mrmaplebar

@mrmaplebar@fedia.io

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam's AI disclosures are akin to "forcing developers to list their voting history", says man who must hate seeing eggs virtue signal that they're free-range⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  But that's my point, not everyone agrees with that assessment.

  Well people can't even agree on who won the last election or even if the world is round, so I can only speak to my point of view on things.

  The problem is there's things like code completers, that predate AI, and no one ever had a problem with those even though presumably they were also taking work from other people. So how much AI can be used before AI becomes unacceptable. You can set the bar at zero, but then you start getting problems of defining what even constitutes AI.

  To me it's very clear that the heart of the problem is not in "AI" or "machine learning" itself, but the way that almost all of the large AI models have been trained on work which has been scraped from other people without even so much as basic consent--to say little about licenses or payment. Consent is pretty massively important factor here. After all, I think most of us can agree on the fact that consent is the difference between "borrowing" and "theft", the difference between "sex" and "rape", and the difference between "employment" and "slavery".

  Is it possible to make an ethical AI?

  Of course it is. But I feel that it would require an AI that was developed in a non-exploitative way, trained on data that has been legitimately acquired, licensed, public domain, cc-0, or otherwise "fair use". Almost nobody is doing that, to my knowledge. Maybe someone in the open source world is working on it, and if so, kudos to them, but certainly none of the big AI corporations are.

  As for where we draw the line of what is or isn't OK, in the US at least, "fair use" law is the mechanism that we have historically used to determine which particular unauthorized uses of other people's copyrighted work are OK. And there are many factors that are considered for determining whether some kind of use is or isn't fair.

  So I agree there is a nuanced discussion to be had, but most of the time we are not talking about simple, small code completion tasks (like asking your IDE to create an empty definition of a method in the .cpp file or whatever). We are generally talking about people using large model AI systems to generate the actual "business logic" of a program, seemingly out of thin air (as long as you pay no attention to the man behind the curtain).

  Part of having a real discussion is opening our eyes to the darker side of the AI industry and acknowledging the fact that the intellectual labor of working people and the creative class are being exploited at a truly unprecedented scale.

  At any rate, I'm more than happy to have the conversation, even if I don't have infinite time to dedicate to it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam's AI disclosures are akin to "forcing developers to list their voting history", says man who must hate seeing eggs virtue signal that they're free-range⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Whether it's art or code is basically a difference without a distinction to me personally. I'm not sure what makes it different.

  Like, in my view, if you're using a generative AI model that was trained without license, compensation or even so much as basic consent from the people who created the original training data, then I feel that is an unpaid exploitation of other people's intellectual labor. You are taking advantage of someone else's work, and in most cases doing so regardless of any kinds of copyright, license, or other agreement. And, considering a former top AI executive at Microsoft called what they were doing "the largest theft of labor in human history", I think I'm not alone in looking at it that was.

  As a person, I've always been something of a "jack of all trades"--I like making art and playing music, but I also like computers, programming, FOSS and game dev. I'd be lying to you if I sad that I wasn't pretty sad and disappointed to be living through a time of mass fraudulence and exploitation, when human skills and creativity are instantly punished by theft and exploitation on an unprecedented scale, by those with the most money and compute power in the name of short term profit and "the ends justify the means" thinking.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam's AI disclosures are akin to "forcing developers to list their voting history", says man who must hate seeing eggs virtue signal that they're free-range⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  As someone who has an ethical problem with how generative AI has been trained on the exploited labor of other people, I do feel like I have a right to know who is and isn't leveraging it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam Controller Shipping⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Nice. I love mine and I still use it everyday with my DIY bazzite "steam machine". It's expensive for a controller but totally worth it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OOTL I just found out about the valve Index. Whats the difference between valve Index and steam Frame?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  • The Valve Index is just an I/O device (display, tracking* and controllers), whereas the Steam Frame is also a stand-alone Linux computer (although with a very limited battery life and around the power of a cellphone).

  • For tracking, the Index does room-scale outside-in tracking using little boxes that you have to hang up in your room, called Lighthouse VR base stations. The Frame uses inside-out tracking of controllers using a combination of IR cameras and gyro--maybe not quite as accurate, but significantly more convenient. I believe that the original base stations that were sold with the index are no longer being made, but other ones are, though I'm not sure.

  • The Frame supports eye-tracking, plus eye-tracking features like foveated rendering and streaming. The Index doesn't, at least not out of the box. These optimizations essentially make things look better/sharper exactly where you're currently looking even as you look around, which generally gives you better performance.

  • The Frame can be used wirelessly, and comes with a dedicated 6GHz streaming dongle. The Frame also supports an interesting mode called a Multi-Link connection which uses both the dongle and your WiFi at the same time to (in theory) give you a most stable connection. Unlike the Frame, the Index must be plugged into a computer at all times.

  • The Frame is lighter and smaller than the Index, and has better, higher-resolution screens.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Frame] Steam Frame reservation⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I'm on the wait list for the 256gb and I have no idea how often I should check or how long I should expect to wait...

• Steam :: Introducing SteamVR 2.17steamcommunity.com ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨steamdeck@sopuli.xyz⁩ | ⁨1⁩ ⁨comment⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Claude will apply invisible watermarks to AI text and images⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Not enough. AI generated content should be required by law to contain both visible and invisible watermarks.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ireland’s data centers consumed nearly as much electricity as every home in the country combined in 2025 — server farms gulped 23% of national power despite years of grid restrictions⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  How else is Ireland going to compete with China as a dystopian AI superpower?? /s

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨My steam machine arrived!⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Door to door RAM salesman.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨dBrand Companion Cube cancelled:⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The blunt version is that we made the Companion Cube without a license from Valve.

  Well... that was pretty damn stupid, now wasn't it? Were they under the impression that they could capitalize off of one of Valve's biggest IPs without getting some kind of license or consent first? Who do they think they are, an AI company?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The heavily touchpad based design was also just more radical than people were willing to accept. It forced you to adapt to a totally different control paradigm, and took a lot of time to get used to. I liked mine, but I can see why people may have bounced off of it pretty hard.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam machine prices are live⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It's more expensive than we all would hope, but not unreasonably so given the economic situation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam Controller: Dropped and doubled inputs?! Bad connection?!⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Commenting to mention that I've posted an update to this thread at the top of the OP.

  Turns out the hardware is fine, and the controller seems to be working perfectly fine in game!

  The issue I'm having seems to be really limited to Steam menu navigation within Bazzite's Big Picture "Gaming" Mode.

  I can live with that, for now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam Controller: Dropped and doubled inputs?! Bad connection?!⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They've released a couple firmware/steam updates for people having doubled inputs, so definitely make sure you have those all installed. A new firmware update for the controller was released last night.

  I guess I'm up to date, though it's not really clear...

  The first time I plugged in the puck, Steam recognized it and prompted me to update the puck firmware. Ok, that went fine.

  But then it told me to unplug the puck and plug in the controller, at which point the controller was not automatically recognized and I had no way to proceed.

  I ended up quitting out of that menu and finding a button to update the controller in the general settings menu, after which that button simply disappeared (?) or something...

  Under Controller>Advanced settings in steam big picture mode, you can try forcibly updating all hardwired controllers.

  I've tried that one. You click "start" and it spins for 2-3 seconds before going right back to saying "start". It's unclear to me what, if anything, it does.

  You shouldn't be having any signal issues at that range, so you either have something defective or some really bad signal interference. I'm leaning towards something being defective, because my puck doesn't have line of sight, is immediately next to a router and a bunch of bluetooth devices, and hasn't had any connection issues. You also mentioned the issues happening while wired, which definitely suggests a controller issue and not a connection problem.

  Yeah... I've sent in a Steam support ticket.

  I'm trying to keep my cool about it, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pretty annoyed at how shoddy this thing is given my long standing support of Valve hardware, the long delays, $100 price tags, struggling to buy it immediately, and now it being sold out.

  It's frustrating that this thing doesn't just work.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam Controller: Dropped and doubled inputs?! Bad connection?!⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a mouse and keyboard, I have other controllers. That's not really the point.

  I don't feel that I should need to plug a separate device into my Bazzite HTPC "console" to pair my controller to the puck that it comes with. Valve have marketed this controller as a replacement for a mouse and keyboard in the livingroom/bedroom setup, right?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam Controller: Dropped and doubled inputs?! Bad connection?!⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes. Updated the puck, the controller, and Bazzite.
  Both Bazzite and Steam on their respective Beta branches.

• Steam Controller: Dropped and doubled inputs?! Bad connection?!
  Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨steamdeck@sopuli.xyz⁩ | ⁨19⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New Steam update shows four Steam Machine models, though we still don't have a release date⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think you're probably right, but I also think selling the Machine without the Controller is an odd choice, given Valve's bigger vision of it being a living room console.

  With that said, they've already sold many of us a controller, so... It's kind of a mess.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anyone manage to order a controller?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I got one at 10:05, but I really had to mash through it. It was in my cart at 9:59, but I kept getting initialization errors at the payment stage.

  I should mention that I added $100 to my Steam Wallet a few days ago to make the process easier. It still sucked.

  As rough as this is it wasn't nearly as bad as my experience ordering the Steam Deck.....

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam Controller shows signs of life, as leaker suggests that Valve has received its "first large quantity" shipments⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I want

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Official Valve: Steam Hardware Launch timing and other FAQs⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I used to think that would be a bad idea (because it's very un-console-like to sell a device that isn't plug-and-play out of the box) but I might be coming around on it a bit if it means a more affordable option.

  They'd need to make it very clear to buyers, though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Official Valve: Steam Hardware Launch timing and other FAQs⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I honestly wish they'd just release the controller sooner rather than later. I can somewhat understand delaying the Machine and Frame due to the supply shortages, but if the controller is ready then they should just put it out there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Discussion] What are you playing on your Deck? - Feb 2026⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  CatsEyeXI custom Final Fantasy XI server!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ChatGPT Go subscription rolls out worldwide at $8, but it'll show you ads⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  ChatGPT No thank you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Users of generative AI struggle to accurately assess their own competence⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I'll assess them: they are incompetent and talentless.

  That'll be $20.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft's OpenAI losses hidden as part of $4.7 billion 'other' expense — stake in AI company still doesn't turn a profit as companies grapple with ongoing contract negotiation⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Putting aside my ethical and cultural issues with training generative AI for a second, I have no idea what the appeal of this stuff is as a product.

  Like, if they want me to pay a monthly subscription, what do they expect me to do with it? I have zero interest in chatting to a computer that's not thinking and is just stringing together words based on probabilistic bias, and I have zero interest in making or consuming AI-generated media. I don't want an AI "girlfriend", nor do I want an AI to play a video game for me. Finally, I don't see the value in having an AI tell me things that it summarized from various internet sources when we all know that the chances of it "hallucinating" (aka: making shit up or generally being totally wrong) is extremely high and basically unavoidable.

  So, aside from the basic novelty of talking to your computer, what the hell is the point of all this?

  Personally I wouldn't pay $2/month for LLMs, let alone $200/month...