Ted, you called it "spam." My term for it is far less polite.
I'm off all social media. I refuse to use AI for my writing. When AI "overviews" come up on Google searches, I immediately skip past them to real sources.
I just found out about the -ai search option. It still asks you if you really really meant it, it for now it still works. I have found the auto ai search responses are absolutely horrible. I know the info exists on the internet that I’m searching for, as I’ve searched the topic before, but it’s not coming up. Frustrating as hell.
I stopped Amazon in Jan and also switched to Duck Duck Go on my Mac and my iphone. It’s amazing. Every search is private. I get little to no spam. And it shows you all the spam it rejected so you don’t have to clear your cookies every week. Much better search results because unlike Google, DDG doesn’t use AI. Google search has really gone down hill.
Does anyone make an AI filter? It would work like an ad filter but eliminate blocks of AI generated text. I'd install one even if it used AI to detect and block AI on the principle that it takes one to know one.
I bet there are browser extensions already. Don't know if I'd trust them atm, but in time, the good ones will be apparent.
There are a fair number of browsers (PC and Android, not sure about Apple) that have one-click options for a number of pesky things. If it's a home PC, you can use Classic Shell freeware to get a desktop and menus from prior versions of Windows. I've had the XP desktop for the past 8-10 years. It's especially nice for left-click options.
How-to Geek is an excellent site for a lot of things, especially walkthroughs for people who aren't programmers (that'd be me). The forum at Bleepingcomputer[dot]com is very good, too.
And there are several alternatives to MS Word (etc.) that work well when people have to either write or receive .docs and the like.
Edited to add: i have no financial interest in the sites or software I've suggested. But so often, people are unaware that we actually have choices, for whatever machines we're running at home, anyway. Yes, there are some things I'd never touch, which is why I'm recommending certain sites that have great track records.
The problem for MSFT users such as Ted (and I'm one) is that the software has been baked into computers for almost 40 years. If Apple had broken free of Word as they did with the OS we'd all be in better circumstances. But Word, Excel et al are like QWERTY – unavoidable, unfixable and inescapable.
No, actually. Libre Office will open all those MS_self_corrupted files and the rest just fine too. Sheesh, y'all, there is solid land out there, stop swimming in the crap.
As others have mentioned here, there are good alternatives that can be used. Of course they are compatible with MS's own software. I've been using various non-MS options for word processing since the late 1990s. It can be done.
Ditto about refusing to look at the AI summaries at the top of Google searches — and I discovered it won't let you opt out. Big question is, how did modern humans get this stupid anyway? Check out Byung-Chul Han, "Infocracy".
Try clicking on "web" - it's in the list of search types at the top of each page. You can also try non-Google settings (in your browser's preferences menu), or else simply use DuckDuckGo.
Just to clarify: AI overviews are comprised of the "real-sources." They are cited in the overview, so you don't actually need to scroll past them. The overview essentially condenses the first few pages of a SERP. It's saving you time. As someone who writes for a living, this feature, as well as LLMs, has greatly improved the speed and efficiency of my article research.
I dumped the MS op system on my 11 year old pc this spring, replaced with Linux freeware, which came with their office software. It plays well enough with office files. And when The Man .manages to enshittify even THAT, I'm stocking up on carbon paper and ribbon for my perfectly functional 1946 Remington Office Deluxe manual. Pack that in your hookah, Mr. Gates.
It changes the way I write, too. It seems less structured, more free-flowing. There's a phrase for that 'style' that escaped me just now. Plus, I like the sound of the type hitting the paper...
I've got two old Olivetti portables that are just raring to go. Opened the cases up last week for the first time in 10 years or so - they both work, need oil, ribbons etc. but they work.
I bought a hard downloadable copy (not monthly subscription) of Microsoft Office 2024 on the DIgitalKeysBox website, for a one-time payment of 30 bucks. No AI, and it's in perfect working order.
I'm not sure, it may depend on where you live, but it's worth trying. I live in Romania. You can get an electronic, single-device license for about 30 USD (an older version of the software, but good enough for me): https://licentasoftware.ro/adobe-acrobat-pro-2020/ Check out the flags at the top to choose your language.
If the information you get is not in English and you need help, please get back to me. I installed mine earlier and it was pretty straightforward. However, I'd expect them to have an English version of the instructions, since the website is multilingual.
Supposedly, the most frequently asked AI question is "How do I turn off AI?" I don't know if this is true because it was an AI answer to "What is the most frequently asked AI question?"
At least Apple lets one turn AI off. If Apple is smart, they'll continue to slow walk their AI effort until removing it gets them a standing ovation at the WWDC in 2027.
You're right. Apple scans any image file you open supposedly to check for child pornography, but, in theory, for any other material of interest. So much for digitizing that picture of me in my bath when I was two. For now, one can stop this with Little Snitch or a home network firewall, but Little Snitch is vulnerable to Apple API changes and home network firewalls only work at home.
You'd think Apple would be taking a bigger publicity hit for this, but we don't have journalists anymore, at least not on any platform with wide reach. Will text files be next? What about video and audio? One shouldn't have to hide your files from your own computer, especially in the current political climate.
The perverts who like kiddy porn have probably moved over to Linux which is a bit clunky and a pain in the ass most of the time, but auditable and under user control. They were the early users of Mastodon before the Twitter meltdown. The opprobrium kept a lot of people from using the protocol until Elon Musk made it the lesser of two evils.
Same here. I can go this way, now that I'm retired. Before that, I had to be in the Microsoft ecosystem for work. I kept it going until it was time to renew my subscription, and they wanted to up the price and foist a bunch of AI on me, the decision not to renew was not difficult.
This will take monumental effort and also may be problematic in a business setting. There are reasons why it's better for everyone to use the same software. Those reasons are being used against us.
I think we learned from the pandemic lockdown that we do still know how to operate on tribal levels. It's a PITA, and it will lead to many minor squabbles as something else rises to overlordship. Best to be at least mentally prepared for all scenarios.
Don't know. I've never had an issue outside of some minor formatting stuff in really complex MS Word docs. Microsoft made their .docx and .xlsx an open format.
The default formats for libre office are .odt and .ods files and MS Office doesn't read those? Make sure you use "Save As" and save the files with the .docx/.xlsx extension?
Not completely interchangeable but certainly good enough for most users. Really complex formatting in MS Word and Excel macros/equations can be problematic.
Be great to have available a list of alternative platforms, including search engines, messenging options and email especially, that don't use AI. When people know what else there is, it becomes a lot easier to choose.
I use DuckDuckGo and I can shovel the AI ‘suggestions’ further down the page at least. It’s extra frustrating when I see people I know sharing the worst slop because it’s cute or what have you. Then I think, maybe I’m being fooled too…maybe?
Use Linux and FOSS. It won’t cure all of your AI ills but it will certainly help. I don’t understand why people still use Microsoft and the Office suite. Unless you have edge cases just use Linux Mint and Libre Office.
It seems by forcing people to use it, their use is improving the product, so people essentially pay for it twice - the subscription fee and their effort. Copilot assured me all of my data is secure and not being used to train it (my only credit used so far was asking this). Hallucination or accurate response?
In a masterclass I teach on brand strategy, one of the teams came up with an idea to revive Kodak as a verifier of visual authenticity. A Kodak watermark, or some sort of metadata, would identify any image or video as either original or doctored, or somewhere in between.
Back in 1990 my brand firm redesigned the retail packaging for Norton Antivirus after Symantec bought it from Peter Norton. During one of our photoshoots with Peter, he told us his story. In return for ungodly sums of money, all he had to do was show up for the odd photoshoot. He spent the rest of his time traveling the world with his family and enjoying his wealth. Meanwhile, his line of products quickly overshadowed all the other products that came out of Symantec. I recommended, unsuccessfully, they rename the company Norton and be done with it.
My prediction is that the first company to market a reliable "AI detector" will become rich beyond the dreams of avarice. And the rest of us will get down on our knees and thank them for it.
Copilot is now costing me an extra $30/year for Microsoft 365. That annoying logo jumps in every time I start to write in Word. I don’t want to see it in Excel, either. The other day I asked it how to get rid of Copilot. This is what it replied:
How to Remove or Disable Copilot
Step-by-Step Guide
Introduction
Copilot is a powerful tool designed to assist users with coding, writing, and other functions. However, if you find it unnecessary or prefer to work without it, you may want to disable or remove it from your system.
Disabling Copilot in Visual Studio Code
Step 1: Open Visual Studio Code
Open the Visual Studio Code application on your computer.
Step 2: Go to Extensions
Click on the Extensions icon in the sidebar or press Ctrl+Shift+X to open the Extensions view.
Step 3: Search for Copilot
In the search bar, type "Copilot" to find the Copilot extension.
Step 4: Disable the Extension
Click on the installed Copilot extension from the search results. You will see an option to "Disable" the extension. Click on it to turn off Copilot.
Uninstalling Copilot in Visual Studio Code
Step 1: Open Visual Studio Code
Open the Visual Studio Code application on your computer.
Step 2: Go to Extensions
Click on the Extensions icon in the sidebar or press Ctrl+Shift+X to open the Extensions view.
Step 3: Search for Copilot
In the search bar, type "Copilot" to find the Copilot extension.
Step 4: Uninstall the Extension
Click on the installed Copilot extension from the search results. You will see an option to "Uninstall" the extension. Click on it to remove Copilot completely.
Disabling Copilot in Microsoft Word
Step 1: Open Microsoft Word
Launch the Microsoft Word application on your computer.
Step 2: Access Add-ins
Go to the "File" menu, select "Options," and then click on "Add-ins."
Step 3: Manage COM Add-ins
In the Manage box, select "COM Add-ins" and click "Go."
Step 4: Disable Copilot
Locate "Copilot" in the list of add-ins, uncheck the box next to it, and click "OK" to disable it.
Uninstalling Copilot from Your System
Step 1: Open Control Panel
Open the Control Panel on your computer.
Step 2: Access Programs and Features
Go to "Programs" and then select "Programs and Features."
Step 3: Find Copilot
Scroll through the list of installed programs to find "Copilot."
Step 4: Uninstall Copilot
Click on "Copilot" and then click the "Uninstall" button. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the uninstallation process.
Conclusion
Whether you prefer to disable or completely remove Copilot from your tools, these steps should help you achieve your goal. By following the appropriate method, you can work without the assistance of Copilot and customize your workspace to suit your preferences.
SOOOOO…I was unable to locate “Visual Studio Code” anywhere on my laptop and was forced to, yes, ask Google. I THEN learned that I would have to DOWNLOAD it in order to rid myself of CoPilot.
I am BEYOND disgusted. By the way, I know that all caps is like shouting, and I rarely ever use all caps. In this case, it is warranted.
I don’t think those instructions are sequential, but rather how to disable it for various applications. Starting at the bottom of what you included, go up about 14 lines, and you should see a line, “Uninstalling Copilot from Your System”. Start there - that should remove it from all MS Office applications on your computer.
No, it’s just telling you how to disable the copilot extension in VSCode, if you use VSCode (i.e if you’re a software developer). It’s an app-by-app thing.
I retired from software a few years ago. Just in time, apparently, because I pretty much hated every IDE I've ever used and with this extra crap forced on me I would have lost my mind.
It is tragic because back in the 90s and very early 2000s new tech updates or new products were eagerly anticipated and people marveled at what companies came up with. The products were exciting and the market decided what succeeded and what failed and consumers had choices and customization and tech companies actually listened to customers. Sadly, due to the “Steve Jobs Law,” tech companies simply ram what they want down your throat and expect you to like it. Jobs introduced iTunes then the iPhone and believed that consumers didn’t know what they wanted until Apple provided it; it worked spectacularly for awhile because consumers actually enjoyed the simplicity of syncing their music, photos, contacts, and data to their phones. Sadly with A.I., big tech believes that pushing the product on consumers will make them want it more when there is a lot of distrust and concern, and even more insulting, they expect you to pay for it. Today, big tech is a burden, not exciting, and it is also damaging humanity whether they want to or not. Painful customer revolts must happen to pull back this abusive behavior, but I am not holding my breath.
“I fear the day that technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots”- Albert Einstein.
“We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have clearly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That’s a clear prescription for disaster.”- Carl Sagan.
Apple Music has annoyed me ever since they installed the U2 album on my iPhone. I get rid of it for a while and then the darn thing comes back.I have no interest in subscribing to Apple Music and it infuriates me when for whatever nefarious reason U2 starts wailing through my car player.
And, up till very recently I was satisfied with Amazon Music. Now it too has developed a loathsome tic—offering music it thinks I will like when I am listening to music I purchased. I went round and round with customer support. Because I don’t subscribe to Amazon Music, but access it as a Prime customer, there is no way for me to disable this new feature.
It’s a classic case of “you’ll obey and you’ll like it.” If technology companies acted as more our partners instead of just ramming stuff down our throats that we never asked for, they would probably have more trust and respect instead of contempt and scorn. You don’t need to be a Fortune 500 company to be treated as a partner with big tech; you can still customize and charge a fair price for it. Plenty to go around, instead, they are just lazy with forced upgrades and conformity; the new tech isn’t even simpler or innovative, it’s just a giant pain in the ass.
Four months ago, Bill Maher simply NAILED IT with this monologue. You’ll enjoy it especially when it comes to U2 on iTunes that we never wanted. https://youtu.be/DifysK46DO4?si=nJ0JaBkpFVfHCsOG
Apple music software has always been suboptimal on PCs. I'd never touch it now.
Might i suggest both Bandcamp (you can buy direct from the artists) and Tidal? Downloads (and streaming on Tidal) have extremely high-res options. Tidal's search function needs to be improved, but - as with Spotify - some time spent on searches can help get the algorithms working for you. Qobuz isn't bad, either, just has less of a catalog than Tidal. There are no AI "djs" on any of these things, unlike Spotify.
They're writing into their TOS that they can train their AI on your data/content (I.e. you're giving them permission to do so). Charging you for it and inflating their consumption numbers is just the frosting on the LLM cake.
Maybe there is a way and I’m not fully informed… but they don’t make it easy to find. Looks like I need to do more research. I really wish you had to opt in instead of the changes showing up one day as you’re trying to get work done. Ted’s experience is mine.
Sometimes the answer is: say yes or cancel our service, thanks! So … I’ll look into it.
Thanks for pointing out the "hidden losses" benefit, because I was unable to figure out why they were force-feeding us (other than getting in on the ground floor before prices go up."
There is NOTHING TO LIKE about AI. If you think it gives you a leg up in the creative spheres, you are lazy. That's it. Everything I do can be learned and mastered with practice. You are lazy.
The company I work for is embracing it wholeheartedly and it makes me want to cry. There seems to be zero awareness of the vast amounts of energy "playing around with" AI wastes, not to mention how much more difficult it is making teacher's lives (as if they needed anything to make their jobs more difficult).
People never think what their over-reliance on AI will cost them in terms of skills. Paul Graham argues (https://paulgraham.com/writes.html) that there will only be few people around capable of writing. And since deep thinking requires writing, only a few will retain their thinking skills.
But good luck teaching that in school. I already ran out of it...
Hi Kelle, did you read the linked post? It does a good job of quelling any concerns about individuals playing around with AI, the kind of use you said makes you want to cry. Your link raises some concerns about AI infrastructure and then clarifies that other technologies will be much bigger energy hogs.
I did read it. Here's the rub: "If we build more fossil-fuel plants to meet our growing electricity demand, it’ll come with negative consequences for the climate."
recently read , we burn 4 times the coal worldwide than we did in 2000. I'm quoting from memory but the numbers are something like that or worse. I was very surprised, I like to think myself well informed but the number was staggering. no link, sorry,
As a professor at a university, we have been early victims of being forced fed AI in the bundles that the university buys for our professional email and our online meetings. This makes it even worse for us to try to regulate AI usage for our students since their university software and these services are also bundled with AI, both confusing and legitimizing AI for student use in, for example English classes. I can tell students that AI isn’t allowed for research or idea generation or the writing of their essays but it’s hard to do this when the services that they use at the university have AI bundled and integrated into it. Very frustrating.
Im of the mind that we could do without alot of what you say we cant. Bc the choice to use it or not is really all we have. Acceptance is submission.
To each their own, but i dont need that shit. Perhaps my life will be slightly less convenient(but is that so bad? Comfort is death, of the soul. Its the hard things that are worth doing, right?), but i dont see whats so convenient about the myriad issues all these conveniences create. Or the lack of capability it fosters in its users.
This type of degradation always occurs in baby steps. They assume theyve already got everybody so stuck that no one can live without their omnipresence. And it sounds like youre conceding that point.
When we want our lives back, we'll remember that our choices got us here, and will get us out. There is no other way. Laws? Ha! Do you really think these politicians work for us? Idk how anybody(except that tippy top of the pyramid) could think that at this point.
I used to think i needed to drink. Asserting my ability to choose to or not to drink freed me from the slavery of that addiction. This is no different. In fact all of life is very much the same. You say ai is being forced on us, as if you have no choice in the matter, but that simply is not true.
Nor i, im straight up cds yo! And i feel bad for everyone that has to suffer commercials in the middle of their favorite albums. What a horrible way to enjoy great music:/
Ever tried Bandcamp? You can buy CDs and LPs directly from artists and (mostly small) labels. If you want to buy a download only, you can get FLAC files - and what you've purchased can be streamed as well. I have a feeling you might like it. (I'm sold, but there's so much there that I can't purchase anywhere else - and i do buy CDs when the postage isn't awfully high.)
Oh wow, no i hadnt heard of it but it sounds like its right up my alley. Newer music is notoriously difficult to find on cd. I will definitely check that out, ty
I think it's your kind of thing! I like it a lot, especially b/c of the fact that artists get $. A percentage goes to the service, but Bandcamp Fridays are 1x per month - the artists get *all* of the $ on those days.
We need CDs, just as we need physical books. I think that most people sense that something diabolical is at work, but whether a person does or not, we all understand the power of oligarchs to change content or simply make it unavailable.
Here's a horror story: many of us grew up reading the books of the Edward Stratemeyer syndicate. I think Stratemeyer was a fine fellow. Early in the twentieth century, he realized that one reason children might not be learning to read was that schools tended to make reading a chore to be defeated, not a joy to be basked in. He also wanted to make money.
His writers might be marketed as Franklin W. Dixon, Carolyn Keene, many others. The Stratemeyer syndicate gave the world The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift. I wouldn't recommend that the age six to nine crowd be raised only on such books, but there is no question that they turned a lot of kids into readers and gave kids who were going to be readers something fun, interesting, and prosocial to read.
The following may sound incredible, but it's true: sometime early in the twenty - first century, the Stratemeyer syndicate, or whatever it's called now, decided it had to cleanse its books of bigotry ( that is, purge them of humanity ). I don't know what changes they made to which books to be properly Woke, but I know there is a Facebook group of largely Boomer men which exults when one of its members finds an original text in a Salvation Army thrift shop, and eagerly trades information about where other original texts might be found.
My point is not that the Stratemeyer books are indispensable to civilization, but that if THEY will lobotomize such anodyne things, nothing is safe. We do need to be storing physical books and CDs.
Hear hear! I wholeheartedly agree, and am doing my part. Purely for selfish reasons(bc the streaming music experience is trash imo), but with a cd burner i can disseminate these works to anyone who wants them(which rn is nobody i know lol, but that will change).
I did not know the censorship had gotten that bad already. That gives me a sense of urgency to acquire as much original music(and literature, im an avid reader of paper books) as i can, while i can. Bc youre right, nothing is safe, from either "lobotomizing" or ai corruption. Ive seen the ai generated albums of my favorite artists, and think thats revolting. My first thought was for younger people, who will not know the difference if its not labeled as such, and how much that will degrade the catalogue. More disturbing were the comments, of diehard fans(so they say), praising these frauds. But ofc theyre so addicted to the streaming experience, which requires ever newer fodder for the FEED, that they welcome this trash.
This all makes the premise of the movie the book of eli seem not far fetched at all. (Which reminds me that movies and tv shows are also in danger. Ive heard certain episodes of certain shows have been removed or edited on streaming platforms. For shame!)
I like what you say about missing some convenience for the sake of one's dignity. I have come to see the following: Convenience is the opiate of the compliant. It really is undignified.
It's the same story as smart meters. They forced people to install them before they themselves understood how they worked. I spent two years fighting one of the highest rated energy companies over various errors they made when my smart meter was installed, at considerable cost to my mental health. Despite all the evidence I sent them they absolutely refused to admit anything was wrong until I took them to the Ombudsman, who found in my favour. And now I've had problems with with another highly rated company , who sent me a vastly inflated bill estimated bill when my smart meter (their smart meter actually) stopped working last summer, and they didn't replace it for four months. It wasn't till I cancelled my direct debit and refused to close my complaint that they've just stopped gaslighting me and admitted their billing was wrong. And these are meant to be the best!
Another problem with AI is that it has people questioning everything and trusting nothing. The other day I was watching a youtube video. I know the person speaking is a real person, and yet, they were talking in a staccato way that made me sure the voice was a bot. I don't know if people are starting to mimic bots because that's what they think the public expect a youtube voice to sound like or if this guy while happy to speak on camera doesn't like his voice so dubs it with a bot. All I know is that if a video says it's "auto-dubbed" or if I suspect that what I'm watching is not a real person, but an AI, then I hit "don't recommend channel" so fast it would make your head spin.
…i noticed something creepy happening in conversations around these days where if anyone tries to talk bad about a.i. certain type of folks will immediately go nuclear and say we shouldn’t talk about that anymore…if you don’t see a.i. as just another tool we aren’t going to be able to agree…some odd version of that, usually with a tech friendly aspiring entrepreneur or trustafarian pathless wonder…i fear the future will be A.I. OR DIE for all incoming generations for better, or as I assume, worse…
Some people really have an intimate relationship with certain chat bots. The same happened back in the days when Joseph von Weizenbaum unleashed Eliza as a kind of joke.
I have students that spend a lot of time "discussing" personal issues with AI. (Maybe because nobody else likes to listen to them four hours.) Talking about AI to them is like talking about their girl friend's issues.
No it won't be that bad, though it will appear so. But you'll have to put a serious effort into finding other routes. There is always a way out, it's a universal law.
Ted, you called it "spam." My term for it is far less polite.
I'm off all social media. I refuse to use AI for my writing. When AI "overviews" come up on Google searches, I immediately skip past them to real sources.
I opt out as much as one individual can.
Ooh you can even type “-ai” into your google search to get rid of the AI, or use a different search engine such as Ecosia or DuckDuckGo!
I just found out about the -ai search option. It still asks you if you really really meant it, it for now it still works. I have found the auto ai search responses are absolutely horrible. I know the info exists on the internet that I’m searching for, as I’ve searched the topic before, but it’s not coming up. Frustrating as hell.
Worked for me! Thanks
I stopped Amazon in Jan and also switched to Duck Duck Go on my Mac and my iphone. It’s amazing. Every search is private. I get little to no spam. And it shows you all the spam it rejected so you don’t have to clear your cookies every week. Much better search results because unlike Google, DDG doesn’t use AI. Google search has really gone down hill.
And you can click "web" (one of many options right below the Search bar).
In order to remove AI from google searches just insert a swear word. Ie ‘where the f**k is Sweden?’. Its quick and efficient though a bit rude! 😁
LOL! Gonna try that.
My wife told me that one. I tested it before I posted. I’ve been on Duck,Duck, Go for some time now. Glad to help!
Adding a swear word only gets this response for me: “it looks like you’re frustrated… how can I help?”
Interesting. It works for a bunch of people. I don’t know why it wouldn’t work for you...
Does anyone make an AI filter? It would work like an ad filter but eliminate blocks of AI generated text. I'd install one even if it used AI to detect and block AI on the principle that it takes one to know one.
I bet there are browser extensions already. Don't know if I'd trust them atm, but in time, the good ones will be apparent.
There are a fair number of browsers (PC and Android, not sure about Apple) that have one-click options for a number of pesky things. If it's a home PC, you can use Classic Shell freeware to get a desktop and menus from prior versions of Windows. I've had the XP desktop for the past 8-10 years. It's especially nice for left-click options.
How-to Geek is an excellent site for a lot of things, especially walkthroughs for people who aren't programmers (that'd be me). The forum at Bleepingcomputer[dot]com is very good, too.
And there are several alternatives to MS Word (etc.) that work well when people have to either write or receive .docs and the like.
Edited to add: i have no financial interest in the sites or software I've suggested. But so often, people are unaware that we actually have choices, for whatever machines we're running at home, anyway. Yes, there are some things I'd never touch, which is why I'm recommending certain sites that have great track records.
I have used Apache Open Office (free) for documents, spreadsheets, presentation-type of stuff, and find it very intuitive and excellent to use!
The problem for MSFT users such as Ted (and I'm one) is that the software has been baked into computers for almost 40 years. If Apple had broken free of Word as they did with the OS we'd all be in better circumstances. But Word, Excel et al are like QWERTY – unavoidable, unfixable and inescapable.
No, actually. Libre Office will open all those MS_self_corrupted files and the rest just fine too. Sheesh, y'all, there is solid land out there, stop swimming in the crap.
The only downside with Libre Office I've found is that sometimes the files explode in size.
Then I open them in Open Office and save under a new name, which shrinks them again.
As others have mentioned here, there are good alternatives that can be used. Of course they are compatible with MS's own software. I've been using various non-MS options for word processing since the late 1990s. It can be done.
Noted, thankyou, resources always appreciated
And there’s the NEXT innovation.
I'd rather pay USD 10.- per month to Kagi than using Google, which only yields useless results nowadays.
Ditto about refusing to look at the AI summaries at the top of Google searches — and I discovered it won't let you opt out. Big question is, how did modern humans get this stupid anyway? Check out Byung-Chul Han, "Infocracy".
Try clicking on "web" - it's in the list of search types at the top of each page. You can also try non-Google settings (in your browser's preferences menu), or else simply use DuckDuckGo.
Just to clarify: AI overviews are comprised of the "real-sources." They are cited in the overview, so you don't actually need to scroll past them. The overview essentially condenses the first few pages of a SERP. It's saving you time. As someone who writes for a living, this feature, as well as LLMs, has greatly improved the speed and efficiency of my article research.
There are free alternatives to Microsoft Office and they don't have AI.
I dumped the MS op system on my 11 year old pc this spring, replaced with Linux freeware, which came with their office software. It plays well enough with office files. And when The Man .manages to enshittify even THAT, I'm stocking up on carbon paper and ribbon for my perfectly functional 1946 Remington Office Deluxe manual. Pack that in your hookah, Mr. Gates.
I’m trending toward a typewriter, myself.
It changes the way I write, too. It seems less structured, more free-flowing. There's a phrase for that 'style' that escaped me just now. Plus, I like the sound of the type hitting the paper...
Stream of consciousness?
Yes. More stream of consciousness; maybe even more so than writing longhand, because typing is faster.. Thanks!
I've got two old Olivetti portables that are just raring to go. Opened the cases up last week for the first time in 10 years or so - they both work, need oil, ribbons etc. but they work.
I bought a hard downloadable copy (not monthly subscription) of Microsoft Office 2024 on the DIgitalKeysBox website, for a one-time payment of 30 bucks. No AI, and it's in perfect working order.
Same. I just bought three, plus a similar one for Adobe Acrobat.
Care to share what website / source that is? I pay $60 a month for Adobe Suite and don't use most of it, but it's bundled only. Thanks!
I'm not sure, it may depend on where you live, but it's worth trying. I live in Romania. You can get an electronic, single-device license for about 30 USD (an older version of the software, but good enough for me): https://licentasoftware.ro/adobe-acrobat-pro-2020/ Check out the flags at the top to choose your language.
I'm looking at the site now...
Look like it will work -- so, thank you!
If the information you get is not in English and you need help, please get back to me. I installed mine earlier and it was pretty straightforward. However, I'd expect them to have an English version of the instructions, since the website is multilingual.
So did I
So did I
I have a Mac and use Pages, Numbers, Keynote, etc., with Apple Intelligence turned off.
Supposedly, the most frequently asked AI question is "How do I turn off AI?" I don't know if this is true because it was an AI answer to "What is the most frequently asked AI question?"
At least Apple lets one turn AI off. If Apple is smart, they'll continue to slow walk their AI effort until removing it gets them a standing ovation at the WWDC in 2027.
Don’t you believe it. Even when you turn off Apple AI it’s still lingering in the background scanning your documents.
You're right. Apple scans any image file you open supposedly to check for child pornography, but, in theory, for any other material of interest. So much for digitizing that picture of me in my bath when I was two. For now, one can stop this with Little Snitch or a home network firewall, but Little Snitch is vulnerable to Apple API changes and home network firewalls only work at home.
You'd think Apple would be taking a bigger publicity hit for this, but we don't have journalists anymore, at least not on any platform with wide reach. Will text files be next? What about video and audio? One shouldn't have to hide your files from your own computer, especially in the current political climate.
The perverts who like kiddy porn have probably moved over to Linux which is a bit clunky and a pain in the ass most of the time, but auditable and under user control. They were the early users of Mastodon before the Twitter meltdown. The opprobrium kept a lot of people from using the protocol until Elon Musk made it the lesser of two evils.
For every app on iPhone I go into siri and turn off ‘learn from this’. Seems to slow things down.
Same here. I can go this way, now that I'm retired. Before that, I had to be in the Microsoft ecosystem for work. I kept it going until it was time to renew my subscription, and they wanted to up the price and foist a bunch of AI on me, the decision not to renew was not difficult.
This will take monumental effort and also may be problematic in a business setting. There are reasons why it's better for everyone to use the same software. Those reasons are being used against us.
I think we learned from the pandemic lockdown that we do still know how to operate on tribal levels. It's a PITA, and it will lead to many minor squabbles as something else rises to overlordship. Best to be at least mentally prepared for all scenarios.
Libre office plays just fine with MS office files. Most businesses don't really give you the choice though.
What am I doing wrong? I use Libra and I can't send files to colleagues with MS, nor can I open XL spreadsheets.
Don't know. I've never had an issue outside of some minor formatting stuff in really complex MS Word docs. Microsoft made their .docx and .xlsx an open format.
The default formats for libre office are .odt and .ods files and MS Office doesn't read those? Make sure you use "Save As" and save the files with the .docx/.xlsx extension?
Nowadays, LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office can both deal with the other party's format. Compatibility is no longer an issue.
Been using LibreOffice for years, starting with OpenOffice. Completely interchanges with MSOffice, without their hassles.
Not completely interchangeable but certainly good enough for most users. Really complex formatting in MS Word and Excel macros/equations can be problematic.
Good enough for writing and publishing. Macros can get involved.
Be great to have available a list of alternative platforms, including search engines, messenging options and email especially, that don't use AI. When people know what else there is, it becomes a lot easier to choose.
It's being worked on! https://github.com/thatshubham/no-ai
I use DuckDuckGo and I can shovel the AI ‘suggestions’ further down the page at least. It’s extra frustrating when I see people I know sharing the worst slop because it’s cute or what have you. Then I think, maybe I’m being fooled too…maybe?
Use Linux and FOSS. It won’t cure all of your AI ills but it will certainly help. I don’t understand why people still use Microsoft and the Office suite. Unless you have edge cases just use Linux Mint and Libre Office.
I think people confuse being inconvenienced with tyranny.
Thanks Mark. It’s just AI is everywhere and so many organizations embed it that it’s hard to get past.
I’ve found that using it time and time again, I begin to wonder if it’s even thinking for me: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/is-chatgpt-thinking-for-me
It is.
It seems by forcing people to use it, their use is improving the product, so people essentially pay for it twice - the subscription fee and their effort. Copilot assured me all of my data is secure and not being used to train it (my only credit used so far was asking this). Hallucination or accurate response?
also alternatives to google—try Ecosia
Was about to say Ted still using MS is far more of a problem than AI.
List them
Yet.
In a masterclass I teach on brand strategy, one of the teams came up with an idea to revive Kodak as a verifier of visual authenticity. A Kodak watermark, or some sort of metadata, would identify any image or video as either original or doctored, or somewhere in between.
Back in 1990 my brand firm redesigned the retail packaging for Norton Antivirus after Symantec bought it from Peter Norton. During one of our photoshoots with Peter, he told us his story. In return for ungodly sums of money, all he had to do was show up for the odd photoshoot. He spent the rest of his time traveling the world with his family and enjoying his wealth. Meanwhile, his line of products quickly overshadowed all the other products that came out of Symantec. I recommended, unsuccessfully, they rename the company Norton and be done with it.
My prediction is that the first company to market a reliable "AI detector" will become rich beyond the dreams of avarice. And the rest of us will get down on our knees and thank them for it.
Oh yes
Copilot is now costing me an extra $30/year for Microsoft 365. That annoying logo jumps in every time I start to write in Word. I don’t want to see it in Excel, either. The other day I asked it how to get rid of Copilot. This is what it replied:
How to Remove or Disable Copilot
Step-by-Step Guide
Introduction
Copilot is a powerful tool designed to assist users with coding, writing, and other functions. However, if you find it unnecessary or prefer to work without it, you may want to disable or remove it from your system.
Disabling Copilot in Visual Studio Code
Step 1: Open Visual Studio Code
Open the Visual Studio Code application on your computer.
Step 2: Go to Extensions
Click on the Extensions icon in the sidebar or press Ctrl+Shift+X to open the Extensions view.
Step 3: Search for Copilot
In the search bar, type "Copilot" to find the Copilot extension.
Step 4: Disable the Extension
Click on the installed Copilot extension from the search results. You will see an option to "Disable" the extension. Click on it to turn off Copilot.
Uninstalling Copilot in Visual Studio Code
Step 1: Open Visual Studio Code
Open the Visual Studio Code application on your computer.
Step 2: Go to Extensions
Click on the Extensions icon in the sidebar or press Ctrl+Shift+X to open the Extensions view.
Step 3: Search for Copilot
In the search bar, type "Copilot" to find the Copilot extension.
Step 4: Uninstall the Extension
Click on the installed Copilot extension from the search results. You will see an option to "Uninstall" the extension. Click on it to remove Copilot completely.
Disabling Copilot in Microsoft Word
Step 1: Open Microsoft Word
Launch the Microsoft Word application on your computer.
Step 2: Access Add-ins
Go to the "File" menu, select "Options," and then click on "Add-ins."
Step 3: Manage COM Add-ins
In the Manage box, select "COM Add-ins" and click "Go."
Step 4: Disable Copilot
Locate "Copilot" in the list of add-ins, uncheck the box next to it, and click "OK" to disable it.
Uninstalling Copilot from Your System
Step 1: Open Control Panel
Open the Control Panel on your computer.
Step 2: Access Programs and Features
Go to "Programs" and then select "Programs and Features."
Step 3: Find Copilot
Scroll through the list of installed programs to find "Copilot."
Step 4: Uninstall Copilot
Click on "Copilot" and then click the "Uninstall" button. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the uninstallation process.
Conclusion
Whether you prefer to disable or completely remove Copilot from your tools, these steps should help you achieve your goal. By following the appropriate method, you can work without the assistance of Copilot and customize your workspace to suit your preferences.
SOOOOO…I was unable to locate “Visual Studio Code” anywhere on my laptop and was forced to, yes, ask Google. I THEN learned that I would have to DOWNLOAD it in order to rid myself of CoPilot.
I am BEYOND disgusted. By the way, I know that all caps is like shouting, and I rarely ever use all caps. In this case, it is warranted.
I don’t think those instructions are sequential, but rather how to disable it for various applications. Starting at the bottom of what you included, go up about 14 lines, and you should see a line, “Uninstalling Copilot from Your System”. Start there - that should remove it from all MS Office applications on your computer.
Thank you—that is helpful!
How to turn off Copilot in Microsoft 365 and save a quick $30
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2588264/how-to-turn-off-copilot-in-microsoft-365-and-save-a-quick-30.html
You need to cancel your subscription then subscribe to one of the Microsoft 365 Classic plans.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/switching-to-microsoft-365-personal-and-family-classic-plans-58342e83-38e7-4cda-b63b-88604a8fb7ef
This what I did. It works. All my psychotherapy students using MS 365 did the same after I showed them how.
No, it’s just telling you how to disable the copilot extension in VSCode, if you use VSCode (i.e if you’re a software developer). It’s an app-by-app thing.
I retired from software a few years ago. Just in time, apparently, because I pretty much hated every IDE I've ever used and with this extra crap forced on me I would have lost my mind.
Not a level to which I aspire!
Indeed.
It is tragic because back in the 90s and very early 2000s new tech updates or new products were eagerly anticipated and people marveled at what companies came up with. The products were exciting and the market decided what succeeded and what failed and consumers had choices and customization and tech companies actually listened to customers. Sadly, due to the “Steve Jobs Law,” tech companies simply ram what they want down your throat and expect you to like it. Jobs introduced iTunes then the iPhone and believed that consumers didn’t know what they wanted until Apple provided it; it worked spectacularly for awhile because consumers actually enjoyed the simplicity of syncing their music, photos, contacts, and data to their phones. Sadly with A.I., big tech believes that pushing the product on consumers will make them want it more when there is a lot of distrust and concern, and even more insulting, they expect you to pay for it. Today, big tech is a burden, not exciting, and it is also damaging humanity whether they want to or not. Painful customer revolts must happen to pull back this abusive behavior, but I am not holding my breath.
“I fear the day that technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots”- Albert Einstein.
“We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have clearly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That’s a clear prescription for disaster.”- Carl Sagan.
Apple Music has annoyed me ever since they installed the U2 album on my iPhone. I get rid of it for a while and then the darn thing comes back.I have no interest in subscribing to Apple Music and it infuriates me when for whatever nefarious reason U2 starts wailing through my car player.
And, up till very recently I was satisfied with Amazon Music. Now it too has developed a loathsome tic—offering music it thinks I will like when I am listening to music I purchased. I went round and round with customer support. Because I don’t subscribe to Amazon Music, but access it as a Prime customer, there is no way for me to disable this new feature.
It’s a classic case of “you’ll obey and you’ll like it.” If technology companies acted as more our partners instead of just ramming stuff down our throats that we never asked for, they would probably have more trust and respect instead of contempt and scorn. You don’t need to be a Fortune 500 company to be treated as a partner with big tech; you can still customize and charge a fair price for it. Plenty to go around, instead, they are just lazy with forced upgrades and conformity; the new tech isn’t even simpler or innovative, it’s just a giant pain in the ass.
Four months ago, Bill Maher simply NAILED IT with this monologue. You’ll enjoy it especially when it comes to U2 on iTunes that we never wanted. https://youtu.be/DifysK46DO4?si=nJ0JaBkpFVfHCsOG
So many gems in here! A fave:
Tech CEO's motto: If it ain't broke, f**k with it.
Apple music software has always been suboptimal on PCs. I'd never touch it now.
Might i suggest both Bandcamp (you can buy direct from the artists) and Tidal? Downloads (and streaming on Tidal) have extremely high-res options. Tidal's search function needs to be improved, but - as with Spotify - some time spent on searches can help get the algorithms working for you. Qobuz isn't bad, either, just has less of a catalog than Tidal. There are no AI "djs" on any of these things, unlike Spotify.
I had not heard that einstein quote before but how true it is. Sagans as well
Great reply. Loved it
They're writing into their TOS that they can train their AI on your data/content (I.e. you're giving them permission to do so). Charging you for it and inflating their consumption numbers is just the frosting on the LLM cake.
This. You can’t opt out of them using you to train. This is what concerns me.
There either is a way now, or there will be. (I'm hoping.) This sounds both illegal and very actionable.
Maybe there is a way and I’m not fully informed… but they don’t make it easy to find. Looks like I need to do more research. I really wish you had to opt in instead of the changes showing up one day as you’re trying to get work done. Ted’s experience is mine.
Sometimes the answer is: say yes or cancel our service, thanks! So … I’ll look into it.
Thanks for pointing out the "hidden losses" benefit, because I was unable to figure out why they were force-feeding us (other than getting in on the ground floor before prices go up."
There is NOTHING TO LIKE about AI. If you think it gives you a leg up in the creative spheres, you are lazy. That's it. Everything I do can be learned and mastered with practice. You are lazy.
Lazy AND crazy.
The company I work for is embracing it wholeheartedly and it makes me want to cry. There seems to be zero awareness of the vast amounts of energy "playing around with" AI wastes, not to mention how much more difficult it is making teacher's lives (as if they needed anything to make their jobs more difficult).
People never think what their over-reliance on AI will cost them in terms of skills. Paul Graham argues (https://paulgraham.com/writes.html) that there will only be few people around capable of writing. And since deep thinking requires writing, only a few will retain their thinking skills.
But good luck teaching that in school. I already ran out of it...
Plenty of reasons to be upset, but wasting
energy shouldn’t be one of them: https://open.substack.com/pub/andymasley/p/a-cheat-sheet-for-conversations-about?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/05/23/1092777/ai-is-an-energy-hog-this-is-what-it-means-for-climate-change/
Hi Kelle, did you read the linked post? It does a good job of quelling any concerns about individuals playing around with AI, the kind of use you said makes you want to cry. Your link raises some concerns about AI infrastructure and then clarifies that other technologies will be much bigger energy hogs.
I did read it. Here's the rub: "If we build more fossil-fuel plants to meet our growing electricity demand, it’ll come with negative consequences for the climate."
What do you think we'll be doing?
recently read , we burn 4 times the coal worldwide than we did in 2000. I'm quoting from memory but the numbers are something like that or worse. I was very surprised, I like to think myself well informed but the number was staggering. no link, sorry,
Jack
As a professor at a university, we have been early victims of being forced fed AI in the bundles that the university buys for our professional email and our online meetings. This makes it even worse for us to try to regulate AI usage for our students since their university software and these services are also bundled with AI, both confusing and legitimizing AI for student use in, for example English classes. I can tell students that AI isn’t allowed for research or idea generation or the writing of their essays but it’s hard to do this when the services that they use at the university have AI bundled and integrated into it. Very frustrating.
Im of the mind that we could do without alot of what you say we cant. Bc the choice to use it or not is really all we have. Acceptance is submission.
To each their own, but i dont need that shit. Perhaps my life will be slightly less convenient(but is that so bad? Comfort is death, of the soul. Its the hard things that are worth doing, right?), but i dont see whats so convenient about the myriad issues all these conveniences create. Or the lack of capability it fosters in its users.
This type of degradation always occurs in baby steps. They assume theyve already got everybody so stuck that no one can live without their omnipresence. And it sounds like youre conceding that point.
When we want our lives back, we'll remember that our choices got us here, and will get us out. There is no other way. Laws? Ha! Do you really think these politicians work for us? Idk how anybody(except that tippy top of the pyramid) could think that at this point.
I used to think i needed to drink. Asserting my ability to choose to or not to drink freed me from the slavery of that addiction. This is no different. In fact all of life is very much the same. You say ai is being forced on us, as if you have no choice in the matter, but that simply is not true.
Yeah. I never started using Spotify because I <gasp> like to pay musicians for their work. So weird!
And Ted Goia has opened my eyes to the fraudulent Spotify practices!
Nor i, im straight up cds yo! And i feel bad for everyone that has to suffer commercials in the middle of their favorite albums. What a horrible way to enjoy great music:/
Ever tried Bandcamp? You can buy CDs and LPs directly from artists and (mostly small) labels. If you want to buy a download only, you can get FLAC files - and what you've purchased can be streamed as well. I have a feeling you might like it. (I'm sold, but there's so much there that I can't purchase anywhere else - and i do buy CDs when the postage isn't awfully high.)
Oh wow, no i hadnt heard of it but it sounds like its right up my alley. Newer music is notoriously difficult to find on cd. I will definitely check that out, ty
I think it's your kind of thing! I like it a lot, especially b/c of the fact that artists get $. A percentage goes to the service, but Bandcamp Fridays are 1x per month - the artists get *all* of the $ on those days.
We need CDs, just as we need physical books. I think that most people sense that something diabolical is at work, but whether a person does or not, we all understand the power of oligarchs to change content or simply make it unavailable.
Here's a horror story: many of us grew up reading the books of the Edward Stratemeyer syndicate. I think Stratemeyer was a fine fellow. Early in the twentieth century, he realized that one reason children might not be learning to read was that schools tended to make reading a chore to be defeated, not a joy to be basked in. He also wanted to make money.
His writers might be marketed as Franklin W. Dixon, Carolyn Keene, many others. The Stratemeyer syndicate gave the world The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift. I wouldn't recommend that the age six to nine crowd be raised only on such books, but there is no question that they turned a lot of kids into readers and gave kids who were going to be readers something fun, interesting, and prosocial to read.
The following may sound incredible, but it's true: sometime early in the twenty - first century, the Stratemeyer syndicate, or whatever it's called now, decided it had to cleanse its books of bigotry ( that is, purge them of humanity ). I don't know what changes they made to which books to be properly Woke, but I know there is a Facebook group of largely Boomer men which exults when one of its members finds an original text in a Salvation Army thrift shop, and eagerly trades information about where other original texts might be found.
My point is not that the Stratemeyer books are indispensable to civilization, but that if THEY will lobotomize such anodyne things, nothing is safe. We do need to be storing physical books and CDs.
Received a Kindle for Father’s Day many years ago - about the 2nd or 3rd generation.
Not long after, a small scandal erupted because Kindle removed a book that some people had purchased. It simply disappeared!
That’s when I started going back to physical books instead. Haven’t bought but maybe one or two Kindle books in the last 5 years.
Hear hear! I wholeheartedly agree, and am doing my part. Purely for selfish reasons(bc the streaming music experience is trash imo), but with a cd burner i can disseminate these works to anyone who wants them(which rn is nobody i know lol, but that will change).
I did not know the censorship had gotten that bad already. That gives me a sense of urgency to acquire as much original music(and literature, im an avid reader of paper books) as i can, while i can. Bc youre right, nothing is safe, from either "lobotomizing" or ai corruption. Ive seen the ai generated albums of my favorite artists, and think thats revolting. My first thought was for younger people, who will not know the difference if its not labeled as such, and how much that will degrade the catalogue. More disturbing were the comments, of diehard fans(so they say), praising these frauds. But ofc theyre so addicted to the streaming experience, which requires ever newer fodder for the FEED, that they welcome this trash.
This all makes the premise of the movie the book of eli seem not far fetched at all. (Which reminds me that movies and tv shows are also in danger. Ive heard certain episodes of certain shows have been removed or edited on streaming platforms. For shame!)
We just need to remember that Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
I like what you say about missing some convenience for the sake of one's dignity. I have come to see the following: Convenience is the opiate of the compliant. It really is undignified.
Good news: Zealous overreach usually precedes the death of a movement/idea/concept.
Tick tock...
It's the same story as smart meters. They forced people to install them before they themselves understood how they worked. I spent two years fighting one of the highest rated energy companies over various errors they made when my smart meter was installed, at considerable cost to my mental health. Despite all the evidence I sent them they absolutely refused to admit anything was wrong until I took them to the Ombudsman, who found in my favour. And now I've had problems with with another highly rated company , who sent me a vastly inflated bill estimated bill when my smart meter (their smart meter actually) stopped working last summer, and they didn't replace it for four months. It wasn't till I cancelled my direct debit and refused to close my complaint that they've just stopped gaslighting me and admitted their billing was wrong. And these are meant to be the best!
Jeeez
Try switching from Google to Ecosia. Works on iPhone as well and no AI!
Literally, just type "-AI" before the Google search term to bypass AI responses.
I join the yowling but grateful chorus who have never heard of this, either. Thank you.
Shit! This works! At least my try of it did. Wow, thats awesome, why is this the first im hearing of it?! Idk but ty!
Thanks for this — will try this out
Duck Duck Go also lets you adjust settings for AI.
Yeah, I've been using it on Android for years and it works rather well.
💯 “But I don’t want to use it. I want to kill it.” - and it makes me long for the simpler days when Clippy was the annoyance.
Another problem with AI is that it has people questioning everything and trusting nothing. The other day I was watching a youtube video. I know the person speaking is a real person, and yet, they were talking in a staccato way that made me sure the voice was a bot. I don't know if people are starting to mimic bots because that's what they think the public expect a youtube voice to sound like or if this guy while happy to speak on camera doesn't like his voice so dubs it with a bot. All I know is that if a video says it's "auto-dubbed" or if I suspect that what I'm watching is not a real person, but an AI, then I hit "don't recommend channel" so fast it would make your head spin.
I think mimicking bots is A Thing now. :(
A Dumb Thing!
Yeah, it's wild.
…i noticed something creepy happening in conversations around these days where if anyone tries to talk bad about a.i. certain type of folks will immediately go nuclear and say we shouldn’t talk about that anymore…if you don’t see a.i. as just another tool we aren’t going to be able to agree…some odd version of that, usually with a tech friendly aspiring entrepreneur or trustafarian pathless wonder…i fear the future will be A.I. OR DIE for all incoming generations for better, or as I assume, worse…
I mean… maybe you just are running into shitty people? All my friends are anti-AI but they’re also pro-literacy and artisans I guess
That is ominous. And as we all know, Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
Some people really have an intimate relationship with certain chat bots. The same happened back in the days when Joseph von Weizenbaum unleashed Eliza as a kind of joke.
I have students that spend a lot of time "discussing" personal issues with AI. (Maybe because nobody else likes to listen to them four hours.) Talking about AI to them is like talking about their girl friend's issues.
No it won't be that bad, though it will appear so. But you'll have to put a serious effort into finding other routes. There is always a way out, it's a universal law.