AI is the new Opt-Out
Every company is forcing "AI" on everyone, whether the user/consumer likes it or not. Companies are using "AI" to do all sorts of things you never wanted them to do, especially when they pitch it as "we replaced all the humans with the world's dumbest chat bot! Look at us, we're still relevant! Sorry our chat bot dumped someone else's account into your chat stream, we'll fix that in the next vibe coding session."
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, every website/company/breathing entity was trying to get you to "opt-in" to their newsletter/marketing/blog/whatever. And then some just signed you up anyway, and you had to "opt-out", by going through a byzantine process full of dark patterns to trick you into signing up for more spam. If I wanted your newsletter, I would have subscribed at the first system modal pop-up forcing me to click "Cancel". Or the second time a full-page advertisement about signing up for your newsletter. Or the three form fields in the text of the article, plus the sidebar form that scrolls alongside the product page.
Because less than 5% people signed up for any of this nonsense, we were subjected to "by giving us your email, address, and phone number, we signed you up for our 24 marketing lists and you've agreed we can sell this info to anyone who offers to pay us any amount, forever." It was force fed to us whether we liked it or not. Now the cost of time and effort is on us to stop all this endless spam and data sharing.
This is how I view "AI" features. I do not want my simple software or service suddenly becoming laden with "AI" features I can't turn off. In fact, if you want to offer then, make them opt-in by default. In nearly every case, to disable it is a byzantine process full of dark patterns. If I wanted "AI", I'm drowning in options for it and could go find something that does what I want. I don't want my medical records, financial transactions, or even shopping preferences processed with "AI". My only choice is to stop doing business with the companies that force this crap on everyone "for their own good"; just don't look behind the scenes as the company lays off workers because "AI" is good enough to boost profits, temporarily.
I changed doctors to avoid forced "AI". I changed credit cards to avoid "AI customer service" and "AI deal hunting". I'm about to change banks for the same reason. Unfortunately, everyone is buying into it because they feel they're missing out or their shareholders "demand it", or some other excuse. Alternatively, is it because investors have spent nearly a trillion dollars demand a return on their investment? What's good be damned, just get "AI" into everything and turn what was once a profitable service into an "AI" service. Use those new forced "AI" features to crow about how successful your "AI" service is doing and how much money it is making.
If I created a company that did the generative machine learning financial idea I had years ago, watch how fast that's illegal or banned. I did talk to some investors and they were horrified at the idea. However, nearly every large company does this in practice. They float the funds that would go to pay a bill/invoice while pushing the limit on the latest date they can possibly pay.
I really wish CCPA and the other state privacy laws had far more costly payouts for violations. I would start the US version of NOYB in a heartbeat. I want to automate CCPA data and deletion requests. Businesses calculate how much a potential fine will cost, and assume it's the cost of doing business. And they pass that cost on to consumers through their pricing.
We're all just supposed to be "AI" cattle being led to a slaughterhouse. Don't ask questions. Of course you want this, it's cool, it's hip, it's AI. Don't fear missing out! Even if it's a more humane way to get cattle to the slaughterhouse, it's still a slaughterhouse in the end.