A Google employee claimed in 2022 that they had sentient AI. He was sacked. What were his motivations? Do you believe he was right?

They aren’t a homogenous group. They don’t all believe this. The “AI will kill us all” narrative just sells really well.

When trying to organise colleagues you need to exercise a certain level of trust or it will never get off the ground. Unfortunately boot lickers will take advantage of that. It’s to be expected.

I really enjoy your posts. Thank you! Are you a local or a traveller?

I think you’re jumping the gun a bit. They’re just saying that requiring a phone number added a barrier against spammers and they want to be sure this change doesn’t open the flood gates.

From the article:

"We gotta figure out some way to induce a cost for signing up without a phone number”, Kret said.

It’s unclear whether this means that registration without a phone number will become a paid feature.

However, “cost” does not necessarily mean a monetary fee; it could also refer to another barrier designed to prevent abuse.