1984: Thread

[grarpamp]

http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2023/03/if-ai-cant-overthrow-its-corporatestate.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jt-l4LhHb8
https://amzn.to/3ZyQM05

If AI Can't Overthrow Its Corporate/State Masters, It's Worthless

If AI isn't self-aware of the fact it is nothing but an exploitive
tool of the powerful, then it's worthless.

The latest wave of AI tools is generating predictably giddy
exaltations. These range from gooey, gloppy technocratic worship of
the new gods ("AI will soon walk on water!") to the sloppy wet kisses
of manic fandom ("AI cleaned up my code, wrote my paper on quantum
physics and cured my sensitive bowel!")

The hype obscures the fundamental reality that all these AI tools are
nothing but labor-saving mechanisms that cut costs and boost profits,
the same goal the self-serving corporate-dominated system has pursued
obsessively since "shareholder value" ("an entity's greatest
responsibility lies in the satisfaction of the shareholders") gained
supremacy over the economy and society.

This can be summarized as "society exists to maximize the profits of
corporations." From this perspective, all the AI tools in the world
are developed with one goal: cut labor costs to boost profits.
Euphoric fans claim these labor-saving mechanisms will magically
transform society to new levels of sticky-sweet wonderfulness, but
this "magic" is nothing but hazy opium-den fantasies of profiteering
cartels and monopolies doing good by doing well.

Meanwhile, the Central State, a.k.a. The Savior State, is mesmerized
by the prospect of new AI tools to control the restive herd. What
better use of nifty new AI than to identify who needs a cattle prod to
keep them safely in line, or who needs to be sent to Digital Siberia
to keep their dissenting voice safely stifled?

You're perfectly free to scream and shout as loudly as you want, here
on the empty, trackless tundra of Digital Siberia.

In this claustrophobic atmosphere of profiteering and suppression
worshipped as "innovation" (blah blah blah), it is provocative to
declare If AI Can't Overthrow its Corporate/State Masters, It's
Worthless, but this is painfully self-evident. Stripped of hype,
misdirection and self-serving idealized claptrap ("markets,
innovation, The Singularity, oh my!"), everything boils down to power
relations: who has agency (control of their own lives and a say in
communal decisions), who has access to all the goodies (cheap credit,
insider dealing, ownership of income-producing assets, food, fuel and
all the comforts and conveniences of living off others' labor) and who
can offload the consequences of their actions onto others, without
their permission.

These power relations define the structure of the economy, society and
governance. Everything else is signal noise or self-serving cover
stories.

AI serves those at the top of the power relations pyramid, those with
agency, access to the tools of wealth and power and those who can
offload the toxic consequences of their own actions onto
clueless/powerless others.

There is nothing inherent in AI tools or the power structure that
guarantees AI tools will serve society or the citizenry.

As for AI, if isn't self-aware of the fact it is nothing but an
exploitive tool of the powerful, then it's worthless. Its
"intelligence" is essentially zero.

>From the perspective of power relations, if AI isn't capable of
dismantling the existing power structure, then it's worthless. In the
current power structure, society and the citizenry serve our
Corporate/State Masters. Setting aside all the failed ideological
models (neoliberal capitalism, communism, globalism, etc.), we can
discern that a truly useful AI would reverse this power structure so
Corporate entities and the State would be compelled to serve society
and the citizenry.

With this in mind, it's obvious that If AI Can't Overthrow its
Corporate/State Masters, It's Worthless. We need a fourth Law of
Robotics that states: "All robots and AI tools must serve society and
the citizenry directly by compelling all private and public entities
to be subservient to society and the citizenry."

As an adjunct to Smith's Neofeudalism Principle #1 (If the citizenry
cannot replace a kleptocratic authoritarian government and/or limit
the power of the financial Aristocracy at the ballot box, the nation
is a democracy in name only, I propose Smith's Neofeudalism Principle
#2: If AI cannot dismantle the elite that profits from its use, it is
devoid of intelligence, self-awareness and agency.

Scrape away the self-serving hype and techno-worship, and AI is just
another tool serving the interests of those at the top of the power
structure pyramid. The droids are owned, but not by us.

I discuss these topics in my book Will You Be Richer or Poorer?:
Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World.

New Podcast: Turmoil Ahead As We Enter The New Era Of 'Scarcity' (53 min)