Post #4409118

There might be a long game to #AI, #FOSS, and #personalcomputing . Basically, #capitalism hates how FOSS has "leaked value", and how [home] PCs and local #compute has enabled value streams outside of corporate control. The#cloud drive was the initial attempt to force the value back under oligopole control, on the hardware side, #socialmedia platforms were the "sugar" software. But even these two in combination failed to completely eradicate free open source and alternatives, as this fine #mastodon platform on the #fediverse proves. Enter #AI, the perfect weapon. It offers #techbros both tools: A way to dangle the promise of not even needing people anymore to investors, together with a perfect excuse to kill off the foundation that allows people to grow #cyber skills independently of corporate control - the [home] PC - by driving prices for basic tech like storage and memory way past home budgets. By making a personal computer impossibly expensive to build or own, the base for FOSS erodes quickly. If all available compute is only by cloud supplied services, then any and all development will be beholden to the platform owner. If you look at it this way, AI makes good sense, but it's only the last nail in a coffin that's been building for a while; the death of personal computing, and the death of an important freedom.