Essay by Eric Worrall
Climate activism is so 2025.
The Hard-Line Activists Ramping Up for the War With AI
The resistance to artificial intelligence is growing over fears about human extinction—but one activist’s disappearance has the movement on edge
…
The last time Hall saw him was at the spartan Oakland cottage that served as headquarters for their hard-line group, Stop AI. Kirchner, an electrical engineering technician by training, was angry, insistent that more had to be done.
“I’m done with this,” he said, according to Hall. “The ship may have sailed on nonviolence.”
Kirchner’s disappearance looms over what has become ground zero for a hardening resistance to the world’s hottest technology. The Bay Area’s AI boom is drawing young disillusioned men and women to join the fight against it. They are upending their lives and leaving behind careers for think tanks, nonprofits and street protest groups.
Their cause is now riding a surge of anti-AI backlash. Many Americans are souring on the technology amid mass layoffs, data center sprawl, reports of chatbot-fueled attacks by unstable users and hacking tools that have panicked cybersecurity professionals. Seventy percent of U.S. adults believe AI will cost jobs, and 55% believe it will do more harm than good in their daily lives, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll.
But for activists on the front lines, the driving fear is often more dramatic: human extinction.
…
Read more (paywalled): https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anti-ai-activists-disappearance-sam-kirchner-6872879f?mod=hp_lead_pos7
Doesn’t all this seem familiar? Fears of human extinction, radicalisation and talk of violence. Except this time instead of targeting Exxon, the radicals want to target OpenAI and Anthropic.
Regardless of how you feel about AI, there is no putting this genie back in the bottle. A few weeks ago I provided a start to finish demonstration of how artificial intelligence can boost software development productivity by 800%. Similar gains in other industries are in the pipeline. Any economy which rejects AI will be steamrollered by economies which embrace AI.
As for those extinction fears, future AI systems will pose a risk, much the same as bioscience poses a risk in today’s world. An out of control AI has the potential to do immense damage, just as an out of control bioscience laboratory could inflict a new pandemic on the world. But most bioscience laboratories are sensible with the kinds of experiments they do, only idiots perform gain of function experiments with dangerous pathogens, or say try to produce a version of the plague which is immune to modern antibiotics, or plant botulism toxin genes in stomach bacteria, or experiment with that horrible immune system suppressing hack the CSIRO discovered in the early 2000s. And when someone does do the unthinkable, that same bioscience which makes such idiocy possible provides effective treatments for the problem their irresponsible colleagues unleashed.
Artificial intelligence will be no different – if anyone does something stupid with AI, other people armed with AI tools will clean up the mess.
Current generation AIs are nowhere near the level of capability required to create any of the hypothetical disasters extremists and science fiction fans worry about.
And there will be plenty of lesser mishaps along the path to superhuman intelligence to teach AI users the value of guardrails. Just as bioscientists learned the hard way to implement rigorous handling protocols, so AI users are learning the hard way to be cautious with their use of AI. There have already been some serious reputational and financial embarrassments because companies didn’t put adequate guard rails in place with their AI implementations.
Car Dealership Disturbed When Its AI Is Caught Offering Chevys for $1 Each
“That’s a deal, and that’s a legally binding offer,” the AI said, with “no takesies backsies.”
By Frank Landymore
Updated Dec 21, 2023 9:48 AM ESTArt of the Deal
…
The dealership, Chevy of Watsonville in California, used the chatbot to handle customers’ online inquiries, a purpose it was expressly tailored for.
Chris White, a software engineer and musician, was one such customer. He innocently intended to shop around for cars at Watsonville Chevy — until he noticed an amusing detail about the site’s chat window.
…White took screenshots of the gaff and they immediately went viral. Soon, tons of random people were joining in on the fun, like goading it into explaining the Communist Manifesto. In the most viral example , one user tricked the chatbot into accepting their offer of just $1.00 for a 2024 Chevy Tahoe.
Read more: https://futurism.com/the-byte/car-dealership-ai
…
A few more such incidents will teach our society enough caution long before AI becomes even a remotely plausible threat to our existence. AI guardrails will be a mature science by the time truly powerful AI systems are available. And I suspect, there will be a comprehensive monitoring system to detect and pounce on anyone who tries to push their AI in a forbidden direction.
Better send out security teams to protect the substations, especially within a 200 kilometer radius of Oakland.
I’ve said similar before-asymmetric warfare is probably at hand and very easy. God help us.
And with the judiciary loaded with far left judges, the only punishment most of them receive will be a few hours community service, probably working for the Newsome for President campaign.
But how can they be expected to develop, provide and charge for effective treatments if their colleagues DON’T release their lab created pathogens?
Social media is a much bigger detriment to society than AI.
The Lab put the IL-4 gene into Vaccinia virus then tested it on mice, a mice strain normally somewhat resistant to vaccinia virus. Even just a little virus killed them dead. It should be noted they didn’t have their institute’s IRB approval to do this. It was a really dumb idea.
But it wasn’t Smallpox virus they put it in.
Vaccinia is a distant cousin to Variola Major, the Smallpox virus, and is the live virus used to vaccinate against small pox.
As for getting some self understanding of the potential for an Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) harming us, I’d recommend reading: “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies” by Yudkowsky and Soares.
I would say that Chapter 9, Ascendance, in the book is a lot of BS handwaving about bioscience these 2 computer scientists have no real depth in. Even a ASI has no ability to do the long, detailed experiments with living cells and biotech synthesis of DNA and RNA constructs needed to understand what works and what doesn’t. So lots of humans would have to be knowingly assisting an ASI in killing off humanity.
“If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies”
Equally true:
“If No One Builds It, Everyone Dies”
Because no matter what, we are all going to die.
Ayup in 100 years 8.5B people alive today will be dead!
There will be no shortage of useful human tools. Bet on it. 13 Monkeys is a very chilling flick.
“The ship may have sailed on nonviolence.”
May have? BLM, Antifa, anti-ICE, Extinction Rebellion, pro-HAMAS all have taught the far left there are almost no consequences for violent protest. Anti-AI will be no different.
the same way that Jan 6th and the Mayoral Residence Plot iN NYC also showed the far right there are almost no consequences for violent protest? Gee, maybe if Trump didn’t pardon people who were trying to force their way into the Capitol Building and people who were injuring police officers we wouldnt have to deal with all these protests. I don’t think you can really be talking about “no consequences”.
There are never any consequences for the political violence of the far-Left.
yea, so that justifies ICE shooting 2 people dead when multiple multiple camera angles and videos show that neither of the citizens were engaging in violent protest or doing anything illegal?
I think death is a pretty big consequence, especially when you don’t deserve it
Those two people committed suicide by stupidity !
Both WERE involved in violent protest and interference with Federal officers, which is totally illegal..
One, trying to run down a Federal officer, using a vehicle as a weapon…
The second, reaching for a concealed gun while in an altercation he started with Federal officers.
He was at fault for obstruction of justice and negligently bringing a gun while doing it, but he did not reach for his gun. Officers fired in confusion after he was already disarmed. Again still his fault for negligently precipitating the confrontation and exacerbating by bring the gun.
just a question, don’t you ever get concerned that your site turns from a climate policy website to a far-right wing website? Like does that not damage the scientific credibility of the message you try to get across?
Unfortunately for you, phyical reality has a distinctly right-wing bias.
Ruhaan,
Rud Istvan recalled organizations that have already brought violence into a political protest — likely to show that this ship has already sailed. Rud could have gone back to the Luddites or the Weather Underground, but chose something very well publicized and recent.
You read this, but instead of just moving on, you deliberately chose to lie about two clearly political events. The bomb throwing in the Mayoral Residence “Plot” was actually performed by two of yours. Lying about the instigators was your choice. Jan 6 is a complicated issue that provides something for everyone. To be noted though is that two unarmed women were killed by law enforcement. One shot through the neck and the other beaten and stomped to death.
You chose to drag politics into this matter, by taking two events and lying about both, lying about Trump’s pardon. Rud didn’t mention any politicians— you did.
And now you have the temerity to challenge this website for “scientific credibility” and being “far-right wing”?
You brought the lies and the Leftist blood libel. You decided to bring Party Politics into this.
For you, hypocrisy is not a vice, its a tool.
Does your going off topic to start the discussion ever concern you?
And once again, anyone who isn’t a communist is a member of the far-right.
So speaketh the party.
The fact that almost all alarmists are far left has never hurt the climate catastrophe movement.
I saw the videos they got what they deserved. Hitting an Ice agent with a car hard enough to knock him off his feet. That is assault with a deadly weapon and the other idiot physically attacking ICE agents while carrying a pistol. Which is also totally against the law. Lose the TDS it is not a sign of intelligence. ICE agents are just doing the job the US government hired them to do. If you don’t like it change the laws.
“I saw the videos”. Great. So much proof because – of course – the videos are always trustworthy. People inside the van testified that agents were approaching from the sides of the van, not in front of behind it. The man was also shot in the right side of his abdomen, which aligns with the story of agents being to the left and right of the car. You said to lose the Trump Derangement Syndrome. Buddy, at least you don’t have to worry about that, because you’re just generally deranged.
Typical of the far left, even when presented with evidence, they continue to spin their lies.
Yes, there were agents to the left and the right of the car. The video clearly shows that.
This fact does not refute the fact that there was also an agent in front of the car and the fact that this agent was hit. As soon as the driver started driving towards the one officer, all the officers opened fire to bring the car to a stop.
You seem to feel that only the officer being threatened was allowed to defend himself? Why?
I love how you mention the videos to support your position, then when someone says they saw them, you dismiss them.
The left really does believe the lies the party tells them to believe, trying to ram officers with your car is assault with a deadly weapon and will result in return fire, no matter who you are.
They may not have “deserved” to die, but they still committed acts that forced the officers to defend themselves and each other.
The same way the far right believes everything their precious president and departments say to them, even if the message is “we must win by strength, not weakness – now go storm the Capitol building? I wouldn’t trust everything that comes out of the Presidents’ mouth, or any of his yes-men for that matter
I have yet to see anything from you, or anyone else from the far left that refutes the things Trump has said.
Screaming you’re evil only counts as refutation to those whose minds have already been rotted out by liberalism.
Try again RP
Try again Derg, next time maybe try to include some actual substance in your comment
“Bring some actual substance” said the low-end troll who posts substance-free comment, then projects it at other commenters. Mr. Pilani, nothing says “WUWT is on a path to truth” more clearly than your empty posts.
Now that thar is funny, considering the source.
Jan 6th was a single afternoon tea party compared to the massive unrest, civil riots, sedition , and insurrection carried out by the Democrat instigated zombie hordes, which lasted weeks, and has been basically ongoing since Trump was legally elected by the American people.
Don’t believe your lying eyes of the people taking selfies next to priceless art. Riot my @ss.
“Mayoral Residence Plot iN NYC”
Usually cultural references in common speech are ones I don’t have to Google to find out what they were.
Also I think there are people who would say “Jan 6th” and “no consequences” don’t really converge to support your argument.
It’s the Frankensteyn angst. Anything ‘unnatural’ becomes taboo. GM foods IC engines, pesticides, Ammonia derived fertilisers (Nitrogen! Nitrogen! run) even antibiotics, the list is endless.
Funny then that nobody ever objects to the most unnatural thing of all: cooking your food, making a cup of coffee or tea. Never saw a monkey do that.
…or sticking leaves in your mouth and setting them on fire…
H/t Bob Newhart “Sir Walter Raleigh”
Absolutely everything is made from all natural ingredients.
People too!
EZ, the GMO food thing is particularly annoying unscientific nonsense. GMO plants by definition have one or more ‘foreign’ genes added in each cell—for example, ‘roundup ready’ soybeans have two from soil bacteria that synthesize proteins that neutralize glyphosate.
As a basic fact of how digested food doesn’t activate the immune system, ALL food proteins are digested into their constituent amino acids before being absorbed, then transported via the circulatory system to nourish cells. Amino acids do not trigger the immune system. There is nothing ‘gmo’ left post protein digestion.
Any (rare) gut immune problems (ibs, Crohn’s, ciliac) are because of a genetically defective ‘faulty’ small intestine lining that can partly expose the immune system to the protein digestion process.
I’ve lost track of the number of GMO warriors who proclaimed that eating GMO foods will result in mutated children.
But haven’t you noticed those mutated children wearing JSO shirts and carrying Extinction Rebellion signs?
Their mutation is obvious resulting in nonfunctional brain cells as evidenced by their proclivity to sit in the middle of roads and highways when their parents Must have warned them about playing in the street. And not walking or standing in traffic.
Bryan,
Those aren’t mutants, they’re just the result of our “modern” indoctrination system in its attempts to maximize the number of idiots, morons, and imbeciles let loose in society at large.
If they wanted more mutations they try to feed them a cocktail of drugs and hazardous chemicals! Oh, wait. Never mind!
What I love about the anti GMO mob is that the vast majority of them are also fans of marijuana the miracle plant, which also happens to be the most modified plant going around.
It has been proven time and again through history immemorial that any tool can be used as a weapon. But it takes a human to wield it.
And they were made and they have been wielded as weapons.
The ones made intentionally to be used as weapons are currently being used with gay abandon.
You must be speaking of Liberal Wordspeak. One of the Lefts greatest weapons!
There is violence in the world.
There has always been violence in the world.
There will always be violence in the world.
Even after humans are gone, there will still be violence in the world, just as there was violence before we came along.
Without being more specific, it’s impossible to tell which bits of this violence have your panties in such a wad.
Luddites, 2026 version.
AI is a tool. Like any tool, say, a hammer, it can be used to build something or tear down, maybe even kill someone. Wikipedia is an information tool. Simple stuff (What date was Pearl Harbor?), quick and easy. Anything else that even approaches controversy, bias rules.
AI can be the same depending on the AI.
But why do these groups hate AI so much?
AI and data centers require lots of power, power that green dreams of solar and wind CANNOT provide. Some of the previous green dream backers realize this and are withdrawing their support and backing the power that actually works.
I think they hate technology anyway except cell phones maybe, but AI is kind of more technological than most.
I’m sure they hate cell phones … but they won’t give up their own.
PS I still don’t have one. I prefer to live somewhere between a cave and a house. (But that’s just me.)
Wouldn’t it be better to live in either the house or the cave, rather between them?
Probably. I’ll likely get one when all the “log in secondary verifications” required on various sites don’t let me get around the “Send a code by text” thing.
I can’t get a text on on my landline.
Oh well. I’ll get a cell phone someday.
Get a tracfone (burner phone). Unclonable and no monthly service fee requiring They store your card info. You can get an IPhone 16 for around $300 and my plan runs $125 per Year. Still get to text, call and access the internet. And those QR code thingies work on it too.
If you are the Eric Worrall the director of Desirable Apps, then I am tempted to take your assessment of the safety of AI as likely biased.
Can you give me, and the world, the assurance based upon expertise, that the scenarios of “Terminator” and “Matrix” are provably impossible from within the IT disciplines, I do not include the fantasy of time travel nor precognition nor the multiverse concept.
Bad example: Wikipedia is an instrument of deception and propaganda so out of control that one of the founders is banned from editing any of its content.
Do NOT believe Wikipedia.
And take AI stuff with “a grain of salt”.
It doesn’t have a brain.
Teach AI to cause brooms to carry buckets of water. Now that would be something to see!
Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Fantasia. Got to be careful with magic.
Magic always has a price…Mr. Gold (Rumplestiltskin) in the series “Once Upon a Time”
Well said Eric. Agree 100%.
The same fears were expressed about nuclear weapons and energy, the internet, environmental issues etc, and none of the doomsday scenarios came to be.
Unfortunately, through evolution, a sizeable percentage of human beings are prone to panic over fears of the new and unknown, rather than be sensible, pragmatic, and optimistic.
The truth is, although it’s never acknowledged, is we humans are making the world a better place for humanity,
and taking care of the environment and other species as well. We are the true guardians of this planet because we care about it, and not just our own species.
Dutch protesters through their wooden shoes (called sabots) into the gears of automated weaving machines, fearing that the machines were stealing their jobs.
This is where the word sabotage comes from.
AI lies and as such is useless. If you can’t trust the answers then the answers are irrelevant.
The video I provided in the linked article “Why Artificial Intelligence will Win the Green Energy War” is proof AI is not useless. The video is a start to finish real time demonstration of AI providing that 800% productivity boost I was talking about.
No economy can afford to ignore a productivity boost of that magnitude. Trying to complete with economies boosted by 800% productivity gains without also using the same tools is equivalent to a 88% pay cut for the workers – workers have to work 8x harder to match the output of workers using AI tools.
I don’t care the lies make AI useless and green energy is a waste of money. If it ain’t dispatchable the grid doesn’t want it and can’t use it.
People lie, yet we continue to use them.
The big problem with AI is that it can not tell good from evil. Start there.
Same as your screwdriver- but we still use screwdrivers because they make some tasks a lot easier.
No screwdriver I ever encountered expressed any opinion about anything connected with its use, on screws or jabbing something.
It is wrong if it disagrees with our beliefs, and right if it agrees.
People’s long held beliefs are difficult to change.
I didn’t say it was agreeing or disagreeing I said AI lies and makes things up. Nothing to do with belief.
“Artificial intelligence will be no different – if anyone does something stupid with AI, other people armed with AI tools will clean up the mess.” Extinction aside, this is already a new problem with software mechanisms. One example is the very large root of concerns with new vehicles about the unnecessary operational system that sometimes treat drivers like children allowing too much information to handle. Our washing machine just had to be unplugged because of a software problem that unnecessarily started it. Fixing things that ain’t broke?
There are physical limits in the world, speed is sometimes one. Is our culture going to go too fast?
We have no choice on this one. China and Asia are going all in on AI, if the USA doesn’t at least keep up they will own the future.
I doubt it.
Why? Do you think my video demonstration of a 800% productivity boost does not show what I claim it shows?
A proactivity gain in programming ?
Yes in programming.
It can be used to create the framework code, leaving it to the developer to fill in the rest.
It is also used to scan the code looking for common programming errors.
It can also be used to help document your code and to summarize documents you have been asked to read. Less time on paper work means more time for actual programming and debugging.
I’ll back this up, since this is my day job:
Using Claude (for programming) has at least tripled my output, and I’ve only been using it less than 2 months.
BUT
I have to be careful and review everything it puts out. It took me down a days-long rabbit hole on a project a couple weeks ago, that, when reevaluated, turned out to be a lot simpler than its analysis originally suggested.
The future belongs to the country that allows the most freedom possible for its denizens.
Not always the case. Ancient Greece, the birthplace of democracy, fell before the might of the Roman Empire.
It appears that they may be further ahead than we think.
I’m looking for a way to disable most of the “helps” that Microsoft has added to Word. Like when I try to highlight a word so I can copy it, the program keeps deciding that instead of just the word, I really wanted the whole sentence, and when you try to highlight to the end of the line, it ALWAYS decides to include the new line at the end of the word.
I’ve given up trying to stop it from copying more than I want. Instead I find it faster to just let it copy what it wants, then delete the extra characters manually.
Productivity enhancement my foot.
PS: I asked Words own help function how to turn this stuff off. It told me to go to the File tab and select Options, the select Advanced.
I went to the File tab and guess what. No freaking “Options” button is offered in that tab.
It’s called progress, might have been created by AI.
AI saved many hours for the programming, but the users are less productive. Eric may know.
Probably took off to hike the PCT
I’d rather spend my time hiking the rest of the Muir trail.
“An out of control AI has the potential to do immense damage, just as an out of control bioscience laboratory could inflict a new pandemic on the world. But most bioscience laboratories are sensible with the kinds of experiments they do, only idiots perform gain of function experiments with dangerous pathogens,…”
**************
ChatBot AI is telling me that the U.S. govt is still funding gain-of-function research (remember COVID) in biolabs, but with caveats:
“Yes — but under tighter rules, narrower definitions, and with significant political scrutiny. The U.S. government still funds certain types of research that can fall under the umbrella of “gain‑of‑function,” but only within specific, regulated frameworks and with risk‑review processes that many experts say remain opaque.
The GAO’s January 2026 report confirms that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) does fund and conduct research involving pathogens that could be considered gain‑of‑function (GOF) or “enhanced potential pandemic pathogen” (ePPP) work.”
*************
I honestly can’t say whether the anti-AI activists are directing their time and efforts at the right technology or not. I suggest though that there is a big difference between being laid off because of a new technological advance and dying (and/or watching many others die around you) because some new gain-of-function pathogen accidentally was released on the world from a biolab somewhere.
Unless AI starts inducing a lot of people to commit suicide, I will tend to be more concerned about gain-of-function biolab research rather than AI. Just my opinion for what it’s worth.
Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci for the unpardonable sin of knowingly sponsoring forbidden gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, from which COVID 19 escaped and killed millions. Fauci ‘retired’ with the highest US government pension ever.
I still don’t how some Auto-Pen’s “preemptive” pardons for crimes going back years “just in case” they were later charged with that crime committed in the last 10 years are legal, let alone Constitutional.
(Hunter and Fauci both slept well that night. Time for SCOTUS to wake them up.)
The presidential pardon power is specified in A2§2.1. On any version of ‘originalism’, preemptive just isn’t there. The pardon is for ‘offenses committed against the United States.’ No convicted offense , no preemptive pardon. The legal reasoning is very straightforward. Under the Constitution, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a jury—so an ‘offense’ by definition requires a conviction. But Biden’s act was so ‘novel’ that it has never been close to contemplated, let alone tested, in the courts.
Thanks. It seems some that have studied the Constitution only look ways to find ways around it.
“Biden’s” pardons. What if it’s discovered (hypothetical) that Hunter was found to have in killed someone in a “hit and run” 5 years ago?
My humble opinion, SCOTUS needs to define the limits or we need a Constitutional Amendment.
(Or, maybe a simpler way, find out who was in control of “Auto-Pen”.
It certainly wasn’t “President” Joe Biden!)
The virus as such was not the real killer, the vaccine was another matter.
Put Dr David Martin in the YouTube search. Then also check his credentials.
He knows a bio weapon when he studies one.
In the near future an AI will be put in charge of a fully automated bio-lab. It’s already moving in that direction, with AI increasingly used for drug discovery and gene mapping. That’s about the only near term scenario which concerns me.
Should this happen, we need all be terrified.
Eric,
I admire your optimism that AI guardrails will be in place before any problems arise.
I don’t think AI guard rails will be in place initially, what I’m saying is the less than extinction level problems caused by current and near future AI will teach enough caution to keep us safe when truly dangerous AI becomes available.
Similar to weapon’s of war I presume. There is no end in the pursuit of killing and dominance.
your optimism is overly optimistic.
This reminds me of the hue-and-cry that some educators made over introducing some lessons to the classroom over the radio. Then it was television, then computers, etc. The gurus at university faculties or state/provincial education departments and school trustees worried that these media types would destroy students’ creativity and critical thinking abilities. Instead what really had an adverse effect on them was untested and unproven theories foisted off on students after being adopted by poorly-qualified and semi-informed school trustees.
Maybe AI will change the world. Or maybe…
https://officechai.com/ai/our-token-costs-are-doubling-every-45-days-while-productivity-is-up-5-chamath-palihapitiya-on-running-8090/
Strange that.
People have been claiming that new technology was going to result in mass unemployment since sharpened rocks became the spear point of choice.
and they were totally correct. It has done and is continuing to do so
It has never done and is unlikely to ever do so.
If technology led to unemployment, then none of us would be working.
It leads to unemployment in certain jobs, which are then replaced by new jobs that may not have existed before.
When people save money, or make more money, they have more money to either save or spend.
If they spend it, that increases demand and increases employment in the sectors where the new spending is occurring.
If they save the money, that makes more money available for investing, which also results in new jobs.
Unemployment in software development has increased notably – primarily among junior devs, as companies are dropping them in favor of seniors + AI.
Their shortsightedness is going to bite them hard in the ass in a few years when those seniors retire.
There is already plausible anecdotal evidence that this current novelty wrongly labelled intelligence is dangerous, error-prone, able to be deceived and grossly expensive.
There are enough intelligent psychopaths amongst humans to do untold damage, we do not need an artificial one.
The solution is obvious. Ban all technology, up to and including rocks.
If that doesn’t solve the problem, we can ban arms and legs as well.
I know nothing about AI, I put no stock in those who claim AI will doom us, I put no stock in those who claim AI is the answer to our problems. AI is more likely than not to make a lot of the things we do better and easier. There is no question that there are people out there who will abuse AI for their own benefit and our loss. No matter how much I sometimes complain about us (the US and western ideology in general) I still consider us the good guys. The good guys should be expert at AI if for no other reason than to thwart the abuse of AI.
Absolutely.
Talk like this reminds me MLK really was worth celebrating.
“And when someone does do the unthinkable, that same bioscience which makes such idiocy possible provides effective treatments for the problem their irresponsible colleagues unleashed”
Can you give us a recent example of this statement.
Word starts with “W”…
Seems the workers are not keen on transitioning to all the Green jobs-
Volkswagen’s plan to close four German factories rejected by board – report
Don’t they understand the great moral imperative of our time? Won’t we need AI to manage all the fickles too?
If AI supplants labour, then a Universal Basic Income is necessary, or so the argument apparently goes. Except where will the taxes funding any UBI come from? Any corporation providing profitable AI services will, unless they’re braindead, ensure that profits flow out of the country to a preferred tax haven via ‘licensing’ fees. If they’re clever they may even export so much revenue offshore that they claim a loss on their tax filing and seek taxpayer support!
Thus countries adopting AI will face mass unemployment at the same time as a mass reduction in taxation occurs. Who then will fund those no longer able to earn an income? CCP China might be an exception as they can simply conscript the newly unemployed and use them for construction, or to invade the surrounding nations that don’t have nuclear weapons.
While I absolutely don’t support the violence of the Left, concerns over the implications of AI on democratic economies are very real and it’s not at all clear that any serious, let alone viable, solutions are being offered. Yes AI might be unavoidable, essential for countries that wish to survive cyberwarfare and have functioning economies, but policies to ensure workers have paying jobs is also essential for governments that don’t want to face French Revolution 2.0!
Increasing technology has never resulted in mass unemployment, why do you assume that this time will be different?
The argument is that AI can, or will be able to, do most things people can for only the cost of the power bill. If humans can’t compete with AI for jobs that means mass unemployment. Yes previous technological advancements have seen folk shift into other roles e.g. controlling the machines that do the work, the problem is AI does, or is expected to reach a capability where it does, all that – it writes the code, it controls the machines, it makes all the decisions, so humans aren’t, theoretically, needed. Whether AI manages that level of competency, only time will tell.
If we ever reach the point where machines do everything, then everything will be free.
Every previous advance in technology has resulted in some decrease in cost and some increase in salaries.
What usually happens is that increased technology makes it cheaper to make products.
Competition forces prices down until they approach marginal costs once again.
That is what has been happening for hundreds of years. There is no reason to believe that is about to stop.
Quite the contrary – nothing will be affordable. People rarely give stuff away for free, someone will own the AI, ergo the <s>planter</s> (AI master) class will demand return on their capital.
Some decrease in cost of ‘old’ products via increased production and less revenue per unit required, but not necessarily any significant increase in salaries, and you’re overlooking the birth of new costs as new technology has expensive entry points!!!
Competition can reduce profit margins, yes, but duopolies etc rarely compete on price, and production costs must be recouped else they make a loss.
Remember, even most SF containing AI has it operating within very limited roles e.g. monitoring the activities of everyone 24/7 but with limited capacity to intervene, almost never omnipresent or acting as the workforce.