Honestly, it feels like only yesterday that System76, Linux OEM and the company behind pop!_OS, announced it was going to develop its own desktop environment, COSMIC. We’re about seven months into the more general availability of COSMIC, and the company has put up a nice overview of the various improvements that have already made their way into the code since then.

Of course, there’s a ton of visual improvements have been made to COSMIC, as well as a slew of new features: improved search, a brand new system monitor, drag and drop for tabs throughout COSMIC, and much more. COSMIC’s file manager and terminal have also seen a lot of work, with a ton of new small features and additions to bring them up to par with what people expect form a modern file manager and terminal emulator.

There’s a ton more listed in the article, so it serves as a nice “while you were away” if you’ve not been following development.

What happens when programmers get to vote on a complete ban on slopcoded software on their code platform? Members of Codeberg were asked to vote on a proposal to completely ban slopcoded projects from Codeberg, and in what should not be a surprising outcome to anyone not overcome with “AI” hysteria, the vast majority voted in favour of the complete ban: over 70% of Codeberg members voted to ban slopcoded projects entirely (358 in favour, 144 against, 14 abstentions).

Of course, this is not a surprising outcome. Stripped down, programming is a form of artistic expression, and programming is no different than writing, painting, composing, or any other artistic endeavour. I think it’s safe to say writers, painters, composers, and similar creatives are against “AI”, so it’s only natural programmers feel the same; poll after poll shows the overwhelming majority of respondents – usually well over 70-80% – are against “AI”.

The pro-“AI” accounts on OSNews often try to paint my anti-“AI” position as extremist, but in reality, I’m just voicing how 70-80% of people clearly state they feel. I have zero skin in this game, zero outside pressure to please any bosses to get that promotion, zero pressure to conform to avoid getting laid off, zero pressure to not contradict upper-management. I can speak freely, openly, and without fear of retaliation. And as Nikhil Suresh explains in his harrowing from-the-trenches article AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making, that’s a massive asset.

The vast majority of people – including your friends, family, and co-workers – really hate “AI”. You can either accept this, or be left behind.

If you want to develop an application for AmigaOS 3.x but don’t want to deal with real hardware, virtualisation and emulation are your friends.

Apropos of nothing, I decided to set up an Amiga development environment. Since figuring things out wasn’t straightforward, I wrote down instructions for Linux about how to compile the first program and run it in an emulator. Enjoy!

↫ Daniel Kochmański

It’s a great guide, easy to follow, and you’ll be up and running quickly. The emulator the guide uses – AmiBerry, a fork of WinUAE – contains slopcode, so you may want to consider alternatives. This doesn’t change much for the guide though, as whatever tasks you need to do outside and inside AmigaOS itself remain unchanged.

Drivers of cars from the Volkswagen Group using alternative Android versions like GrapheneOS, LineageOS, or /e/OS have been unable to use the VW app for some time. This means they can neither check their vehicle’s remaining range from their phone, schedule service appointments, nor control charging and air conditioning. The car manufacturer has made changes to the app’s backend that only allow devices with Google’s pre-installed Play Services. When asked by heise online, VW stated that affected users should not expect a timely reopening. “However, they are looking into it.”

↫ Andreas Floemer at Heise.de

Clearly, this should be illegal. Then again, that has never stopped Volkswagen before.

Sam Altman seems to be making OpenAI way more non-profit than before:

Even as the AI bubble becomes a mainstream talking point on Wall Street, tech companies continue to peddle the fantasy that AI is poised to become an almost magical money-maker. Case in point, OpenAI wants you to believe that by 2030, it’ll be raking in $100 billion a year just from ads alone — even though it’s currently struggling to reach just $1 billion.

↫ Joe Wilkins at Futurism

The US tech giants fueling this “AI” bubble are trying to hide the true extent of their debt:

Hidden debt at U.S. tech giants swelled eightfold in four years to an estimated $1.65 trillion as artificial intelligence investments ballooned, a Nikkei study shows, exceeding actual debt and making it tougher for investors to assess risk.

[…]

The five companies’ hidden debt, which does not appear on balance sheets, totaled $1.65 trillion in the most recent quarter, exceeding the roughly $1.35 trillion in debt reflected on their balance sheets. The data includes some estimates.

↫ Kohei Yamada at Nikkei Asia

The bubble is expanding to comical proportions:

The American stock market is booming, thanks to artificial intelligence. Tech giants are borrowing billions to acquire AI talent, purchase chips and hardware, and construct data centers. And market watchers are starting to get worried. They see financiers bulldozing giant piles of money to private AI start-ups with no realistic path to profitability, tech companies reliant on other tech companies for revenue growth, and non-tech businesses without a lot to show for their AI investments. The value of AI-linked firms has climbed $27 trillion in the past three years—an astonishing amount, equivalent to 36 percent of the value of the entire U.S. stock market today. Although future earnings could justify those valuations, as Dominic Wilson and Vickie Chang of Goldman Sachs argued in a note to clients, the profit expectations require Panglossian optimism.

No less an authority than Sam Altman is arguing that we are in an AI bubble. The International Monetary Fund is citing it as a significant risk to financial stability and warning about what might happen when it bursts: diminished investment, tighter credit, reduced consumption, disrupted trade flows.

↫ Annie Lowrey at The Atlantic

I’m not worried, though.

I have it on good authority that “AI” increases productivity by 10x, so surely, none of the above is a problem. Any day now, we will be inundated with waves of brand new, high-quality, valuable software. Any day now, existing software will increase in quality by 10x, leading to a huge surge in software sales. Any day now, productivity in factories will increase rapidly thanks to “AI” freeing up workers’ time, driving prices down 10x, leaving consumers with 10x more money to spend. Any day now, everyone will be able to produce the next Citizen Kane or write the next Anna Karenina, causing an explosion in magnificent, timeless art that will have historians of the future marvel at our civilisation’s ingenuity and artistry.

In the meantime, these companies can just ask their “AI” how to become profitable. Should be table-stakes for a 10x force multiplier.

I’m not worried.