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Anil Dash
@anildash.com

Since it's come up again, I'll try to succinctly state my view on "AI" as we think of it in culture & tech these days. I think "Big AI" products (ChatGPT, Google Gemini) are mostly terrible for society, because they've been foisted without consent on millions, with lies about what they can do.

40 reposts259 likes

Anil Dash
@anildash.com

The impacts on trust in public conversation, sustainability of culture and creators and media, and their systematic attacks on labor are egregious. Worse, being intentionally built without safety means they are a literal threat to children, for everything from self-harm to mental health.

Anil Dash
@anildash.com

Much has been written about the environmental and ecological impacts of the energy demands of AI; I think those are severe as well, but may be the part of the threat that is most likely to be mitigated as some of the commercial bubble subsides. The other negatives are less likely to fade. _Then..._

Anil Dash
@anildash.com

Today's LLMs are the latest in a 50+ year history of "AI" technologies that all have their uses. We would have been better off if they had been described like prior technologies like bayesian networks or Markov models instead of over-hyped as the next giant bubble that every VC has bet on.

Anil Dash
@anildash.com

I think the answer to stopping the harms of the Big AI companies is *not* to say "we need to kill all the AI", even though we hate seeing the creeping impacts of that bad AI in our lives. The model has to be how Bluesky is a better alternative to Twitter. We need a tolerable AI alternative instead.

Tim Ellis, TDSB Ward 2 Trustee 🍁
@djdynamic.ca

My art is licensed under creative commons; I want it shared. If these companies had simply adhered to "credit the artist" stipulation or even just directly asked "hey can we use this" I'd have almost certainly said yes. Instead they took a maximally coercive approach, so now I hate them. Huge waste!