From Newsgroup: comp.misc

A friend of mine had a problem with external speakers/mic for his laptop
- he does talks to groups. So he asked his new friend "copilot". Guess
what - co-pilot suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully saying it was
available from Amazon. Off he goes and purchases this, and ... he's
still having problems. Ah says his friend "copilot", "now you mention it
what you need is actually this gizmo for, guess where, Amazon!
And seemingly there are still problems, but he has it working-sort-of.

So are big companies paying to get adverts in AIs? Or is it just
regurgitating the stuff it's scraped from Amazon?

And my friend has learnt nothing new from co-pilot. He has no real
further understanding about the problem he had. Co-pilot had not
educated him. But he does have some new buzz words that he picked up
from the conversation.

It could be, of course that he'd have got no further by entering into a conversation with humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here on usenet.
I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you already need to be somewhat
of an expert in the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 12/05/2026 8:26 PM, Jim Jackson wrote:

A friend of mine had a problem with external speakers/mic for his laptop
- he does talks to groups. So he asked his new friend "copilot". Guess
what - co-pilot suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully saying it was available from Amazon. Off he goes and purchases this, and ... he's
still having problems. Ah says his friend "copilot", "now you mention it
what you need is actually this gizmo for, guess where, Amazon!
And seemingly there are still problems, but he has it working-sort-of.

So are big companies paying to get adverts in AIs? Or is it just regurgitating the stuff it's scraped from Amazon?

And my friend has learnt nothing new from co-pilot. He has no real
further understanding about the problem he had. Co-pilot had not
educated him. But he does have some new buzz words that he picked up
from the conversation.

It could be, of course that he'd have got no further by entering into a conversation with humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here on usenet.
I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you already need to be somewhat
of an expert in the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

Of course. Free or paid tech out there - search, ai, social media, app, whatever is not there for you. It's infrastructure for extraction. If
it's dressed up as civic service changes nothing about that.

With ai we are relatively at the beginning. So most are free, cool, entertaining. Just to hook people, software and everything around.
The real fun will start later when everyone will be there.

Everything out there is designed to interface with you in a way that
maximizes their energy takeoutrComoney, time, attention, labor, data.
--
none
http://morena.rip
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote or quoted:

what - co-pilot suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully saying it was >available from Amazon. Off he goes and purchases this, and ... he's

|Many believe that a wise prince is not wise himself, but only
|receives good advice from those around him - but they are mistaken.
|
|For there is a general rule that never fails: A prince who is
|not wise himself cannot be well-advised.
. . .
|
|You will find no advisors other than those who think of their
|own interests; for men will always serve you poorly unless
|they are forced by circumstances to work well.
. . .
"The Prince" - Niccolo Machiavelli


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> writes:

A friend of mine had a problem with external speakers/mic for his laptop
- he does talks to groups. So he asked his new friend "copilot". Guess
what - co-pilot suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully saying it was available from Amazon. Off he goes and purchases this, and ... he's
still having problems. Ah says his friend "copilot", "now you mention it
what you need is actually this gizmo for, guess where, Amazon!
And seemingly there are still problems, but he has it working-sort-of.

So are big companies paying to get adverts in AIs? Or is it just regurgitating the stuff it's scraped from Amazon?

And my friend has learnt nothing new from co-pilot. He has no real
further understanding about the problem he had. Co-pilot had not
educated him. But he does have some new buzz words that he picked up
from the conversation.

It could be, of course that he'd have got no further by entering into a conversation with humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here on usenet.
I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you already need to be somewhat
of an expert in the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

It sounds like a new version of an old problem. He should get a second
opinion. Maybe ask Claude. ;)
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 2026-05-12, Richmond <dnomhcir@gmx.com> wrote:

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> writes:

A friend of mine had a problem with external speakers/mic for his laptop
- he does talks to groups. So he asked his new friend "copilot". Guess
what - co-pilot suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully saying it was
available from Amazon. Off he goes and purchases this, and ... he's
still having problems. Ah says his friend "copilot", "now you mention it
what you need is actually this gizmo for, guess where, Amazon!
And seemingly there are still problems, but he has it working-sort-of.

So are big companies paying to get adverts in AIs? Or is it just
regurgitating the stuff it's scraped from Amazon?

And my friend has learnt nothing new from co-pilot. He has no real
further understanding about the problem he had. Co-pilot had not
educated him. But he does have some new buzz words that he picked up
from the conversation.

It could be, of course that he'd have got no further by entering into a
conversation with humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here on usenet.
I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you already need to be somewhat
of an expert in the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

It sounds like a new version of an old problem. He should get a second opinion. Maybe ask Claude. ;)

Indeed. The future is AI speaketh unto AI!

I just thought, why do the AI's not have female names?
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 2026-05-12, Stefan Ram <ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de> wrote:

|Many believe that a wise prince is not wise himself, but only
|receives good advice from those around him - but they are mistaken.
|
|For there is a general rule that never fails: A prince who is
|not wise himself cannot be well-advised.

I read The Prince when I was a spotty youth. Looks like I need to
re-read it with an older head. That quote is so apt.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> writes:

On 2026-05-12, Richmond <dnomhcir@gmx.com> wrote:

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> writes:

A friend of mine had a problem with external speakers/mic for his laptop >>> - he does talks to groups. So he asked his new friend "copilot". Guess
what - co-pilot suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully saying it was
available from Amazon. Off he goes and purchases this, and ... he's
still having problems. Ah says his friend "copilot", "now you mention it >>> what you need is actually this gizmo for, guess where, Amazon!
And seemingly there are still problems, but he has it working-sort-of.

So are big companies paying to get adverts in AIs? Or is it just
regurgitating the stuff it's scraped from Amazon?

And my friend has learnt nothing new from co-pilot. He has no real
further understanding about the problem he had. Co-pilot had not
educated him. But he does have some new buzz words that he picked up
from the conversation.

It could be, of course that he'd have got no further by entering into a >>> conversation with humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here on usenet. >>> I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you already need to be somewhat >>> of an expert in the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

It sounds like a new version of an old problem. He should get a second
opinion. Maybe ask Claude. ;)

Indeed. The future is AI speaketh unto AI!

I just thought, why do the AI's not have female names?

Lumo is gender neutral apparently. (I asked Gemini).
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 12/05/2026 8:26 PM, Jim Jackson wrote:

A friend of mine had a problem with external speakers/mic for his laptop
- he does talks to groups. So he asked his new friend "copilot". Guess
what - co-pilot suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully saying it was available from Amazon. Off he goes and purchases this, and ... he's
still having problems. Ah says his friend "copilot", "now you mention it
what you need is actually this gizmo for, guess where, Amazon!
And seemingly there are still problems, but he has it working-sort-of.

So are big companies paying to get adverts in AIs? Or is it just regurgitating the stuff it's scraped from Amazon?

And my friend has learnt nothing new from co-pilot. He has no real
further understanding about the problem he had. Co-pilot had not
educated him. But he does have some new buzz words that he picked up
from the conversation.

It could be, of course that he'd have got no further by entering into a conversation with humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here on usenet.
I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you already need to be somewhat
of an expert in the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

One note: AI suggested what most tech people on the internet do too.
Most spaces are filled with amazon affiliate links and advertisement. So either some company pay for advertising or it's mainstream consensus,
both would end the same way. AI or random idiot answer are same.

If somebody acts like a consumer, he is treated like a consumer.
--
none
http://morena.rip
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote:

A friend of mine had a problem with external speakers/mic for his laptop
- he does talks to groups. So he asked his new friend "copilot". Guess
what - co-pilot suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully saying it was available from Amazon. Off he goes and purchases this, and ... he's
still having problems. Ah says his friend "copilot", "now you mention it
what you need is actually this gizmo for, guess where, Amazon!
And seemingly there are still problems, but he has it working-sort-of.

So are big companies paying to get adverts in AIs?

Probably. Whether or not it's happening already, it seems
inevitable at some point given the incredible profits AI companies
need to try and extract to recoup their investments.

Or is it just regurgitating the stuff it's scraped from Amazon?

It will also be reading reviews on other websites that may have
been sponsored by Amazon, with purchase links pointing there, so
the bias could be somewhat accidental simply because products have
been trying to get lots of hits from web searches that use the same
keywords the AI is looking for.

This is why I consider AI pretty useless for such things - you
often don't get the chance to judge the trustworthyness of its
source material for yourself. Then there's the nonsense it just
seems to pull out of thin air entirely...

And my friend has learnt nothing new from co-pilot. He has no real
further understanding about the problem he had. Co-pilot had not
educated him. But he does have some new buzz words that he picked up
from the conversation.

It could be, of course that he'd have got no further by entering into a conversation with humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here on usenet.
I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you already need to be somewhat
of an expert in the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

Even then they still describe their hallucinations in dangerously
convincing ways, wrapping them with lots of irrelevent but
correct facts from elsewhere. More misleading than any response
from a human, who would never work that hard to sell such lies in
an unimportant online discussion.
--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 2026-05-12, none <none@none.rip> wrote:

On 12/05/2026 8:26 PM, Jim Jackson wrote:

A friend of mine had a problem with
external speakers/mic for his laptop - he
does talks to groups. So he asked his new
friend "copilot". Guess what - co-pilot
suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully
saying it was available from Amazon. Off
he goes and purchases this, and ... he's
still having problems. Ah says his friend
"copilot", "now you mention it what you need is
actually this gizmo for, guess where, Amazon!
And seemingly there are still problems, but
he has it working-sort-of.

So are big companies paying to get adverts
in AIs? Or is it just regurgitating the stuff
it's scraped from Amazon?

And my friend has learnt nothing new from
co-pilot. He has no real further understanding
about the problem he had. Co-pilot had not
educated him. But he does have some new buzz
words that he picked up from the conversation.

It could be, of course that he'd have got no
further by entering into a conversation with
humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here
on usenet. I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you
already need to be somewhat of an expert in
the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

Of course. Free or paid tech out there - search,
ai, social media, app, whatever is not there
for you. It's infrastructure for extraction. If
it's dressed up as civic service changes nothing
about that.

With ai we are relatively at the beginning. So
most are free, cool, entertaining. Just to
hook people, software and everything around.
The real fun will start later when everyone
will be there.

Everything out there is designed to interface
with you in a way that maximizes their energy
takeoutrComoney, time, attention, labor, data.

I'm trying to remember.. doesn't ancient wisdom
weigh in on how often a sucker is born?
--
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
| alt.troll.adam-h-kerman: proof that the |
| internet sometimes gets something right | ^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 13/05/2026 2:07 AM, oldernow wrote:

I'm trying to remember.. doesn't ancient wisdom
weigh in on how often a sucker is born?

Based on your age and shape, you did not post here over 12 hours, I
thought you are dead. Maybe you are and you set up AI to continue your wording.
--
none
http://morena.rip
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 2026-05-13, none <none@none.rip> wrote:

On 13/05/2026 2:07 AM, oldernow wrote:

I'm trying to remember.. doesn't ancient wisdom
weigh in on how often a sucker is born?

Based on your age and shape, you did not
post here over 12 hours, I thought you are
dead. Maybe you are and you set up AI to
continue your wording.

The thought of "oldernow" as a seeming
be-ing seems to persist, but surely
maintaining textural proof of its
seeming persistence would be the
domain of AU!
--
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
| alt.troll.adam-h-kerman: proof that the |
| internet sometimes gets something right | ^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 2026-05-12, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote:

....snip....

It could be, of course that he'd have got no further by entering into a
conversation with humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here on usenet.
I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you already need to be somewhat
of an expert in the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

Even then they still describe their hallucinations in dangerously
convincing ways, wrapping them with lots of irrelevent but
correct facts from elsewhere. More misleading than any response
from a human, who would never work that hard to sell such lies in
an unimportant online discussion.

An aspect That hadn't occurred to me! Thanks.

Though of course that ignores the trolls that often go out of their way
to mislead. Which begs the question: Are AIs trolls, but aren't aware of
it?
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 2026-05-13, Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote:

On 2026-05-12, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote:

....snip....

It could be, of course that he'd have got no
further by entering into a conversation with
humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here
on usenet. I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you
already need to be somewhat of an expert in
the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

Even then they still describe their
hallucinations in dangerously convincing ways,
wrapping them with lots of irrelevent but
correct facts from elsewhere. More misleading
than any response from a human, who would
never work that hard to sell such lies in an
unimportant online discussion.

An aspect That hadn't occurred to me! Thanks.

Though of course that ignores the trolls that
often go out of their way to mislead. Which
begs the question: Are AIs trolls, but aren't
aware of it?

Looks like *someone* is still deluded that
what they call things is what they are....
--
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
| alt.troll.adam-h-kerman: proof that the |
| internet sometimes gets something right | ^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 12/05/2026 19:26, Jim Jackson wrote:

A friend of mine had a problem with external speakers/mic for his laptop
- he does talks to groups. So he asked his new friend "copilot". Guess
what - co-pilot suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully saying it was available from Amazon. Off he goes and purchases this, and ... he's
still having problems. Ah says his friend "copilot", "now you mention it
what you need is actually this gizmo for, guess where, Amazon!
And seemingly there are still problems, but he has it working-sort-of.

So are big companies paying to get adverts in AIs? Or is it just regurgitating the stuff it's scraped from Amazon?

There are people actively posting nonsense in the hope that bad AI will
pick it up and fall flat on its face.

Amazon product descriptions are sometimes written by sellers that often
don't know the difference between "input" and "output".

Which was a very common problem non-technical people have has for years
when faced with random cables and back of a Hi-Fi receiver, even though
they clearly understand the "entry" and "exit" signs in a car park.

I sometimes find it instructive (and funny) to ask AI where it got the
bum steer from, requesting the references it has read. Really people
need to up their game on "prompt engineering". The unwashed sadly don't
have real skills to ask a decent question (education), and garbage-in garbage-out strikes.

AI itself isn't only the only problem. Look to the misinformed
(supposedly educated) media about it, and also biased political posturing.

There are people that are now being misled into giving up their job
dreams, because they feel AI will eventually replace them.

Folks who could spark the next series of medical discoveries, are now
training to be plumbers and electricians. A fantastic wealth
opportunity, that once was the domain of software developers and testers?

AI can only mimic and respond with likely answers to tasks, based on probabilities it has calculated from information it has read and maybe patterns it has found. For that, it's a very useful tool.

However AI can't discover brand new things from first principles. And if
we don't have humans left for this, in a few years things may come to a crashing halt.

There is a name to this theory. The name currently escapes me.
--
Adrian C
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 13/05/2026 9:48 PM, Adrian Caspersz wrote:

AI can only mimic and respond with likely answers to tasks, based on probabilities it has calculated from information it has read and maybe patterns it has found. For that, it's a very useful tool.

The same applies to human mind.

However AI can't discover brand new things from first principles. And if
we don't have humans left for this, in a few years things may come to a crashing halt.

Check the history and the current state. The same is happening for
thousands year without any computers.

There is a name to this theory. The name currently escapes me.

Ask AI, it will find the correct label for it.
--
none
http://morena.rip
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote:

A friend of mine had a problem with external speakers/mic for his laptop
- he does talks to groups. So he asked his new friend "copilot". Guess
what - co-pilot suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully saying it was available from Amazon. Off he goes and purchases this, and ... he's
still having problems. Ah says his friend "copilot", "now you mention it
what you need is actually this gizmo for, guess where, Amazon!
And seemingly there are still problems, but he has it working-sort-of.

So are big companies paying to get adverts in AIs? Or is it just regurgitating the stuff it's scraped from Amazon?

And my friend has learnt nothing new from co-pilot. He has no real
further understanding about the problem he had. Co-pilot had not
educated him. But he does have some new buzz words that he picked up
from the conversation.

It could be, of course that he'd have got no further by entering into a conversation with humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here on usenet.
I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you already need to be somewhat
of an expert in the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

All the big companies have said theyrCOll be putting ads into their AIs. This is how they manifest.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote:

On 2026-05-12, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote:

....snip....

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you already need to be somewhat >>> of an expert in the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

Even then they still describe their hallucinations in dangerously
convincing ways, wrapping them with lots of irrelevent but
correct facts from elsewhere. More misleading than any response
from a human, who would never work that hard to sell such lies in
an unimportant online discussion.

An aspect That hadn't occurred to me! Thanks.

Though of course that ignores the trolls that often go out of their way
to mislead.

To me trolls are the people I meant who "sell such lies in an
unimportant online discussion". They might blabbler on a lot, but
in an unconvincing lazy way referencing few concrete facts. Unlike
the AI responses which tend to include lots of specific peripheral
facts even if their answer to the actual question is a complete
hallucination. If you count as trolls people who aren't lying, who
really believe and care about all the arguments they're making, but
just never stop arguing them, that might be different.

Which begs the question: Are AIs trolls, but aren't aware of it?

The AI chatbots do seem to try and tell you what you want to hear
rather than pick arguments just to keep the discussion going like a
troll. But if they do get paid for advertising, the more engagement
they get, the more opportunity to reference sponsored
products/topics, so maybe their behaviour will gradually be tweaked
share that same troll-like motivation to just keep stringing users
along whatever it takes?

Mind you I wouldn't consider LLM AI chatbots to be "aware" of
this either way. Being aware of things is a whole other level of
technology, for better or worse.
--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.misc

On 2026-05-13, Oregonian Haruspex <no_email@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote:

A friend of mine had a problem with external speakers/mic for his laptop
- he does talks to groups. So he asked his new friend "copilot". Guess
what - co-pilot suggested he needed a gizmo, helpfully saying it was
available from Amazon. Off he goes and purchases this, and ... he's
still having problems. Ah says his friend "copilot", "now you mention it
what you need is actually this gizmo for, guess where, Amazon!
And seemingly there are still problems, but he has it working-sort-of.

So are big companies paying to get adverts in AIs? Or is it just
regurgitating the stuff it's scraped from Amazon?

And my friend has learnt nothing new from co-pilot. He has no real
further understanding about the problem he had. Co-pilot had not
educated him. But he does have some new buzz words that he picked up
from the conversation.

It could be, of course that he'd have got no further by entering into a
conversation with humans on a bulletin board, or indeed here on usenet.
I have no way of knowing.

I reckon to use one of these tools well, you already need to be somewhat
of an expert in the area of discussion - so you can spot the
hallucinations and where it is off the mark.

All the big companies have said they???ll be putting ads into their AIs. This is how they manifest.

But, but ... these weren't ads (*) - they appeared to be informed advice! Usually ad's are identified as ad's.


(*) OT is there a name for an abreviation of an abreviation? Does
anyone use advertisement?
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2