Chatroulette

Uh, this was during COVID.

Um, I was so lonely I signed up for, like, Chatroulette for business purposes.

Uh, and one of the people I got paired up with gave me incredibly good advice.

Uh, power of extroversion.

And if there's, like, "So this is what to do.

Like, here's how you can, you know, you can hire me," or, like, this is the sort of...

Like, just clearly explaining it is the sort of thing that, you know, the sort of extroverted people who are probably most of the people on Chatroulette for business owners-

[laughs]

I never did Omegle.

Omegle and Chatroulette.

Did you ever use Chatroulette?

Mm-mm.

They were.

Chatroulette was obviously just chat.

Omegle was video and chat.

Yeah.

I need y'all to know that One thing that really gives me hope is the fact that, okay, we were having a conversation on this podcast back in April, I wanna say.

I did a two-part episode on why the internet isn't fun anymore, and wouldn't you be surprised to find that one of the reasons is because of artificial intelligence taking over the whole fucking game But here's the thing too, back in that episode, at the end of it, I remember saying that I was gonna find some good resources to give us so that we can collectively try to get the ball rolling on a better internet, on a better internet landscape, on a more enjoyable experience that maybe doesn't reflect what we used to have back in the good old days of, like, MySpace and Chatroulette and bullshit like that [laughs] But something more user-friendly, something less scary, something less addictive And I admitted in that episode that I didn't have the resources right in that moment, but that I was going to add them once I did This is long-winded, but here's what gives me hope, is that now, and it's only been a couple of months since then, three months or so, four months, I have an abundance of resources to provide you all with that will help get the ball rolling not only on making the internet better, but especially on decreasing the speed of AI growth, doing something tangible about the unbelievable amount of data centers that are being built, affecting change in the environmental aspect of this problem, and signing off on regulations that need to happen as soon as possible I have so many resources to share with you, and I have put all of them in the show notes to not only just provide information, but really to encourage that we do all need to act on this Trying not to despair because, yes, this is scary.

Yes, this is existential.

Yes, this is, I believe, the fight of our lifetime, the thing that our generation will be known for, among other things, but this is probably gonna be the big one The thing that gives me hope, as well as all of these new resources that I have for you, is seeing that, yes, I do believe, and I hope you do too, that even despite all of this enraging, forcing of a technology that nobody wants, there is also a growing tide of people who actively, publicly, loudly are like, "Nobody wants this." I speak for so many people.