I passionately hate hype, especially the AI hype

Summary

I passionately hate hype, especially the AI hype Published on 2024-08-21. Modified on 2024-08-23. I truly and passionately hate hype. From the fakeness of it to the sheer stupidity it represents, but perhaps most of all, because of the devastating consequence it often results in. Hype is basically to promote or publicize something extravagantly and the modern hype promoted by "Big Tech" is not much different from medieval charlatans. Hype begins by some company or industry wanting to earn a profit by some new product or service. Massive propaganda is launched which is then propagated by the media, who's objectivity and investigation procedure is totally sidestepped by yet another desperate craving for profit. Then all of this is followed-up by the majority of the masses, which unfortunately mostly consists of mindless sheeple that easily become dumpfounded by all of this, and as a result, start parroting the hype like lunatics. Hype is always bad. Hype hurts investors who end up loosing a lot of money because all the "golden" promises where exaggerated or simply fake. Hype often hurts the medium to smaller businesses because rather than doing what actually works, procedures are changed and complication is introduced, very often resulting in vendor lock-in, higher financial expenses, less security and poorer end results. Hype also hurts the individual. People who invest time and money in studying and learning the hyped up technology only to realize, often many years later, that better ways actually exist. This is when the old becomes new again and people discover things for the first time that has been obvious to the previous generations all along. Often, the price that people end up paying is not only in the loss of time and money, but also in some of the most important valuables, namely privacy and personal freedom. When hype is driven by big corporations or by governments, it is always bad. The reason is simple. The interest at hand is never the benefit of the peo...