371
Microsoft’s AI chatbot will ‘recall’ everything you do on its new PCs | The Guardian
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 21 May 2024
371 points (99.5% liked)
Privacy
37806 readers
432 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
I hate this but I also get it.
A little while ago on the TWIT podcast one of the guests, or maybe Leo himself, was talking about how this is exactly what they want out of AI, for it to be able to know how they use their computer and just streamline everything. Some people are really excited about the possibilities, and yeah, the AI needs to track whatever you're doing to know how to help you with your work flow.
That said, I don't want Microsoft keeping track of everything I'm doing. They've already shown that they're willing to sell our data and shove ads down our throats, so as much as they say we can filter out what we don't want tracked, I'm not inclined to trust or believe them.
I'm honestly kinda excited about the possibilities in the greater scheme of things, but the fact that Microsoft will pretty much record whatever people are doing on their systems is just nuts nd slightly terifying. This is something that should ideally be done locally, without big corporations looking in - but that's for sure not what they are doing.
I mean this data will most likely be more useful for surveillance/ads than for AI. Nowadays with AI they can make it look like they are only a couple steps away from a very intelligent personal assistant and therefore make it seem more plausible that they need your data to make that leap. But in reality I feel like it is not the level of AI that could leverage personalization, at least not in the context of personal assistance. In the context of behavioural mapping it is of course a super lucrative deal for them. There are already very useful tons of AI stuff that they can add which does not require personal behaviour info (at least not to this generality) and yet they don't seem to spend as much effort into those and instead they are like "we need all your info stored somewhere for this very super (and mandatory) AI search assistant". Big red flag.
Yeah, maybe some kind of situation where you turn it on for "training time" with access to only specified files and systems on the computer, no internet access, etc. At the same time though, I wonder how much an AI could really streamline things. Would it just pre-load my frequent files and programs? Make suggestions or reminders on tasks? I don't think we're anywhere near the level where it could actually be doing work for me yet.
Interesting possibilities, but I'm not sure how useful yet.
I've spent a lot of time with offline open source AI running on my computer. About the only thing it can't infer off of interactions is your body language. This is the most invasive way anyone could ever know another person. The way a persons profile is built across the context dialogue, it can create statistical relationships that would make no sense to a human but these are far higher than a 50% probability. This information is the key to making people easily manipulated in an information bubble. Sharing that kind of information is as stupid as streaking the Superbowl. There will be consequences that come after and they won't be pretty. This isn't data collection, it is the keys to how a person thinks, and on a level better than their own self awareness.
load more comments
(12 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Ffs. Don't you collect enough data from your users you greedy fucks?
If people actively pay for this, they are bloody idiots.
Well...guess there's going to be loads of people paying for this then.....
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(6 replies)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The software giant on Monday revealed an upgraded version of Copilot, its AI assistant, as it confronts heightened competition from big tech rivals in pitching generative AI technology that can compose documents, make images and serve as a lifelike personal assistant at work or home.
The new features will include Windows Recall, enabling the AI assistant to “access virtually what you have seen or done on your PC in a way that feels like having photographic memory”.
Google rolled out a retooled search engine that periodically puts AI-generated summaries over website links at the top of the results page; while also showing off a still-in-development AI assistant Astra that will be able to “see” and converse about things shown through a smartphone’s camera lens.
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI unveiled a new version of its chatbot last week, demonstrating an AI voice assistant with human characteristics that can banter about what someone’s wearing and even attempt to assess a person’s emotions.
Though Microsoft has invested billions in OpenAI, the startup also rolled out a new desktop version of ChatGPT designed for Apple’s Mac computers.
The Apple CEO Tim Cook signaled at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in February that it has been making big investments in generative AI.
The original article contains 419 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 51%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!