One benefit of AI slop might be its ability to drown disinformation. Like a swarm of bees cooking a wasp, deploying AI slop around targeted propaganda may well be an effective tactic in rendering it useless.
benjaminkelly retweeted
Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.
$30 per seat per month.
$1.4 million annually.
I called it "digital transformation."
The board loved that phrase.
They approved it in eleven minutes.
No one asked what it would actually do.
Including me.
I told everyone it would "10x productivity."
That's not a real number.
But it sounds like one.
HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.
I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."
They stopped asking.
Three months later I checked the usage reports.
47 people had opened it.
12 had used it more than once.
One of them was me.
I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.
It took 45 seconds.
Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.
But I called it a "pilot success."
Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.
The CFO asked about ROI.
I showed him a graph.
The graph went up and to the right.
It measured "AI enablement."
I made that metric up.
He nodded approvingly.
We're "AI-enabled" now.
I don't know what that means.
But it's in our investor deck.
A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.
I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."
He asked what that meant.
I said "compliance."
He asked which compliance.
I said "all of them."
He looked skeptical.
I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."
He stopped asking questions.
Microsoft sent a case study team.
They wanted to feature us as a success story.
I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."
I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.
They didn't verify it.
They never do.
Now we're on Microsoft's website.
"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."
The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.
He got 3,000 likes.
He's never used Copilot.
None of the executives have.
We have an exemption.
"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."
I wrote that policy.
The licenses renew next month.
I'm requesting an expansion.
5,000 more seats.
We haven't used the first 4,000.
But this time we'll "drive adoption."
Adoption means mandatory training.
Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.
But completion will be tracked.
Completion is a metric.
Metrics go in dashboards.
Dashboards go in board presentations.
Board presentations get me promoted.
I'll be SVP by Q3.
I still don't know what Copilot does.
But I know what it's for.
It's for showing we're "investing in AI."
Investment means spending.
Spending means commitment.
Commitment means we're serious about the future.
The future is whatever I say it is.
As long as the graph goes up and to the right.
Things to ask when you read or hear pretty much anything:
What if this is bullshit?
Who benefits most from people like me believing this?
What other plausible explanations are there? (Try to come up with at least 2)
Keep your skepticism for the things you most want to believe.
If you had to pick a song to describe your observability/tracing setup, which would it be and why is it Cotton Eye Joe?
I have reached peak context switch.
Is being physically incapable of actual thought the equivalent of Zen's 'no mind'? Somehow I hoped enlightenment would be more peaceful.
Sometimes you're the swan, serene and graceful.
Other times, you're the swan's legs, underwater and kicking like a mad bastard
As valentine's day rapidly approaches, those of us who are time impoverished should remember that 'significant other' can be shortened to '$0'.
So you can contemplate both forms of poverty simultaneously.
You know that thing where you walk into a room and forget why you're there?
I'm like that except with browser tabs.
I'm sure it's fine.
How many Thousand Sons Astartes can you fit in a Rhino?
8 in the back, 2 in the front and about 10,000 in the ashtray
#warhammer40k
I don't give a shit what your title is. If you're CEO and being a muppet I'll tell you to your face that maybe sir, there's an outside chance that we've not sufficiently explored the space and, er, with all due respect, we may be prematurely converging on a sub-optimal solution
People who get hung up on profanity because zomg you did a swear, are practitioners of cargo cult outrage.
My wife is awesome and supportive. After a particularly rough day, I said 'I have a powerful urge to get very drunk'.
She replied 'well while you're out buying beer, can you pick up some eggs?'
She's a keeper.
I occasionally wonder if authors set translation jokes into their prose for translators to find and chuckle/roll their eyes at.
For example, a wage slave drone named Sara Lehman would be eye-roll worthy when shifted to Japanese (サラリマン).
benjaminkelly retweeted
“People who grow up in secure environments learn that life is about connection. People who grow up insecure learn that life is about survival.”
Y’all. The way that hit me.
Some more translation fun. Something a bit different. Checking out Maze from @nekiband_jp 普段のガチャピンやBandmaidの話からちょっと一休みして、今回はNEK!に注目してみる。
tinyurl.com/neki-maze
@bass_baka_Jk @coco_102 @natsu08_guitar @46_hikaa
benjaminkelly retweeted
Leaders please defrag your calendar 📆
Block out time for deep thinking 🧠 and times to be available for your team. 👂
🚫 Don't brag about being busy.
✅ Own getting on top of it.
Be in control of your time.⏳
benjaminkelly retweeted
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