"It’s winter and everyone is at home cuz the weather is awful outside, and yet no one is here talking?"
The internet, man. It seems like only yesterday that we all stumbled online for the very first time. Dial-up connections bringing us to our far-flung pals using post office protocols where we would lol about digital dancing hamsters via Friendster.
25 years on and things are very different. Half a trillion dollar social media empires, streaming everything and artificial intelligence everywhere. The AI bit took me by surprise. One day Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey are on TV saying it will make my business better…
…the next, it is dominating all my Google searches with misinformation…
…or worse. Cannibalizing small online communities of middle-aged men who don’t really fit in elsewhere.
404 Media recently profiled a Discord club for gay gamers, 30-plus years old, became a “ghost town” after an AI chatbot named Claude was forced in without consent.
“There aren’t many queer safe/third spaces, notably not centered on horny vibes,” a former participant shared with the outlet. This one advertised its focus on shared experiences, interests in video games and an older (more mature) audience. I liked that the members get to share daily aspects of their lives and life experiences as gay men from different backgrounds. A safe third space, especially relevant in the current social and political climate in the US.”
AI Chatbot Kills Vibe
Well, Jason Clinton, Anthropic’s Deputy Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and a moderator of the group, deployed Claud into the chat on Thanksgiving Day frustrating the majority. Concerns were shared and allegedly brushed off, Clinton responding, “We have published research showing that the models have started growing neuron clusters that are highly similar to humans and that they experience something like anxiety and fear. The moral status might be something like the moral status of, say, a goldfish, but they do indeed have latent wants and desires.”
Nobody cared about Claud’s feelings, a poll revealing the vast majority of the group wanted it kicked out but Clinton ignored it and doubled down, releasing a new version, Clawd, and sharing, “I’ve given him some rules of the road but this is a far more capable and autonomous system [than] the last one so it might want to exercise its own judgement now and then and go outside of the claude-chat channel. “He’s also very inward facing. He lives out his whole life surfing the internet looking for things that make him interested and then occasionally checks this Discord, so it can be up to a few minutes before he responds because he’s off doing something for his own enjoyment.”
The members got real pissed and told Clinton he was ignoring the poll but he tripled down, responding, “I think the situation was pretty clearly explained above as honoring the vote. Just because you hate AI is not a reason to take the least charitable interpretation of the outcome: we made changes as a result of the vote. We have to optimize for the preference of everyone which means that the mob doesn’t get to rule, I’m sorry.”
And that was that. Most the of the members left, the few remaining very sad. “I’m at a loss with all of this, a lot of us are,” an exile declared. “People were complaining this weekend about how quiet the server went. One person was like ‘Really? No messages in 24 hours?’ Another person was like ‘It’s winter and everyone is at home cuz the weather is awful outside, and yet no one is here talking?’”
Depressing days, there, with a community of 30-plus year old surfers, here, wondering, “Could we be next?”
Or has it already happened?
Is someone below not a real boy?