New Xbox & AI CEO announced via Twitter ( not calling it x) the new “hybrid” console that will play Xbox and PC games.
In other words you know just a PC. Thus far it seems the system will use the exact same Xbox desktop experience as the “rog ally”.
While we all saw it coming and there isn’t much surprise. This to me says Xbox is dead as a platform.
It’s going to be expensive, it’s going to have Windows. It’s going to have co-pilot it’s going to have the same pop ups.
At least we get an Ally ROG desktop at most a Surface Gaming Desktop. Either honestly is a terrible idea. There will be most affordable options not tied to windows there will be mode powerful options at the same price. Even if you like the idea of going all in PC gaming this won’t be your best option.
If you want to stay a console gamer you’re going to have to switch teams …
RIP Xbox.
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Xbox Windows X11 (not to be confused with Xorg X11 or DX11)
Live announcement on X (not to be confused with Xbox Series X or Xbox One X)
Anyways rip NT Kernel lol. Now there really isn’t any use case left where it would actually be useful.
I think Xbox is shutting its console side to compete directly with the PC market. Head-to-head with valve. Good luck. And by that I mean eat shit Microslop
You need log into your microsoft account and give us your goverment ID to start using your Windows Computer, powered by Copilot. Would you like to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass with Copilot? Would you like CoPilot to play games for you? Copilot is very helpful, it can take screenshots of your whole screen every few seconds to help remind you of what you were doing 3 months ago. Copilot is very helpful, it can work your browser, manage your files, write your letters, use your computer for you! All you need to do is say, Hey Copilot, because Copilot is always ready to listen to you! You want to install a software? Downloading software from sites can lead to malicious spyware! Use the Windows store instead! You need to log in to your microslop account and give us your goverment ID to browse the Windows Store. Windows is so useful, it can give you weather updates, remind you of that thing you were looking to buy, things you were looking for, straight from your Start menu and task bar! You want to install Steam? I’m sorry that’s not available in the Windows Store, consider Subscribing to Xbox Game pass instead! You want to run something outside of our guardrails? Don’t worry, if something goes wrong, you can use Recall to see whatever it is you were doing before you did something you regret!
Ok, I can’t keep this up. I cannot fathom why the fuck anyone would tolerate Windows… No game, no software, no nothing, is worth keeping literal bloated spyware that wants to drain your wallet, safety, and privacy. – I will continue to say this;
Just Switch to Linux. If you really need a guidance, just use Linux Mint or Zorin. Explore and try other things, don’t be afraid of making the wrong choice, just pick a flavor, learn it, and own your stuff back.
If I’m going to buy a PC type console, it’ll be the steam machine. No idea why anyone would go for something that has windows on it at this point. I guess some will buy it because it has the Xbox name but the value of that is waning.
Tiny caveat: If the “windows tax” is less than the cost of building the device by parts – which it might be – then buying a new XBox Series X 360 Box X Box 360 One and installing linux on it might be a cost savings for a consumer… assuming no signed OS fuckery.
Good idea, but I 100% expect the bios to be locked down and force secure boot. Hopefully there would at least be a work around to enroll new keys, but don’t count on it.
Maybe the online features of Xbox like multiplayer and such are going to be a factor in people wanting to stay. Network effect …
Consoles were just weird very restricted PCs for decades now, it’s nothing new really. If anything, making it more open will be better, there is no other need to keep it restricted other than making it unupgradable so you have to pay for a new one every generation.
In other ways, good, now do the same with PS.Let’s agree to disagree then.
It’s not a like for like experience no matter how you slice it.
I know this is going out to an audience who regularly self hosts and runs Linux.
But not everyone has the same technical skill level and the experiences are not ideal for everyone.
When the games stopped shipping completely on their physical media is when they lost me. So, I guess PS3. To me, a console should be a completely self-contained experience. You want a game? You buy it. It comes on a disc, or cartridge, or HuCard. Doesn’t need to download updates. Doesn’t require the internet. Just pop it in, and boot directly to a game. Immune to digital stores closing, or servers shutting down.
If I have to download 50gb when I bought a game on discord, what are the discs even for? And I would still have to worry about disk space? Man, I’d rather just have a PC.
If you don’t have enough technical skill level and experience to install a game via steam, gog, or (bleh) epic games, you don’t have enough technical expertise to do the same on any console, including ones that require you to just put a cartridge in. Pressing “install” button and waiting for a while to then press “play” button might be less complicated than figuring out which side disk goes. And that’s exactly what is required to play a computer game.
It is not like-for-like experience, because a general purpose computer allows you to do a bit more than playing a game, but in terms of actually doing it, let’s not pretend it’s some kind of rocket surgery.There is more than just that when it comes to PC games
System requirements: RAM , CPU clock speed , GPU. And even if your requirements match there is no guarantee the game will work well. MW 2019 has stutters on my machine. No explanation to why ! I can play Indiana Jones at High settings no problem.
Consoles are literally just computers. Install game -> play game. There’s no magic “technical skill” required to do the same thing on a less locked down computer instead.
I think the steamdeck is the closest to a console-like experience, but yeah consoles have been PCs for a long time they just make it very simple to install/load games because it is a closed platform where they control every aspect of distribution
I understand the frustration with Xbox slowly dying, but this is all microslop’s fault.
It just sounds like a Steam Box that also steals your data.
And then feeds it into the actual orphan crushing machine
…and likely has better compatibility with more Windows games, which are most games.
Microsoft has the existing expertise and access to source to build a very effective and basically seamless compatibility layer, akin to how 32-bit apps run on x64 windows using WoW64 (Windows on Windows 64). I guess the real question is if it will be running real windows with an Xbox compatibility layer or a version of the Xbox modified windows with a regular windows compatibility layer.
They have the expertise, just not the desire. Which explains why in 2026, proton and wine manage to run more Windows apps (well) than Windows.
Proton consistently shows better performance results than running the same game natively on Windows. Despite having a bunch of experience, Microsoft consistently shows that there is always a way to make a thing worse.
How much you wanna bet it’ll just be a pc you can’t uninstall windows from?
This is just the needle pushing more towards subscription models for all the things.
In a few years you won’t own games or game systems, you will have a controller to the side of your monitor and all your PC functions will be outsourced to a microsoft server and your games will be streamed to you according to whatever subscription tier you’re on.
If you all want to stop this, STOP BUYING NEW GAMES. Just put the stupid fucking companies out of business, we can “acquire” plenty of PC games for our PC’s and there are vast numbers of used games out there, alongside whatever is kicking around in our steam libraries that we didn’t have the attention span to even try. Let’s go on a spending diet and enjoy the lives we have for a little while until the oligarchs all starve.
Bold of you to assume the oligarchs will starve when they can always print money out of thin air while the rest of us pay for it in inflation.
Well, to be more correct, if they see a venture or tactic of theirs isn’t paying off as their delusional AI’s told them it would, we can at least get them to scrap that direction and try something else. We’ll never actually “stop” them, but we can use the thing we have, that they want, to at least direct them away from the places that they are causing harm to things we want to preserve.
I am under no expectation of this happening at all, we have hundreds of millions of families who will throw whatever new, shiny, mainstream tech-toys and “blockbuster” releases at their kids as a babysitter, those are the breadbasket of the tech and entertainment companies.
I’m confused by the pessimistic reactions, though.
Companies converging towards the semi-open platform is a good thing. The locked down hardware and exclusives are not something we as customers asked for. It was something the cartel just shoved down our throats.
What bothers me is the backwards compatibility that microsoft has always just hand-waved in regards to the sunsetting of the xbox HW. A clear yes or no would be nice.
I, for a long time, wanted Microsoft to delete the difference between PC and Console. They are the same hardware, they can run the same software. Valve achieved this with the Steam Deck. I just wonder how Microsoft is going to fuck it up.
I’m confused by the pessimistic reactions, though.
Microsoft has done an amazing job of destroying good-will. And it’s why I and an increasing share of people stopped using Windows (I still have to suffer with it at work though). For any gaming PC that runs Windows:
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Why is there a pre-installed Xbox app in Windows? It doesn’t help play Steam, or Epic, or GOG, or even Amazon games. I don’t think it even helps with Windows Store games…
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Why are there ads in the start menu?
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Why are there two control panels? Why do I always have to hunt to find the old one because the new one doesn’t do what is needed?
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Why are there popup ads in the notification area?
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Why do I need an online account, or a hidden fucking terminal, just to get the OS going?
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Why is Copilot fucking everywhere?
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Why does the OS hoover fuckloads of data and send it to Microsoft?
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Why is there pre-installed bloatware?
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No, but seriously, why are there ads?
These are all questions that are relevant when you ask about why people are pessimistic about Windows as a gaming system. But with the merge of Windows and Xbox, all of the above questions apply, but you also get to add:
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How locked down will this merged thing be?
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Will multiplayer require monthly payments?
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Will it have backwards compatibility?
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Will they find another place to shove copilot?
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How many extra ads will there be?
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In emulation and retro gaming forums I frequent the reactions seem mostly positive. Lots of questions surrounding backwards compatibility of course.
Oh God I know this will go over many people’s heads but I was listening to a podcast where they where talking about the renewal of CUSMA (or USMCA for you Americans) and a senator said “I’m half inclined to think Donald Trump is ready to make a decision” to which Rob Russo, a journalist, rightly pointed out that was not clarity it is infact the absence of clarity. He then said, and this is why I laugh and the yes/no comment is so true.
“If I told my wife ‘Im half inclined to take the garbage out today’ she would not say that is a clear answer as to if I was going to do it”
Political and Business language needs to fuck off.
Microsoft was already releasing games on PC. All this does is removes any dedicated hardware. Officially forcing windows down Xbox gamers throats. One less option in the space not really one more.
Windows is not the future for gaming. Windows shouldn’t be anyone’s future
You realize PC is not just Windows, right? It’s Windows, Linux, Mac.
Windows might be the most used PC platform but game developer are well aware attaching their success to Windows is not the right move. And that’s exactly the kind of freedom PC gives that consoles do not.
I’m not sure if you understand the point of my post. Yes PC is not just Windows. But the whole point of this product will be the “Xbox experience” which is installed on WINDOWS. Sure you can buy this box and then just install Bazzite or whatever. But why wait for this “box” to do it ? Just build a custom PC which is guaranteed to be better value and something you can do right now ?
I’m not attacking PC gaming. I love PC gaming. But this is in the context of an dedicated gaming console. Which for Xbox is going away.
My point is I see little value in the move. My point is I believe it’s the wrong approach. Valves approach with their baked in software is much better.
I mean, your post says “Forcing windows down Xbox gamers throats”. So people that are already in the locked down Xbox ecosystem, not people that already know that and avoid Xbox. Xbox is just Windows but locked down. It’s both Microsoft.
I completely agree people should just go for a PC, but if someone was buying Xbox already, they aren’t in the mindset. So if they’re going to buy Xbox anyways, having a device that’s not locked down to some console OS means they can switch at any time and rid themselves of Xbox, since it’s your device. To me that’s definitely an improvement over the status quo, even if other better options were already available.
But think of the AI agents that need to work on it!!!
Will they call it Xbox copilot? I can not and will not own any device that runs on software from Microsoft. Never again.
Watch it not even be able to play native 360 titles due to the architecture. Gears of War 2 and 3 will be locked to consoles forever if that happens.
Reminds me of all the posts that say “but can it run crysis?”
Some games are just really difficult to emulate without original hardware.
The Xbone and Xbox SeX can play 360 games just fine, and they are essentially PCs running modified Windows.
Right, but you cannot play those two games on PC. So if the new console PC hybrid uses Windows, I don’t forsee those games running. I may be missing something though.
The newer Xboxes already run Windows. MS could distribute their 360 emulator on regular Windows.
Ahhhh, very good point. I wonder if they just didn’t feel it was necessary to do, or there was some technical hurdle in the way. Here’s hoping they can get something going and maybe bring it to Win11 too so then the Linux guys can get to work on making it compatible.
Xbox 360 emulation is getting better, so it would be playable on pc.
I wouldn’t worry to much about that. Microsoft can build out additional emulation to support those games. Now how much of they can pull from what’s been done with Xbox One / Series that remains unclear.
They can always “borrow” from the foss community and just use their emulators.
I wouldn’t expect the same upgrades you saw with the old back compat catalogue. But hopefully it’s as functional as it was on its OG hardware.
But whatever they do I know the community will be able to improve upon for the whole PC space to utilize without needing to pay Shitsoft for it …
Don’t be silly, they’ll be happy to make a vibe coded remaster for it and charge $80 a piece.
$119 a piece, don’t forget about those poor shareholders.
Dumb marketing speak aside, the general thrust of just turning Xbox into a brand for Microsoft games Studios to release games on Windows and maybe other platforms one day doesn’t seem like all that bad of an idea to me.
I want more easy access to more open and flexible platforms in my everyday life, not less. If the traditional console has to go away for us to get the proliferation of “PC games” as the default in ways the average person can easily use that seems like a win for the gaming market overall.
Consoles aren’t going anywhere. I understand this crowd isn’t going to understand why. As half of you this morning for funsies decided to self host an instance of a discord clone on a toaster you found on the side of the road. Using Arch Linux of course !!
But the majority of people that aren’t on here the majority of people you know Microsoft is actually salivating to take money from aren’t. And I can tell from Xbox one to Kinnect those are the people they want !!
Steam deck over its 4 years has sold roughly around 5 million world wide. Switch 2 in less than a year has sold nearly 17 million !
The goal of this “new” Xbox is to get Windows for more normies into their living room. And Microsoft going to recoup share they lost overtime to smartphones and others. And to me I don’t see that working like at all …
Xbox is dead as a platform and this new strategy will be dead on arrival.
My SeXbox Series SeX has sat in the corner, unplugged, since a few months after the OG Legion Go came out. At first, it was because I preferred the experience on my LeGo. But that’s now turned into me not wanting to receive updates, in case someone finally figures out how to install Linux on the thing and that it requires an older firmware.
All xbox series s and x consoles are made to die. Microsoft put the hardware key in a 1 gb partition on the SSD that is encrypted and in XFBS format nothing can read. All those consoles will be trash in less than 10 years. So until we get the full schematics and a microsoft ex employee to tell us how to get around the partition, they are all going to break and be unrepairable.
…XFBS format nothing can read… for now. At the rate Microsoft recycles their staff, we will have some of them out in the wild one day with the full work around to reformat this abomination.
The console has potential if we can fix the heat issues and the stupid SSD failing issue.
With Steam Machine being announced and price about to be released, new xbox is dead even before arrival. I will be totally bemused if gamers will chose new xbox/pc over Steam Machines.
With the inability to obtain hardware for new PCs and other computing devices (for reference see how hard it is to get a hold of a steam deck these days). I’m not sure if the steam machine is ever going to come to fruition while the AI boom continues to fuck up the market.
Yep, and I wager the steam machine is probably going to be, at minimum, 50% more expensive than valve planned it to be, which more than likely will kill it on arrival as far as price/performance goes.
Will there be die hards who buy it no matter the price? yeah… but i wager it’ll see a fraction of sales that the deck did, due to ram and storage price bullshit thanks to AI fucking everything up.
I will concede that it will be more expensive, but so will all computing devices. There will be some people who just can’t afford it, but I don’t think people will specifically avoid it due to price. Since a new computer will also have that same increase in price.
I can agree on AI being bullshit though.
The contracts for the Steam Machine were already locked in before RAM and GPU shortage even started, which means they will (like other consoles) be able to provide a reserved amount of devices at a fixed and lower price. But likewise, this also means that for any console that did not have contracts locked in before shit went down, will suffer massively from this. Thus looking at current prices for hardware isn’t indicative of how much prices will rise. Steam Machine could be the most affordable gaming device of the next decade.
But Valve also isn’t stupid. PC has the unique position where it has one of the longest backlogs of backwards compatible games and applications. Which means you don’t need top of the line hardware. People are still gaming on 10 year old PCs, so the hardware for those will be much more affordable and still be able to play most games. Especially indie games with their insane price to performance to quality ratios. If top line gaming on PC becomes economically unviable, it will simply move down a notch.
You think the average person will buy a more expensive box that doesn’t play COD, FIFA, etc?
No prices for both new xbox and Steam Machines has been announced. How do you know which would be more expensive?
Because MS will throw any amount of losses at this to keep themselves in the game.
Plus making games deliberately incompatible with the GabeCube will be trivial if it comes to that.
Valve can throw a lot of resources behind what they’re doing, but it’s a drop in the ocean compared to what MS can spend. At the end of the day Valve can only really match current consumer pricing, and even with 16GB RAM and 8GB GPU, that isn’t cheap.
Oh we do have a lot of Microsuckers in this world who will choose this over the Steam Machine because “It is well integrated into the system” bullshit.
“XBOX game pass is heaps better than Steam” - said no one ever
Better integrated than Steam? I’d be curious to hear how.
If it’s allowed to run Linux, it’ll be better than the Steam Machine.
Microslop, for their faults, actually does get custom hardware from AMD - Valve uses repurposed parts which is much cheaper for their smaller runs.
I think it’ll be fully locked down though, but if it’s not - i’d wager it’ll make a better Steam Machine than Steam Machine.
Probably not so much as “better” as it would be “almost as good for cheaper”.
The bespoke AMD part is an exercise in cost management. iGPU is more affordable but usually pretty low end. The bespoke AMD solution is an iGPU bumped up to a nearly on par with a mid tier discrete GPU.
If released with same generation of tech, I would expect the steam machine to have higher performance but at a disproportional higher price.
Have they said they are ready to commit to a price somewhere? The timing of the steam machine and the ballooning price of disk space and RAM is comically tragic.
Not that I know of. They supposed to announce prices in the first quarter of 2026 but due to memory shortage they have postponed it. As for shipping, they have claimed that they are still planning to launch shipping by the end of first half of 2026. Price is estimated at $800-$1000. Shortage might increase it.
Steam Machine, Steam Deck, Steam Frame. Pick your level of console.
Steam EVA Unit is my pick.
Only if it’s Gabe shaped
If you pilot from the stomach area you would have extra padding
Worth the weight
… Thanks, I’ve discovered an entirely new form of hatred, thanks to that comment.
I need the gaben Eva to vore me
List of things I buy the instant they will take my money. Also, grapheneos phone.
If your going Pc pre built route to me Valve built is the answer.
But to me this more lies with concerns with a true blue console experience.
Most people believe Microsoft will have little no success with this strategy either. Outside of hopes to “disrupt” steam machines market share I can’t see this going anywhere.
No matter how you slice it , I think it’s over.
You’re*
Little to no*
I had to read it several times to understand what you meant, but I suspect that you’re right.
Buying a full pc that will end up being potentially limited to gaming doesn’t really make sense. Valve has a solution that’s more integrated and probably better suited for most consumers.
Steam desktop + moonlight is sick as fk and doesn’t need new hardware.
Ah yes.
Swapping one walled off ecosystem for another
You can add non-steam games to Steam Deck, not sure how that’s walled off.
Is anything in the tech world interesting or good any more? I remember being excited 20 years ago for new inventions. Now its slop, slop, slop, authoritarian surveillance fascism, slop slop slop
Foss projects and indie games are about the only interesting thing now.
I’ll go back to 2005 soon as someone invents a Foss time machine !
I like to see what’s going on in the handheld emulator world!
AYN Thor is a awesome DS handheld, but they too also warned that their supplier is bumping RAM prices heavily, so they expect the price to go up too
Oh true emulation in general is very awesome
This knowledge does me no good if I can’t go to one of these exoplanets and meet a nice Orion lady.
Imagine a non-FOSS time machine
We’ve successfully transferred your right foot to 2005! Please subscribe to our Premium plan to unlock full-body transfers.
Non-FOSS time machine? It’s 2005 as a service. Monthly subscription.
We have transferred your clone to 2005, please step into the incinerator.
Is anything in the tech world interesting or good any more?
Steam Machine?
Handheld emulation devices
Yes! Super interesting devices, a friendly community, lots of development and you’ll be playing games made before gaming went full enshitification.
I still tune into TechQuickie every once in awhile and I noted how start the difference is between shows like that today and five years ago. All news is bad news anymore.
Is that the show with the liars and thieves?
It’s a show about tech news?
No, you’re not allowed to like anything created by someone who’s ever done something wrong on the internet!
I think you mean TechLinked
I meant TechQuickie.
But Techlinked also
Once we created standards to create everything we see today it became to expensive to invest in alternative home grown solutions. Sadly with the focus of maximizing profit over innovation most ideas just revolve around the existing infrastructure in place to do what they want. I hate it as well and everything feels very stagnant.
That and large shitty patent laws
I’ve been enjoying the advances in escape room games. mc2games makes some good ones.
The HL2 VR mods are pretty good if you have a headset. Reloading a gun with your physical hands is pretty immersive.
There’s been a silent rise in mystery-themed (Ace Attorney adjacent) games in the East recently. The mysteries get better and better.
Russian games have been innovating a bit to attract Western customers. “No I’m not Human” is one of those. There are also some Russian visual novels that are good thrillers.
Of the games China makes that aren’t gachaslop, some have tried to innovate. This one syncs what the character doing with real world time. So if it would take 10 minutes for a character to do something, it would take 10 actual minutes. The game doesn’t even have to be on during those 10 minutes, so it can be something where you check in every now and then.
There’s been a silent rise in mystery-themed (Ace Attorney adjacent) games in the East recently. The mysteries get better and better.
As a huge fan of the genre, got any recs that didn’t get too popular? I’ve played Danganronpa, Ace Attorney, Nonary games, and have other Kodaka games in my backlog. Other than those do you know any great ones?
There’s a recent one that came from China called The Real Face of a VTuber. It’s pretty good, and borrows heavily from Ace Attorney gameplay.
I’m pretty sure this one ( The Bygone Days of Her and the Flowers ) is a Genshin spinoff with Ace Attorney gameplay and surprisingly high production value, but there’s no English translation.
Whispers of the Luminaries counts for sure, and appears to be coming out either this month or the next. It also has a great demo to try out.
In Rose Academy, you collect clues on the murder, but I haven’t found anything where you actually use the clues in the demo. It’s unquestionably a mystery, though. This game comes out early April.
Hell yea, thanks! They’re all in my wishlist now
Oh man I miss old flash-based escape the room games. Remember the Crimson Room?
Ironically, there are a couple of things in the tech world right now that I’m extremely interested in. But you would likely downvote me if I mentioned them.
You got downvoted for mentioning you’d get downvoted! OK, I’ll bite. Based on OP’s comments, As long as it isn’t in AI, surveillance or Microslop WIndows, maybe you have found something for us all?
Maybe they’re talking about machine learning for medical advances and the like?
That has very little to do with llms. And we’ve been doing that for decades, its not new.
As long as it isn’t in AI
Afraid I can’t help you, then.
It’s really quite ironic, this is the sort of tech that science fiction has been dreaming of for decades. And now it can’t even be mentioned in tech-oriented forums, can’t even be hinted at, without mobs of negative-nellies dumping on it.
Ah well. I continue to have fun with it, downvotes can’t stop that.
this is the sort of tech that science fiction has been dreaming of for decades.
No it isn’t. LLM’s are a fucking technological dead end and will never reach AGI’s.
Quit sucking off Sam Altman and go look into actual AI research, douchebag
Dreaming of, or warning about?
This is going to be one of those “Torment Nexus” things, I take it?
I’m anxious about being on the layoff list because I submitted my self-appraisal without reading the step that says: use ai to summarize your assessment and copy-paste to the summary field. Dammit, I wrote it myself
You just can’t quit bringing up your ai girlfriend, can you ?
You’ll note that I was asked.
So what, who cares about downvotes on Lemmy? Even one more person finding out about some awesome tech is worth it!
Unfortunately they’re just a fucking AI-bro. Not worth your time
When people call any AI user an AI bro, you know the logic has left the room when it comes to AI discussions.
LLMs are a technological dead end and will never be the path towards AGI. The AI bubble is fuelled exclusively by overly wealthy gambling addicts like Sam Altman.
You claim the “AI bro” accusation is the loss of logic. Go look at the fucking market right now, it’s completely irrational. It’s the AI investors that have killed any logic going on.
The AI bros just continually ignore this because they’re idiots. If you’re going to back them up you’re just as much of a dumbfuck as them
Why are you arguing against things I never said? The market condition has no bearing in justifying you categorising anyone using AI as an AI bro. That’s a specific term for people who are pushing the market towards AI without regards for anything, not for anyone that has a use for AI.
The latter types can also be anti-“AI bro”, they’re just not lacking as much logic as you are acting on right now. Have you realised how little logic you’re running on if you’re even calling what I said as defending AI bros? You’ve either cultivated a Pavlovian response whenever you hear the word AI to turn off logic in your brain or you’ve never had good reading comprehension in the first place. I’m not sure which is worse.
Quite true.
Well, I guess the most games-oriented thing is that at the moment I’m generating some cover art for some music I generated earlier to use as part of a tabletop roleplaying campaign I’m in. Custom art, custom music, stuff that a few years ago would have cost me thousands of dollars to commission (and therefore that I would never have dreamed of commissioning - it’s just for me and a couple of friends). That’s pretty awesome, IMO.
