Pic unrelated bc I didn't know what to add for this
I'm going to be honest, I'm not confident in the future of AI and think it would've been ultimately better if it weren't invented to begin with.
I know that it can have genuinely incredible applications that would benefit humanity as a whole, namely healthcare, accident prevention (like with airplanes, ships, shuttles, workplace related, etc.), and weather/natural disaster predictions. I'd love if that were all that it could do.
But I've also seen AI in warfare, surveillance, and policing used to seriously harm innocent people. Employers are already using AI to unfairly filter people out of jobs, and I believe black rock also uses AI to buy up properties. Not to mention that jobs like illustrators, writers, musicians, etc will all inevitably be replaced by their employers looking to consolidate workplace power from unions and increase profit margins.
Boycotting AI art is one way to slow down its growth that I can think of, but what else can be done?
It needs to be regulated and curbed before it's too late.
I don’t know the answer but I’ve been thinking the same thing lately. Some people I talk to think it will be the great equalizer and take us closer to post-scarcity, but I just can not see how that could work in this capitalist society. Every time I see the robot dogs, I think, “well, this is what will hunt down the dissenters one day.” It’s frightening.
We are already at 'post-scarcity'. What we are suffering from is a distribution and management issue. We let the 'free market' (a.k.a. trillions of dollars of fruitless, wasted, advertising spending) dictate our distribution, and ah damn, it looks like areas that don't have as much money don't spend as much money, better not increase investment there, unless it is for a product that richer people can buy.
Robots nor AI, nor any technology can solve this fundamental contradiction that exists within the capitalist political-economy, and it will stifle productive local growth, and kill equitable distribution of resources world-wide until it is solved.
This is the argument I keep making. They counter with “if the production cost of everything we need is so low that it’s negligible, then the corporations can’t price gouge without people revolting.” At which point I gesture broadly, like that SpongeBob meme where he shows all the things. One of the people I discuss this with literally says at times, “I bet it cost them 50 cents to make it, and yet it costs [amount],” and still subscribes to the AI will solve the problems logic. What’s the prognosis, do they have brainworms?
They want an easy solution that doesn't actually require massive political and social upheavals that could potentially lead humanity to the brink of nuclear armageddon. People want the revolution to be painless, bur we know from experience it will not be.
It's not so much brainworms as wishful thinking.