My summary: we need to democratize all powerful institutions like yesterday. Seriously y’all we’re running out of time
made an alt for this so any future projects i make can’t be tied back to my main account.
i’m by no means the world’s leading expert on machine learning algorithms, but i’ve been diving into the world of machine learning for a while. this is from a conversation i had with some comrades about my predictions regarding the “dangers” of ai:
i don’t envision a skynet scenario as being the inevitable outcome of machine learning, rather I see machine learning being used to uphold already existing systemic inequalities. a logistical algorithm sending fewer resources to communities that “produce less” would, in effect, be no different than that community being unable to afford those resources because their surplus value is being extracted by a large corporation and they’re given a meager wage in the process. the largest impact that slapping these algorithms onto our already fucked up system of life has is further abstraction from the suffering on the basis of “objectivity”. the poor continue to suffer as the rich get to wash their hands more confidently
i’ve really only given this article a skim, but this is something to worry about far before any of the things this author is talking about
I agree. Buying click farms and workshopping influencing strategies is already something the right does.
What we’ve seen in drone warfare is exactly what you’re talking about, the moral disconnect between the war machine and the acts of terror it commits.
To draw another equivalent, it’s not like millions of people didn’t die before machine guns were invented. The machine gun/drone just lowers the cost of doing something you were already doing. Strategies for countering the new thing already exist, they just need to be repurposed (like trench warfare wasn’t a new invention in WW1, what was new was the strategy of “sieging” machine gun posts as though they were on a star fort).
That is a big part of what the author is talking about, I’d be happy to pull some quotes but really you might want to read it. I for one consider this a primary concern. If AI turns out to be really difficult to contain we’re doomed no matter what, but if it’s possible to use it safely we seem to be bound to an even worse capitalist dystopia, a permanent one where collective action no longer has any power. If our overlords are “generous” we get just enough UBI to survive. Any amount of capitalism whatsoever puts us in danger, the only way out seems to be to tear it out completely and start over, reform will not be enough. Again, there may not be much time!
