Forced to use AI at work, hate it.
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Forced to use AI at work, hate it. Usage is monitored so I can't avoid it. I've set up mine to play a Sim City clone. It burns through tokens, making crap cities that quickly go bankrupt. Just been told that I'm getting a bonus for being a top user.
Raises the question. Is there any good way to use AI? Is there a way to invert it and turn it on itself, to use AI to destroy AI, to sabotage any ill it is designed to inflict, to undo or replace its propaganda effect, to use it to release the Epstein files?
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@dalias @fesshole that's a myopic way to look at it. Most likely the employer doesn't care enough about you to want to deskill you by exposing you to "cognitoharazds". They're following hype and/or they're misguided. I'd be tempted to say they don't even have a strategy around the use of llms, but that's just speculation. So you're not really sabotaging the company by burning tokens. What you're doing is moral posturing that makes you feel better about yourself because you're the main character in your story and you're sticking it to the man. But that's a pointless exercise that only ends up sabotaging the cause you're supposedly fighting for (taking down capitalism, llm hype, late stage capitalism death cult). By silently complying, and using the tokens you're just bolstering their policy.
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@fesshole that is genuinely horrific. Those tokens you burn are actual resources in the real world, like water and fossil fuels.
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@dalias @fesshole is it really mandatory? Have you taken it up with the employer? How do your workmates feel about it? Have you talked to them? If the employer is threatening to fire you because you don't use llms then there are labour laws that can protect you (at least in the civilized countries).
Even if you are forced to use llms, you can do it in more productive ways. Use it to save work if you can, and use the spare time to join/form a union, raise awareness with your peers on how this is damaging to their careers, do something that actually has a chance of changing things.
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@dalias @fesshole is it really mandatory? Have you taken it up with the employer? How do your workmates feel about it? Have you talked to them? If the employer is threatening to fire you because you don't use llms then there are labour laws that can protect you (at least in the civilized countries).
Even if you are forced to use llms, you can do it in more productive ways. Use it to save work if you can, and use the spare time to join/form a union, raise awareness with your peers on how this is damaging to their careers, do something that actually has a chance of changing things.
@alexmu @fesshole Those are not more productive ways, they're more brain rotting ways. And even if they were productive, you have no moral duty to maximize productivity for your employer at the expense of your cognitive facilities.
Yes, enployers are threatening to lay off employees based on low "AI" usage metrics. What rock have you been living under?
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Forced to use AI at work, hate it. Usage is monitored so I can't avoid it. I've set up mine to play a Sim City clone. It burns through tokens, making crap cities that quickly go bankrupt. Just been told that I'm getting a bonus for being a top user.
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@alexmu @fesshole Those are not more productive ways, they're more brain rotting ways. And even if they were productive, you have no moral duty to maximize productivity for your employer at the expense of your cognitive facilities.
Yes, enployers are threatening to lay off employees based on low "AI" usage metrics. What rock have you been living under?
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@weizenspreu @dalias @alexmu @fesshole I think your being a bit dramatic. He said “probably “ , it was never presented to you as a fact. He didn’t say “he knew it was fake” or “anyone can tell it’s not real” he just said there was a higher chance it was fake and a reason why he thought that.
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@funnymonkey @dalias @alexmu @fesshole I love it.
It does what satire should do. Punch up.
The trouble is now telling satire from reality.
Satire in 2026 is a very tough gig. It reminds me of the person that set up a fake ICE tip line, and his most brutal satire is when he just repeats what the callers said to him.
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@EdBruce @j0ebaldw1n @fesshole no pity. I did lose my job due to it.
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Forced to use AI at work, hate it. Usage is monitored so I can't avoid it. I've set up mine to play a Sim City clone. It burns through tokens, making crap cities that quickly go bankrupt. Just been told that I'm getting a bonus for being a top user.
@fesshole So…. “Usage” is monitored, but the loophole is “what you use it on is not”
At least you found a hack to “not really use it” kudos to you -
This.
It's SOOOOO easy to blame the people at the receiving end of broken systems of power and control.
When people refuse to acknowledge that there are many situations with no good options, and a small number of less bad options, we get destructive absolutism that hurts people.
See also: voting in the US
@funnymonkey @dalias @alexmu @fesshole It's not that it's easy. It's that it's the last line of defense crumbling. It's watching people we know are going to be hurt worse by bad decisions go ahead and make them for terrible reasons. It's knowing that there's now that much more pressure on you to do the same and there's that much less effect your own sacrifice, which now costs more, is going to make.
Whatever though. We all have our choices to make.
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@funnymonkey @dalias @alexmu @fesshole It's not that it's easy. It's that it's the last line of defense crumbling. It's watching people we know are going to be hurt worse by bad decisions go ahead and make them for terrible reasons. It's knowing that there's now that much more pressure on you to do the same and there's that much less effect your own sacrifice, which now costs more, is going to make.
Whatever though. We all have our choices to make.
@funnymonkey @dalias @alexmu @fesshole The other thing: if you don't keep hoping and talking people into doing the right thing you'll stop holding those ideals up yourself. You'll cave. You'll start eating the same excuse. It tastes very good...but that's the taste of slavery.
It is what it is.
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Forced to use AI at work, hate it. Usage is monitored so I can't avoid it. I've set up mine to play a Sim City clone. It burns through tokens, making crap cities that quickly go bankrupt. Just been told that I'm getting a bonus for being a top user.
@fesshole ours did too. I just messed with it a little with pictures, then figured out it could do a better job of putting a PDF into Excel, than the native apps in Adobe or Excel, so once a month use it for that. My boss uses it to turn messages into AI speak, and uses Chat GPT at home, oof. I can't even say it is increasing productivity, all it's doing is making up for even more useless programs and a vendor with insufficient reporting. It's not perfect even at that one task.
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Forced to use AI at work, hate it. Usage is monitored so I can't avoid it. I've set up mine to play a Sim City clone. It burns through tokens, making crap cities that quickly go bankrupt. Just been told that I'm getting a bonus for being a top user.
How can you restrain yourself to such innocent application?
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Raises the question. Is there any good way to use AI? Is there a way to invert it and turn it on itself, to use AI to destroy AI, to sabotage any ill it is designed to inflict, to undo or replace its propaganda effect, to use it to release the Epstein files?
RE: https://mastodon.social/@campuscodi/116154291574332497
I think it is already happening.
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@funnymonkey @dalias @alexmu @fesshole The other thing: if you don't keep hoping and talking people into doing the right thing you'll stop holding those ideals up yourself. You'll cave. You'll start eating the same excuse. It tastes very good...but that's the taste of slavery.
It is what it is.
IMO in situations where there are no good choices, and a range of bad options w/some being less bad than others, the true danger is lying to yourself about context, aka reality.
I don't believe it ever feels good to choose the lesser of multiple evils, IF we acknowledge that is what we are doing.
If we lie to ourselves, then yes - the risks you lay out become closer. But if we acknowledge that sometimes resistance requires survival, and we don't forget? Then we have a chance.
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Forced to use AI at work, hate it. Usage is monitored so I can't avoid it. I've set up mine to play a Sim City clone. It burns through tokens, making crap cities that quickly go bankrupt. Just been told that I'm getting a bonus for being a top user.
@fesshole You could always have the AI make pop songs about how you hate AI.
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IMO in situations where there are no good choices, and a range of bad options w/some being less bad than others, the true danger is lying to yourself about context, aka reality.
I don't believe it ever feels good to choose the lesser of multiple evils, IF we acknowledge that is what we are doing.
If we lie to ourselves, then yes - the risks you lay out become closer. But if we acknowledge that sometimes resistance requires survival, and we don't forget? Then we have a chance.
@crazyeddie
And yeah - none of this is easy.And also yes - we all need to define our red lines pro actively if possible, so we recognize them when we see them.
