LG says it'll let people delete the Copilot icon. But TV chatbots aren't going away.
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LG TVs’ unremovable Copilot shortcut is the least of smart TVs’ AI problems
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
considering how many android tv's are basically linux malware ddos boxes now i expect every smart tv to not let you use the tuner until it is online to get a os update and will lock it self if it can't update. android, steam os, chrome os, and other embedded linux devices removed the security the os had from being barly used it also helprs that macos is running BSD and the virus code can be easy to port modern mac malware to linux. this is the year of the linux botnet.
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LOL. The mere fact that you "launch... a few curated apps" and view those icons that you don't pay attention to means LG gets something, so, no, not 100% fail.
They also run ACR and track everything that's displayed on the screen - whether via an app, usb input or HDMI input... so they make money from you via that avenue too.
Bottom line - if the TV is connected to the Internet, and you've agreed to the legalese, they're tracking you and making money off you.
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carbon60Unit
Ars Centurion
When I tried to set up an older (LG? Samsung?) smart tv with an IP address, but no gateway address, rendering it only able to communicate with my local network but not beyond, it considered the configuration invalid. Wonder if that's the case today?
Despite the no network configuration, a neighbor managed a screen share attempt with my set indicating that it's still listening somehow, despite being "disconnected".
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carbon60Unit
Ars Centurion
Yet somehow Youtube can't use something like ACR to stop the same fraudulent "health" ads from being sponsored by a constantly shifting array of bogus companies, often from Brazil for some reason.
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The 'smarter' TVs get, the more glad I am that all my TV watching is done via AppleTV. Including broadcast over-the-air channels via the excellent Channels app. The Channels DVR functionality is excellent - my server runs on a Mac mini and store recordings on synology NAS. All works great.
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I heard a rumour that the number of Active Copilot Users (logins) is showing a healthy sustained growth.
LOL
Let's see how many remain long-term.
LOL
Let's see how many remain long-term.
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"Users can also ask the TV to make AI-generated wallpapers or provide real-time subtitle translations."
Talking about two extremes of actual usefulness... Now, the really interesting question here is of course how well the realtime translation actually works. Was it implemented in a very basic way to check a checkbox on a feature list, or have they put actual effort and extensive testing into it, to make it deliver what it suggests? I wish that was what would get all the attention.
Talking about two extremes of actual usefulness... Now, the really interesting question here is of course how well the realtime translation actually works. Was it implemented in a very basic way to check a checkbox on a feature list, or have they put actual effort and extensive testing into it, to make it deliver what it suggests? I wish that was what would get all the attention.
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Bollocks.
My parents used to sell televisions way back in the 90-ties. On average, a color television would cost €800 (recalculated to euro’s) back then, which was around a full monthly paycheck.
And yet they still managed to sell enough of them to make a living.
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You could buy TVs that were not infected with ads and AI a few years ago, and they were not significantly more expensive.
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The displays sold as commercial screens are quite different. They’re designed and warranted to operate 24/7 for multiple years, which domestic TVs are not.
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I apologize for this. I get sent Insider Surveys from LG (can't remember how I even got in the program) and every chance I get when they mention AI, I put it down on the least wanted list but I guess that wasn't enough.
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I have been saying it here for months, Copilot is a scam. It's not a real product. It's a sales funnel disguised as a product.
The first clue is that nobody actually uses Copilot yet MS continues to shove it in every corner of their consumer product line with no true option or way to opt out. This is because they don't actually care if you want it or not because its not for you, it's for them. This is how you know its not a real product and is in fact a scam.
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While I share your sentiment I feel there is a big difference between a device you buy with the express purpose of having an AI assistant and a device you buy for some other purpose that has been bundled with one. Furthermore. if you like AI assistants you probably want only one of them to manage all your devices rather than each device having a different AI assistant.
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"there is a big difference between a device you buy with the express purpose of having an AI assistant and a device you buy for some other purpose that has been bundled with one"
This is the key distinction in this entire conversation. It is the lack of choice that makes it dystopian. If there was a way to opt out it wouldn't really be a problem. But having something you might consider a bad thing forced upon you without your consent and no real way to say no or opt out is supremely dystopian.
Then to make it doubly evil a company like MS will say oh sure you can say "no" and you can click the opt out button but we are still going to keep doing it anyway.
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"The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment." --1984
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Emerson still makes a 50" dumb TV. It says out of stuck but it also says arriving soon. I imagine it's popular in this day in age.
Even a smart TV + an Apple TV device will do.
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This is just another desperate attempt to monetize The Greatest New Thing Nobody Wants. Thank you for the nice subscribe page. Wow, this used to be a pretty good website. Soon, the advertising bullshit will be inexorably weaved into evrything that used to be good.
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How did they make a profit before the advent of annoying stuff like this?
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Nah, I'm good.
The only time my C4 got connected to the net was to update it to the most recent firmware. After that, I disconnected it and moved over to using an Apple TV. I have zero trust in any of these other companies' software. Most of it is a trojan horse for advertising and data collection, none of which I want anything to do with.
The only time my C4 got connected to the net was to update it to the most recent firmware. After that, I disconnected it and moved over to using an Apple TV. I have zero trust in any of these other companies' software. Most of it is a trojan horse for advertising and data collection, none of which I want anything to do with.
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That would be interesting for sure, I used to work for a telco and people used to pop open smart meters and steal sim cards from them all the time.
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I have a similar setup. An older LG TV bought for the display quality only. It is five-seven years old. An amplifier is the only thing plugged directly into that. Then a sat receiver, Apple TV and a BluRay player plugged into the amp, all HDMI. So no direct communication from the TV to the world. Or the amp which is 10+ years old.
Are TV manufacturers doing something horrible now. Like requiring an internet configuration to setup, register and configure?
Then why not buy a monitor? High quality display, no BS. Only HDMI plugged into it.
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Yeah I think dim-bulb libertarians forget—or never understood (edit: or understand and are lying)—that “free markets” REQUIRE transparency.
There IS NO FREE MARKET without it.
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It should be illegal to put a microphone or a screen capture function in a television set.
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Great, another bloatware sucking cpu cycles from an underpowered piece of crap.
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The description of the update clearly said that most of the update was for AI. If there was no AI software installed then at least we had excellent reason to believe it was,
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Not being able to tell if you are being watched is Really Bad. So lets have AI watch you constantly. -- all
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This. We bought a new LG TV last year and it's never been connected to the network.
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FSTargetDrone
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Other than OTA tuner software on one of my Vizio TVs that became dogshit slow after a firmware update (which prompted me to just buy and use a cheap Mediasonic Homeworx tuner box) and the Apple TV app on another TV, I’ve never used any other built-in smart TV app more than once. If nothing else, they are always horrendously slow to the point that it swiftly becomes an exercise in frustration to use them.
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Before I first married, I had no television.
Now I'm widowed, and I have no television.
I do watch ad-free streams on my computer and in my headset.
Of course my computer has browsers and intrusive AI. That's kind of what it's for.
But there is no shoutbox in my home.
Now I'm widowed, and I have no television.
I do watch ad-free streams on my computer and in my headset.
Of course my computer has browsers and intrusive AI. That's kind of what it's for.
But there is no shoutbox in my home.
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Yet more reasons to not buy TVs and instead simple computer monitors or something else if you need much bigger screens for entertainment purposes. I bought a nice 4k 30" screen last year as TV, hooked it up to my AI-free Win10 PC and can watch all kinds of entertainment joys from the couch.
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