Fellow journos covering "AI": Please don't do their PR for them! "Virtual employees" is a harmful anthropomorphism in that it (a) is false; (b) confuses readers about the emerging technology and inaccurately lends human attributes like agency, accountability, etc.; and (c) harms humans in real jobs. - ThreadSky

jdshadel.com • 170 days ago

Fellow journos covering "AI": Please don't do their PR for them! "Virtual employees" is a harmful anthropomorphism in that it (a) is false; (b) confuses readers about the emerging technology and inaccurately lends human attributes like agency, accountability, etc.; and (c) harms humans in real jobs.

Reposted from The Guardian

‘Virtual employees’ could join workforce as soon as this year, OpenAI boss says

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jdshadel.com•159 days ago

Update: I go deeper on the topic of "AI-sterity" in the creative industries — touching briefly on what's happening in journalism, too — here: https://www.esckey.co/the-age-of-ai-sterity/

jdshadel.com•170 days ago

I am now used to seeing the PR lines from the "AI" companies picked up by journalists at this point. I understand how it happens.

But it does bother me that there's not more critical imagination around how to execute this coverage, which is so needed to improve literacy around the tech. AND ...

jdshadel.com•170 days ago

In media work, repeating the hype is, ultimately, a self-inflicted wound — damaging to the work newsrooms do, which is consequently fundamental to democracy.

jdshadel.com•170 days ago

Essential listening on this topic is, of course, the MAIHT3K podcast episode from last March when leading tech journalist @karenhao.bsky.social joins @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social for a discussion on how "LLMs are breaking the news."
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/14807430

pi-b-sd.bsky.social•170 days ago

I expected a plot twist :( like Altman having been a virtual CEO all along.

jakeaevinger.bsky.social•134 days ago

"Virtual employees" should not be a thing. Algorithms are not themselves labor.

markboyd.bsky.social•170 days ago

The guardian has a poor history of tech reporting: their whole “oligarchs go to the moon” PR reporting a few years back is their default tech media news shtick in the same way that their reporting on any poll is how they do political news now. I recommend @molly.wiki @edzitron.com & @404media.co

jdshadel.com•170 days ago

Big fan of what @404media.co are building — and an excellent example of not only top reporting but journalists building a sustainable independent media biz. We love to see it.

yappydagger.bsky.social•169 days ago

Agree

markboyd.bsky.social•170 days ago

Also, FTC just announced a ton of info on the harms of AI this week, im guessing they didnt cover any of this: https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc/2025/01/ai-risk-consumer-harm

carlwilhoyte.bsky.social•170 days ago

Also all of this crap is based on a vague, undefinable promise of future functionality: not a proven use case of what already exists.

"AI" as it exists creates nothing new.

jdshadel.com•170 days ago

100%!

kindrobot.bsky.social•170 days ago

In the original blog post, Altman says everything and its opposite. Mixing certainty and uncertainty.
After two years he's not able to quote one customer success story. Not one.
Not one specific useful use case for humanity that he could use as flagship.
Big empty statements. Microwaved porridge.

pmdempsey.com•148 days ago

I'm also increasingly of the view that all of Altman's statements should first be judged against one yardstick: How much closer is this intended to get OpenAI to IPO?

notimeforbs.bsky.social•170 days ago

It'd be understandable to mistake much of the media's role as simply to make the unsavory parts of an oligarchical society more palatable.

keremgoart.bsky.social•166 days ago

💯💯💯

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