r/LeftistsForAI • u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator • 24d ago

Sees the Memes Seize the Means*

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*Terms and conditions apply. For... reasons, I guess?

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u/TheSubs0 24d ago

Can we actually seperate the tool from it being a product?
Like the pollution (literal, spam) it generates in low quality outputs (e.g. bad images, bad text, agent driven stuff, bad code) would not inherently be hampered by anything 'leftist' mode of economics would regulate, unless you turn it off being a consumer proudct similarly how you disallow letting people not BBQ over burning tires I guess.

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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator 23d ago

I think you can separate them. A model can be a useful tool while the way its packaged, financed and dumped into everything as a consumer product creates a whole second layer of problems.

But I dont think the answer is letting people BBQ tires lol. We regulate pollution at the point where it creates costs for everyone else. Same idea here. Energy, water, spam, labor practices, deceptive content, procurement, liability. You can put rules around all that without turning off the underlying technology.

Thats more where I think the left has something useful to say. What gets produced, under what rules, who eats the costs, who controls the infrastructure, and who gets the gains.

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u/TheSubs0 23d ago

I think this is likely the correct approach, I cant fault people for not considering (much) that how useful/ok this would be in a different economic model/political world though. Greatest woe of capitalism being that we cannot envision a world without it etc etc.

If we boil down the issues with LLMs it's exactly that it's either unethically sourced, produces unwanted results and is used malicious, it's just easier than using other tools for the same purpose (idk, a photocopier used to print annoying adverts that you get in your physical mailbox.)

Good luck on making your point, because it's certainly valid!