Is this the culture referred to as BMAC? I've recently heard that both them and the Indus Valley Civilization remain fairly unresearched, which was surprising to me.
As much as these solutions sound good a true fix requires a drastic change in corporate culture at Microsoft and an attitude shift towards their users which seems ... extremely unlikely to happen in the mildest words. No "hardcore mode" or transparency about telemetry, or removing any other anti-user behavior will last as long as the people who made these decisions and the culture that led to them stay in place.
Wouldn't have happened under Dan Houser. R* made too much money for its own good.
On another note, heard on Bloomberg today that they've been working on GTA 6 for 10 years at this point. Considering the size of their development teams it's possible that more manhours may have gone into this single title than all video games that were made until the PS1 era combined.
It's funny how multiple commenters here are reacting to this article by saying that older media is also bad when the article itself is about specific observations about how relying on AI and overengaging in social media can lead to detrimental outcomes.
Ironically this tendency to form an opinion without investing time might also be a form of brain rot.
I remember reading a few months ago (don't know where though, maybe Ed Zitron's blog) that they'd pivot to porn once growth slowed down, and it seemed outlandish to me at the time.
Is that why they got banned in India recently? Because they were too good at offering complex financial instruments to customers at competitive prices?
Ultimately companies like Jane Street have no moral rudder and it is a waste of talent for smart young people to work for them, but we are so far beyond such considerations at this point that it sounds naive to even suggest that maybe talented people should work on things that make society better for everyone and care about the moral implications of their work. Instead everyone is looking for a way to contribute to the coming dystopia in whatever way they can because that's where the money is.