I think they mean the licensing is "all digital." Just an entitlement associated with your account on their servers.

I agree, that's what I initially thought as well. A backdoor is supposed to be a built-in feature, possibly covertly added, but a designed-in part of the software nevertheless. This sounds more like a particulary sneaky remote access trojan.

You have to wonder though, if it is behind a NAT and Firewall like most PCs, how does it receive the magic packet if it doesn't phone home? It must be designed to be used against a specially targeted victim.

I think the point is that if a math teacher can use AI to write a paper and thereby elevating their skills without any investment, then why can't a dumb student use AI to do the same? Eventually we'll all be dumb as rocks and require an AI to do basic thinking so we can get back to the important things, like masturbating and watching tv. It's kind of a moot point, really, because convenience always wins out in the end.

What sides? Fair and reasonable discourse is impossible on these platforms. There's only the side of those who control the algorithms, and the suckers who engage with them.

You're right, it's a constant, soul-sucking trap. People joke that they thought quicksand would be larger factor in their lives, but this is figuratively mental quicksand. The more you fight it, the more you get sucked in. The only way to win is not to play. Close the app and come back in 20 minutes... or not at all.

No, cars don't all have to be made to fail. I got lucky and bought a car with a rock-solid powertrain, never had any issues in 16 years, but unfortunately it's the rust that gets to it in the end. I think it's time to retire it this year.

Funny, though, it seems like modern cars need 10x more maintenance than my "old clunker" ever did.

What do you mean, a search task? I just pop the CD in, and it plays. I mean yeah, sometimes I have to flip through my CD organizer at a stop light, but it doesn't take more than a few seconds.

This is a sign that there are way too many middle-management types whose only contribution can be pointless cosmetic changes.

"Can we get it in cornflower blue?"

Kids are so lazy these days. Back in my day, if I was trying to plagiarize a paper I found on the Internet and pass it off as my own, I would at least go through the effort of restructuring it a bit before submitting it. You don't need to bother trying to have an original thought, but show a little bit of effort and rearrange some sentences, maybe throw in some synonyms, switch up some grammar. Maybe add some commas where they shouldn't be to throw them off even more. Glad to see that at least some skill is coming back to the art of plagiarism.

This reminds me of the Simpsons Season 8 Episode 23 - "Homer's Enemy"

Homer enters a children's contest to design a new model power plant. Before the contest, Mr. Burns' makes a introductory speech that is is similarly out of touch:

It baffles me that these AI Tech Bros keep saying the same thing in the same tone, and then being surprised that nobody likes it.

Ironically, Homer wins the contest because he built a model power plant exactly the same as the one that existed today, only with some cheap bolt-on cosmetic "improvements."

Yes, animals still exist, despite our best efforts.

I remember my old flip phone from 2008 had a mandatory shutter sound when taking a photo. It couldn't be disabled. However, you could replace the sound with a custom wav file... so I uploaded an empty file and voila, no shutter sound. These things have always been trivial to bypass.

The main difference here, though, is that the QUALITY of the footage has increased dramatically... pair that with ultrasonic or even radar scanning, you're literally getting high-resolution 3d scans of yourself taken without you're consent. Every phone is just bristling with hostile sensors that are constantly recording. That's something new, at least.

Yeah so what? This is trivial to do. I'm actually surprised anyone noticed.

ALL WILL BE CLEANSED.

Does anyone else find these things creepy and intrusive? For a small convenience you're surrendering information about the whereabouts of yourself and your possessions to whomever randomly happens to be nearby, while also allowing Apple or Google to use your personal devices to track others... just so you don't have to look up from your phone to find your keys?