I agree, seems stupid! I’m still having a hard time accepting this as a scandal next to embedded ads for Wired’s own content literally calling AI salvation though:
Compared to, “EZPR has four clients, none of which, Zitron claims, is in the business of generative AI.” They even diffuse their own point near the end, “In truth, Zitron’s two jobs aren’t in as much tension as they might seem to be. The PR wheedling and the critical needling come from the same place: He loves this stuff. He’s just mad it doesn’t work better”
And MOTHER FUCKER, now when I’m looking into one of those clients it turns out they were represented by Zitron and company when they were pre-LLM form fillers per another EZPR employee: https://knowtechie.com/donotpay-has-a-new-gpt-powered-chatbot-for-bill-negotiation/ . So Zitron worked with them Sept2020-Oct2021, and the article shows LLM incorporation happening a year later?
In OP’s link Baldur makes the point that you can’t do PR and news reporting without creating a conflict of interest because “You have two readers: the archetype that represents your likely audience and a tech oligarch’s opposition research team.” but then just repeats Wired’s message? HoW cOmPrOmIsEd‽¿?
Sorry, I got irritated that my time was being wasted the more I dug into this but it’s not at you.
I agree, seems stupid! I’m still having a hard time accepting this as a scandal next to embedded ads for Wired’s own content literally calling AI salvation though:
Compared to, “EZPR has four clients, none of which, Zitron claims, is in the business of generative AI.” They even diffuse their own point near the end, “In truth, Zitron’s two jobs aren’t in as much tension as they might seem to be. The PR wheedling and the critical needling come from the same place: He loves this stuff. He’s just mad it doesn’t work better”
And MOTHER FUCKER, now when I’m looking into one of those clients it turns out they were represented by Zitron and company when they were pre-LLM form fillers per another EZPR employee: https://knowtechie.com/donotpay-has-a-new-gpt-powered-chatbot-for-bill-negotiation/ . So Zitron worked with them Sept2020-Oct2021, and the article shows LLM incorporation happening a year later?
In OP’s link Baldur makes the point that you can’t do PR and news reporting without creating a conflict of interest because “You have two readers: the archetype that represents your likely audience and a tech oligarch’s opposition research team.” but then just repeats Wired’s message? HoW cOmPrOmIsEd‽¿?
Sorry, I got irritated that my time was being wasted the more I dug into this but it’s not at you.