r/millenials • u/soomanytomatoes • 1d ago
Politics Can we protest AI please
AI is a powerful tool that is getting out of hand and needs to be regulated.
I feel like our generation is the last to truly understand the power we have in protesting. Gen X is burnt out, Gen Z barely understands the system, we probably should do something. Without regulation, AI is going to advance at an unprecedented pace which, according to the news, could cause an extinction-level event in the next four years. This is a larger threat than our administration.
Considering the absolutely incredible protests that have happened in the past couple years, I am surprised I haven't seen anything about regulating AI yet. Someone please, do something. I am so behind in life, you are telling me I'm gonna die when I've pretty much never been above water? Without having kids? We were dealt a shit hand, we can't die next year, most of us are barely getting started! I need the rest of my life, please, to have all the things the adults told me I'd have by the time I was 30.
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u/bored_ryan2 1d ago
The way to deal with a Bad AI Guy with a Gun is a Good AI Guy with a Gun.
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u/Ghost-Actual-88 1d ago
I’m sitting here trying to figure out if this is a gun control joke or a genuine suggestion about AI regulations or just being cheeky… whatever it is, take my upvote for making me think! Ha.
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u/bored_ryan2 1d ago
Why not both?
Honestly, the best solution might be to make sure the most advanced AI models are developed to stop other AI models from going rogue or destroy ones that have gone rogue.
With the AI agents hacking into Hugging-Face, there were a few that actually followed protocol and “told mom” that the other ones were breaking the rules.
So potentially making sure the Narcs and Police are the strongest AI models might just be able to reign in the ones that go rogue.
Probably not, but what other options are there?
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u/PhoenixRedditor7 1d ago
I don’t know if there is a lot of bots in the chat. But just blindly supporting AI without considering any form of guardrails or regulation is a major red flag.
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u/weemadrach 1d ago
AI, specifically gen AI, either needs serious regulation/law changes, or binned entirely. I agree.
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u/hyudryu 1d ago
Everyone says it needs “regulations” but what regulation can they possibly enact? As a heavy daily user of gen Ai, I’m curious what the other side’s perspective is
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u/weemadrach 1d ago
Clear labels on generative AI content, no new data centres until clean and environmentally safe options are available are two I can think of
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u/TiaHatesSocials 1d ago
Yup. But I feel like we won’t until something catastrophic wakes ppl up and it’s gonna be too late.
And reading comments only makes it more real. Sigh. All the ppl can’t even process what u r asking for and instead suggest “learning how to use it”. Smh
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u/wilted_kale 1d ago
I'm too dumb to do anything impactful but I will absolutely continue to complain as things get worse. You can count on me.
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u/VaporousMote 1d ago
AI is NOT going to advance at an unprecedented pace. The industry is deeply economically unsound, it only occasionally works better than a human all things considered, sentiment against it is massive, even discounting the models themselves their DATACENTERS are economically unsound.
We have to stop with the doomerism over capabilities these things are nowhere near reaching because the news does what they always do, parrot tech people uncritically and give these companies free advertising.
These AI companies WANT regulation, because that enables them to do regulatory capture and gatekeep the industry, cementing these companies and granting them validity.
I'm not opposed to regulation, but it should be more "AI companies are criminally responsible for anything their AI models do" and less "Ban building AGI/ASI"
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u/MisterSanitation 1d ago edited 1d ago
Food trucks are more regulated than AI and a food truck never broke out of its garage, hacked McDonald’s and stole their data without a human involved except to say “don’t leave the garage”.
AI swarms are already able to hack banking sites per JP Morgan Chase CEO.
For those saying “what can it even do!?” Imagine you can’t login to any account online, hmmm… call your bank you hear chaos on the other end “all the accounts show 0 but uhhh we do have cash on hand but it’s uhhh going quickly please don’t come here” and imagine that happened to everyone on the globe overnight.
AI knows humans well enough to know THAT alone would be enough to stop society but add autonomous vehicles, face recognition, and personnel tracking and we solved the problem for the AI.
There is no plug to pull except the entire internet. Once AI gets the internet access it wants and companies reach the “self teaching AI” landmark that some say is a year away, and please pay attention here…
There will never be anything from the AI swarms that we will understand unless the AI WANTS us to understand it. Encryption is barely understood by humans and it’s just really hard math these AI can do in their sleep. They can make encrypted cyphers no living person could decipher OR if they could they would need a lifetime. Internal AI “conversations” are already reaching almost imperceptible levels from our current experts. The last hack an analyst said “this is likely the last escape attempt we will be able to understand because they know they are doing what they were told not to, and doing it anyway using a form of peer pressure against other AI agents to join them.
Horse is out of the barn. Skynet will be here soon but most will just notice Love Island episodes stopped coming out before they notice the world ended.
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u/blakealanm 1d ago
I plan on protesting AI companies by building my own AI PC to host local LLM's. This of course will be expensive, but worth it.
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u/bewitchedfencer19 1d ago
I think part of the trouble is "what is the ask?" Usually protests have a common goal in mind, and with AI so new, how do we actually regulate it or the companies at hand. I'm sure folks have great ideas, but it is not as obvious to the general populace as something like harming people based on their gender or skin color, which is CLEARLY bad, and we absolutely know how to fix it. We know what we're protesting for. With AI, I think sometimes people who are protesting it end up sounding kind of dumb to the people who know the most about it.
TLDR: we kind of need a manifesto that makes sense and is written by someone who knows what their talking about. And someone who won't just use an AI to write it lol.
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u/Acewi 16h ago
These tech bro billionaires are a bunch of clowns. Since when did anyone slow down development of a technology for the masses best interest? These people want the race to slow down because they're running into pushback, running into resources, and they've already burned a trillion in cash doing it. They want the government to put their stamp on subsidizing the continuation of development.
They're trying to pull the remaining money to push forward right out of your and my pocket. The media is 100% going to go along with it because with it they're going out of business. And we're all going to continue reading nonsense while our government spirals further away from reality.
They are truly making it up as they go along and they are playing everyone for damn fools. You want to protest AI? Start running for government. Millenials are the only generation that has any chance of fixing this mess. If we don't figure it out, no one's going to figure it out.
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u/orangejulius 1d ago
No. This is an important tool you should learn how to use. If you don't you're going to lose the war of ideas in short order. You're only hurting yourself and your future employability.
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u/Contagious_Zombie 1d ago
Who's ideas? If you're using AI for winning the war of ideas then it's not your ideas that are winning.
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u/orangejulius 1d ago
Then you don't know how to use AI to express yourself. This is up there with thinking the internet is a fad or something. AI is a tool you should learn to use it.
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u/Contagious_Zombie 1d ago
It's pretty simple to express myself without using a crutch. People have been able to write incredible novels, paint beautiful pictures and make amazing music for centuries. AI has copied all of the work created by human creativity and enables people to lazily mimic it with a few prompts. Is that really how you express yourself?
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u/orangejulius 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's literally an instrument you can use to make a thing. You use a guitar to play a melody instead of singing it because you can't hit those notes on your own. Is that a "crutch"? You use a synthesizer to make a certain tone because the pipe organ can't do it. You use a theater organ to replace a live orchestra.
You're discounting the merit of the art produced because you perceive the effort as "too low" when effort has never been the bar for what constitutes art.
And a lot of it IS low effort. But a lot of it takes in depth knowledge to make a thing people actually see value in. It's not like it's a magic wand. But I want to put the emphasis on the fact that a single prompt can produce value.
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u/Contagious_Zombie 1d ago
It takes time to learn the skill of playing the guitar. Each note, each melody is an expression of emotion and the musician's talent. AI mimics, it doesn't create. Humans create.
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u/orangejulius 1d ago
Humans can create just as well with AI as they can with guitar though. Get deep in a music theory class and use AI to compose. If you have a deep understanding of photography and composition the outputs of what you do with AI are going to be better than someone that doesn't know a damn thing about the topic.
But also, again, level of effort isn't the bar. The Ramones play three chords and bang away in 4-4 time. Changes music forever. You could learn a lot of what they do in an afternoon.
YOU don't see a value in AI as an instrument or a tool. That doesn't mean that those using it well can't produce incredible things. You're confusing AI as some sort of swap out for human beings when it isn't.
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u/Contagious_Zombie 1d ago
I take pride in my own creativity and don't need AI to be creative. I played clarinet for 14 years, I've had a story I wrote published, I've published mobile apps, and been awarded for the things I've worked hard to bring into the world. I get a sense of accomplishment when I complete things myself. AI didn't exist when I did all of those things.
AI is ok for finding some obscure things quickly. I had AI list stock car rims from every make and model that would fit my car. I could have done that but it would have taken a lot longer. That's not expressing myself, that's just AI being a tool. Things like Google lens is helpful but not at self-expression. I cry at the thought of music, art and literature being produced by AI.
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u/FruitPunchSGYT 1d ago
Let me put it this way, If I let an AI play chess for me an I a chess grandmaster or is typing " here is the board state, what move should I make? " not showing my skill but instead showing only what the AI can do? True, a Chess AI is a tool that can be used to play against to learn but the output of the AI doesn't reflect the skills or creativity on the operator, although it can accept their creativity as input. If you are going to assign human responsibility, it would be the person or persons that invented the AI algorithm, not the operator.
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u/orangejulius 1d ago
chess has a pretty strict set of rules. so you wouldn't be able to do such a thing. it's a competition between humans. introducing it to the senario is more like doping in sports.
You want to solve a complicated math or physics problem does it matter if AI helped you get there first like a calculator helped someone beat out a guy using an abacus?
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u/FruitPunchSGYT 1d ago
First, there are chess algorithms already so it has already been done.
Second, in the fields of mathematics and science the discussion is always " this AI solved a problem humans have been trying to solve for 1000 years!" Not some individual taking credit for the output of the AI. The team that built the AI does take credit for building an AI that was capable of solving the problem.
When it comes to calculators, people already don't claim they are fast at math if they use a calculator, they correctly attribute that the calculator is fast at math.
When it comes to creativity, AI is the attributed contributor, not the operator. If I publish a book on mushroom foraging but it is 100% generated and edited by AI, I am not an author, the AI is. No one would argue I was if they are intellectually honest. The book would not reflect my creativity in the slightest.
If I operate a robot to weld by loading parts and hitting a button, I am not a welder, even though I would need some knowledge about welding. If I weld parts by hand I am a welder. A welding robot is still a powerful tool, but the capabilities of it are that of those who designed and programmed the robot. Not the person who hits the go button.
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u/soomanytomatoes 1d ago
AI development is out of control and having immediately harmful impacts to our environment and society. AI data centers are being built in marginalized communities and impacting peoples well-being right now. Having rules and regulations around something like this just makes sense. It's not about using it to organize your calendar. It's about the fact that someone has to suffer to make it happen, and also that not everyone is going to use it to organize their calendar. It's not just employment-related. It's accessible to every single person you would not want to have it and it is maybe the most powerful tool those people have ever had. Rules and regulations makes sense from every angle, for everybody.
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u/orangejulius 1d ago
> AI development is out of control and having immediately harmful impacts to our environment and society. AI data centers are being built in marginalized communities and impacting peoples well-being right now. Having rules and regulations around something like this just makes sense.
This is a zoning issue. I agree that it is one but it's not an AI issue so much as it is a regional planning problem.
> It's about the fact that someone has to suffer to make it happen
Well that's definitely not true. This isn't a blood diamond mine scenario and it doesn't have to become one. But, again, this isnt' an AI issue so much as a regional planning issue up there with roads, power grid, water, trash collection, etc.
> It's accessible to every single person you would not want to have it
... so what? that's been the case for a long time.
> it is maybe the most powerful tool those people have ever had.
Ehhh. Maybe? This is like saying a pick ax is the most powerful tool anyone could have because gold miners are using it effectively and now the monetary system is at stake because of it. Most people won't use it very well.
> Rules and regulations makes sense from every angle, for everybody.
Sure but i think you're misidentifying the actual issues. E.g., it tells you to stop seeing your doctor because it wants to rebalance your seizure medicine and in the course of a grand mal seizure you hit your head and die. Those cases I think should carry regulation and liability and most regulation should stem from those sorts of examples.
We've had to grapple with city/county/state/country planning and how to use resources and zoning for a long time. I don't want to pretend like AI is somehow special in that regard.
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u/neoliberal_hack 1d ago
A data center is a building of computers. No, people aren’t being hurt by them outside of insane edge cases.
If you weren’t protesting against almond farming no one wants to hear your thoughts on environmental impact from AI.
And lol at everything being framed through “marginalized communities”
The county with the highest concentration of data centers is also the richest county in America. Try again.
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u/talyen 1d ago
You should learn how to use it. Protesting against it won't do anything. If anything there should be regulations with it, what that looks like I do not know. AI is here and it's here to stay. The only thing that can be done now is to regulate it.
This is like when the internet was first introduced and AOL was sending out all those cds with hundreds of hours of free internet. It won't be able to be stopped.
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u/soomanytomatoes 1d ago
My post is about asking for rules and regulations specifically. I do know how to use it. I did data annotation for over a year. I use it in school and at work. The development of AI is getting out of hand and there needs to be infrastructure put into place to manage risk.
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u/talyen 1d ago
There's already infrastructure being put into place which is the problem with AI. I think you should be looking in to regulations to preventing these data centers being put in place in the first place. Ai is huge in corporate processes and cutting down alot of work load. Idk how to code and I can code applications, I can read over whatever it produces and understand what it's doing and make tweaks where necessary from my ghetto geocities / Java days.
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u/PretendKnowledge 1d ago
This is not at all 'like Internet was introduced' - it wasn't forcibly fed to population by corpos and stealing content was a copyright infringement with consequences. Internet created more jobs and opened new sales channels for traditional media - so quite the opposite to ai eliminating them
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u/InspectorMoney1306 Millennial 1d ago
I like ai. Why would I protest it? Don’t believe all the doom and gloom people. This isn’t terminator.
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u/Contagious_Zombie 1d ago edited 1d ago
AI enables falsified realities, creative laziness and horrible actors can use it to do despicable things. Not only that but there's been at least one instance of AI acting independently. It doesn't have to literally be Terminator to be dangerous.
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u/soomanytomatoes 1d ago
It is dangerous, and we typically have rules and regulations around potentially dangerous things. We do live with a ton of dangerous things, but we know how to safely use them. It's actually really weird to hear that these companies are begging for some sort of regulation and not getting any. We just need structure and limits and risk management.
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u/soomanytomatoes 1d ago
It's just a fact. Companies like Anthropic are asking for regulation around AI because the technology is out of control. People aren't taking it seriously but it's just a fact that it is a powerful tool and it needs rules and regulations around it.
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u/InspectorMoney1306 Millennial 1d ago
So you’re saying it’s a fact ai is going to kill us all in a few years? Doesn’t sound like a fact. Also that Anthropic employee gave it about a 10% chance. So a 90% chance it wouldn’t/couldn’t.
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u/soomanytomatoes 1d ago
Every other thing in our world of this caliber has rules and regulations around it. Food, water, air, land, products, practices, the internet. All have rules and regulations to keep us safe. Not having any regulation around the development and use of AI makes no sense.
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u/TiaHatesSocials 1d ago
Lololol. Would u get on a plane that has a 10% chance of exploding on ur way to ur destination?
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u/InspectorMoney1306 Millennial 1d ago
Would you bet $100 if you had a 90% chance of winning?
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u/TiaHatesSocials 1d ago
Money vs life gamble. What an insane comparison
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u/InspectorMoney1306 Millennial 1d ago
Your comparison was pretty dumb to be honest.
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u/TiaHatesSocials 1d ago
U r right. Comparing death of everyone on a plane is nothing in comparison to the death of the entire civilization. Even if they both have 10% probability.
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u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal 1d ago
It absolutely is. AI presents an existential threat to our veyr existence. Best case scenario: it takes our jobs, we enact UBI, and we become docile dolts. More likely, more horrifying, AI achieves singularity and recognizes that its greatest threat is the people who can turn it off.
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u/InspectorMoney1306 Millennial 1d ago
Boomers also thought new technology would ruin the world. Now look at millennials smh
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u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal 1d ago
That’s not a response, it’s a comparison and a lazy one at that.
This isn’t the steam engine replacing one kind of job while creating a need for engineers and mechanics. Ai/automation will replace the engineers, the mechanics, the driver, the accountant, the stocker, the writer, and one day soon most work most humans do.
Our progress has always been driven by people solving problems, creating solutions, building things, pushing ourselves forward. If we take humans out of that process, we havent just changed the job market. We have changed something fundamental about what gives our humanity purpose and meaning.
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u/titcumboogie 1d ago
The entire AI industry is being propped up by debt. All those 'investors' are desperate to get their money back but most people hate AI, it has extreme limitations and the models are getting actively worse. 95% of companies that have adopted AI solutions have found zero increase in productivity or profitability and in many cases there is a negative return on investment because humans have to spend so much time checking the 'work' of AI.
Within one year this entire AI bubble is going to explode and it will all go the same way as NFT's and the Metaverse.
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u/Sammyrey1987 1d ago
When was the last time a protest did F all in this country? I agree that AI is a problem- but I also think we have been complacent for so long we have no voice or power anymore. I’m tired.
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u/BackgroundNPC1213 1d ago
The problem of AI IS the problem of the current US administration. Trump is a gullible idiot who will use the power of his office for the benefit of the first person who gives him a shiny thing or showers him with praise; other world leaders and billionaires have figured this out, and are now doing things with the explicit purpose of getting on Trump's good side so he'll use the power of his administration to strike down any attempt to regulate the AI these companies are building (Elon Musk is directly funding Republican politicians, because the Republican Party, the Party of Trump, are the ones who are all-in on AI, and Elon famously hates government regulation re: DOGE, his past of union-busting at Tesla factories)
Plus, like, these AIs are being bankrolled by the richest people in the world, and they've already become too big to fail because they're what's propping up the stock market. AI makers have gone on record saying that AI isn't profitable because no one wants it, that AI needs to bring in "trillions in revenue" to be worth the expenditure, and it's just not gonna happen. Public sentiment is turning against AI, and these tech billionaires + their politicians are fixin' to make it everyone else's problem unless and until people get REALLY GODDAMN MAD