AI Backlash Backlash

[GreatGazoo]

About 4 weeks ago I went to an AI propaganda session led by a very successful fintech investor. They fed and boozed us while they asked why we objected to AI, what our concerns were, etc. They countered in vague platitudes but the most coherent part was a vision something like:

AI is ushering in a new era of abundance. The displacement of boring jobs is a great thing since we will all have loads of free time. We will get UBI, lay on the beach and finally write that novel.

Last night I saw as much as I could stand of an interview of Canadian fintech oligarch Chamath Palihapitiya. He seemed to be singing from the same hymn book -- UBI, the end of capitalism as we know it, era of abundance, lots of free time. But then he went on the attack claiming there was an organized conspiracy to cut off power and "mothball" data centers. In his narrative this risks bringing about the worst of all outcomes: keeping AI from reaching its otherwise inevitable utopia and dooming the US economy due to keeping AI unprofitable after maximal capital expenditures.

He went on and on about how "40%" of the power needed for data centers is being cut off "every day". But it all clicked when he said that the fintech oligarchs like himself need to do more to sell the public on the benefits of AI and to sell the transition as a good thing which should be embraced by all. He proposed that somehow (the government?) should make all people invested in the future of AI so that people would anticipate sharing the benefits and stop opposing data centers. His tone and language made it obvious that these were talking points, prewritten. It reeks of McKenzie & Company. The overlap with the other fintech guys seems not to be coincidence.

When pushed on what these great AI benefits would be, Palihapitiya launched into another talking point. Uterine cancer. 'AI will detect uterine cancer earlier and then patients can start treatment sooner. Also when they do surgery now the doctor just eyeballs it. Tries to get all the cancer by eye but AI will be able to tell him in real time.' But if you misguided suburban Luddites cut off the electricity to his massive data centers then none of this will happen and you will have to live with the financial and moral problems of having thwarted utopia!

There are more of these events coming up near me. I was due to go to one led by Andrew Yang but it looks like he has dropped out.

Anyone else seeing this campaign?

[biophile]

1. No but your observations appear to be on point

Big PR push to get us to swallow a bitter pill.

[Lochloosa]

2. They.have billions of dollars on the line from investors.

If there's a push back on Data Centers, that money will dry up.

This bubble is going to pop and it won't be pretty.

[multigraincracker]

3. Seems all the benefits go to the rich.

The middle class and poor get poorer.
How about a tax on AI? For every job replaced, an equal amount of those savings taxed to pay for the programs to protect the masses, like SS and food aid. Trickle Down theory is a lie.

[OnionPatch]

6. This is it exactly

Why would any corporation share any of their wealth if they aren’t forced to? Did we see any benefit when they outsourced all of our jobs? They cried about “cheap goods” but one can’t afford any kind of goods if they don’t have a job.

[multigraincracker]

7. In Adam Smiths book, Wealth of Nations,

Which was the Bible of modern Capitalism, he stated that corporations must be regulated to prevent monopolies. Then along came Tickle Down Lie and we have today.

[Mossfern]

10. Did you mean to write it that way?

It made me laugh!

[multigraincracker]

11. I'm on one of those language spectrums.

As long as you understand the message it must be ok.

[Mossfern]

13. Absolutely

I thought it was clever.

[sop]

4. I find it hard to believe the party that wants to eliminate the social safety net will subsidize beach vacations

for unemployed writers.

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. This x 1000

[eppur_se_muova]

8. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." ― Sinclair

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

― Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

9. "We will get UBI, lay on the beach and finally write that novel."

I think I know what "UBI" means, but I'm sure the "U" is for "Unicorn". As in, lotsa luck seeing any UPI, suckers!

Ultrahigh Billionnaire's Investments, no doubt.

[highplainsdem]

12. I see signs of it from AI propagandists on X complaining that AI opponents are too organized and too

good at getting their anti-AI message out, and that's supposedly the ONLY reason everyone isn't as thrilled with AI as the proponents are.

So OpenAI bought a podcast about a month ago. And Peter Thiel is launching a site designed to let the wealthy smear the reputations of journalists and news outlets by paying to have a "jury" of AI models investigate and judge whether the reporting was accurate.

Of course the falsely named Chamber of Progress has been active with its pro-corporate propaganda for years.

But what you encountered recently shows they're really ramping up the propaganda.

One huge problem the AI peddlers are running into is that it never occurred to them that when they trained AI by ripping off the intellectual property of writers, visual artists, filmmakers and actors, they were stealing from and threatening to replace the very people who are most effective at messaging. AI proponents have since tried attacking those creatives by accusing them of being elitist "gatekeepers" who are trying to interfere with AI "democratizing" creativity by making all the people who hadn't bothered to learn how to do something instantly creative.

The UK's Labour government, pressured by AI companies who should NOT have had so much influence there, stupidly proposed letting AI companies take all the copyrighted work they wanted to train AI, with those whose work was stolen having the option of asking the companies to remove their work from training data later - if they could figure out who'd stolen it when the companies don't want to divulge what's in their training data. But when the asinine proposal got the required public consult, about 95% of the people who responded were against it (and it didn't help that the AI companies had said it would be too inconvenient for them to respond to creatives and remove their work), so the Labour government had to drop it.

Another demographic that's good at communication is teachers, and along with creatives they were the first large demographic to raise the alarm about how harmful genAI is. The AI companies have tried desperately to win them over or force them to accept AI by peddling AI to administrators (often as a way to eventually get rid of human teachers). I've met a few teachers who were turned into shills for the AI industry, but the vast majority of teachers I've encountered hate AI and think it's hurting students and destroying education.

And then there are the technical experts who know genAI will always hallucinate, and the business experts who know this is another hype-based bubble, and the environmental experts who can explain what AI costs us there.

This is a debate the AI industry can't win on the facts. So they're peddling lies and doing all they can to buy social and political influence. And whining about the backlash.

[GreatGazoo]

14. Excellent points

Turns out the public is not happy to sacrifice what's left of the environment and take a 150% increase in the cost of their KWHs .

The main part of the AI industry defense right now seems to be aimed at energy. This looks to be a major issue for the midterms. We will likely hear much more about how data centers will build out power sources "behind the meter", eg baby nukes that are not on the grid. And how with that these data centers will not impact local rates.

McKinsey is selling their oligarch customers a complete package of PR and (dystopian) thought-leadership. They see their biggest opportunity / challenge as (foolishly) increasing "trust":

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/tech-and-ai/our-insights/ai-in-action/looking-ahead-leaders-role-in-the-trust-equation

[highplainsdem]

15. If there was ever an industry that didn't deserve trust, it's generative AI. And those mini nuclear power plants

will be designed and built minus a lot of the safeguards that have been standard, so they'll be more dangerous.

Trump has slashed safety requirements for nuclear reactors - secretly - as a favor for AI bros building data centers
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220976814