Amazon Recap

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

I don't believe that. Fans started dropping Amazon Prime and Crunchyroll when the respective service started rolling out AI-generated subtitles, and in Amazon's particularly egregious case, AI-dubs:

https://www.cbr.com/ai-ruining-anime...ersy-analysis/

The moral component of AI is harder to argue, but the more practical point is simply that AI-generated content is objectively worse. And demanding quality is well within the prerogative of the consumer.

It is objectively worse at the moment. In a decade or two? I'm not so sure.

[tomsem]

What I would like to see is some sort of 'nutritional label' for a given AI application (probably needs to be some NGO funded by donations/bequests):

Per request:
- energy consumption
- how much of that energy consumption is renewable
- water consumption
- what do the locals get out of 'hosting' data centers, etc., if anything?
- human curation person hours
- what human curators were paid for their work and some disclosure of working conditions
- data sources used for training models
- what if any royalties paid out for data

etc.

Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple, OpenAI etc would ideally participate in audits so that the rating estimates would have some meaning and allow them to label their application accordingly. I believe there are academic studies that attempt to assess this sort of thing, but it needs to be more comprehensive and available to public at large.

Food nutrition labels aren't perfect but they can be very helpful.

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I kind of assumed that Amazon Recap was one of those end-of-year things that everyone is doing. How much you used amazon services. How many kindle books you read. How much you watched on Prime Video.

I wondered why everyone was suddenly talking about AI.

The thread title is just one of two features listed on the press release. There is the "Ask this Book" which is the AI-generated X-Ray like feature. Recaps does a summary, partially as you assume, but it gives a summary of the books in a series, not your overall progress.

[ZodWallop]

I don't use the Kindle app. Don't have iOS in fact. But I cannot imagine deleting it because of a feature as innocuous as this.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I don't use the Kindle app. Don't have iOS in fact. But I cannot imagine deleting it because of a feature as innocuous as this.

Do read the AI thread over in the calibre forum. People are saying they won't update their calibre version because there is inactive AI code in the latest version. Yes, inactive - it requires the user to configure the AI, else it's dormant. And folks are up in arms about it.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Do read the AI thread over in the calibre forum. People are saying they won't update their calibre version because there is inactive AI code in the latest version. Yes, inactive - it requires the user to configure the AI, else it's dormant. And folks are up in arms about it.

To the geniuses who delete the app due to their AI stance, Amazon has already had the Ask Rufus nonsense on their site for a while now, so what were they doing interacting with Amazon in the first place?

Much of the AI stuff reminds me of when Alexa/Google Assistant smart home devices initially rolled out. We all thought it was the future, for better or worse. And look what has happened there.

I think much of AI is a bubble and many would be better about being more selective in their outrage.

AI replacing me in my data handling/customer service job within a few years is a very real and scary possibility. Possibly an inevitability. There's something to aim your outrage at.

A passive feature that may be useful for some and will be ignored by most and will possibly be scaled back when it turns out to be cost prohibitive just seems silly.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

AI replacing me in my data handling/customer service job within a few years is a very real and scary possibility. Possibly an inevitability. There's something to aim your outrage at.

It already happened to me, a few years ago. The data handling part, I mean (I didn't do customer service). But this was a change predicted long ago, even before all the AI stuff, so I wasn't surprised. Any technical progress will always render some jobs obsolete.

Whether AIs are the future or not, no one knows at the moment. But I think something will replace all humans in jobs not requiring specific skills one day.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It is objectively worse at the moment. In a decade or two? I'm not so sure.

I am suspicious of the idea that an AI could ever accurately tell me the meaning of "The Masque of the Red Death" because an AI cannot think. Any insight the AI might be able to communicate about analysis, interpretations, allegorical meaning, etc. would strictly derive from data it ingested about the book from other sources.

How will that work, though, if it's an on-demand AI analysis on an Amazon book that has just been released? There would be no Wikipedia entry, no Goodreads discussions, no blog reviews to pull from. And that's where I think the AI's attempts to scrounge something together would turn laughable.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

I am suspicious of the idea that an AI could ever accurately tell me the meaning of "The Masque of the Red Death" because an AI cannot think. Any insight the AI might be able to communicate about analysis, interpretations, allegorical meaning, etc. would strictly derive from data it ingested about the book from other sources.

How will that work, though, if it's an on-demand AI analysis on an Amazon book that has just been released? There would be no Wikipedia entry, no Goodreads discussions, no blog reviews to pull from. And that's where I think the AI's attempts to scrounge something together would turn laughable.

I guess we'll see. I'm perfectly aware that a lot (maybe even most) of the AI stuff is pretty much horseshit right now. Personally I've used it very, very little. But what's it going to be in 20-30 years? Or perhaps something else, better, has replaced it by then?

I mean, when I look back on my childhood in the 70's, the world has changed immensely since then. And I'm not even really old yet (I'm 53). Who could have predicted all those changes back then?

[tsgreer]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It is objectively worse at the moment. In a decade or two? I'm not so sure.

I doubt it’ll even take that long. Give it a couple of years. People who are hard anti-AI are going to have a rough time. lol

I spent most of my career as a graphic artist, and I watched the exact same panic play out with CGI. Everyone swore they’d never support it. Now it’s in every game, most TV shows, and nearly every movie.

Before that, people said video game art had to be drawn pixel by pixel by hand or it didn’t count. That didn’t last. Same thing when Photoshop showed up. Folks acted like using digital tools instead of paint was cheating, or worse. I was there for that shift too. My office in California beta-tested the very first version of Photoshop.

None of those tools went away. They just became normal. AI will do the same. Adapt or get left behind.

The one thing I actually refuse to support is subscription software. I used Photoshop my entire career, starting with that early beta, and I finally dropped it. There are plenty of free or low-cost tools that do what I need. I’m not paying twenty bucks a month for permission to use software. And I never buy anything DRM if I can't de-DRM it. I sideload every single ebook I have.

I never upgraded past Kindle 3 (and won't), and I have spare parts, spare Kindle 3's and spare batteries/screens for it. I have enough ebooks downloaded to last me the rest of my life. If everything really does go full subscription forever, I’ll happily check out and live as an old-school tech offline hermit.

[John F]

Originally Posted by tsgreer

Doubt it will even be that long. Probably in a couple of years. The anti-AI people are gonna have a really rough time in a bit. lol

...

Can someone refresh my memory: when a new Kobo reader comes out, does calibre get updated, or just a plugin?

[slm]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

I am suspicious of the idea that an AI could ever accurately tell me the meaning of "The Masque of the Red Death"

Well here is what Google's AI answers to "what it the meaning of the 'The Masque of the Red Death':


"The Masque of the Red Death" means that death is inevitable and cannot be escaped, no matter how wealthy, powerful, or isolated you are, serving as an allegory for human mortality, the futility of defying fate, and the illusion of control over life's end. Prince Prospero's opulent party and fortress symbolize attempts to deny reality, but the mysterious Red Death figure always breaks through, showing that everyone, rich or poor, faces the same end.
Key Meanings & Themes:
Inevitability of Death: The story's central message is that death conquers all; no one can cheat it.
Futility of Escape: Prospero's abbey is a metaphor for attempts to wall off suffering, but it ultimately fails, highlighting that such defenses are illusions.
Allegory for Life & Time: The seven colored rooms represent the stages of life, and the chiming clock symbolizes the relentless passage of time, reminding guests of their mortality.
Social Commentary: It can also be seen as a critique of the elite (like Prospero) who try to ignore the suffering of the masses, only to be consumed by the same fate.
Symbolism: The Red Death itself represents death, but also the inescapable nature of mortality, while the masked guests embody humanity's varied, often foolish, responses to its own demise.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by tsgreer

I doubt it’ll even take that long. Give it a couple of years. People who are hard anti-AI are going to have a rough time. lol

I spent most of my career as a graphic artist, and I watched the exact same panic play out with CGI. Everyone swore they’d never support it. Now it’s in every game, most TV shows, and nearly every movie.

Before that, people said video game art had to be drawn pixel by pixel by hand or it didn’t count. That didn’t last. Same thing when Photoshop showed up. Folks acted like using digital tools instead of paint was cheating, or worse. I was there for that shift too. My office in California beta-tested the very first version of Photoshop.

None of those tools went away. They just became normal. AI will do the same. Adapt or get left behind.

Heh. Back when the printing press was invented in the 15th century, there was a lot of wailing and moaning about how the hand-written books were REAL BOOKS, shining examples of human creativity, and printed books were ugly, soulless pieces of mechanical production that could never replace real books.

(Well, I actually made that up, but it might well have been true).

That's how it has always been. Everything changes, except for humans themselves, it seems.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by John F

Can someone refresh my memory: when a new Kobo reader comes out, does calibre get updated, or just a plugin?

Calibre.

[tsgreer]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Heh. Back when the printing press was invented in the 15th century, there was a lot of wailing and moaning about how the hand-written books were REAL BOOKS

When the printing press appeared, there was serious pushback. Especially from people and govts that relied on controlling access to knowledge.

Hand-copying scribes lost their livelihoods, and religious and political authorities worried about losing control since ordinary people would be able own books and read ideas for themselves.

I didn't get laid off or anything because of tech, but I could see that it was going to happen. So I looked ahead, switched careers made a good go of it, then I retired early (for way less money!), so I wouldn't have to deal with crap anymore. I'm 55, so it's one of the few benefits of getting old. lol

So yeah, different ingredients now, but the same complaints from people. I'd think that in a tech forum like this one, we would be a little more accepting of newer tech.