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intended07/31/20252 repliesview on HN

Either you are the item being sold or you are paying for the service.

Nothing is free, and I for one prefer a subscription model, if only as a change from the ad model.

I am sure we will see the worst of all worlds, but for now, for this moment in history, subscription is better than ads.

Let’s also never have ads in GenAi tools. The kind of invasive intent level influence these things can achieve, will make our current situation look like a paradise


Replies

quirkot07/31/2025

I'd never buy anything as overt as an advertisement in an AI tool. I just want to buy influence. Just coincidentally use my product as the example. Just suggest my preferred technology when asked a few % more often than my competitors. I'd never want someone to observe me pulling the strings

LtWorf07/31/2025

Normally even if you pay you're still the product anyway. See buying smartphones for example… you pay a lot but you're the product.