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A community turned to a grift
(lemmy.nz)
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/52274500
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this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2026
655 points (97.4% liked)
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This is disconnected from reality. The "library" is still there and still free. No one is charging anyone admission. They're charging admission to a different transformative work based on that library, but you haven't lost anything you had before if you refuse to pay.
They are literally destroying books. No, the library is not still there: https://www.techspot.com/news/113277-ai-firms-quietly-buying-destroying-millions-printed-books.html
Hard disagree, as there is no way to effectively filter the genuine content from the AI produced slop, you end up wasting your time trying to find any genuine information, and the problem with generative AI being used like this is that it effects literally every topic you could ever want to search for a topic for, niche legal questions? Gardening question? Medical question?
AI generated websites now fill up most results obscuring you from even finding that original "library"
And that's not even addressing the fact that anyone who isn't as savvy at spotting this stuff ends up falling for it
I often go down YouTube rabbit holes for different topics: Warhammer 40k, film making and critique, video game development history etc. Once upon a time I’d find a good channel or two and binge them but now there are so many AI channels that feed off legitimate creators and smother them that I have to check that a source for a video on servitors in the 41st millennium is made by an actual human.
AI isn’t just harming serious legitimate topics of discussion but even niche hobby content. It’s why I value the creators I’ve followed for years even more now than ever.
So you're shit at searching and are blaming something else?
It's not being shit at searching. I find that google has become almost unusable for me. It's been on a steady decline for years now, but in recent months I pretty much can't use it if I want to find anything remotely specific. And god forbid that I need to find something that uses similar terms to a more common search querry, then I can forget it. I basically can't use it for coding or literature research anymore and I am forced to use AI.
Which performs ever so slightly better, but is still shit.
They aren't even charging admission for that. Most of the apps don't charge for basic information queries, eg. Google AI overviews, they charge for token intensive agentic workflows.
Also open source models exist too.