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- Hacker News
- Was the BBC always this bad? This story represents both sides so poorly.
"AI" is the same shitty tech as ever before. These "manifestos" are a PR stunt, but only because "AI" has been used as a scapegoat for everything from layoffs to fraud and privacy violations.
Who reads this crap and actually believes it? Is the brainrot really this bad? They set up all these lame thought traps to make people argue about the wrong things, and they actually fucking worked?
by sublinear - > Was the BBC always this bad
No.
The BBC severely degraded over the past decade after multiple budget cuts forced it to take the clickbait approach especially for non-British reporting because BBC's ad-free mandate is only for UK residents and reporting.
Also, an news org is only as good as it's reporters, and those reporters with the right Rolodex are no longer associated with the BBC, CNN, CBS, and other traditional heavyweights.
If you're in SF you'll often bump into the tech correspondents of most news organizations at parties, on dates, while bar-hopping Marina, or during hobbies, and you don't see the CNN, BBC, or Fox tech news correspondent invited to the right events nor cultivating the right sources. Oftentimes they tend to be much younger (late 20s to 30s) taking a cushy break after being stressed out working as a DC or Bruxelles or Whitehall correspondent or straight out of college who will eventually become a lower-to-mid rung Strategic Comms employee at a random company writing PRs and managing a small team of video-editors.
> Who reads this crap and actually believes it? Is the brainrot really this bad? They set up all these lame thought traps to make people argue about the wrong things, and they actually fucking worked?
You did and made an impression. That's how clickbait works.
If you want more actionable reporting, you need to read reporting done either by News Agencies (eg. Reuters, AP, AFP) as they are written opinion-free such that other news broadcasters can purchase articles and edit them as needed or read news directly tied to decisonmaking (eg. Bloomberg due to the Bloomberg terminal, Politico and it's history as the goto broadsheet on the hill, Axios and financial and political decisionmakers, etc).
by alephnerd - Zuck's was weird. Andreesen's was just awful. Basically saying that nobody had any right to restrict him and other tech bros from raking in unlimited money doing whatever they wanted and that a bit of fascism couldn't hurt. He literally didn't give a single thing to be optimistic about. Just painted him as an absolute villain.by tootie
- It's the only thing keeping the bubble from immediately popping. Hopium trying to keep investors from running for the hills.
- Ai is wonderful but it should never replace friends. I detest Mark Zuckerberg's claim that AI will replace friends, that's simply not happening. But AI is wonderful at tasks like upscaling or even meme generation.
- That begs a question: would you rather have no friends, or a few AI friends?by baal80spam
- From PG's comment on Zuck‘had no concept of small talk`, that's on par for his view on friends.
https://fortune.com/2026/03/23/meta-cofounder-mark-zuckerber...
by gloryjulio - In what I found he didn’t say “replace” but “add more”; it is still chilling and I detest it.
Especially in the current incarnation of AI, where they are more or less controlled by corporations and government.
> The average American has "three people that they would consider friends," he said. "And the average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it's, like, 15."
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/05/09/mark-zuckerberg-says-ai-...
by thih9 - I've been talking with AI during my morning commute (car) recently, instead of listening to something. It's a great partner to bounce ideas off of. I don't have any friends that can or are willing to engage with ideas to the extent AI does.by gradus_ad
- Mark Zuckerberg already managed to replaced friendship with political outrage (Facebook) and with toxic parasocial relationships (Instagram), for a big chunk of society.
Anyone doubting that he can do the same with AI has too much faith in humanity.
by whstl - Public sentiment about AI is trending down. All about trying to turn that slope to a positive number.by saejox
- Indeed, they are attempting to shape and control the narrative with proclamations. Luckily, they’ve exhausted any trust and social capital outside of their bubble. “The authoritarian tech bros have no clothes.”by toomuchtodo
- Isn’t the answer just: money?by isatty
- And attention or admiration.
Maybe they feel like, for once in their lives, they can appear as intelligent as the people they employ with AI propping up their prose.
by zamalek - Considering another FP today about AI and ‘leadership’, perhaps it’s more on point to say that AI promotes Manager jobs, and Managers are writing manifestos about how Managers are the future of society. Yeah, money’s a factor, but if we lived in a world with replicators, a class that values itself for delegation would still be promoting AI for how it enables delegation without the tediousness of workers.by altairprime