It’s wild just how much they’re trying to shove AI down our throats.
You can often buy the “digital signage” of TVs. Same pannel, but it’s just a screen. I think it’s targetting businesses but you can buy them too!
Oh, the same company that screenshots your content even if you use it as a dumb display? Who could’ve predicted this!
Who the fucks connect tv to the internet
I need someone to explain to me, what situation could possibly arise that would require me to use Copilot on my fucking TV?
Play the movie where Darth Vader dies.
Of course there are features enabled by ai. But to force it down our throats, that’s the problem.
Don’t think about what copilot can do for you that’s some socialism talk!, think about how it could squeeze profits and data from your instead ~Microsoft lunatics
This is like how I save money on internet by having cable I don’t watch.
The execs just want that cable subscriber number to go up so they effectively pay me to have it.
They had the same thing with landlines for a while.
The same reason why windows has that stupid desktop search - so that some twat with an MBA can brag about user engagement and justify his existence. Also, to hoover up user data for slop machine training.
At least you can turn that search thing off!
I believe we’re talking about the “number go up” scenario
“Go away, I’m batin’!”
This comes up a lot, and I don’t necessarily get it. I have all smart TVs, and I just never, ever, EVER let them connect to wifi even ONCE for any reason. It’s not like it NEEDS it for anything.
It’s not like it NEEDS it for anything.
I see this take online a lot, but in person, everywhere I go people play netflix and whatever directly on their TV. I think there might just be a huge divide in perspective between those with and without game consoles of some sort always connected to their TV.
Totally, although the thing is I bet one day tvs will come with a built in sim card, or worst yet will disable themselves until there’s an active internet connection or some other scummy method
That’s the point when I will get a dumb corporate TV with a streaming dongle or media server connected via HDMI or DP…
Those don’t really exist anymore though.
There are displays and I will get them.
If I can’t afford it, I will not get any TV and use my computer or phone ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Fuck that whole industry. If they force me, I will do it another way.
I think they kind of do the active Internet part now. I don’t watch television and haven’t touched a TV for a long time, but recently I had to help a neighbour set his new smart TV up. It was one of the big brands, I don’t remember if it was LG, Samsung or something else. The TV couldn’t go through initial set up without me installing some app on his phone. If there was an option to skip I couldn’t see where it was, I only assume that if it was possible it was intentionally made un-intuitive or hard to discover. And of course, if you want the TV to connect to the app you must connect it to Internet. Again, it may have been a failure on my part, but I wouldn’t be supprised if they intentionally forced the user to do it this way.
Samsung had something similar on their cheaper phones (the A series) where during the initial set up it asks you to login or create a Samsung account and you have to jump through a couple of hoops to skip it, as well as some other part where I don’t remember what the phone asked you to do, but the “Yes” option was blue, while the button to skip was intentionally colored the same or very similar shade of gray as an inactive button. So if the TV was Samsung I don’t doubt for a second that they will do some shady practice like that.
Agreed. And that’ll be the time I’m up in arms.
This right here is the answer. There are so many devices you can plug into those things that you don’t really need the crap that they installed natively.
Not to mention they often cheap out on both the software and hardware, so you end up having to slowly navigate through poorly designed UIs that it struggles to display.
I have my TV on WiFi network that has no Internet access so at least I can control it via homeassistant still. It doesn’t need Internet for anything but the UI so just get a shield and strip that down
Well LG did me a favor. Don’t buy LG tvs, Samsung appliances or HP printers.
Well, at least LG has a range of TVs turned monitors, i.e. without all that “smart” shit. So they have a usable alternative, something other vendors don’t.
Don’t buy LG anything. Everything I’ve bought from them has suckes
I’ve had good luck with their mid-high end kitchen appliances and washer/dryer.
Not impressed with the TV and the AI update made the UI very slow and unresponsive. Next one will not be LG.
Unfortunately, it was just that: good luck. All appliances from Samsung and LG are notorious in the market space for premature failure. If we had a functioning consumer protection agency, they wouldn’t be able even sell something of such poor reliability.
Their washing machines are good
Try a Speed Queen and then get back to me.
Hard disagree. Please, everyone, research impartial product reviews before you buy any appliance. Your appliance lifespans should be measurable in decades.
We have had great luck with our LG microwave. It’s well over ten years old and the one issue we’ve had was caused by user error. Our two year old LG tv is meh. The backlighting is uneven; our much older Samsung looks much better.
I’ve only ever bought LG phones, they made a couple of duds but largely they were great, they died rather than going to shit.
I need a new phone eventually though. :(
LG’s recent software update has forcibly installed Microsoft Copilot, an AI assistant, on smart TVs without removal options, sparking widespread user backlash over privacy, bloatware, and loss of control. This highlights growing tensions in smart devices, where monetization often overrides user preferences.
Sure is ironic that the article summary is itself AI-generated.
Widespread user backlash? Those of us who value privacy probably stopped watching streamed services anyway. The user base that cares is probably 1%. Nobody I know cares about privacy enough to implement countermeasures.
is it that hard just to a regular TV? i think with all the AI backlash and Smart TV fatigue that’s kinda a reasonable solution. Def won’t hurt anybody
Depends on the country, but yes it is actually difficult to find a TV that is not android TV based or at least has WiFi and smart features built in, especially above a certain size/price threshold.
damn.
FYI, it won’t let you delete Alexa either. I hate that fucking thing.
My company received an email from Microsoft this week.
“From our data you are not selling Ai features as much as your competitors and we suggest that you start changing this or you will be left behind.”
It was a completely bullshit email. But the stupids at my company are now worried that Microsoft is tracking the features we’re selling with our computers. Like if that wasn’t the most glaring red flag “we have spent way too much money on this and we need you to prove we aren’t dumbasses” I don’t know what is.
I still will not sell Ai outside of its basic uses. And I’m backed up by the old heads in my department. Ai is not for everything.
Last year I quit a job that added AI use to performance reviews.
It was basically “if we’re not all in on AI our competitors will be, we all need to learn it”.
Nobody paid for their product for AI before, they paid for a product that was simple and reliable so that their business didn’t have to worry about issues and could dicks on their core competencies.
I watched some sheisters build some impressive money furnaces, they got the praise while I got sidelined for pointing out the costs. I literally showed the forecasted costs of tens of thousands a week on basically a vanity feature with no payout, and the execs all said yeah that was fine, it’s AI. Then two months later they were asking me why our costs went up so much and why they didn’t know that would happen, and I just pointed to my date stamped presentation of the numbers and meeting notes they approved (and my numbers were 99% accurate to the true costs).
When execs ignore my advice and warnings I leave.
Sorry to hear that. It’s wild. Dell is doing a 30% price hike because of prices. Announced today. I expect us to follow.
That’s not my worst one. I did an analysis for one company which took 2 months since their data was such a mess. They were spending at least $10m/year (20 high comp devs) developing a product that was pulling in 8k/year. They did not have a path to growing revenue 1000x on that one, when I told the ceo and he doubled down that it was a bet they wanted to make. They really just wanted the nice slide deck for the board.
I checked in a year later and they were still working on it. Two years later they mothballed it. They could have saved millions by listening to me.
One day, literally every Gsuite product immediately and incessantly started nagging us to use Gemini. Fortunately our tech staff quickly switched it all off. We have slowly been re-enabling features that are useful like meeting transcriptions. I just wish these corporations could have more restraint. In previous waves of improvement in tech, usage dictated investment in new products. These days, they seem to feel the need to coerce us to use their products as they insist we should. I think users are getting fatigued by this dynamic. I used to be the first to install every update and try new apps and products. These days, I’m excited when I can stop using a product, and I don’t think it’s just due to age. It means I can stop having to be vigilant about some company I know is searching for ways to exploit me.
Yeah the MBA guys who pushed enshitification were empowered because their strategies made more money so they must know what they are doing right? Now things don’t happen because they are better they happen because these guys think there is money. And the guys who used to pick the best ideas are out being rich somewhere
I think this rollout could have been handled better. I am generally pro AI but I do think there are tasks it does not handle well (yet?) and places it is unnecessary or just shouldn’t be used. On the other hand though I do think that it is partly age and being in tech a while you tend to get fatigued. Giddily wanting to try all the latest stuff only really works when the technology is new and immature or that you are new to the technology. People have been around digital technology for a while now so it’s no longer exciting.
In general its just wasteful use of power for answers that are easily found in other ways.
Answering questions is not the only thing it’s used for. Lol.
The stats show people are using it for things like multiple my meal by 18% tip, or give me web link to x product. Instead of using a calculator app, or re gular search. Meanwhile the AI companies are having to build power station. People are stupid, and we will ruin out world because of idiots
Every time I search for a simple answer Google suggests I use Gemini instead, or they show me a “switch to AI mode” pop up that covers the lower third of my screen. I’ve just started receiving emails about using it on my old Gmail account apropos of nothing. These companies are begging people to waste that energy.
Yep, you can turn off some of it with the flags settings https://pureinfotech.com/disable-ai-mode-address-bar-new-tab-chrome/
And then they’re gonna say “see? Look how many people are using this! I deserve a bonus.” When it’s a setting that’s just on by default.
You are the cream of the crop, somehow you not only knew this, you decided that this needs to be shared, even though anyone with electricity has been told this hundreds of times.Thank yooooooooouuuuuuu
“This technology is so useful we’re going to force it on you every way we can think of”
So glad I blocked my LG C1 from the internet ages ago. Haven’t received updates in forever, don’t care. It’s a TV, it shows pictures. I even still have it LAN enabled so it can be controlled via Home Assistant automations, it just can never leave the home network, and that’s how I like it.
I can’t even remember how long ago I set it up to do this, I think it was when I heard rumor they’d be including ads in the UI, maybe 2023 or so.
This shit is why more people now have dabbled in DNS blocking and vlans. Its “your” equipment but you need to literally treat it as hostile.
Anything you didn’t program yourself should be assumed hostile.
Lots of open source gets a pad because grumpier people than me review it and they seem to have good taste, but I still don’t blindly trust it.
The controversy centers on a Reddit post in the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, where a user lamented the unexpected addition of Copilot following an automatic update. The post, which garnered thousands of upvotes and comments, describes the AI tool appearing as a non-deletable app on the TV’s interface.
“Widespread backlash” 🙄
AI generated summary for sure
Honestly, though this is the definition of “widespread backlash” when it comes to red pilled garbage. So I’ll take it.
clankers should be segregated from society. oh and to the hexbear people: “clanker” is technically NOT a slur. seriously!
what?
You said something about clankers in your post. It reminded me of something they’d refer to battle droids as in star wars the clone wars. That is Captain Rex, one of the main characters
“clankers” is a term that’s being used for ai bots in a pseudo-negative way, i think
Must be an extension from the Star Wars root. The “clankers” in the show were stupid too.
