I disagree: in as much as I have noticed this *far* more with AI than any other advancement / fad (depending on your opinion) than anything else before.

This also tracks with every app and website injecting AI into every one of your interactions, with no way to disable it.

I think the article's point about non-consent is a very apt one, and expresses why I dislike this trend so much. I left Google Workspace, as a paying customer for years, because they injected gemini into gmail etc and I couldn't turn it off (only those on the most expensive enterprise plans could at the time I left).

To be clear I am someone that uses AI basically every day, but the non-consent is still frustrating and dehumanising. Users–even paying users–are "considered" in design these days as much as a cow is "considered" in the design of a dairy farm.

I am moving all of the software that I pay for to competitors who either do not integrate AI, or allow me to disable it if I wish.

I believe this is combined with something I call "asymmetry blindness". They may say "but we send an single e-mail per month, this can't be bad".

We the users get a barrage of e-mails everyday because every marketing team is thinking we only get their mail, and it makes our lonely and cold mailbox merrier.

No, users are in constant "Tsunami warning!" mode and these teams are not helping.

> I think we must make it clear that this is not related to AI at all

There are clear AI-specific reasons why it's being crammed down everybody's necks.

Namely: someone in management has bet the entire strategy on it. The strategy is not working and they need to juice the numbers desperately.

The problem is not just empathy. It is also ethics. The fine distinction between opting out of A and opting out of B described in the post served to justify ignoring the opt out request. That's lazy ethically. The entire US business sector's customer relations are completely compromised ethically. It's taken to extremes in tech contexts.

> I think we must make it clear that this is not related to AI at all

Yeah, many companies do that. I unsusbcribed from newline, they still keep spamming me. Funny thing is, they realised they had made a mistake and promised to remove unsubs. One week later, the spam started.

The correct solution is the spam button. Always

Still happy that Tuta Mail is anti AI, and does not push ads on you via email.

I wonder who told Proton that it’s a good idea to copy big tech tactics.

I feel more and more like. That email should be like DMs.

Do you want to accept emails from xxx?

Yes

No

On client side...

The problem with tech is that there's absolutely zero accountability.

Marketing is, to some extent at least, regulated. There's so little consumer protection in the tech industry, it's a joke. We've got GDPR (in Europe) and I'm really struggling to think what else. Imagine if other forms of engineering had the same level of control.

There's this absolutely fallacious notion that in a free market, customers can just vote with their feet.

From big players with vendor lock-in and network effects, to specialists (I know of few decent competitors to Proton), the average consumer is not sufficiently protected from malpractice.

We may say, "oh, it's just a marketing email", but TFA perfectly encapsulates the relationship we have with our suppliers.

To name and shame two: LinkedIn and MyHeritage. If you ever made an account with either of them, they will never stop spamming you. They have configuration options to select which mail to receive, but they appear to consider them temporary suggestions.

A special dishonourable mention goes to Wal-mart. I never interacted with them in any way whatsoever, as well I wouldn't since they don't exist on my continent as far as I know, yet they still send me spam. DKIM signed and all!

> I think we must make it clear that this is not related to AI at all, even if the product in question is AI-related.

It is not specific to "AI" but it is very much related to it.

> If too many users unsubscribe, they just add one more category and “accidentally” opt-in everyone

... and "forget" to add its opt-out to the list.

> It’s a shame that Proton marketing team is just like every other one.

Having gone through the Proton hiring process was an eye opener for me: despite its stated mission, the company isn't special when it comes to its management, it's as bad as any other.

It is entirely related, because AI marketing is an amped up version of traditional dark-pattern marketing. And since every tech company is on the AI hype train, then they all fall into the same willingness to justify the worst behavior because of their desperate need to get on the forefront of what they’ve convinced themselves is the only path to growth. But as consumers, since we are confronted with all tech companies all following the same dark patterns, we feel the impact suddenly much stronger than with past one-at-a-time panicky company over-marketing efforts.

It is an error to believe this is only happening in/with marketing. In general, "empathy" and "capitalism" are mutually exclusive. If profit is your goal, you don't care about individuals.

There’s probably a bigger association with it. I don’t like ai and see it everywhere, in every app I use, every service I purchase, my goddamn start bar.

So, when they start emailing unwanted emails, it feels like a spam problem, when really it’s insidious on multiple fronts.

I can’t wait for the enshittification phase. When the products royally fuck their fan base.