Obsidian Wings

Enshitification open thread

by liberal japonicus

I found this interesting

Federov said: “A lot of officials in different countries forget that human behaviour nowadays is about clicking a few clicks. It is not about circles of hell, wasting people’s time.

“We acted more like a start-up, not like a public sector company,” Federov told MEPs, encouraging an “an agile management culture” headed by only 25 developers.

Normally, I break out in hives when I hear 'acted more like a start-up', but it was relieved when the article quoted this tweet.

The Ukrainian app Diia that allows citizens to pay taxes, report enemy troops or renew their passport and 117 other things from their phone. Mykhailo Federov the deputy prime minister told how they approached the app like a “start up” but without the profit motive [emp. mine]

I feel like Cory Doctorow has a handle on this.

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.

I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two sided market," where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, holding each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.

It all starts with a profit motive. But I would say that. Discuss.

 

Meanwhile in Ukraine

by wj

For this weekend’s Open Thread, we step away from the chaos in the US and return to a familiar subject: Ukraine.  (Bearing in mind that I’m nothing like an expert on the subject.)

Everyone has been talking for months about the coming Spring Offensive by Ukraine.  So far, nothing has happened.  Why not?   

Well, first off, Ukraine has to wait for the ground to dry enough to support its equipment.  Last year, Russia demonstrated the hazards of getting stuck on roads where you can be trapped.  Second, Ukraine knows when they are going to start; the Russians do not.  Which means that the Russians have to be on alert constantly – which can be exhausting.  So another reason for Ukraine not to rush forward immediately.

On top of that, the Russian forces seem to be increasingly in disarray.  Even compared to last year.  Two weeks ago, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, was complaining that Russia was only providing his forces with 10% of the ammunition that they needed.  (And was threatening to pull his troops out.)  What does that mean?  Several possibilities:

• Russian ammunition stores are in far worse shape than anyone had quite realized. Which would be a serious problem, even if they are fighting a defensive battle.
• Russian military commanders are hording their ammunition, even from the unit which has been the most successful on their side. And the one which has been taking the lead in the fighting around Bakhmut – which, whatever its lack of real strategic importance, has acquired some serious symbolic significance.  
• Prigozhin is engaged in a CYA effort, talking ammunition shortages in order to try to conceal the fact that he is running out of the Russian convicts that he has been using for cannon fodder.  And/or that he is bogged down in Bakhmut, without making much progress.  If the Wagner Group, for whatever reasons, implodes, the Russian position will be seriously hurt.

Then last week, it developed that Prigozhin was in communication, repeated communications, with Ukrainian intelligence.  Offering to give information on Russian troop positions, and perhaps more, apparently in exchange for a partial Ukrainian pullback.  It doesn't appear that the Ukrainians are buying that bridge.  But still, not the behavior one expects from a commander who thinks he is on the winning side.  

And finally, the internal feuding between Prigozhin and the Russian general staff is no longer a two way fight.  It seems that the Chechens are unhappy with their situation in the war, too.  Their “volunteers” have been taking heavy casualties.  And for what?

All in all, it looks to me like Ukraine’s prospects may be rather better than advertised.  Sure, the Ukrainians have been trying to keep expectations low, for obvious reasons.  But still, something like what they pulled off last fall may not be out of the question.  And if the fighting season starts with that kind a blitz, it’s hard to see how Russia gets its feet back under it before the end of the year. 

AI as McKinsey

by liberal japonicus

This New Yorker piece by Ted Chiang is really worth your time.

As it is currently deployed, A.I. often amounts to an effort to analyze a task that human beings perform and figure out a way to replace the human being. Coincidentally, this is exactly the type of problem that management wants solved. As a result, A.I. assists capital at the expense of labor. There isn’t really anything like a labor-consulting firm that furthers the interests of workers. Is it possible for A.I. to take on that role? Can A.I. do anything to assist workers instead of management?

Discuss.

Midnight dreary pondering of gift taxes

by liberal japonicus

I hear Crow and think Raven, so I wonder what Harlan is going to be thinking about Ron Wyden's tapping at his door.

It would be high-larious if this sunk him. A thread for your graft related observations.