The most important point about the current AI hype is illlustrated by Elon Musk being at the center of both the pro- and anti-AI chatter.
That point being: it’s hype either way. Whether you think AI is good or bad, you’re being railroaded into agreeing it’s important. And I don’t believe that case has been made, or even examined really.
In particular, there’s no suggestion of why I would pay one thin dime for something AI can produce. And let’s not forget, even if it’s hidden away in a data center, the capital and energy costs of this technology are huge. Try generating one tiny image locally on your phone if you want an idea of what needs to be on the other end of the line to provide AI on tap. It is reminiscent of crypto hype in more ways than one.
You might say, but AI can make money by eliminating labor costs from things I do pay for. But what things? If someone I pay for services starts sending me AI emails, then either (a) they were sending me worthless emails before, or (b) they’re offering me a significantly less valuable service. Either way, they could save more by replacing human labor with plain old nothing.
And that is the key to it. This expensive technology won’t pay for itself, and it won’t replace anyone’s labor. It’s a disciplinary threat. And that’s why it’s politically important to remain unimpressed by the hype: the more we amplify the message that AI is a big deal, the more effectively Capital can wield the threat.
To be clear, it’s not an entirely hollow threat, because employers really can fire people. And if enough people believe the AI fearmongering, that fear makes it easier for your boss to find a more pliable replacement. But so the danger comes from the fear itself, not from what AI can actually do.
Maybe, but there again it would only be a rhetorical sheen on top of the decisive material factors. China could invade Taiwan because it’s big and powerful. It could not invade Taiwan if it wasn’t. Deepfakes don’t change any of that. I mean, what could a deepfake of Miguel Díaz-Canel say that would suddenly convince Cubans to welcome a US invasion?
I think why this stuff unsettles us is that it’s come to feel like the world on screen is reality, and the physical world of farms and bullets and oceans and relationships is only a reflection of it. I’d say that feeling should concern us more than Lorem Ipsum 2.0.
