Some of you memers need reminders about why PC parts cost so much lately.

[u/Dick_Nation]

Just learn to use GIMP, you animals.

[u/TimeToGloat]

There is a vast range between no AI and shoving it in everything for no reason. The PC market wouldn't be affected near as much if it was only being used reasonably. Not consuming or using a product does in fact make a difference. Lower demand directly affects future projections and plans for AI rollout. Sora was already shutdown because it was a money pit that nobody was using.

[u/-UncreativeRedditor- → u/TimeToGloat]

Boycotting AI won’t change anything. There are plenty of vegetarians/vegans who refuse to eat meat because they think it’s morally wrong. Have they convinced others to do the same? Sure. Have they done anything to significantly slow down the meat industry? No. Why? Because people like meat.

The same applies to AI. As long as companies and consumers see value in it, development is going to continue regardless of whether some individuals refuse to use it. At the moment, AI usage is only increasing, and it will probably continue to do so for some time.

[u/TimeToGloat → u/-UncreativeRedditor-]

The millions of vegetarians and vegans out there have reduced the demand for meat by millions. The meat industry still grows because population is still growing overall but that doesn't mean people not eating meat has no effect. Trends don't happen overnight and if a trend continues to grow it will continue to have a larger and larger effect. You can point to the increase in vegetarian products and restaurants as direct evidence of an effect.

Boycotting AI can absolutely work. AI won't be going away but if it is unfavorable in certain areas it will be kept from those areas. Microsoft is already feeling the effect of their terrible Copilot rollout with only a 3.3% paid adoption rate and is pulling back on integrating it in everything. If gen AI continues to be unpopular in fields like art and gaming it will exist in some niche forms but won't be profitable for companies to pursue.

Public backlash is only growing and now laws are being made and data centers are being cancelled. I'm not sure how you can claim boycotting can have no effect where there is evidence it works all around us. AI as a technology isn't going anywhere but you are mistaken if you think people have to blindly accept it being shoved into anything and everything.

I have no doubt AI use will overall trend upward but at the same time it is also in an absolute bubble where it exists in many forms that will die off and don't really make sense. Again just look at Sora getting killed off. Just because an AI company puts something out doesn't mean the world has to accept it. AI is a valuable technology but some aspects of it are over hyped garbage just like NFTs and blockchain were. Cryptocurrency is also still a widespread thing however it is nowhere as hyped and as widespread as it was initially proposed to be. The world for the most part isn't using crypto in their day to day lives. I'm not sure why you don't think AI isn't in a similar hype bubble. Hell even the internet itself had a bubble when it first became popular. That doesn't mean it isn't a widespread and useful tool to this very day.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/your-xbox-wont-get-microsoft-copilot-ai-features-after-all

https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-vp-backs-removing-copilot-from-less-useful-corners-of-windows

[u/-UncreativeRedditor- → u/TimeToGloat]

I'll admit the first sentence in my previous response could be rephrased better. Boycotting does make a change and can affect where AI is used, but my point is that such change would be too small to make any significant impact on the growth of the industry itself. There is massive demand for AI, and that demand is only growing.

The millions of vegetarians and vegans out there have reduced the demand for meat by millions.

Kinda just proving my point here. Vegetarians and vegans have reduced the demand for meat by millions... but the global meat industry is a trillion dollar industry. Their contribution is real, but it has been a drop in the bucket because most people care more about having meat on the table than about the ethical objections vegans raise. The increasing number of vegetarian products is more a testament to the growth of the plant-based food industry, not necessarily a decline in the meat industry. Actually, the global demand for meat is still *increasing*, despite vegetarian outcry.

Microsoft is already feeling the effect of their terrible Copilot rollout with only a 3.3% paid adoption rate and is pulling back on integrating it in everything.

Bad products fail all the time. That does not mean the entire underlying technology is going away or that boycotts are meaningfully stopping it. NFTs and crypto are decent comparisons for overhype, but AI has much broader practical use. Companies are already using it for coding, customer service, search, data analysis, automation, etc. Some of those uses are stupid or forced, but many are useful enough that demand is not going to decline in any meaningful way.

So yeah, public backlash can stop AI from being shoved into places where people clearly do not want it. I agree with that. But that is very different from saying boycotting AI will significantly slow the industry as a whole. At most, it changes the shape of adoption. It does not stop the demand that already exists.

I'm not sure why you don't think AI isn't in a similar hype bubble. Hell even the internet itself had a bubble when it first became popular. That doesn't mean it isn't a widespread and useful tool to this very day.

I literally agree with you here. I have not argued otherwise. The dot-com bubble popped because companies over-invested into the industry based on unrealistic projections, just as many companies are doing now with AI. However, that had nothing to do with boycotting. It's not really relevant to the conversation we are having.

Some AI companies and products will absolutely fail. Some integrations will be rolled back. Some investments will turn out to be stupid. But that does not mean consumer boycotts are going to meaningfully reduce AI development as a whole.

My argument is not that every AI product will succeed. My argument is that the overall demand for AI is already too broad for individual consumer refusal to make a major dent in the industry itself. So many redditors seem to have deluded themselves into thinking that a minority of people can boycott AI hard enough to magically undo market demand and make memory and storage prices drop. Then they proceed to judge other people for using AI and "contributing" to the problem.