AI promised us a better way to work and live.
But 4 years since I first started using it, my excitement around it has worn off together with my optimism.
To me, the benefits most of today’s AI use brings to the wellbeing of humans seem far offset by its harm.
For the first time, AI-powered machines are killing humans autonomously and businesses are developing nuclear-powered datacenters. Both use cases result in fields of electronic waste that pollute the planet while AI-generated slop pollutes the internet. Big tech’s promise of a post-scarcity utopia is driving history’s biggest stock bubble and creating the first trillionaires. In return for this disruption of our ecology, economy, and society, most of us don’t work less or more easily. A lot of jobs are simply changing from creation to curation, or disappearing altogether.
The obvious solution is to stop the development and adoption of AI technology. But no matter how disruptive they are, no tools that increase productive output have ever been stopped. Like the printing press and conveyor belts, in best case scenario, tools can be slowed down and delayed, but not stopped.
That’s why instead of fighting against AI, it’s probably more productive to fight against its harmful uses:
- Against generated ideas and content being presented as human-made.
- Against AI and algorithms designed to addict or manipulate.
- Against AI datacenters polluting our planet in exchange for inflated stocks.
- Against machines and weapons killing people autonomously.
- Against profit-first businesses putting human wellbeing second.
We can be optimistic and try to change the tools. But realistically, it might be easier to change humans.