this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
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Fuck AI

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"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"

A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.

AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.

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[–] U7826391786239@piefed.zip 166 points 1 week ago (2 children)

am i old? i simply can't imagine handing control of my money over to AI because i can't be assed to order shit online all by myself--which takes less time than writing a prompt

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 57 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Can't imagine handing control of anything over to an LLM.

[–] Bazell@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (12 children)

Nah, you are wrong. Since LLMs are for entertainment, making it control an NPC is totally fine, since hallucinations will only make this NPC funnier.

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[–] Whimsical418@aussie.zone 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The cynic in me says they'll start making the normal online ordering process much harder and worse to try to force ai shopping usage

[–] pdxfed@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Retailers will eliminate search, product sort and filters, etc.

They will dumb it down to happy value meal, the generous ones may allow ala carte ordering, a nod to legacy web purchasing. Imagine allowing consumers to choose their own products?!? How dated and unprofitable.

With most people nearly illiterate, as designed, they won't complain.

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[–] _chris@lemmy.world 113 points 1 week ago (2 children)

If you’re dumb enough to trust the AI agent at all, but especially one that is provided, owned, and operated by the capitalist company that you’re shopping at and you expect it to act in your best interest, that’s a special kind of stupid.

[–] limonfiesta@lemmy.world 47 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes, if you, or any other relatively young or middle aged Lemmy user got got by trusting Target's AI shopper, I'd laugh.

But that's not a representative sample. This will be used to exploit the poor, uneducated, and elderly.

I think our best bet is that someone creates a script that burns through Target's tokens and that drives the costs up to unsustainable levels.

Maybe that's a pipe dream, I just know that our lawmakers will do nothing to help, so that's what we're left with.

[–] SleeplessCityLights@programming.dev 20 points 1 week ago (9 children)

I would like if there was an activist movement with the goal of burning tokens but not targeting OpenAi or Anthropic as they can afford to have a small percentage of their tokens being wasted. We need to target smaller corporations that actually pay for tokens. Chipolte's online order assistant is not ready for high volume tokens usage.

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Be that as it may, I wish there were a law on the books holding the AI agent and its operators accountable. Sounds like a massive fucking retail scam to me, and we don't blame the victim when it's a human con artist stealing their money, so it makes no sense to me to blame the victim when it happens digitally.

[–] Akuchimoya@startrek.website 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In Canada, a court ruled that Air Canada was liable for its AI chatbot. Air Canada's lawyer(s) attempted to argue that the chat bot was a separate entity responsible for itself, an astonished judge said, "lol no" (not an exact quote). https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/air-canada-chatbot-lawsuit-1.7116416

But that's Canada, and Target is not here (anymore), so...
Not relevant to the company at hand, but there is some precedence somewhere.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Canadian law is also why there's no Fox News in Canada.

Good, Faux News is just a pile of maga dogshit

[–] Sunflier@lemmy.world 54 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Nope! That violates the deeply rooted basis of law for the sale of goods. Such sales are subject to individual states' laws, but most follow Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. There is inherently no meeting of the minds (the very foundation on all contract law dating back before America was even discovered by Europeans) if AI is engaging in anything commercial in nature, much more so if they're mistakes.

You cannot pull a bait and switch on non-conforming/mistaken goods without letting the other party choose to accept or reject the goods. This is more so if that choice is made before the mistake is discovered and the price changed. Here, the supplier has engaged in the risk of loss by utilizing an untested replacement for workers.

Also, how is the recieving party supposed to know they're not tendering an alternative replacement of non-conforming goods?

[–] Bakkoda@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Laws you say? I guess we'll see you in court. Unless you can't afford that. Then you can get fucked.

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[–] Wilco@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 week ago

They are likely bribing ... erm ... I mean "lobbying" politicians right now to get a legal loophole around this.

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[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 43 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Why would I need AI to shop at Target for me in the first place?

[–] Agrivar@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why would I need ~~AI~~ to shop at Target ~~for me~~ in the first place?

FTFY

Fuck Target.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Because my only other options are Walmart and Amazon…

[–] Agrivar@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

My condolences.

[–] albbi@piefed.ca 19 points 1 week ago

AI demands real world applications. Even things it is awful at.

This bubble can't burst soon enough.

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[–] JigglySackles@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago

Oh look, even more reasons to avoid target AND AI.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 38 points 1 week ago

I guess that also means if I successfully gaslight the AI into giving me a 120% discount, Target has to pay for it.

[–] kinfuyuki@lemmy.zip 35 points 1 week ago (1 children)

i hope they start to sell $1000 pictures of products.. like.. it says in the top of the description its a picture, people read that but AI might skip that entirely, it will demotivate scalpers. i remember this being a serious problem for scapers in ebay, maybe we should start doing these practices in more places.

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[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thus reads like a need for regulation.

Thanks Trump for preventing such regulation.

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[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 week ago

Target and Walmart also say that if you don't scan something when you go through self checkout, you can be charged with shoplifting.

In other words, the companies have none of the responsibility and people have all of the liability.

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago

Fuck Target, too. Such a garbage company.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Who the fuck is so stupid and lets an AI do the shopping?

[–] ledasll@lemmy.wtf 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Have you seen who is USA president?

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

What has Benjamin Netanyahu to do with AI?

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 15 points 1 week ago

I have met many people who are at least that stupid. Gullible people with limited ability to imagine future consequences.

[–] melfie@lemmy.zip 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

How is an AI agent any different than any other software just because it does inference with a LLM? If I order something from their website and I get overcharged due to a bug, are they also not responsible? It’s not like agents can’t be tested or like guardrails can’t be put into place.

I know as a software engineer, I’m responsible for the code in any PR that has my name on it, regardless of what tools I may have used to generate the code, including AI. Are their dev teams not responsible for making sure their shit works?

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[–] hateisreality@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

Fuck you target....do you really need to give potential customers more reasons to avoid your shit store?

[–] violentfart@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Hmm, is this why I’m seeing shit liked old used phones for $30k on eBay?

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[–] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

promptly notifying the Agentic Commerce Agent and Target of any activity

Which will involve trying to persuade another ai agent that it isn't use error and that you really need to speak to someone.

[–] parson0@startrek.website 17 points 1 week ago

Entertainment purposes only

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 17 points 1 week ago

In sane countries this results in charges being laid

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I'm older than old. I go to the store, I pick up the thing, inspect it, and pay for the thing. Just like I always have. Why change what already works? Oh, right, so the rich can get richer, that's why they force changes on us, under the guise of convenience. Lift a damn finger, is what I'm saying.

[–] Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, the handful of times I've ordered produce or fruit for delivery, it was obvious that they unloaded the damaged/bruised/over-ripe stuff on the online orders.

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[–] GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I see corporations have found a new use case for AI - bypassing the laws and avoiding any responsibility.

"AI did it, there's nothing we can do, because it's not our fault".

"You died, whoopsie."

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

We are not responsible for our own systems - idiots

[–] ooterness@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Entertainment purposes only.

[–] zeppo@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This would be fine if consumers could get the point that AI is not reliable enough to operate without review, and Target makes it clear to them what the situation is. I doubt that will happen though.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 22 points 1 week ago (2 children)

AI is not reliable enough to operate without review

Which makes it worthless for anything other than vague inspiration or as a verbose search result. Literally everything else takes more work to do something if the person is capable of doing the thing.

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[–] Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago
[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I gotta say I will be shocked if some of these places aren't burned to the ground because they fucked up the wrong crazies order.

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[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

Guess I'm just stupid, because I still don't understand what the AI agent is doing. I've read the article and the comments in this thread

is this something where you can have a conversation with a chat bot, and tell it to go buy you something? like you can chat and say oh I'm looking for this particular thing, and then it will tell you what that is and can purchase it for you? and so it might tell you one thing and order another, or just completely make something up and order some random shit. because if that is the case then yeah that's absolute crap, that's their customer service agent and they are responsible for its behaviour

kind of weird that the article doesn't make this clear.

[–] matlag@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago

Based on the terms and conditions, my expectation is it will randomly order a bunch of expensive items you didn't want on your behalf whenever a quarter in on track to miss the target numbers.

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