The tech industry's rush to cram AI into every product is making software worse and more expensive, forcing users to pay for features they don't want or need. From AI buttons on mice to mandatory chatbots in browsers, these integrations prioritize revenue extraction over user experience. Good software should respect users' time and intelligence, not exploit them through forced feature bloat.
That was already a trend in software for a long time, unfortunately. Smartphones were largely responsible for this trend because they promoted disposable devices and vendor lock-in with endless new features that few people needed (I mean, needed in the sense of actually improving how they go about their daily life). And what about the web? Sophisticated javascript that prevents scrolling and that loads 100s of megabytes into your browser so that now a browser needs a new computer.
Software respecting user's time was a thing when computers were used by a minority, because the audience was discerning about such things. Nowadays, software is too complicated for the masses to understand, and so any advance will be adopted, whether it is ultimately a good thing or bad.
I feel like we need a second revolution in software, sort of like how open source provided the first.
The tech industry's rush to cram AI into every product is making software worse and more expensive, forcing users to pay for features they don't want or need. From AI buttons on mice to mandatory chatbots in browsers, these integrations prioritize revenue extraction over user experience. Good software should respect users' time and intelligence, not exploit them through forced feature bloat.
That was already a trend in software for a long time, unfortunately. Smartphones were largely responsible for this trend because they promoted disposable devices and vendor lock-in with endless new features that few people needed (I mean, needed in the sense of actually improving how they go about their daily life). And what about the web? Sophisticated javascript that prevents scrolling and that loads 100s of megabytes into your browser so that now a browser needs a new computer.
Software respecting user's time was a thing when computers were used by a minority, because the audience was discerning about such things. Nowadays, software is too complicated for the masses to understand, and so any advance will be adopted, whether it is ultimately a good thing or bad.
I feel like we need a second revolution in software, sort of like how open source provided the first.