@project1enigma @Em0nM4stodon I admit that my knowledge on the subject is limited, and maybe it was foolish of me to speak up in the first place.

No doubt, online ID verification shares some of the same problems as face-to-face ID verification. What I mentioned may merely be a technical solution to a non-technical problem (or, once again, I may be speaking out of ignorance).

@Em0nM4stodon Whenever I see discussions about online ID/age verification come up, I tend to see a few people speaking up about ZKP (zero knowledge proofs). Admittedly, I know almost nothing about it, but a cursory read on the subject makes it sound like it could be a solution to the problem.

Of course, this is assuming that one takes the stated/claimed problems (e.g. protecting age-restricted spaces from those who are underage) at face value. When it's more likely that the goal of these programs is broad surveillance and control, which nobody would willingly accept if it was presented so plainly.

@rysiek Maybe I'm just thinking of an older era of capitalism, but what happened to companies actually making products and services that consumers want? And spending money on innovation in order to have offerings that are superior to the competition? The prevailing attitude (at least in Big Tech) seems to be "we're shoving this down your throat whether you like it or not."

@Purple As someone who basically refuses to use AI for anything, it's likely I'm unaware of just how much the use of it has pervaded people's working behaviors.

My understanding is that AI and LLM's are meant to be a tool. As with any tool, if used properly, it can be helpful and effective in completing a task. But there's a reason that people are educated on how to do things manually before they're allowed to use tools: there needs to be that sense of intuition that informs a person whether something seems correct or doesn't.

What you're describing, seems to be an outsourcing of critical thinking to these tools. It's like putting someone in the driver's seat of a self-driving car and now they're panicking when they have to take manual control.