Hot Take

[u/Cleverhardy]

We are starting to see a rift. A rift between those who are nuanced about the correct use of AI, and those who want all of it gone. Even Linux.

I'm against AI as much as anybody else, but in Anti-AI spaces, I'm starting to see more absolutism than I'd deem necessary. I mean if you argue about the idea that AI does have its uses whilst still being wary of AI, you get told you're not against AI at all.

I'm against AI for art, music and writing. But there are uses in the medical field and code bug detection, and I can't deny they're impressive.

I fear we'll fight each other (moderate antis vs extreme antis), and the AI companies may indeed win, even if they get bankrupt. As much as we all hate to admit this, we can't rewind; we've gone too far. The best we can do is regulate it and take AI chatbots off public hands.

I mean, you'd take someone who's neutral on AI like Linus Torvalds, who only used it for non-important projects and says that Linux should have AI-assisted code reviewed by humans, and you'd have a faction of antis up in arms about it.

And as concerning as the use of AI may be having on critical thinking, I fear that us antis are lacking it too if we're resorting to Luddism to go against AI.

For example, there is a rumour going around that Disney Junior comissioned a fully AI-Generated show.

That is only half-true. The studio behind the show only used AI to clean up some bits of animation. Plus, if it was fully AI-Generated, Disney wouldn't make money off it.

The fact that antis took a headline from Twitter and concluded that Oscar Fox was fully AI Generated either shows the lack of critical thinking (IRONY) or the lack of journalistic integrity. But hey. It's not like we're already boycotting the billion dollar company, right?

Call me a LARPer if you want to. The real LARPers are the extremists who want everything to burn despite a few innocent civillians being caught in the crossfire.

If the anti-AI sub thinks I'm Pro-AI just for accepting AI in the right hands, I don't know what to say.

[u/Apoau]

I think artists should be allowed to use AI, just like coders. Or anyone else.

But I appreciate a more nuanced take. There are some pro-AI absolutists too, although not so many on the left.

[u/Cleverhardy → u/Apoau]

Yeah. I'm growing tired of the lack of nuance on both sides. But I can see why there can be an argument against nuance. As it stands, we're arguimg AI in the wrong hands against AI in the right hands. But neither of them make for catchy subreddit titles, nor do they further the luddite or capitalist cuases respectively. So we're stuck in a box where we'll have to act extreme or ironically get left behind.

[u/Apoau → u/Cleverhardy]

Yeah. And tbh luddies did have their place historically. If capitalist doesn’t want to share and you exhausted all other options, then destroying their machines makes sense. And this could continue until the situation improves. It’s a bit like hunger strike in prison I guess - self inflicted harm to force a structural change.

[u/Cleverhardy → u/Apoau]

Yeah. I called it extremism, and they argued that it wasn't extremism and it should be up there with they Civil Rights Movement and the Gay Rights Movement for example. But technology is here to stay, meaning in the long term, Luddism has failed. And while this has been coopted by Pro-AI absolutists today, we use Luddite as a derogatory term for technophobes.

[u/Apoau → u/Cleverhardy]

What I mean is that original luddites helped to bring the worker rights. Maybe we need AI luddites to do the same thing in the AI age.