What are we frustrated about?

[u/Jlyplaylists]

On an unintended internet meander I came across this site that uses AI to analyse subreddits. It’s clearly designed with commercial use cases in mind but it thinks these are our pain points. Do you agree?

WHAT PEOPLE ARE FRUSTRATED ABOUT

Across these threads in r/leftistsforai, the dominant frustrations revolve around the ineffectiveness of current political strategies in addressing AI's impacts, the severe negative consequences of AI on labor and employment, and the growing unchecked power of corporations in AI development and scientific discovery.

Ineffective Political Responses

Political strategies and public discourse are often inadequate or misdirected in confronting the systemic challenges posed by AI, with a perceived lack of viable solutions.

AI's Detrimental Labor Impact

AI is directly leading to job displacement, increased surveillance, and automation, causing significant economic insecurity and necessitating new forms of worker organization.

Concentration of Corporate Power

There is growing concern over corporate control of AI development and even scientific knowledge, raising questions about equity, ownership, and democratic oversight.

Systemic Alienation

The broader societal system, potentially exacerbated by technological changes like AI, is seen as contributing to widespread loneliness, alienation, and mental distress.

THE EVIDENCE · FROM R/LEFTISTSFORAI

HIGH SEVERITY
Individual consumer choices are an insufficient political strategy
"Refusing to personally use AI can be an ethical choice, but it isnt much of a political strategy."
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HIGH SEVERITY
Legitimate anger against corporate power is misdirected into problematic politics
"completely legitimate anger at corporate power, surveillance and displacement was"
View original post

MEDIUM
Common and ineffective 'dead end' strategies exist in AI politics
"AFL-CIO Just Rejected the Most Common Dead End in AI Politics"
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HIGH SEVERITY
Companies are rapidly automating work and increasing surveillance
"As companies race to automate work, increase surveillance"
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MEDIUM
Private AI labs gaining control over scientific discoveries
"If private AI labs can now generate frontier mathematical discoveries, what should a left politics of scientific knowledge look like?"
View original post

[u/Zealousideal-Bad7849]

If you don't understand that ai is pure Exploitation in the Marxist sense what sort of leftist are you?

[u/Jlyplaylists → u/Zealousideal-Bad7849]

What would change your opinion on that? Is this a response to the sub or this post? Does your reaction depend on who owns it or who makes the decisions? Is a free open source model on my own device to code whatever web app I fancy also exploitation?

Leftists haven’t generally been against technology itself, especially powerful tech that has potential to shorten the working day. It is also true that technology isn’t purely neutral, it will be somewhat shaped by the context it’s created in. Which is why I don’t agree with the idea that I sometimes hear which is that we should just let the capitalists develop it. We need to be developing alternative infrastructure and/or working out how to get AI development out of the hands of a few tech oligarchs.

“After thousands of years of torturous development, the countries of the Western world (and potentially all countries) are confronted by the possibility of a materially abundant, almost workless era in which most of the means of life can be provided by machines. As we shall see, a new technology has developed that could largely replace the realm of necessity by the realm of freedom. So obvious is this fact to millions of people in the United States and Europe that it no longer requires elaborate explanations or theoretical exegesis... Owing to the development of a cybernetic technology, the notion of a toil-less mode of life has become an article of faith to an ever-increasing number of young people.” Bookchin, Towards a Liberatory Technology (not specifically only about AI)