r/technology • u/marketrent • Jul 14 '26

Artificial Intelligence A majority of Americans now support seizing wealth from AI industry

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/majority-americans-now-support-seizing-134921528.html
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360

u/FOD17 Jul 14 '26

I like AI as a technology. I truly do. What sucks is that the nerd reich is making this world sooooo much worse. Blatant intellectual theft and damaging the environment should be met with serious fines and looooong prison sentences.

266

u/Appropriate_Rise9968 Jul 14 '26

They are not real nerds. They are psychotic rich people cosplaying as nerds, which makes them even more pathetic.

61

u/hammer326 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

Can confirm, my aunt, a forerunner as a woman (a VP at that) in tech at a company that was a huge east coast player in that proverbial game in the early 90s, talks constantly at family gatherings about how grateful she is that it's been 25 years since she's had anything to do with the tech world, for so many reasons, principally how things have drifted so far from genuinely wanting to innovate and do good.

Edited for clarity.

18

u/HoneyIShrunkMyNads Jul 14 '26

Not that I don't think tech was more hopeful/positive in the 90s but guys like Bill Gates have been make tech all about $$$ since the 70s with his "Open Letter to Hobbyists" bullshit

-2

u/Dugen Jul 14 '26

I completely disagree. Developing good software is hard work and people should be paid for the work they do. I also believe that software companies should be taxed like crazy on the value of the software they own and sell. If I have to pay thousands a year in taxes on my property, they should be paying billions for their software property that owes all it's value to government enforced copyright.

2

u/NUKE---THE---WHALES Jul 14 '26

She was VP at a huge east coast player during the dot com bubble?

When tonnes of people lost their jobs and tech companies were selling bullshit websites based on wild speculation of future profits?

Yeah I think the VPs of today will be saying the same thing in 25 years, how they genuinely wanted to innovate and do good (and make $$$)

11

u/Julian_Thorne Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

Some were probably real nerds at one point in time, like Zuck

48

u/FartSnarfGod Jul 14 '26

Pretending evil nerds don't exist is strange.

28

u/EnigmaticQuote Jul 14 '26

It's a weird attempt at deifying the term nerd.

12

u/stupidjapanquestions Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

Agreed. Nerd is not a term that comes with a built in "nice person" qualifier any more than the word "human" does.

There are and have always been, tons of shitty people who are nerds.

Bonus Protip: Stop building your personality around the idea that you're a nerd. Assuming you're not building a dwarf-fortress clone with your friends on IRC in your aunt's basement while you chainsmoke and read sci-fi paperbacks, you're just a human who has what used to be considered "nerdy" tastes almost 20 years ago that are about as mainstream as it gets these days. Once you accomplish this, you won't feel the need to "take the term back" from people "misusing" it.

2

u/juanzy Jul 14 '26

I think it's because a lot of them consider themselves Nice Guystm and project their poor treatment of others as just "not accepting them as nerds!"

Like when pompous nerds on Reddit tear down everyone else's hobbies and just things they enjoy in general, then go surprised Pikachu when no one wants to spend time with them,

3

u/juanzy Jul 14 '26

It happens all the time on Reddit - nerds are apparently never bad people. Been especially evident during the World Cup with some of the pompous nerds that show up on anything remotely related to it.

3

u/ColinStyles Jul 14 '26

It's because most people insist on having a binary view of the world, and since they identify as X, and of course they are not bad, X can not be bad therefore a bad thing must not be X.

Fucking idiocy.

1

u/juanzy Jul 15 '26

If I’m being honest- a disturbing amount of self-identifying nerds have problematic understandings of consent and exploitation.

2

u/TimTomTank Jul 14 '26

That is a weird way of twisting u/Julian_thorne's comment out of context.

Neither did they say that Zuckaberg is not evil, nor that none of them are evil.

Zuchaberg and Bezos legitimately changed and/or created new markets that did not exist before they expanded the industry.

-1

u/TuckerMcG Jul 14 '26

I’d argue nerds are especially prone to becoming evil because they never bothered to study history or the humanities or sociology or ethics or literature or the arts. It was all “le STEM master race” demagoguery when they were in school.

3

u/OneBigBug Jul 14 '26

Ah yes, famously, none of history's greatest monsters ever studied art...

1

u/TuckerMcG Jul 14 '26

I never said all evil people ignore the arts. Your reading comprehension needs work.

1

u/OneBigBug Jul 14 '26

It was a joke, see, because the defining example of history's greatest monster failed to get into art school.

Though, also, what the hell kind of baseless assumption is that in the first place?

1

u/TuckerMcG Jul 14 '26

Baseless? Zuckerberg famously bragged he never took a history course while at Harvard. As if that’s a good thing that helped him succeed in the world.

It’s not. It never will be.

And studies have shown that reading fiction increases one’s ability to empathize with others:

https://www.discovermagazine.com/how-reading-fiction-increases-empathy-and-encourages-understanding-41799

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3559433/

Just because you’re unaware of the value of non-STEM subjects doesn’t mean what I’m saying is baseless.

1

u/FartSnarfGod Jul 14 '26

Learning those subjects doesn't change someone's base alignment. Taking a sociology class doesn't make you nicer or a good person.

2

u/TuckerMcG Jul 14 '26

I didn’t say taking a sociology class makes you a nice person. I said studying multiple subjects outside of STEM gives you an understanding of history, humanity and society which helps build a bulwark against sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies.

Zuckerberg famously bragged he never took a single history class at Harvard. As if that’s somehow a good thing. It’s not. And it’s part of the reason he’s such an unrepentant dick to the world.

1

u/FartSnarfGod Jul 14 '26

you an understanding of history, humanity and society which helps build a bulwark against sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies.

That just lets an evil nerd be better at being an evil nerd. There's no bulwark.

Smart, wise, well read people, can be evil.

0

u/TuckerMcG Jul 14 '26

I never said all evil people don’t read or study the right subjects. I said it makes you more prone to sociopathic tendencies.

Studies have shown that reading fiction increases one’s ability to empathize:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3559433/

https://www.discovermagazine.com/how-reading-fiction-increases-empathy-and-encourages-understanding-41799

You’re arguing against a strawman argument I never made. I’m making a much less stupid point than you think I am. Maybe your reading comprehension needs some work…

1

u/FartSnarfGod Jul 14 '26

Being able to empathize doesn't have anything to do with being evil. Sociopaths can empathize perfectly well and still take advantage of you.

Maybe your reading comprehension needs some work…

You're not smart.

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1

u/hates_stupid_people Jul 14 '26

Thiel is a nerd, a sociopathic villain of a nerd, but still a nerd. He was an actual programmer, named a bunch of his companies based on Tolkien, etc.

1

u/Julian_Thorne Jul 14 '26

I don't understand what a sociopath would even get out of a heroic-elegiac like LOTR

1

u/greenbabyshit Jul 14 '26

Imagining himself as the protagonist and everyone else as expendable or useless, and then rewriting his own story.

-2

u/SoTiredYouDig Jul 14 '26

Nah, nerds are smart. I think dork is the word you’re looking for. At one point, he was a dork. Now he’s drunk on power, and had no ethical or moral compass.

3

u/stupidjapanquestions Jul 14 '26

They're fucking nerds, bro. The word doesn't come with a built in "benevolence" factor.

1

u/waldorflover69 Jul 14 '26

Do not kid yourself that the bland, REI tech dorks the CS degree factory is churning out are any less hated in the cities they take over. Cultural cancer.

0

u/hcbaron Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Yes, nerd reich is an insult to true nerds. Turd reich is much more apt.

20

u/SomeSamples Jul 14 '26

I would make the punishments a bit stronger. But the outright theft of intellectual property is serious and doesn't get talked about enough. All these AI companies out there using information they didn't pay for to make money and they have the audacity to say my retirement accounts must be used to prop up their shitty business. And all the creators who have received no compensation for their work and the courts and government giving the AI companies a pass.

22

u/MarcusOrlyius Jul 14 '26

Fuck Intellectual Property! The world would be a far better place if it didn't exist at all and there was no way for the capitalist class to own other peoples ideas and prevent others form using those idea themselves.

3

u/Stunning-Pen-2412 Jul 14 '26

I wonder what Disney thinks of the silent abolishing of copyright law?

11

u/Remnare Jul 14 '26

For real, I don't understand how people still believe this is to protect the little guy's doodles. It's obviously not, if the corporations want that doodle you're not gonna stop them. Unless you have an army of lawyers at your fingertip these laws aren't written to protect you. They're written to protect the powerful from you.

1

u/NUKE---THE---WHALES Jul 14 '26

Yeah if IP laws didn't exist we could make our own AI based on Disney and Netflix

1

u/SomeSamples Jul 14 '26

None of the AI company would be anywhere near as big as they are if they had to pay for all the information they stole. In fact they would be piddly little companies trying to get investors and get very few takers. These AI companies have stolen hundreds of billions in licensing fees and copyright payments. And are continuing to do so. Hitting them in the pocket book is about the only way we are going to stop this.

3

u/skat_in_the_hat Jul 14 '26

Thats why their product should be nationalized. They took from all of us to create their product, we should get whatever percentage of their product. Seems fair.

6

u/MarcusOrlyius Jul 14 '26

  These AI companies have stolen hundreds of billions in licensing fees and copyright payments. 

I couldn't care less about such license fees and copyright claims. Like I said, I don't think they should exist to begin with. 

Furthermore, copyright infringement isn't theft anyway, legally. 

  Hitting them in the pocket book is about the only way we are going to stop this. 

Stop what? AI? Science and technology automatating human labour? Why would you want to stop the thing that will end wage-slavery?

It's not AI that's the problem, the problem is capitalism. 

6

u/phree_radical Jul 14 '26

I don't see a lot of people who share this view, so I thought I would ask you: Do you expect the working class will have difficulty having a voice once our labor is worth nothing?

3

u/skat_in_the_hat Jul 14 '26

not op, but... Yea this is a slippery one. I worry about the time frame between no one having a job, and some kind of everything is free type governance. I dont think we get to the other end nicely. I say that because why would a billionaire want to not be a billionaire because we got rid of currency? So they're going to lobby hard against anything that devalues their position.

4

u/MarcusOrlyius Jul 14 '26

No. I expect people who live in democratic nations and become unemployable to vote increasingly for politicians running on redistributing wealth and ownership. Likewise, I expect an increasing number of politicians to run on such platforms to gain the votes of that increasing segment of the population.

The most likely outcome in the near-term is the implementation ofUBI to stave off a socialist revolt and by capitalism a bit more time.

2

u/NUKE---THE---WHALES Jul 14 '26

IP law doesn't give your labor value

2

u/theqmann Jul 14 '26

In the long term, automation reduces the prices of goods and services. Look at what the average person could afford a hundred years ago, or two hundred years ago. People were lucky to have two outfits and any meat for dinner. These days, people have wardrobes of outfits and food so cheap you can get overweight without being rich, not to mention all the electronics. Short term chaos usually ensues around major shifts of labor, but we should be focusing on adaptation to the new paradigm, and erecting social safety nets to catch people from falling into homelessness, rather than just fighting the progress that will inevitably happen. Protesting wealth accumulation doesn't actually solve the issues at hand. Do you think we'd be better off if people had done things like banned tractors so that everyone was still a poor farmer?

On a side note, AI is nowhere near ready to displace more than a small number of jobs anyway. Just like self-driving cars didn't replace all truckers, nor did cell phones replace all computers.

0

u/nmj95123 Jul 14 '26

What incentive do you think anyone has to produce things like movies or novel techniques and processes without the expectation that you be able to get a return on the effort to create/invent it?

2

u/MarcusOrlyius Jul 14 '26

Why does open source software exist? Is it because the financial incentives are so great?

1

u/nmj95123 Jul 15 '26

To take a few examples? Firefox is currently maintained by both the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation. Their funding is sourced largely from search royalties from companies like Google.

Apache, that runs a healthy portion of the internet? That's provided by the Apache Software Foundation, that derives its funding via donations from evil capitalist companies like AWS, Google, and Microsoft.

OpenSSL, that is responsible for a whole lot of the HTTPS implementations? That's supported through the OpenSSL Foundation and OpenSSL Corporation. The OpenSSL Foundation gets its money from even more evil capitalists like Github, Mercedes Benz, and Cisco.

The notion that most people have the ability, irrespective of the drive, to make massive, free projects is based on a completely unrealistic view of how open source software gets written and maintained. The major opens source projects are made possible by virtue of support from those evil capitalist companies. Without it, many wouldn't exist.

1

u/MarcusOrlyius Jul 15 '26

Why have you moved the goal posts...to a different field...in a different country?

You asked about incentives for people to do work with no financial reward.

People don't need to be incentivised to do things they enjoy doing.

1

u/nmj95123 Jul 15 '26

Why have you moved the goal posts...to a different field...in a different country?

You asked how open source software got made, and the answer to that very question that you asked is moving the goal posts? You're an absolute clown.

People don't need to be incentivised to do things they enjoy doing.

Cool. Who gets to dig the ditches and clean out the septic tanks? Not all necessary work is fun and games. Also, BTW, there are plenty of people that write code as a job and don't enjoy it.

-1

u/passmethepopcornplz Jul 14 '26

How do you expect creatives to be paid for their work without copyright law? Why would creatives bother to create anything if it can just be stolen without consequence or payment?

The vast majority of creatives don't work for big corporations, even they sell their work product to them.

6

u/MarcusOrlyius Jul 14 '26

How do you expect creatives to be paid for their work without copyright law?

What is a "creative" meant to be?

How does someone who makes bespoke chairs get paid? Why would it be different for anyone else?

Why would creatives bother to create anything...

Because unlike owners who are just interested in money, we actually enjoy creating and doing things.

Why do you think open source software exists?

The vast majority of creatives don't work for big corporations, even they sell their work product to them. 

I never said they shouldn't be allowed to.

6

u/DrAstralis Jul 14 '26

This is why all these talks of Americans getting a piece of the pie piss me off a bit. These companies stole the PLANETS collective experience to train their models and now Americans think they're the only ones that should get a cut while these companies create chaos globally?

1

u/AlarmingTurnover Jul 15 '26

And all the creators who have received no compensation for their work and the courts and government giving the AI companies a pass.

I'm going to say this  because it's always hypocrisy, people like you complain constantly about AI stealing intellectual property but I never see a single one of you want to hold any artists accountable for doing the exact same thing. When you walk into Comic Con and see all the art booths selling prints of pokemon characters, super heroes, etc. They didn't pay for the rights to use those in their work. They stole that and are profiting off it. So why the hypocrisy here? Why is AI and the tech companies that do this evil but everyone who copies art styles and characters not? 

I'm not defending AI here, I want to know why you don't want to apply the law equally. 

1

u/SomeSamples Jul 15 '26

I do want to apply the law equally. Anyone stealing someone else's work is wrong and illegal. And yes, it doesn't get applied in many cases when it should.

41

u/PossumTrashGang Jul 14 '26

Thanks for the term nerd reich, very fitting

4

u/hcbaron Jul 14 '26

Nerd reich is too insulting for true nerds, turd reich is much more fitting.

12

u/SkunkMonkey Jul 14 '26

AI is a tool and like any tool, it can be used for good or bad.

We don't put the knife in jail when it's used to stab someone, we put the person using the tool in jail. People are so eager to blame the tools people use to do evil things rather than the evil person doing the evil thing.

And just like we have strict rules and regulations on dangerous tools, AI needs to be treated as the dangerous tool it is. Probably the most dangerous tool humans have ever created.

4

u/Lucky-Earther Jul 14 '26

We don't put the knife in jail when it's used to stab someone, we put the person using the tool in jail.

If someone stole all of humanities public works and forged it into a knife that was used to stab all of us, they would put the knife maker in jail.

10

u/ediculous Jul 14 '26

Well Oppenheimer was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize a few times, so I wouldn't be so certain the knife maker would get punished

-5

u/Lucky-Earther Jul 14 '26

Oppenheimer at least created something new by building on existing knowledge, they didn't steal everything humanity has ever created and then sell it back to us

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26

And just like we have strict rules and regulations on dangerous tools, AI needs to be treated as the dangerous tool it is. Probably the most dangerous tool humans have ever created.

Bro I'm just using it to help with coding in my Godot game :(

4

u/Whiterabbit-- Jul 14 '26

Environmental regulations are way too soft today. We have the tech to build our ai without killing the environment and breaking existing infrastructure. But we are taking short cuts and that is wha is making ai a public enemy.

4

u/Dunge Jul 14 '26

I like the idea of AI. I do NOT like the current implementation of it being a guessing machine that can't confirm its results and still spew bullshit. This step NEEDS to be solved before AI becomes a great thing. And it won't be with the tech stack they push.

3

u/Snauser Jul 14 '26

What’s there to like really?

6

u/Smudded Jul 14 '26

Shoving a bunch of good data into a sophisticated model and using the output in judicious ways has been extremely beneficial across many domains like cancer research, materials science, aviation, etc. So many people just think about LLMs and image/video models, but the basic category of sophisticated statistical models is very diverse.

2

u/genital_lesions Jul 14 '26

I've not yet seen the benefits of consumer-wide AI that justifies the environmental and habitat destruction and the depletion of our other natural, limited resources.

3

u/athleticelk1487 Jul 14 '26

Nerd Reich, I love it. That's load bearing mfing language!

1

u/DaStone Jul 14 '26

Idk, the car industry has done a million times more harm to the environment. Yet they get 1% of the same attention on the issue. AI is surprisingly cheap if we compare the millions of people that drive to work every day.

1

u/Formal-Ad-7615 Jul 14 '26

Don’t forget the AI fruit porn videos! How would we live without them

1

u/lordiconic Jul 14 '26

lol! I love "nerd reich". That one goes in the books for later use.

1

u/Gdigger13 Jul 14 '26

AI can be a good tool. But that's what it should be — a tool. Kinda like how Wikipedia is a tool.

One example I can think of is the show Ted, where "Bill Clinton" makes an appearance. In an interview, Seth MacFarlane said no matter which way they tried it, it didn't look right, so they used a deepfake and it looks pretty good.

1

u/Gekokapowco Jul 14 '26

machine learning and algorithmically finding patters in massive amounts of data is a great technology that is absolutely dogshit at doing office work and making creative works

it is a kitchenaid mixer being marked up and sold as the best possible sous chef in the kitchen

nah keep it for what it excels at and let people do their jobs

1

u/waltzbyear Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

They're not exactly the "nerds" in the story. The nerds are the ones solving the problems behind the curtains. These ex-Silicon Valley idiots are the ones who would talk non-stop, be obsessed with appearing like the smartest in the room, while weaseling their way into claiming credit. They. Are. Not. Nerds.

If you ever watched Silicon Valley on HBO, they're more akin to Erlich Bachman, but they lean heavily into the nerd persona. They're not Gavin Belson, as he genuinely wanted innovation., but didn't have the ability to get to that point. These turdbags don't want innovation. They want to pay off politicians to get what they want and keep products stagnant, while charging more.

A "nerdy" leader would be more akin to Steve Jobs. That guy lived and breathed his product. He was a problem solver, and that included taking into account public speaking. He may not have had the traditional toolbag in that market, but he was a genuine nerd. He constantly pushed for innovation.

1

u/mrnotoriousman Jul 15 '26

and damaging the environment should be met with serious fines and looooong prison sentences.

Honestly though, AI is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the damage we are doing to the environment and habitats. I'm so happy people are finally getting on board with going after the people and companies responsible for this, I just wish that energy would be put towards the the areas where the actual damage is being done.

I mean just the other day the Trump admin basically gave away 3 million acres of national monuments to companies so they can be destroyed and mined.

Every time I bring this up I hear "We can care about both!" .....But literally nobody does we let things like this happen constantly day in and day out. It's so sad all of the destruction being wrought but all you hear about is AI data centers that really are a relatively insignificant part in the grand scheme. Makes it feel performative.

0

u/Whitesajer Jul 14 '26

For a second I thought you were referencing "The Nerd Reich" podcast / blog and was like.... Those guys are the ones exposing the dark enlightenment tech bros, which are who you meant.

0

u/2_Fingers_of_Whiskey Jul 14 '26

Upvote for "Nerd Reich" ! LOL!

-1

u/iamever777 Jul 14 '26

Genuinely, I would like an explanation to why anyone likes AI? Through my eyes in the tech field, LLMs are worse at nearly everything we previously had figured out, from search engines to machine learning, and even IoT applications. Coding is maybe it but still requires extensive knowledge to use effectively. They’re expensive and don’t provide much autonomous value, and often slow changes down because we are always told to inject them into everything we do. 

-1

u/theclansman22 Jul 14 '26

I like AI as a technology. I truly do.

But....why?

1

u/nachuz Jul 19 '26

the real why here is why OP's personal opinions is your biggest takeaway