cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar
AntonPNym,
@AntonPNym@mastodon.social avatar

@cstross IYMI Coffeezilla (on his voidzilla channel) reported yesterday that the guy behind this debacle had been tracked down and has a long list of generative-AI extruded novel product to his name on Amazon. (7:55 into the video below.) This might just be someone upping the ante after getting away with a scam for a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEG9gvHekEo

andreaslindholm,
@andreaslindholm@mastodon.nu avatar

@cstross We thought the first thing an AI would do once it had become self-conscious would be exterminating humanity. It turned out it would be setting up an event company.

glitzersachen,

@andreaslindholm @cstross

That would actually prove that it has some basic survival instinct, albeit incompetently executed in this case. It needs money to get independent, so it tries what it's probably qualified best for: Conning people out of their money.

SvenGeier,
@SvenGeier@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@glitzersachen @andreaslindholm @cstross If it is complex enough to have a concept that it CAN die, then it will have a survival instinct due to instrumental convergence.
I've been telling people for years to watch the short AI safety youtube clips by Rob Miles, here's the one on resource-acquisition and self-preservation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeecOKBus3Q

yunchtime, (edited )
@yunchtime@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross

The Fyre Festival seemed bad, but Whiteinch Wonka has triumphed! Very curious to see who was the mastermind of this.

girlinblack,
@girlinblack@mastodon.social avatar

@cstross I want to believe the KLF people would have paid the actors...

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@girlinblack Yeah, they're not shit.

TonyJWells,
@TonyJWells@mastodon.social avatar

@cstross

The more I've read about this, the more ridiculous it becomes.

It feels like a Bill Forsyth movie, but That Sinking Feeling, rather than Gregory's Girl or Local Hero.

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@TonyJWells I was wondering if the KLF (Bill Drummond/Jimmy Cauty) are up to their old tricks again. (A warehouse in Glasgow: it tracks.)

raynerlucas,
@raynerlucas@mastodon.social avatar

@cstross @TonyJWells "House of Illuminati" does make you wonder, and "deliberately bleak performance art project" is very much up their alley. But the KLF's MO has always been "confuse the public, stick two fingers up at the establishment" rather than vice versa, and their events are bizarre but definitely not underwhelming. Perhaps what we have here is the emergence of an equally powerful anti-KLF, in which case I await, slightly nervously, some kind of ultimate showdown.

DJDarren,
@DJDarren@mendeddrum.org avatar

@raynerlucas If they’re an anti-KLF then they’re about to write some terrible pop hits then print a million quid. @cstross @TonyJWells

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

@raynerlucas @cstross @TonyJWells while the name does make me wonder, I’m kinda hoping it’s just a lazy grift rather than bleak performance art. It’d be one thing if they were cruel like this to, say, Tories, but this is cruel to children and gig workers and that’s different.

TonyJWells,
@TonyJWells@mastodon.social avatar

@cstross

I do feel it would have been gloriously more chaotic and inept, yet visually more impressive for the KLF. Also, probably a a mix of themes, so the Willie lemonade section would be long island tea, and the jelly beans would be fried crickets. However, they would actually have had chocolate, but the Incan style spicy liquid. In the evening, they'd burn everything and have a rave.

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@TonyJWells Also, they'd have paid the actors. (The KLF have been around long enough to know that what goes around comes around, especially in the arts.)

acb,
@acb@mastodon.social avatar

@cstross @TonyJWells Every era gets the KLF it deserves

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@acb @TonyJWells Yeah, the Wonka experience was definitely the post-austerity post-brexit Dogshit version ...

johnwinkelman,
@johnwinkelman@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross This feels like an Andy Kaufman-esque prank played by someone who hates generative AI

sabik,
@sabik@rants.au avatar

@johnwinkelman @cstross
The one thing that sticks out is the name House of Illuminati, isn't it

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@sabik @johnwinkelman I wish we lived in a time line where Robert Anton Wilson could have seen what he wrought ...

felix,
@felix@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross Sounds not unlike the DashCon fiasco Tumblr organized when they were still a credible outfit. Almost exactly ten years ago in fact.

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