lapislazuli

Hello folks. I want to hear your opinions about the advances in AI and how it makes you feel. This is a community about privacy, so I already kind of know that you're against it, at least when AI is implemented in such a way that it violates peoples' privacy.

I recently attended a work-related event and the conclusion was that AI will come and change everything in our field. A field which has been generally been dominated by human work, although various software has been used for it. Without revealing too much, the event was for people who with texts. I'm a student, but the event was for people working in the field I plan to work in in the future. The speakers did not talk about privacy concerns (not in detail, at least) or things such as micro work (people who get paid very little to clean illegal content in AI training data, for example).

You probably can guess that that I care about privacy: I'm writing this on Lemmy, for a privacy community. I'm a Linux user (the first distro I used was Ubuntu 10.04) and I transitioned to Linux as my daily driver in November last year. I care about the Open Source community (most of the programs I used on Windows were FOSS). I donate to the programs I use. I use a privacy-respecting search engine, use uBlock and Privacy Badger on Firefox. I use a secure instant messenger and detest Facebook. But that's where it ends, because I use a stock Android phone. But at least I care about these things and I'm eager to learn more. When it comes to privacy, I'm pretty woke, for the lack of a better word.

But AI is coming, or rather, it's already here. Granted, people who talked at that event were somewhat biased, as they worked in the AI industry, so even if they weren't marketing ChatGPT, they were trying to hype up the industry. But apparently, AI can already help so called knowledge workers. It can help in brainstorming and generating ideas. It can produce translations, it can summarize texts, it can give tips...

The bottom line seems to be that I need to start using AI, because either I will use it and keep my job in the future, or I will not use it and risk being made redundant by AI at some point in time.

But I want to get other perspectives. What are your views on AI, and has it affected your job, and if so, how? I know some people have said here that AI is just a bunch of algorithms and that it's just hype and that the bubble will burst eventually. But until it does, it seems it'll have a pretty big impact on how things work. Can we choose to ignore it?

TLDR; I spent nearly two hours troubleshooting my broken system, because I installed a Windows spell checker for my LibreOffice.

1. Install the .oxt file for your Linux LibreOffice installation
2. Don't realize it was for Windows only because it installed fine on Linux
3. Freeze your system completely for 15 seconds, after which it's business as normal
4. LibreOffice works okay, so don't notice anything else
5. Install additional spellers from Synaptic because the first one didn't work
6. Realize Linux Mint Software Center GUI is broken and most of the flatpacks aren't displayed
7. Perform two system resets using Timeshift, nothing changed
8. Realize the speller you installed was Windows-only, purge all LibreOffice components, problem solved, reinstall LO
9. Also realize you had to install a system package version of LibreOffice (instead of Flatpack) for the speller from Synaptic to work
10. Feel like a noob

🫣

EDIT: It happened again. I think this time I figured it out for good. I installed the spell checker through Synaptic, but either it was the wrong version or it didn't install all the necessary packages. I found the right package in Software Center itself and installed it. Everything has been working okay, the Software Center hasn't bugged out yet.

EDIT 2: Okay, now I've got it. It was a icon theme that I installed from Cinnamon Looks called FairyWren which hid half of my installed apps, and created all sorts of GUI bugs and made Software Center hang and freeze. I'm going to write to the author of the theme.

Hello guys. I hope it's okay to post a question in this community.

I'm basically looking for a Youtube and Google Drive alternative for video sharing. I've looked at Peertube, Dtube and Odyssee, but frankly, I don't like them because there is some questionable content on those sites.

That said, I don't want to get into personal views and stuff, I just want to find an alternative to Big Tech. I want to upload videos and be able to share them with friends online. 'I upload and they stream' is what I'm looking for.

Proton Drive offers video preview, but it's limited to a 100 MB file and my videos are going to be longer.

TIA for any and all suggestions.

EDIT: I'm looking for a service.

EDIT 2:

Thanks everyone with your input. As storage, I'll be using Proton Drive, which has a 100 MB video preview limit. That means I have to decrease the file size, which can be done in different ways. First, I can shoot the video in 1080p 30 fps, which takes less space than 60 fps and/or higher video resolution. I can also decrease the video size by getting rid of sound, which I don't need. For that, I'll use either LosslessCut, which is an awesome software because you can cut and disable sound without having to re-encode the video. It literally takes seconds to output an edited video. I can also use Handbrake to decrease the quality of the video. The end result will render the video relatively low quality, so it might not be usable for you, but for me it's good enough.

Are there any FOSS phone apps/ private alternatives for Google Translate for translating text from images? Or maybe a privacy-friendly alternative front-end for GT? The ability to translate from images (such as product labels in a store) is the main feature I'm looking for. TIA for any and all tips.

I hope this is not considered a low-effort post, but I wanted to ask if using stock Android without signing in to your Google account/ using Play Store is worth it. It should be more private, right? I'm planning on buying the cheapest Samsung phone there is (probably the A14). I currently have a stock Android Oneplus phone. I bought it before I had my "privacy epiphany". I knew that you shouldn't use Huawei phones as those "definitely" were spying on you; I read that Oneplus phones are safe because they use Western hardware, but they can still gather your data via the software, right? But I digress.

The reason I'm planning on buying a cheap (Samsung) phone is because I realized I don't need a fancy phone (for me "fancy" is a 400 local currency mid-ranger). I considered getting a dumb phone as they are definitely private, but the utter lack of features is depressing. The main reason is I can't give up the camera. So I'm willing to go with the cheapest smartphone, because it's still miles better than the best dumb phone.

As I understand it, most cheap phones are not supported by GrapheneOS and besides I'm worried I might brick the phone. I'm willing to use APKs (from official sources and I only need a few apps). To return to my question, is stock Android without a Google account/ Play Store better than using an account/ Play Store?

EDIT: Thanks all for the useful replies. I'm still not sure what I'll end up doing or what my current financial situation will allow me to do, but I'm pretty sure I'll be moving away from Google anyway. Thanks again!