at realistic content generation than the widely available local models you can run.

What they should have done is design and run the compaign on a local AI workstation, and used the local workstation to generate prompts they could feed into burner accounts on public services like ChatGPT and Claude. But they got lazy and ran the *whole* operation in ChatGPT, right in plain fiew of the OpenAI compliance teams the ToS they evidently didn't read would have told them were there. They even did *performance reviews* in the same account.

Remember folks, these "spooks" are just mid-level paper-pushers in an opaque communist bureacuracy. You can never discount inertia in such an environment. Because this was something new, they might even have had trouble getting the purchase of some high end GPUs approved.

ChatGPT belongs to a US company, right?

Then why the holy fuck are we allowing the Chinese to use our advanced shit like this?

They should be barred from our AI....barred from our social media, etc.

Is this not common sense?

Once they mandate intrusion into the OS you install for age....they'll next want it to make sure no nasty files for 3D printing firearms is present.....etc.

that calls women they disagree with fat and ugly

I think people calling some women "fat and ugly"...is because they are, well.....fat and ugly.

9 times outta 10 they also have blue or purple/reddish dyed hair so where on the troll doll spectrum...septum rings...etc.

They're really pretty easy to spot (and hear...as that they are almost always shrieking or crying in front of a camera phone).

Who's faking?

I worked food service, bartending, retail sales, etc all through High School through Grad school....

I schmoozed a ton of money in tips....being happy, attentive, friendly and doing my best to give good service.

Not everyone is a grouch and non-social.....

Those jobs really set up up with people skills that I later VERY MUCH profited from in real jobs....especially getting up in front of people.

In the tech industry especially.....minds MUCH better and smarter than I were just too afraid to talk in front of people..I took advantage of this and excelled in position and money while smarter people stayed closer to the bottom.

People skills are important....and jobs as a youngster dealing with the public help...I feel they should be mandatory.....

It's a non-problem. Make them take an in-person conversational exam for 100% with the TA at the end of the semester. If they fail, they don't graduate.

Thank you....this was my line of thought too.

I know it has been a LONG time since I was last in school....but today is ALL test taking, essay writing, etc done online?

It seems a quick way to by pass AI taking the tests would be to make sure and do the old fashioned way of tests....having the students take hand written answers on physical test paper sheets....where you show your work, write your essays, etc in real time.

Do they not do this in any more at schools anymore?

Learning anything is really not the primary reason reason for education anymore

I ;guess it depends on your field of study.

If you're studying the effects of gender studies on underwater basket weaving....sure, let AI do all the "learning" for you.

But, if you're a physicist, or say a structural engineer designing oil platforms at sea, you might need to actually learn something.

Thanks for the reply.

Well, good luck to ya.....thankfully it's a big world and we have choices like this.

Personally, I couldn't do it....I enjoy all I can do in the US waaaay too much.

Just curious, what state are you in? Have you been there all your life?

Have you visited other states in the US that might fit your needs more closely? It's such a large country I have a hard time believing someone couldn't find terrain, climate and people that fit their preferences somewhere in the US.

Anyway, if you don't reply....again, good luck.

My God... Just let Ai do the talking if you want that much control. Personally? Every Wednesday, I eat out at noon in the same place. The owner is a grumpy old man. Serves the food himself. No "thank you", he is polite, but uses as few words as possible and will not fake a smile. He is real. It is one of the reasons I eat out there. No nonsense. We know each other now. I no longer talk to the guy. I just point to the menu. I used to wink at him when I started doing that. He smiled. What a contrast with the US... waitresses are so annoying there. I usually explain them that I am from Europe and will tip generously if they let me be. It is a bit uneasy for them at first, until they get the tip.

So...being from Europe, you say ya'll don't believe in just being friendly to your fellow humans you cross paths with daily, no need to smile or show common courtesy?

Just going through life not interacting and enjoying live and fellow people sounds like a sad and wasted life.....

When out and about I'm constantly meeting new people....and at times it has later meant money in my pocket with new found business opportunities, etc.....or just a new friend and I feel you can never have too many of those.

...hey if BK is going to start coaching customer politeness skills they might as well do it properly.

No Problem does NOT equal You're Welcome.

That one drive me up the wall.....

I'm a little against the actual tool, HOWEVER I'm in favor of almost any way to get society to largely start using common courtesy again....starting with Thank you and You're Welcome.

Basic basic stuff that somehow disappeared I dunno how long ago.

So with all the opportunity the US has obviously given you....what is making you want to move away forever so badly?

Genuinely curious.....

I've been out of the US to Europe, etc....fun to visit but I could never see myself living away from the US for any extended period of time....just seems too 'primitive" over there....trying to ice in a drink seems like pulling teeth, you know...little things like that just add up over awhile.

And I just can't see liquidating my gun collection.....whew....that would take forever and a good number of of those are collectors items....

Snowbirds also are VERY BIG in Arizona too.....

I lived in AZ a year and it almost took that full year to actuallly meet an AZ native....seemed everyone was from somewhere in the NE of the US back then.

Hey....to all the Rosie O'Donnels, and Ellen D's and their ilk....I say good riddance.

And also to idiots like this:

US Chick leaves for Canada and seems shocked prices are higher up there and that they don't let foreigners work nor have their free healthcare....

Between libs and extremists like these leaving....and libs actively NOT reproducing, in a few years, we'll be rid of the problems and the US can hopefully, revert back more to what normal life was even only 15 or so years ago....ok maybe 25 years.

But sure....leave, see how the world welcomes you....don't let the door hit you on your ass on the way out.

Abortion: It was supported by Roe v. Wade. Well SCOTUS revisited the ruling and look what happened. If the political left wanted abortion to be solidly legal, it should have been codified into law.

The Roe decision (even though I liked it) was based on shaky ground to begin with....even Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated as such, and she even thought it would be rolled back if challenged properly.