AI is not the answer to human problems.
Going all in on vaporware is a bad idea – especially gambling on this with taxpayer money.
I’m starting to wonder if this whole AI industry with all the hype and dubious promise is just a facade for these companies to just collect massive amounts of data. They already have a lot but perhaps their competitors have more, including the entities that acquire stolen data. All of financial strategy is about information asymmetry after all. Whatever the reason though, the externalities just rack up, based on promises that don’t even seem to pan out.
The Guardian - ‘Mainlined into UK’s veins’: Labour announces huge public rollout of AI - Plans to make UK world leader in AI sector include opening access to NHS and other public data - Why Labour is pinning its hopes on AI to drive UK growth Robert Booth UK technology editor Sun 12 Jan 2025 18.37 EST Susie Alegre, a barrister specialising in technology and human rights, cited the Post Office scandal “as a reminder of the dangers of putting too much faith in technology without the resources for effective accountability”. She said: “Any plan for Britain’s future with AI needs to look at real-world consequences for people and the planet and cannot afford to look away from uncomfortable truths.”
Going all in on AI is gambling on vaporware. Or it could be worse and really cost lives and a lot of money. The UK really ought to know better than this considering the Post Office scandal. I found there’s a show about this a year ago, and now it’s been on PBS as well.
Social Warming by Charles Arthur — The right kind of outrage — Plus the trouble with TikTok (which is the trouble with us) CHARLES ARTHUR JAN 19, 2024 And make no mistake, people are really worked up about this since the broadcast. Every MP and minister, right up to the Prime Minister, has been required to have an Earnest Quote about making sure that Things Are Put Right As Soon As Possible. There’s discussion about passing a law that would exonerate all the people who were convicted. You’d think the government was being assailed by people with cattle prods. What’s driving this, apparently, is a flood of emails to MPs’ inboxes from constituents who have seen the TV programme. People, just like my friends, are outraged. This has provoked a certain amount of teeth-gnashing and holding of heads in hands among some journalists (not, it should be said, the Computer Weekly and Private Eye ones) along the lines of “But we told you! Does nobody read what we write?” The answer is that, yes, people read it, but there’s a key difference. The news reports are factual, intellectual, reasoned. The TV drama works on an emotional level: it introduces you to people, and then shows their lives being ruined in detail, in a way that sparks your empathy. And once the emotions are engaged, you are prompted to feeling outraged; even to taking action, such as writing to your MP or of course posting on social media about how outraged you feel.
The U.S. version is already underway.
They’re giving away federal land – public land – to AI data centers. We are being scammed. We’re having accelerated climate catastrophe forced upon us. For a total con job.
Biden orders federal land to be leased for AI data center development January 14, 2025 The executive action will leverage federally protected lands to develop data centers capable of supporting AI software, with a priority on incorporating clean energy sources. By Alexandra Kelley, Staff Correspondent, Nextgov/FCW “Building AI infrastructure is also vital to America’s continued economic competitiveness. AI is poised to have large effects across our economy, including in health care, transportation, education, and beyond, and it is too important to be offshored,” the order’s announcement read. The Department of Interior will lead the effort to identify lands suitable for data center construction, while simultaneously enhancing permitting for corresponding geothermal energy projects. Energy will then take further steps to promote distributing resources to power these data centers. Participating agencies will be expected to allocate resources, namely staff, towards prioritizing the launch of this infrastructure.
Why are they prioritizing this? Who asked for this? Who voted for it?
The tycoon Eric Schmidt straight out said the geopolitical pinch they’re in to get enough power to actually run the crap they’re planning – it’s huge and will necessitate lots of fossil fuel burning, Eric Schmidt said that with the data centers they’re planning, quote “electricity starts becoming the scarce resource” – he said that. And they already have a power plant in Pennsylvania that only exists to print cryptocurrency, and provides no electricity to the community where they burn coal waste and are planning to burn tires.
My letter to reps about AI:
I’m seriously concerned that AI hype false claims are going to lead to boondoggles that are going to get people killed, waste the money of the taxpayers, and create unlivable conditions in some communities forced into having these maddening data centers or polluting power plants that do nothing but serve the tech tycoons and their pointless power usage. Trying to sell us on data centers and such saying “it creates jobs” is the most blatantly obvious job creator trickle down economics bs, because AI’s whole hype marketing is all based on tricking employers into thinking it can help them in cutting jobs and replacing human workers with AI, or at least replacing skilled positions with lower paid workers using ersatz tech tools. You can’t have it both ways – have it cut jobs and create jobs at the same time. AI means cutting jobs, so it can’t create jobs. There’s a net effect here that shouldn’t fool people. Nobody I know voted for this. I want an investigation into AI implementation, by people who don’t have conflicts of interest with these tech companies or the fossil fuel industry or others that will benefit from the effects of this AI tulip craze.