I don't think that's the problem at all. The problem only ones doing the consolidating are the dinosaurs scooping up other dinosaurs. It's big studios trading on past successes. The people who made the games you love and remember them for are likely long gone. The one big dev team will make one game that loses out to a smaller indie game that's actually fun to play. It's never been easier for anyone to publish their own games and the most talented developers are making their own games or forming small studios instead of joining the corporate giants. Why would any creative want to work for some company like EA or Activision to churn out the next yearly slop entry when they can do whatever they want, self-publish and sell through Steam, and reap the rewards if they make a hit game? Do all of that and make a good bit of money and if it isn't enough then you can always sellout to one dinosaurs trying to cling on and remain relevant for an even bigger bit of money.

Even without AI these companies would still be lying off a lot of employees. The big studios that used to be able to sell 10 million copies are now struggling to see half that number and cannot support the large teams that they amassed. It doesn't matter if they die because there are plenty of small studios or independent developers making better games. They may not have the flashiest graphics or the tie-in to some recognizable mainstream IP, but they're actually fun to play unlike Yearly Sportsball 2026, Awful Film Tie-In Action Game, Derivative Arena Shooter, or Milked Franchise Cash-cow XIV.

AI isn't going to fix anything for this studios either. Maybe they can get an LLM to crank out uninspired shit for less money than it would take for a human to do the same, but no one is going to buy that either.

The government could stay out of it entirely and not spend any of the taxpayers money on this sort of useless crap. If people feel they need to train to use AI they can decide to spend their own money (which they'll have more of because the government didn't take it from them in the first place) and companies that want to offer services that people consider worth buying.

Instead we get government paying for a crap product or more often a crap product being sold by someone they're old chums with with no real concern for the quality because it's not their money and they're not using it themselves. Then when it ends up failing the government concludes that clearly they didn't spend enough so the people had better fork over even more of their money.

I suspect that if left to the individual, there may be about $50 spent on these AI training services. That should tell you exactly how much they're really worth.

Markets don't make people anything. They are merely an efficient means for delivering what people actually want. If the people are not moral then they will create black markets dealing in illegal goods or services.

I find it completely unsurprising that people of the time wanted more access to the outside world. Even if things were good for them, the grass always seems a little greener on the other side. There are billions of people on the planet. The likelihood that your best possible partner lives within a few miles of where you were born is statistically unlikely even given most people's in-group preferences.

Better transportation networks merely enabled people to do what they already wanted to do but previously couldn't afford to due to prohibitive costs. People becoming more accepting of outsiders as they are exposed to them at a higher rate is hardly surprising either.

My takeaway is that my phone apparently had a useful feature that I wasn't aware of. I don't know why rich and powerful people would be calling me, but if they can leave their name and reason for calling I'll be sure to get back to them instead of completely ignoring the unknown call.

If they're so rich and powerful in the first place why are they calling anyone? Shouldn't they have servants for something like that?

In a democracy the people get the government they deserve.

If the American people have a ruling class it's only because they continue to vote for them.

They also forced some of us to stop being their customers. A lot of businesses are perfectly fine with employees running Linux these days. Apple selling $500 Mac Minis also make it very easy for people to drop Windows entirely even if they still need Office. I've still got one (well two if you want to count an old laptop that hasn't been turned on in over a year) Windows machine at home, but it's never getting upgraded and I will not replace it with a new Windows box. If prices ever settle down and I build a new gaming rig, I can just throw SteamOS on it. Ditching Windows is easier than ever and Microsoft is giving people every reason to find alternatives.

Microsoft's problems have nothing to do with antitrust laws. The fact that they're doing so poorly suggests that no action on the part of the government is needed or that buying development studios up for exclusivity on their Xbox platform did not benefit Microsoft at all. Their failings are because of idiotic management trying to force a business model onto customers that the customers don't want. Perhaps they would have been more successful if they had more games people wanted to play, but they don't. Forcing Bethesda to sell games on Sony consoles won't make those games more desirable. The studios Microsoft bought are only valuable for their IP, but have become too bloated or otherwise incapable of making good games that will entice people to buy in to Xbox.

Competition will come naturally as the big studios flounder. Smaller studios or independent developers will fill the void left by the dinosaurs of the industry dying off. The game that won GotY at the game awards last year was made by a small team of ex-Ubisoft developers. A few dozen capable developers made a massive hit when teams ten times larger at Ubisoft churn out more crap that no one wants. No amount of regulation you propose can solve problems caused by stupid managers at Microsoft or these game studios. That both took big payouts from Microsoft should tell you that they knew they were in trouble and wanted a big payday before shit hit the fan. Microsoft was foolish enough to oblige them.

The best month for music was just about any month in the mid to late 60's. Even people who weren't alive at the time tend to agree once they listen to what was being released back then.

An old man is getting his yearly checkup when the doctor comes in. "I've got some bad news and some really bad news," the doctor says. "Which do you want first?"

Thinking there's no point in avoiding it the man asks for the really bad news. "You've got cancer," the doctor says, "and it's at an advanced stage and you likely only have a few months to live. It's unlikely that there's anything we can do for you."

The old man sits and thinks quietly for a moment and asks, "What about the bad news?"

"Well," replies the doctor, "you've got Alzheimer's and you're going to gradually lose your memory and cognitive function over the next five to ten years before it becomes terminal. There's no cure for it, but there are treatment options that can make it more manageable."

"Well it could be worse," the old man replies, "I suppose could have cancer or something like that."

Does anyone actually take the seriously anymore anyway? I can't think of any Slashdot article mentioning them where someone hasn't pointed out how idiotic and irrelevant they are.

The only reason I can even think of for them to still exist is to use their non-profit status as a way to personally enrich themselves. This isn't anywhere near as scummy as the cancer organizations that exist mostly just to market for more donations and barely spend anything on cancer research or patients, but next to no one is basing their decisions around these nutters and their clock.

I think the surprise is at the number more than anything. Any large company does those things, but the idea that it needs 5,000 people to do them is what seems incredulous. I suspect that if you asked most people how many employees Pinterest has that most would guess a few hundred. I think they have a lot of deadweight and this is them trimming. They may not even need to replace these people with AI to see productivity gains, but that sounds better to shareholders than admitting they were paying hundreds of people who did nothing useful.

I wouldn’t want anyone to pick my produce other than me. A store employee is incentivized to get rid of the worst of the lot that no one in store would choose themselves unless that was the last of it available, and maybe not even then.

Amazon's idea is reasonable, but the technology isn't there yet so the implementation doesn't come close to what was envisioned. The idea of a grocery store where you don't have to stand in line is one that most consumers want, but until it just works no one wants to be a beta tester and deal with a different set of problems.

I have an LG TV that's a few years old and have had no problems with it. It's the best TV I've owned. I can't speak to the software as I don't use any of it as I just want a dumb screen that displays whatever I plug into it. I haven't had any problems with the UI ever feeling sluggish, but I did by a (for its time) higher end model so it may be more capable than some of their other models in that regard.

Is even argue that WebOS is better than most alternatives. It was a shame that Palm was so late to the game with it as it had a lot of aspects that were better than what Android or iOS had at the time. They nailed multitasking when both Apple and Google were still struggling with it.

I suspect that AI generated voices will soon replace human voice actors. In part because it's easier for developers to tweak things without having to go and re-record voice lines, but also because audio actually eats up a lot of disk space when there's a lot of it. Fully voice acted games could take up hundreds of gigabytes for dialogue or narrative heavy stories. Games like The Elder Scrolls Oblivion were designed around what could fit on a DVD because it had to ship on consoles. These days those restrictions don't exist to the same extent, but that's also a part of why game sizes have ballooned so much.

Having some kind of AI that runs locally and can reproduce voice from text is going to be the future. Initially it will be mostly used for random NPCs or more mundane things like asking for directions while the important story characters still use voice actors or famous actors, but as the technology improves it will be used everywhere in any games that are really just novels disguised as games. It's an even better fit when you consider than another AI could be generating some of the text that the other program voices. I think we're still maybe a decade away from something like that, but that's where the puck is headed.