I don’t think that you are really disagreeing with the article - I read it mostly as an invitation to broaden your view on what it means to use AI as it is today, with current benefits and harms, and stop trying to mentally divorce yourself of the consequences of said use by calling it just a tool, as if tools were fundamentally neutral, because they aren’t, as you said yourself.

I do have some gripes with your stance though.

Yes, we have local models. But have you ever tried to set up a coding assistant with a local model on consumer-grade hardware? LLMs that are small/performant enough to run on a laptop tend to suck really bad, compared to the cloud-based (data center driven) flagship models. You can barely use them for anything more advanced that “Write me a friendly email to my boss”.

That’s the whole problem - to approach anything like real “I can use this in production”-usefulness, you do need this gigantic mass of data centres. We are in the beginning stages of having that kind of usefulness, currently, with all its costs. But that doesn’t mean we should keep doing it.

It does mean that using gigantic LLMs as an everything machine is an ill-conceived idea, because they are too fucking expensive to run measured by the kind of ressources we have on our planet, and while you can make them more efficient, it always comes at a cost to their usefulness (more hallucinations, less stringent logic in long tasks etc.).

I also want to question this idea of “Well, any bad consequences of LLM usage are just people using it wrong, it’s not inherent”, especially for “AI psychosis”.

Most reports of “AI psychosis” I’ve read started out as something totally benign - someone had a random, unusual idea and they decided to talk to an LLM about it to get some feedback. You know, to not have any women in their life do emotional labour for them, or something.

And now, the inherent tool design of LLMs becomes important. The fine-tuning on LLMs used as chatbots can be optimized for different things - like giving the impression of being purely informative, or to be responsive to emotional markers in the prompt, or to structure answers in a way that keeps users engaged, to encourage them to burn their token rate limit and purchase more. The latter is something nearly all commercial LLMs do to some degree.

Human psychology is not a secret science. You know what is a lot of fun for many humans, and keeps them engaged? Being told that they’re right. And really clever. Have great observations and thoughts, and to offer to develop them further, together. A lot of people enjoy being flattered, even by a machine.

And this is fun, so why not explore further where this chat leads?

And the story goes on - the idea is expanded upon, the LLMs praising responses become grander and grander, the usage becomes longer, the user dives deeper and their divorce from reality becomes bigger, and at some point, no other human shares their reality anymore, and that is what psychosis, at its core, is.

Some snap back out of it in time, others get lost in it.

My point being: yes, maybe these harms result in a misuse of LLMs. But they are absolutely exacerbated by the way current implementations are designed. And then, the actual misuse is to have used an LLM for brain-storming at all, instead of talking to a human, that is fully prepared to tell you that your idea is stupid.

This harm, from my perspective, IS an inherent risk in the current implementation of the technology, and so are others. These systems are being designed that way. The misuses you decry are actively advertised for and are being promoted, because they are also lucrative.

No tool is neutral.

On a personal note: I personally don’t like working with LLMs. I noticed that by doing it extensively in the last couple of months, especially for educational and coding purposes. It does something bad with my brain and with my learning and thinking, and it impairs me in the long run - if I do this a lot, I don’t think I will be able to do things without an LLM at some point - classic skill decay. I don’t want that. Other people might not think so, and rather feel empowered. That’s fine to me, but I would encourage everyone to test themselves on that regularly.

And on a political note: The politics around “AI” are, to me, not especially new. It’s just end-stage-capitalism, again. It’s a finance sector bubble that will hurt us all when it bursts, again. It’s the devaluation of human labour, again. It’s surveillance and data collection and unjust wealth distribution and disinformation and societal atomization and environmental destruction again, but faster. The type of thing that has been happening before just keeps on happening, more. I do think that that kind of change (mostly in velocity) is something to oppose.

I really want to link this article here as a counterpoint - why “AI is just a tool” as a stance doesn’t quite cut it as far as well-founded opinions go: https://www.frank.computer/blog/2025/05/just-a-tool.html

I love the implication that whimsy - which is basically defined by joyful purposelessness -must be assigned a measurable purpose (such as stress-reduction) to become a viable, option for people, since we now know it is beneficial, and can be used to optimize ourselves…

Den Termin kriegt man, ja - aber in der Praxis wurde ich ohne Überweisung in der Hand auch schon zu meinem Termin wieder weggeschickt oder musste unterschreiben, dass ich die Überweisung innerhalb 1 Woche nachreiche und sonst die Behandlungskosten selber trage, auch wenn ich da schon Patient bin und zu Kontrolluntersuchungen (im neuen Quartal) komme.

Finde sehr wild, dass das offenbar nicht überall so ist?

Was ich daran so dumm finde ist, dass mich noch nie im Leben irgendein Facharzt ohne Überweisung vom Hausarzt in die Praxis gelassen hat, außer zur expliziten Akutsprechstunde…

Merkwürdige Gegenrealität, aus der solche Vorschläge kommen.

People need what they need to feel safe, and as long as noone was coerced, but agreed willingly to this particular set of STI risk management rules, I don’t see an issue with them. And it seems like your friend’s friend has done so. If they didn’t want to give up sex with your friend, then they shouldn’t have entered a polycule that has rules like that.

I can definitely understand that your friend is hurt, though - they’ve basically been told “My new relationship is more important to me than our existing relationship”, and I think it’s pretty weak sauce from your friend’s friend that they try to put that on the polycule’s rules (like “I don’t want to, they’re making me do it, I have no choice!” bullshit) instead of owning it as a conscious decision they made. I personally would feel most betrayed by that kind of dishonesty.

Yes, that’s totally the only reason I’m doing it 😁

Yes! I was actually aiming for the magpie whose chittering I heard around the area (technically a corvid as well), so this rook coming around was a nice surprise. I’m looking forward to see if it’ll turn up again 😊

Thank you! I was fervently hoping that the one comment on this says exactly what you said, so I wouldn’t have to…

“A Psalm for the wild-built” von Becky Chambers gibt’s jetzt auch übersetzt: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Psalm_für_die_wild_Schweifenden

Dringende Empfehlung, sehr toll!

eingelegte gurke, zwiebel, pepperoni o.ä. (gut abgetupft) ist auch noch eine leckere zutat!

Ich liebe Gemüsesandwiches!

Für Biss finde ich dünne Scheiben eines beliebigen gemüses ziemlich gut - im Sommer Gurke, Tomate, gegrillte Zucchini etc., im winter funktionieren auch Ringelbeete, Möhre oder Rübchen. Dazu ein leckerer Hülsenfruchtaufstrich für die Proteine, und vielleicht noch bisschen Salat drauf (Winteroptionen: Feldsalat, frische Grünkohlspitzen, Krautsalat, Postelein), fertig ist mein persönliches Supersandwich! :)

How are they w.r.t. human rights abuse, enshittification or otherwise being an adverse contractual partner?

I’m not entirely sure what level of morality you are aiming for… it’s an electronic device, and contains lithium and other rare substances which are won and manufactured into parts far away and in highly problematic conditions concerning human rights, as is true for most devices you are likely to own. So maybe not that.

Their cloud as well as online in general is optional for basic use (not updates and onleihe, of course), and their servers are based in Germany, so Datenschutz applies.

You own your files, and nobody asks where you got then from. If you buy from their store or do onleihe, of course there is some amount of tracking. They are linked to German book stores, the one from which you buy the device will be put in as default. However, it’s not hard to choose another one from those participating in the program, or buy independently and load the file onto your reader. More details are likely to be found in their terms and conditions.

The maximum size I could find on Geizhals (tolino epos 3) was also only 8" diagonally which is a tad small. I’d prefer something closer to 10".

Yeah, they do not have a device that big. Kobo does, I think, with the Elipsa, but as I said, you’d have to import it and can’t use onleihe there, which made it unsuitable for me. Might not be for you.

I’ve tried finding equivalents to some recommendations in this thread but it appears they’re entirely different devices and some even have Android.

Tolino used to be a part of Rakuten for some time, all the current devices have virtually the same hardware as kobo devices, with customized kobo software, which is based on linux.

for more details, look here: Wikipedia

I just wanted to say, I’ve been very happy with both tolino and kobo, the devices last really long, and I want to pull my hair out anytime I have to deal with an amazon device of any kind instead. Take from that what you will!

A lot of people say kobo, but since you are in germany, you might want to consider tolino as well. they use kobo hardware with slightly customized software, and since you don’t have to import (kobo does not have a market presence for their devices in Germany), they are cheaper.

I went to tolino from kobo because I lost my kobo and wanted to use onleihe, which is not your use case. but if you are considering kobo, in my experience the devices from tolino are very comparable. loading epub on there is easy and works, no DRM-shenanigans, and wakeup to last-read book on opening a magnet folio as well.

one caveat - while UI is identical, I had a slight dip in life quality (problems opening up specific files, longer loading tines), but I think it’s mostly because I downgraded on hardware when I went from kobo libra (like tolino vision) to tolino shine (like kobo clara).

Just wanted to let you know - I am currently examining my anxiety and exhaustion generating work and study habits hard (and why they are so easy patterns to slip into), and your post helped me answer a question I had and couldn’t quite grasp.

Because for me, I generate The Dread© by imagining the disappointment of my professors, my boss, or parents, or whoever gave me the task or has a stake, if I don’t do it in time. Which also means that I can’t really do stuff for myself unless I imagine my therapist being disappointed or something. Which leads to weird and unusual attachments to people who have no idea of their significance, and a LOT of social anxiety.

But knowing the functionality of this pattern should be quite helpful in gently disengaging from it 🙂 So thanks!

You speak about Cheddar doing stuff with Gouda you have denied yourself doing with Swiss for Gouda’s sake, and it’s making you vengefully jealous.

My question is - did Cheddar explicitly ask these sacrifices of you, or did you just assume that it would be the right thing to do? edit: nevermind, gotta read better…

I feel like both of you handled some things suboptimally, but this particular aspect sounds like you’ve been doing this to yourself by assuming instead of communicating.

Generally I don’t really understand this situation. Jealousy is not something that just happens to someone and has to be avoided. Jealousy is the flashing warning signal that something is not right (like a relationship that is unstable, or a need that isn’t met), and the starting point of a conversation, not the end of it. But there doesn’t seem to be a conversation around that in your story. Why not?

Naja, ich hab wenig Geld und die Notwendigkeit, jeden Tag 60 km zu pendeln, um überhaupt welches zu haben. Da bleibt Zug oder Auto. Ich hasse Auto fahren und mag Zug/Fahrrad fahren, aber wenn es billiger wäre, könnte ich es mir nicht leisten, die “Luxusvariante” Zug zu nehmen.

Ist aber im Endeffekt egal - dazu können wir uns wieder sprechen, wenn Deutschlandticket 120€+ kostet…

Eh, immer noch billiger als Auto neu anschaffen und unterhalten, was für mich die Alternative wäre… insofern 🤷

Da slrpnk.net und feddit.org (im Moment und ohne absehbares Ende) förderiert sind, könnten User auf beiden (und allen anderen förderierten) Instanzen die community sehen, abonnieren und nutzen, egal auf welcher von beidem sie registriert sind. Reichweitenmäßig macht das also nicht so viel - die Existenz bewerben müsste man so oder so. Neue communities aufzuziehen ist wohl nicht ganz trivial.

Und ja, ich glaube, um eine community auf einer Instanz zu erstellen und zu moderieren muss man auf dieser Instanz User sein - insofern würde sich für dich slrpnk eher anbieten. Allerdings ist es auch nicht verboten, mehrere Accounts auf verschiedenen Instanzen zu haben…

Auf slrpnk könntest du außerdem den Vorteil haben, dass schon einige geneigte deutsche User hierher migriert sind, nachdem die Instanz feddit.de untergegangen ist (und bevor feddit.org auftauchte), also größere Chance auf Interessenten.

Ich finde die Idee gut, bin aber ein notorischer lurker und maximal mal Kommentator, weiß also nicht, ob ich persönlich hilfreich wäre. 😅

Würdest du hier auf der SLRPNK-Instanz eine de-community errichten wollen, quasi als deutschsprachiger Anlaufpunkt, oder z.B. auf feddit.org eine solarpunk-community als “Außenposten” im deutschsprachigen Lemmy?

(Ich gehe mal davon aus, dass du keine ganze Instanz hosten möchtest, das wirkt wie overkill)