The Lie of AI

Tools can be great, but stories are much more powerful. By weaving a fantastic tale you can trap people into wrestling with the wrong questions. It is difficult to disentangle the reality of what machine learning tools actually offer, as opposed to the sci-fi cultism that surrounds “AI” discourse. To make matters wore, efficiency and accelerated progress are mere pretexts for the central management of all economic (and even non-economic) activity under a consolidated technological machine. If the top-down roll-out of AI tools in workplaces were about efficiency and productivity, there would be no need to push so hard to get the workforce to adopt tools. Any truly revolutionary advancements would have workers and entrepreneurs experimenting with or without permission, not under mandate. The imposition of “AI first” policies in government and corporations reeks of a political maneuver, rather than a technological one.

AI Politics

Science fiction offers no shortage of terrifying potential futures at the hand of rogue AI systems. The far more pressing issue for many people is the concern about generative tools like ChatGPT and more sophisticated “agents” eliminating jobs. If these tools were being adopted purely for efficiency and innovation this would be merely a difficult transition in a phase that could potentially leave people better off. The problem is that consolidated infrastructure and information management under centralized control creates additional risks. It seems that the ’efficiency’ that much of theses institutions are after is not productivity, but this technological and economic consolidation. This is conspicuously absent from the public discussion about throwing AI into everything.

Generally, this line of questioning comes up in regards to equity concerns. If we’re transforming every institution to systematically discriminate, the chosen solution seems to be to merely carve out the most broad categorizations. Unfortunately, the more data provided to the machine, the more innocuous reasons the system can find to discriminate against or target any particular person or group. Even worse, we must ask what are the consequences of creating even more dependence on these corporate platforms. Countries have already begun to recognize digital sovereignty as an important priority. It is high time we heed that warning and recognize that institutions are often much more vulnerable to these problems than we consider.

The stakes are quite high. There are countless initiatives to deeply integrate various “AI tools” into almost every major institution in society. Healthcare, law enforcement, and even education aren’t safe from the long march. Manufacturing and military are no exception as the AI arms race heats up. While workplaces are being disrupted with inane chatbots and AI workflows, the real innovation is in building an all-encompassing ‘algocracy’. The difference between the average person’s direct experience with AI, and how vulnerable they are to its excesses couldn’t be more extreme.

People are already beginning to notice that a reliance on generative AI tools not only builds dependence, but also atrophies the mind. It is intuitively clear that taking the “easy way” undermines one’s ability to properly master their trade or craft. On the other hand, that doesn’t matter at all when the job one is confined to serves no real purpose other than to boost the stock value of AI companies. If the plan is to replace a competent, skilled, and rational workforce with robotic servants, training human talent serves no purpose. This has profound impacts as not only do workers have to worry about AI tools being imposed in their workplaces, but for skills and training to be withheld from them. We can expect more professions to be ‘de-skilled’ and replaced with streamlined AI-friendly gig work.

The two-punch combination of withdrawing opportunities to learn skills, and the expectation that workers self-sacrifice their mental faculties for minimal gains is likely to be devastating to people’s long-term prospects. The true dangers of AI for most people are not magical properties of the technologies themselves, but rather calculated economic warfare waged in the name of their implementation. It has almost nothing to do with the technology itself, but is entirely in the way these controlled platforms are infiltrating society. It is crucial to understand that without the AI mania hype manufacturing a bubble to distort incentives, these tools would be deployed in more rational and productive ways.

The Death of the Web?

Corporate social media has caused a lot of problems, but one of the more subtle ones is the absolute devastation of the Web as a resource for people to create, learn & share together. A world-wide means of direct communication for people in a variety of media formats has truly changed the world. Government censorship and corporate consolidation have drastically impacted the ability for the Web to function for dissent as well as cultural expression and exchange. To make matters worse, the companies training AI models are raising the costs for those trying to share content at all. There aren’t many great solutions to this, it’s really a difficult predicament to manage.

If we are not careful, we could absent-mindedly give AI tools the authority to be the gateway for people’s access to information as a whole. Search engines are in a difficult spot with more people beginning to use chatbots to respond to any and every query. Without direct audience support, it is unlikely that running a web site will be economically viable for much longer. This has profound implications for the future of humanity’s knowledge as a whole. It is ironic in the quest to build tools that could deliver all of humanity’s knowledge to the forefront, we end up putting it in jeopardy.

The Dead Internet Theory isn’t a quirky observation, but a serious problem with devastating consequences. If everyone’s information landscape is entirely polluted by corporations and dictated by governments, genuine dissent and accountability will only become more and more out of reach. The last thing we want is for every level of society to be manipulated by the same forces that have transformed the ‘digital town square’ into a spectacle of self-harm and menticide.

Rising above

Things are absolutely looking staggeringly dire. As people’s opportunities in the real world decline, we can sadly also expect them to evaporate in cyberspace. It is crucial that we recognize that this is a path we can deviate from. If we recognize the manufactured dependence on these systems as the problem and threat that it is there are many alternative actions that can be taken. It is paramount that people get others to understand that we are allowing our civic, social and economic lives to be systematically undermined by not mere technological change, but the weaponization of it.

The situation is far from hopeless. It seems quite likely that the economic engineering of insanity is as fragile as it is potent. You have the power to rationally plan out your future on what’s good for you and those around you. Just because there are overwhelming incentives to ‘go with the flow’, that doesn’t mean that it is, the only path possible. There are thankfully many ways for you to double-down on your humanity. I fully expect our present insanity to sow the seeds for an environment where people begin to respect genuine craftsmanship and care.

The worst thing AI tools can do to you is to deter you from building up your own capabilities. No matter what skills or knowledge you work to acquire and refine, the better you can recognize the truly useful advances in your field or endeavor. While automation and generative AI can be very sexy, it can also leave you with an unpleasant feeling of being unfulfilled. Mastering your own craft, or even learning a variety of practical skills can be its own reward worth cherishing. We may not be able to escape the AI inquisition over our lives, but we can at least create room to retreat from it.

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