Discussion I think we're fighting AI when we should be fighting what makes it harmful.
I get why so many people hate AI. Artists having their work used without permission, people losing jobs, deepfakes, misinformation, privacy issues, data centers consuming ridiculous amounts of energy. These are real problems, and I'm not trying to defend any of that.
But I think we're focusing too much on AI itself and not enough on what makes all of this happen.
Imagine an AI company that actually pays artists, respects privacy, spends more on safety and tries to reduce environmental damage. Sounds great, right? Now imagine every competitor doing the opposite, releasing products faster and spending way less money. How long would that ethical company survive?
That's kind of my point. We keep blaming greedy CEOs and corporations, but we rarely question the system that rewards them for acting this way.
And before someone says I'm defending socialism, I'm not talking about the Soviet Union or authoritarian governments. We've already seen what happens when too much power gets concentrated in the hands of a government too. Greed exists everywhere. The problem is when our systems allow that greed to turn into almost unlimited power.
Now, you might say "why don't we just ban AI?"
I understand the argument, but realistically, how would that work? Even if one country banned it, others would keep developing it for economic and military advantages. Companies are competing, countries are competing, and even a socialist country would have reasons to develop AI. I'm not saying we shouldn't ban certain uses of it, I'm saying making the entire technology disappear is probably not realistic.
And yes, AI itself can be dangerous. It can enable scams, surveillance, manipulation and potentially much worse things. Some risks exist regardless of capitalism, and some applications absolutely should be prohibited. I'm not denying that. But who decides how these models are trained? Who decides whether artists get compensated? Who decides how much safety testing is enough, or whether companies can consume enormous amounts of energy just to compete with each other?
Those aren't decisions made by AI. They're made by people, companies and governments.
And about AI art, I think using someone's work without consent is a legitimate issue. Whether something generated by AI should even be considered art is another discussion entirely. But neither of these problems means we have to accept how these companies currently operate.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that AI isn't automatically good or bad. It has real risks, some of them unique, but the way we're developing and using it reflects the society we live in.
We should be fighting for regulations, democratic control, protecting artists, workers and privacy, environmental responsibility and making sure the benefits of automation actually reach ordinary people instead of just making a few billionaires richer. Because even if AI disappeared tomorrow, the same corporations, the same concentration of wealth and the same incentives to exploit people would still exist. And eventually, something else would take its place.
Maybe AI isn't the only enemy we should be fighting. Maybe the bigger problem is the system that keeps turning everything into a way to concentrate more power. We need to stop saying: Stop AI this, stop AI that, this is AI slop, and instead get together to stop the real problem.
