this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025

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AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism (newsocialist.org.uk)

submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 minutes ago

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Jumpscare warning:

LW gets mentioned at about 80% into the article.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 52 minutes ago (1 children)

Read the whole thing. Couldn't find any mention of LW. Mind to be more specific of where it is?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 36 minutes ago (1 children)

paragraph starts:

AI is a cruel technology

[–] [email protected] 1 points 32 minutes ago (1 children)

That paragraph:

AI is a cruel technology. It replaces workers, devours millions of gallons of water, vomits CO2 into the atmosphere, propagandises exclusively for the worst ideologies, and fills the world with more ugliness and stupidity. Cruelty is the central tenet of right wing ideology. It is at the heart of everything they do. They are now quite willing to lose money or their lives in order to make the world a crueller place, and AI is a part of this – a mad rush to make a machine god that will liberate capital from labour for good. (This is no exaggeration: there is a lineage from OpenAI’s senior management back to the Lesswrong blog, originator of the concept of Roko’s Basilisk.) Moreso even than cryptocurrency, AI is entirely nihilistic, with zero redeeming qualities. It is a blight upon the world, and it will take decades to clear up the mountains of slop it has generated in the past two or three years.

I don't see them saying lemmy.world, or lemmy for that matter.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 minutes ago

the other poster was snarking at the person who did not understand, as you also do not

look for the word in there that features l and w. there's only one (I checked)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

lw?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Lemmy World

[+] [email protected] -10 points 6 hours ago (4 children)

Let's please try to be more specific

"AI" in general is just overpowered statistics, which can be used in many very useful ways, including saving life and reducing the work needed to fulfill the needs of a population. AI can help plan maintenance to infrastructure, saving resources.

The issue is the use of Generative AI that does no good public deeds, that is just a waste of resources, trained without consent on the data, to make investors happy.

Which is more complex than just saying "AI", the same way "Monopolistic social networks that exploit their user's data for toxic advertisement" is more complex than just saying "computers" or "the internet"

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 hours ago

which can be used in many very useful ways, including saving life and reducing the work needed to fulfill the needs of a population

Uh huh. “Can” needs an asterisk and some disclaimers there. And probably “useful”, too.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

“Hello, peasants, I come to deliver you from ignorance. I can tell just by looking at your filthy clothes and vacant gazes that you all misuse the term AI. It is my obligation and privilege to educate you and inform you of the bright future AI is soon to bring, you swine.”

That’s you

[+] [email protected] -8 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Look, I understand it can come off as pretentious. Perhaps it is

But let's frame this a second.

AI, as I'm sure you are all aware, is a very old concept with useful applications dating back in the 80s. Not "the future is bright", but "this is a useful tool that is already helping in many fields".

Then one day, in the last 5 years, monopolists start doing generative AI to offer a flashy useless and wasteful service.

We then start calling this specific abuse of the technology, and of tens of years of passionate research, like the technology itself, overshadowing the rest.

If you think there's nothing wrong with that, I understand why my comment is unwanted. I think that it's wrong, a generalisation we wouldn't accept in other fields. I will refrain from making examples as I don't want to sound even more pretentious.

I guess I made my stand, I'll refrain coming back to this post at this point.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

wow what utter horseshit

AI, as I’m sure you are all aware, is a very old concept with useful applications dating back in the 80s.

the first AI winter happened because those fuckers couldn’t stop grifting academic funds by promising shit that didn’t work. we know the history of the field better than you do. not that you had a point other than wanting to reply guy about a name we didn’t adopt (cause we’re not OpenAI) for a technology all of us strongly dislike.

fucking pointless shit

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Lisp curmudgeons getting incorrected about AI history:

Gif of Ron Swanson saying "I know more than you"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 hours ago

I was trying to figure out how to make a really good [lisp machine intensifies] without overly relying on history, but you got me beat here

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago

Thank you for the belly laugh!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 hours ago

a very old concept with useful applications dating back in the 80s.

wait a fucking minute

you came here to lecture us and you think algorithms from the field of AI only started seeing serious use in the 80s? the Mark I Perceptron was built in 1958

(I admittedly didn’t know about the machine before today, but I know more than enough about AI to know perceptrons as software are old as hell)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Pretentious? Try haughty.

AI isn’t “just overpowered statistics”. What you said betrays your lack of understanding of both statistics and AI.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Overly power hungry statistics

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago

Statistics where you substitute knowledge with power?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Please try to make it past the first paragraph of what's linked next time

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 hours ago

While all true, you're missing the point of the article, which is why specifically the political right has embraced the aesthetic of "AI" generated slop. It's a good deep read, well worth your time!