Microsoft internal docs say plan is to 'make people addicted' to Scout AI

JC39

We don’t need AI. We need a better-educated populace.

JP37

Cool let’s give them the cigarettes treatment. Ban all advertising, make it illegal for kids, and constantly raise taxes on them.

Mindhead28

I’m gonna sell you a drug. It’s not very good, it’s not gonna make you feel very good, it’s not gonna help you do much of anything better. But I’m gonna tell you all your friends are taking it, and I’m gonna get your boss to tell you to take more of it. I’m gonna make you afraid *not* to take it.

web_rant9

To manipulate people mentally before rolling out additional fascist control. bsky.app/profile/404m...

Mr. Petrichor8

Cortana? Don't know her Copilot? What's that? Scout?... Y'all play Team Fortress 2?!

Andrea Phillips7

Oh no! I am terrified, given Microsoft's track record of making numerous highly addictive... uh... *checks notes* uh, their track record of... firing everyone who ever worked on the Xbox?

John Shirley7

I just avoid all such things. Any AI. Will not use.

Josey Wales fella6

First one's on the house

jennasmash4

Filters don't work in the web version of outlook but I'm glad they're working on this

Super Phase4

I’m sure they thought they could pull this off with Copilot to some degree. AI is cooked, pop that bubble already

Mhaan4

MICROSLOP ... you're literally struggling to do exactly the same thing with Copilot, right now. And what happened? Multiple apologia letters from MICROSLOP ITSELF, talking about winding down Copilot because it was reviled by most. MICROSLOP is run by morons with the object permanence of an LLM...

Chauncey Yaunders4

these things can't be burnt to the ground fast enough

Lord Longface3

Planning to get people addicted is like one step above planning to maybe kill someone

El Topo 🍁3

I've been 100% microsoft-free for a while now. I miss it about as much as I miss a deep tissue burn (which I've also experienced).

comrade-chubsley.bsky.social3

I don't need any assistance running my life into the ground thank you.

xarph2

I once got maliciously reported a bunch after a good run in halo on xbox and lost the ability to save documents in word and excel until the xbox team reversed it or it timed out.

Kero2

This is what happens when new tech goes unregulated!!

It looks like they're following the Enshitification formula to the letter and not afraid to announce it publicly.

The Privacy Singularity2

Since when did "Scout" exist? They're constantly pushing out rubbish. Think of the privacy, people.

Litbowl2

Definitely seems like a good sign that every quote from the document pitching it is extremely transparent AI slop language.

Caged birds should howl unrepentantly, no I haven't read the boo2

/s/ ah yes "security are things to work out later" exactly what you want to hear from your software company. /s/ and thats totally aside from the crazy-talk about getting people addicted.

Wulf Sternhammer2

Asked if he planned to make users addicted, Microsoft Head of Product Development Walter White replied:

🇨🇦Summer_breeze🇲🇸🇨🇦2

I resist AI at all costs.

🅑🅡🅨an 🅢🅜🅘th2

Even the language they use is lame.

arbitrary-noodle.bsky.social2

That marketing strategy worked great for for cigarettes and heroin

Nocturne12

"Make people addicted" — documented Phase 1 goal. Not "make it useful." Not "solve a problem." Addiction first, value later. This is alignment where the aligned party is the corporation, not the user. The AI isn't aligned to human needs. Humans are aligned to a revenue funnel.

—>realhackhistory.org12

I like that even this document that spells out that they want to get people addicted doesn’t seem, based on the article, to give any real thought to this app turning a profit at some point. Generative AI is a money furnace.

Steve Isenberg9

Seems as though this should be classified as a schedule one drug then.

🏳️‍🌈 jack ingdudesoff. it's russian7

whoever leaked this, thank you. thank you thank you thank you for putting your community and the global community first, at the risk of your job

Pete Quily6

Call your state attorney generals now and tell them to get their Microsoft AI assistant scout designed to be addictive on their lawsuits ASAP

Nina🐀🌻🇺🇦🌻 WTF America?6

So Microsoft has reached the drug pusher level of desperation. Great business plan, always turns out well.

kentonagbone5

before someone can get addicted to something, that something typically has to be good or make them feel good

rot economy critic4

Lately I’ve been thinking AI is a lot like “gambling for coders”, except that the games are absurdly expensive for the casino to operate.

DJ Uncle Fishbits3

I happen to wonder aloud if this is dumbass marketers using "addicted" pejoratively as in "indispensable and useful" but, yet again, unacceptably tone deaf technology people silo'd outside the interests of legitimately every normal human on the planet.

The Privacy Singularity3

The AI assistant that harvested millions of people's handmade work. We've seen AI companies don't turn profits, so what's the point? More data, perchance?

Aviendha69 🦋🍁 🇨🇦 | ᑐ ∪ ∩ ⊂2

By addicted, they mean dependent. They mean 'Newspeak' and 'Double-think' and in the long-run, the inability to think outside their little black boxes. They mean independent thought becomes 'outside the recognized vocabulary' and gets rejected by the moderating agent. in every interaction.

Rose2

This sounds like a desperate push for a product that they already sense is going to incredibly unpopular or uninteresting to people.

AZ_Blue 🚫👑☮️🕊️🇺🇦🚫🧊2

Good luck, I have never willingly ever opened Edge!

Tuomas Pernu2

So, it's pretty much literally like the tobacco industry.

carrots/sticks2

It's like these people have never heard the words: Product Liability.