Tim Peter

@tcpeter.bsky.social

913 Followers 891 Following

Educator. Consultant. Author of the best-selling “Digital Reset: Driving Marketing and Customer Acquisition Beyond Big Tech.” Values kindness most of all.

Text of screenshot: "The Argument Against Decentralization Now, I want to be fair, there’s some really cool stuff here and some things that I think will succeed. At the same time, I have two problems with this argument. One is we already have a decentralized web. It’s called the web. Anyone can set up a web server, anyone can launch a company or a product or an app or a movement on the web easily. The centralization that has emerged in recent years is a bug. The fact that we have the AGFAM is definitely, a bug of the system. But it’s also a feature. Users don’t want to have to randomly type in web addresses in hopes that the one they land on serves their needs. And so intermediaries and gatekeepers have emerged to help users find what they want. VCs and Motivated Reasoning The other place where this doesn’t quite ring true to me is that a number of venture capital firms have invested in web3 startups to the tune of around $30 billion in 2021. Now call me crazy but VCs make money when their portfolio companies get sold whether to larger firms but later funding rounds or public markets. Those exits that they are banking on assume that these companies will generate revenues and profits or will lead to some other entity to generate revenues and profits. A decentralized web doesn’t actually, help them reach their goals. I don’t think the venture capital community is betting on a decentralized web so much as it’s betting on a re-centralized web with their portfolio companies at the center."
Cover image of the 1986 eponymous album by the band Crowded House
Photo of Pink Paisley Fender Telecaster, Squier Cabronita Telecaster, and Fender Nashville Deluxe Telecaster
Text of screenshot: The paper, adorned with Google's iconic logo and listing 20 of its current and former researchers as authors, warns that "persuasive generative AI" — including chatbots that take the form of friends or lovers — can manipulate users and their decision-making. It advises that chatbots that build "trust and rapport" through obsequiousness, flattery, or simulated empathy — the Google scientists refer to this as "sycophancy" — pose a particularly high risk to users. In particular, the Google researchers warn, these bots could target children and adolescents, who "can be more easily persuaded and manipulated than adults." And a grim result, they warn, could be suicide. "A user," the Google researchers caution, could be "persuaded to take their own life."
LinkedIn post from Erik Brunolfsson stating, Great to see "Generative AI at Work", my paper with Lindsey Raymond and Danielle Li published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. We find that an LLM assistant makes customer support agents 14% more productive, improves customer satisfaction, and reduces employee turnover.”