That would add the requirement for the central repository as infrastructure which is probably not worth it bandwidth/storage-wise when so many gaming PCs are likely to be online at any time, but the possibility of a malware vector (or some kind of sabotage, maybe people would try to DoS a game by sharing corrupted compiled shaders as a form of protest) is worth considering with or without it.

BOINC protects against errors or sabotage in their distributed computing system by having 2 random different users both run the same task and ensuring that the results from both match before accepting the result. This requires centralized infrastructure, but a duplicated work verification system like this could work. Imagine the centralized system acts as a trusted private torrent tracker, only verifying a shader and making it publicly accessible once multiple uploads match. That would make uploading invalid shaders almost impossible since a group would need to conspire to do it with exclusive earliest-possible access to the game/driver/hardware combo.

Those aren't reasons for everyone to be compiling on their own. In a BitTorrent-like system nobody would be "keeping" shaders they aren't using, just sharing shaders they've compiled because they're using them. If nobody's ever done it before for the hardware/driver combination then you fall back to compilation and then share your results so others can benefit and the same work doesn't have to be done again.

Plus most users are probably on one of the latest driver versions so there would be far more hardware than driver variation.

Just like how WaPo eventually went from an assurance that nothing would change to blocking an endorsement of Kamala Harris to no longer publishing any opinions that were insufficiently pro-"free market" for Bezos' taste:

https://www.ms.now/opinion/msn...

On a related note I thought the idea of an IT staffer having time to play CoD at work was a laughably retro idea. In the post-pandemic era anyone who still has an IT job is being worked to the bone.

Yep, The Island and Altered Carbon (also an excellent TV series) were the first two works of sci-fi that came to mind, but Altered Carbon is a much closer match where the clones were brainless vs. The Island (if I say any more it'd be a major spoiler for sure, even mentioning that it contains the concept is a bit of a spoiler).

Probably humanoid robots, it's already happening in China:

https://jingdaily.com/posts/ch...

A bunch of stock-trading bots and quick-fingered suits probably just flinched and dumped a couple hundred billion into ARM stock though. See also: the company formerly known as Long Island Iced Tea.

BTW it turns out that DLSS5 isn't working with any texture properties/layers or geometry meshes, it's taking finished frames with motion data and hitting it with a slop filter, which is why it adds hair to one side of a guy's head where it wasn't before and makes a nostril look oddly huge when a shadow makes it hard to see where it ends:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

The AI data centers mostly run on natural gas burned in on-site turbines, this could hasten the AI bubble popping.

Or build more solar + wind with storage so that we could almost be powered by moonbeams and unicorn farts and not have to wait decades for a nuclear plant to finish construction or pretend that producing a little more oil locally would meaningfully affect global prices.

Please don't, Microsoft, you're enabling a golden age of Linux adoption! Win11 needs more slop, THE INVESTORS COMMAND YOU!

If it's cranking up the bump/AO maps to the point where it appears to any layman, or even a person with texture modding experience such as myself, that the characters are getting face-swapped with AI-inspired replacements, wouldn't you say that's too aggressive an enhancement and should be dialed back massively?

I'm pretty sure the legal definition of treason in the US is something about giving aid and comfort to an enemy in war and doesn't include defying the constitution.

Their mistake is that they think letting a Chinese commercial app spy on them will cause that info to be kept to the Chinese government rather than sold on the open market where the US government can get it too.

Sure and we'll solve all labor issues by just having people quit jobs with bad working conditions, solve car safety by having people just not buy cars that aren't safe enough in crashes, water safety by having everyone boil and filter their own water, and food safety by having everyone conduct their own restaurant inspections. All people have the resources and education to take part in these highly practical and efficient solutions.