mcl2k6
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mcl2k6.bsky.social
mcl2k6
@mcl2k6.bsky.social
47 followers 98 following 8 posts
A McLaren F1 team fanboy, metalhead, just lurking around.
Also into electronics, HiFi, speaker building, smart home stuff, gaming, and recently FreeBSD and Linux.
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Reposted by mcl2k6
parismarx.com
We know the tech companies are exploitative and dishonest, but Microsoft’s latest action takes the cake. It got off easy during the antitrust push, but it’s just as bad as the rest.

It’s another company we should be trying to rid ourselves of.

www.disconnect.blog/p/ive-had-it...
Deceptive practices like this are part of the reason so many people not only increasingly despise the tech monopolies, but also see generative AI as a giant scam. I have little doubt that if Lina Khan was still heading up the US Federal Trade Commission that this is something she’d be looking into; it’s such a clear example of the abuses she used to take on. But now that a Trump crony is in that position instead, tech companies can get away with ripping off and lying to their customers, as Microsoft just did to me and millions of others. I’m not trying to claim I’m the first person to notice Microsoft doing this; I’m expressing how furious I was when I saw how deceptively the company was acting toward me to fund its generative AI ambitions. Microsoft got off comparatively easy in recent years, as regulators and competition authorities went after the other major tech giants with much more vigor. But it’s just as bad as the rest of them, not to mention how it’s on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions list for aiding Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.
July 25, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by mcl2k6
parismarx.com
Here’s the thing: my plan never changed. Microsoft added generative AI features, then tried to charge me more for them. Even though they clearly still had my old plan, without those features, as a hidden option it would only tell me about when I canceled.

www.disconnect.blog/p/ive-had-it...
After expressing my desire to stop paying for 365, I was met with two options: I could keep my “current” subscription, that included “new!” productivity apps with “Copilot build in” and “Al-powered image creation and editing,” or I could choose a “lower cost without AI” plan, which was exactly what I had before Microsoft tried to hike the price of my subscription. I just want to be clear here: the price of my plan did not change. Instead, Microsoft moved me to a new plan that contained generative AI features I never asked for; a plan that cost a lot more than I was already paying. Then it lied to me, claiming my existing plan had increased in price and that there was no version of a plan without generative AI — until I tried to stop paying them altogether.
July 25, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by mcl2k6
parismarx.com
Generative AI is a massive con, and an expensive one to keep running. As companies keep splashing out on massive data centers to power the technology, they need money — and part of the way they’re getting it is by squeezing existing customers.

www.disconnect.blog/p/ive-had-it...
But keeping the bubble inflated costs hundreds of billions of dollars, and that money needs to come from somewhere without destroying the balance sheets of the tech monopolists. One of their answers is deception: to pull more money out of the pockets of their existing customers while trying to make them believe they have no other choice. For months, I’ve been reading the stories about Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and any number of other companies hiking prices while pushing generative AI tools on their existing customers. It’s not just a clear abuse of market power, but turns your stomach when you know these tools are not nearly as useful as the companies try to make them seem.
July 25, 2025 at 2:42 PM