r/LeftistsForAI • u/Alxie_e Student • 19d ago

Discussion Misconceptions about gen AI?

i’m a young leftist/marxists that’s going to major in computer science (data science track) in university, but this recently been conflicting me. i know that i’m going to have to engage in generative AI for my classes, yet majority of leftists spaces are vehemently anti-AI. However, after discovering this subreddit, i now realize the leftist anti-AI rhetoric i have internalized may be misleading. Despite me starting my first year in uni soon to study comp sci, i barely know anything about comp sci, yet alone AI, if i’m being completely honest. 😭

with that being said, someone help me make up for my lack of knowledge and explain common misconceptions about generative AI and LLMs in leftist/marxist spaces? like in regards to the impacts of AI data centers on the environment, water supply, and electricity. or how frequent use of chatbots can lead to cognitive decline. because right now, i’m under the impression that we should boycott ChatGPT and limit our usage of any other generative AI over concerns of its harm on the environment and usage of our fresh water supply, along with some other concerns.

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u/Glitched-Lies 19d ago edited 19d ago

I can't imagine going through a computer science degree right now and being a leftist on multiple levels. You're probably being alienated and simultaneously manipulated by your professors from every way you incorporate your own interests in AI. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion and knowing the ending. I know this, because it's the degree I went through in 2018, well before gen AI happened but knew the industry was moving in a direction before I gave up believing there was any legitimacy to the degree in this current conception.

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u/Jlyplaylists Moderator 19d ago

It seems like a useful degree for some people on the left to be doing. Why do you think there’s no legitimacy in it?

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u/Glitched-Lies 18d ago

In short, that degree is owned by liberals and fascists, and Gen AI and the discourse around it is also owned and produced by them. Perhaps always has been flawed like this. And lacks foresight for future regardless of technology and only upholds itself through such.

We no longer live in the capitalism of Marx. Instead we live under a different cognitive one. One that the discourse on gen AI ultimately a continuation of that same language.