I have trouble being too angry at this, since millionaires and billionaires sit on multiple corporate boards at the same time, and no one seems to complain about that.
They aren't putting up blocks to protect us. They just want their cut of the profits. I'm sure they will come to an arrangement that benefits Cloudflare and the AI behemoths, but still screws us all over somehow.
The billionaires know they've already f*cked everything, so now they're funding authoritarians everywhere to release the legal and regulatory valves, allowing them to just suck up one last big bag of wealth to fund their bunkers for what is to come. That's why the masks have come off lately, they don't care to hide their motivations any more -- they think it's past the point of no return, and they just want to grab what they can as quickly and brutally as possible before things really go into the crapper.
There should be a concerted effort to uncover and document where they've been building their bunkers and hidden underground paradises so we can throw potatoes into the ventilators and shit in the water intakes when the time comes. Let their retreats become their tombs.
AI for pattern recognition (statistical stuff) IMHO is fine, it's different than expecting original thought, reasoning or understanding, which the new 'AI' does not do, despite the constant hype.
Palantir, which the US gov is now (let's not kid ourselves, has been for some time illegally) contracting, probably already has your face either from street cams, security cams in various company buildings, or from social media at this point, so letting you 'opt out' is probably just theatre to avoid angering people at airports.
My Momma don' told me
da-dun-a-du-dun
Pharaoh's at it agaaaain
da-dun-a-du-dun
Calling' all of us young men
da-dun-a-du-dun
To cut rocks and drag themmmmm ...
Ooooh, I got them Egyptian Blues,
and my back still aches soo baddddd... (back still aches soo bad) ...
Don't know if I can take another year
Of draggin' rocks in the sand!
If your business cannot be profitable paying a living wage to your employees without tips or govt assistance,, then perhaps the business model itself is unsustainable.
I have trouble being too angry at this, since millionaires and billionaires sit on multiple corporate boards at the same time, and no one seems to complain about that.