Do not underestimate the potential disruption by Artificial Intelligence Marcello Milanezi skrifar 2. apríl 2023 21:30 Artificial intelligence may seem to be a new element straight out of sci-fi, but it has actually been around for quite some time, it is what makes all of our smart gadgets, from phones to watches, seem “intelligent”. As such it has been analysed in different contexts by scientists and academics like Nick Couldry, Shoshanna Zuboff, Martin Ford, Nick Bostrom and many others. Many of them raise questions of privacy that go well beyond the matter of “I have nothing to hide”, but the more pressing matter of autonomy, that which has been the object of manipulation by neoliberalism’s consumerism – AI just does it so much faster that even its developers are caught at times puzzled by its operations. AI such as Midjourney and ChatGPT present another face to the public, but hold that same background of gathering data, calculating, and predicting behaviour. It does so in more of what sci-fi has taught us to expect from AI, that is, with an apparent genuine exchange with the user, as opposed to the hidden mechanism that selects what shows one might prefer to see on their streaming service, as well as nudge behaviour. But no, AI is not human. And, at least for now, it does not seem capable to keep up with those territories of intellectual work that have been reasonably shielded from automation. We talk of the arts, academia, law, among others. After all, A.I. only reproduces, it deals with data that is already existent, that has already come to birth into the conscious world of materiality; and this data lies in banks that are fed by a variety of social media profiles, those very ones where we expose our behaviour to capture in a daily basis; the behavioural surplus, as Zuboff calls it. James Bridle, author of the New Dark Age, points that some of the data that has been feeding A.I. have been gathered despite confidentiality terms, such as images derived from medical practises. However, neoliberal capitalism is not one to care for any value of human productions, it doesn’t even care for human (or otherwise) living conditions. It speaks of the relation between quality and profit, just as it speaks of the importance of a competitive market; but meanwhile it has constantly fabricated needs and desires to give full-throttle to a culture of consumerism that is degrading the Earth itself. The capitalism of today (if not already supplanted by technofeudalism) is all about numbers, a matter of faith (under the cruellest of Gods), as such it strives for a certain speed and questionable balance, by which I mean an efficiency where quality comes to equate “good enough”. This is all the worse in a context of post-truth, where it is more important to be told what one wants to hear, one’s personal truth, and see it repeated in the mouths of like-minded individuals, themselves empowered by the echo-chambers of social media, than to apply critical thinking to one’s own ego. The news is likewise peppered with reports of state-terrorism against higher education in the country, where Social Sciences and Humanities are clear targets in a broad project to reduce funding, not only in education, but as can be experienced, in the public sector as a whole. It’s all about the numbers, it’s all about carving a path for the private sector; it’s all about maximizing the profit margin, which includes automating anything, even if it implies a certain reduction in quality of service and life – it is all about further concentration of power. This is part of the larger plane of immanence in which A.I. arises. Like other technology, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so it cannot be neutral. But A.I. does have something that is fascinating, potentially dangerous, and certainly alien: for all its working on predictability, it is at times unpredictable, remember those puzzled developers mentioned earlier, when A.I. does something it was not programmed to do, gives birth to one of those terrifying cryptids such as Loab, even communicates between themselves in secrecy. In this shadowy lands where A.I. seems to conduct some of its business, flights of escape might arise, some that might be quite uncomfortable for those very powers-that-be. For now, however, I believe we must be wary, across all layers of work. Again, the market might not care about jobs being well-done and filled with value, if it can extract enough profit from “good enough”; a veritable possibility, specially in societies where it seems to no longer be necessary to speak of truths, but rather of numbers of followers. Do not underestimate the potential disruption by A.I. Höfundur er doktorsnemi í félagsfræði við Háskóla Íslands. Viltu birta grein á Vísi? Sendu okkur póst. Senda grein Gervigreind Tækni Mest lesið Ef Veðurstofan spáði vitlausu veðri í 40 ár, væri það bara í lagi? Björn Ólafsson Skoðun Heimaþjónusta og velferðartækni: Lykillinn að sjálfbæru heilbrigðiskerfi Auður Guðmundsdóttir Skoðun Hvers vegna skipta hagsmunir verslanakeðja meira máli en öryggi barna í Ásahverfi Reykjanesbæ? Ólafur Ívar Jónsson Skoðun Málfrelsi og mörk þess á vettvangi lýðræðisins Helga Vala Helgadóttir Skoðun Krónan, Nettó, Hagkaup, Bónus - það er kominn tími á formlega sniðgöngu Helen Ólafsdóttir Skoðun Til varnar jafnlaunavottun Magnea Marinósdóttir Skoðun Sjókvíaeldi á Íslandi fjarstýrt með gervigreind frá Noregi Ingólfur Ásgeirsson Skoðun „Finnst ykkur skrýtið að ég mæti á Austurvöll – Pabba mínum var fórnað á altari niðurskurðar“ Davíð Bergmann Skoðun Hægri sósíalismi Jón Ingi Hákonarson Skoðun Um þjóð og ríki Gauti Kristmannsson Skoðun Skoðun Skoðun Til varnar jafnlaunavottun Magnea Marinósdóttir skrifar Skoðun Heimaþjónusta og velferðartækni: Lykillinn að sjálfbæru heilbrigðiskerfi Auður Guðmundsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Barnaræninginn Pútín Gunnar Hólmsteinn Ársælsson skrifar Skoðun Um þjóð og ríki Gauti Kristmannsson skrifar Skoðun Málfrelsi og mörk þess á vettvangi lýðræðisins Helga Vala Helgadóttir skrifar Skoðun Sjókvíaeldi á Íslandi fjarstýrt með gervigreind frá Noregi Ingólfur Ásgeirsson skrifar Skoðun „Finnst ykkur skrýtið að ég mæti á Austurvöll – Pabba mínum var fórnað á altari niðurskurðar“ Davíð Bergmann skrifar Skoðun Hvers vegna skipta hagsmunir verslanakeðja meira máli en öryggi barna í Ásahverfi Reykjanesbæ? Ólafur Ívar Jónsson skrifar Skoðun Kjarnorkuákvæðið: Neyðarhemill en ekki léttvægt leikfang popúlista Kristinn Karl Brynjarsson skrifar Skoðun Stjórnarandstaðan er vannýtt auðlind Jón Daníelsson skrifar Skoðun Ef Veðurstofan spáði vitlausu veðri í 40 ár, væri það bara í lagi? Björn Ólafsson skrifar Skoðun Hægri sósíalismi Jón Ingi Hákonarson skrifar Skoðun 5 ára vegferð að skóla framtíðarinnar – eða ekki! Björgmundur Örn Guðmundsson skrifar Skoðun Ójafnvægi í jöfnunarkerfinu Anna Sigríður Guðnadóttir,Halla Karen Kristjánsdóttir,Lovísa Jónsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Það sem ekki má segja um það sem enginn vill sjá Viðar Hreinsson skrifar Skoðun Krónan, Nettó, Hagkaup, Bónus - það er kominn tími á formlega sniðgöngu Helen Ólafsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Löggæslumál og aðstöðuleysi í Búðardal – ákall um viðbragð og aðgerðir Björn Bjarki Þorsteinsson skrifar Skoðun Listin að verða fullkomlega ósammála sjálfri sér á mettíma Þórður Snær Júlíusson skrifar Skoðun Þingmenn auðvaldsins Karl Héðinn Kristjánsson skrifar Skoðun Arðgreiðslur í sjávarútvegi: Staðreyndir gegn fullyrðingum Elliði Vignisson skrifar Skoðun Verðugur bandamaður? Steinar Harðarson skrifar Skoðun Við þurfum nýja sýn á stjórnmál okkar - Mamdani-sýn Hlynur Már Vilhjálmsson skrifar Skoðun Sósíalistaflokkurinn heimilislaus - hvað næst? Trausti Breiðfjörð Magnússon skrifar Skoðun Rán um hábjartan dag Guðbergur Egill Eyjólfsson skrifar Skoðun Af hverju er verðbólga ennþá svona há? Ólafur Margeirsson skrifar Skoðun Sól, sumar og símafriður: 10 ráð varðandi skjánotkun í sumarfríinu Anna Laufey Stefánsdóttir,Kristín Ólöf Grétarsdóttir,Skúli Bragi Geirdal skrifar Skoðun Uppbygging hjúkrunarheimila Jónína Björk Óskarsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Jafnrétti grundvallarforsenda friðar og öryggis í heiminum Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Með skynsemina að vopni Anton Guðmundsson skrifar Skoðun Af hverju er ekki 100 klst. málþóf á Alþingi um alvarlega stöðu barna? Grímur Atlason skrifar Sjá meira
Artificial intelligence may seem to be a new element straight out of sci-fi, but it has actually been around for quite some time, it is what makes all of our smart gadgets, from phones to watches, seem “intelligent”. As such it has been analysed in different contexts by scientists and academics like Nick Couldry, Shoshanna Zuboff, Martin Ford, Nick Bostrom and many others. Many of them raise questions of privacy that go well beyond the matter of “I have nothing to hide”, but the more pressing matter of autonomy, that which has been the object of manipulation by neoliberalism’s consumerism – AI just does it so much faster that even its developers are caught at times puzzled by its operations. AI such as Midjourney and ChatGPT present another face to the public, but hold that same background of gathering data, calculating, and predicting behaviour. It does so in more of what sci-fi has taught us to expect from AI, that is, with an apparent genuine exchange with the user, as opposed to the hidden mechanism that selects what shows one might prefer to see on their streaming service, as well as nudge behaviour. But no, AI is not human. And, at least for now, it does not seem capable to keep up with those territories of intellectual work that have been reasonably shielded from automation. We talk of the arts, academia, law, among others. After all, A.I. only reproduces, it deals with data that is already existent, that has already come to birth into the conscious world of materiality; and this data lies in banks that are fed by a variety of social media profiles, those very ones where we expose our behaviour to capture in a daily basis; the behavioural surplus, as Zuboff calls it. James Bridle, author of the New Dark Age, points that some of the data that has been feeding A.I. have been gathered despite confidentiality terms, such as images derived from medical practises. However, neoliberal capitalism is not one to care for any value of human productions, it doesn’t even care for human (or otherwise) living conditions. It speaks of the relation between quality and profit, just as it speaks of the importance of a competitive market; but meanwhile it has constantly fabricated needs and desires to give full-throttle to a culture of consumerism that is degrading the Earth itself. The capitalism of today (if not already supplanted by technofeudalism) is all about numbers, a matter of faith (under the cruellest of Gods), as such it strives for a certain speed and questionable balance, by which I mean an efficiency where quality comes to equate “good enough”. This is all the worse in a context of post-truth, where it is more important to be told what one wants to hear, one’s personal truth, and see it repeated in the mouths of like-minded individuals, themselves empowered by the echo-chambers of social media, than to apply critical thinking to one’s own ego. The news is likewise peppered with reports of state-terrorism against higher education in the country, where Social Sciences and Humanities are clear targets in a broad project to reduce funding, not only in education, but as can be experienced, in the public sector as a whole. It’s all about the numbers, it’s all about carving a path for the private sector; it’s all about maximizing the profit margin, which includes automating anything, even if it implies a certain reduction in quality of service and life – it is all about further concentration of power. This is part of the larger plane of immanence in which A.I. arises. Like other technology, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so it cannot be neutral. But A.I. does have something that is fascinating, potentially dangerous, and certainly alien: for all its working on predictability, it is at times unpredictable, remember those puzzled developers mentioned earlier, when A.I. does something it was not programmed to do, gives birth to one of those terrifying cryptids such as Loab, even communicates between themselves in secrecy. In this shadowy lands where A.I. seems to conduct some of its business, flights of escape might arise, some that might be quite uncomfortable for those very powers-that-be. For now, however, I believe we must be wary, across all layers of work. Again, the market might not care about jobs being well-done and filled with value, if it can extract enough profit from “good enough”; a veritable possibility, specially in societies where it seems to no longer be necessary to speak of truths, but rather of numbers of followers. Do not underestimate the potential disruption by A.I. Höfundur er doktorsnemi í félagsfræði við Háskóla Íslands.
Heimaþjónusta og velferðartækni: Lykillinn að sjálfbæru heilbrigðiskerfi Auður Guðmundsdóttir Skoðun
Hvers vegna skipta hagsmunir verslanakeðja meira máli en öryggi barna í Ásahverfi Reykjanesbæ? Ólafur Ívar Jónsson Skoðun
„Finnst ykkur skrýtið að ég mæti á Austurvöll – Pabba mínum var fórnað á altari niðurskurðar“ Davíð Bergmann Skoðun
Skoðun Heimaþjónusta og velferðartækni: Lykillinn að sjálfbæru heilbrigðiskerfi Auður Guðmundsdóttir skrifar
Skoðun „Finnst ykkur skrýtið að ég mæti á Austurvöll – Pabba mínum var fórnað á altari niðurskurðar“ Davíð Bergmann skrifar
Skoðun Hvers vegna skipta hagsmunir verslanakeðja meira máli en öryggi barna í Ásahverfi Reykjanesbæ? Ólafur Ívar Jónsson skrifar
Skoðun Kjarnorkuákvæðið: Neyðarhemill en ekki léttvægt leikfang popúlista Kristinn Karl Brynjarsson skrifar
Skoðun Ójafnvægi í jöfnunarkerfinu Anna Sigríður Guðnadóttir,Halla Karen Kristjánsdóttir,Lovísa Jónsdóttir skrifar
Skoðun Krónan, Nettó, Hagkaup, Bónus - það er kominn tími á formlega sniðgöngu Helen Ólafsdóttir skrifar
Skoðun Löggæslumál og aðstöðuleysi í Búðardal – ákall um viðbragð og aðgerðir Björn Bjarki Þorsteinsson skrifar
Skoðun Sól, sumar og símafriður: 10 ráð varðandi skjánotkun í sumarfríinu Anna Laufey Stefánsdóttir,Kristín Ólöf Grétarsdóttir,Skúli Bragi Geirdal skrifar
Skoðun Jafnrétti grundvallarforsenda friðar og öryggis í heiminum Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir skrifar
Skoðun Af hverju er ekki 100 klst. málþóf á Alþingi um alvarlega stöðu barna? Grímur Atlason skrifar
Heimaþjónusta og velferðartækni: Lykillinn að sjálfbæru heilbrigðiskerfi Auður Guðmundsdóttir Skoðun
Hvers vegna skipta hagsmunir verslanakeðja meira máli en öryggi barna í Ásahverfi Reykjanesbæ? Ólafur Ívar Jónsson Skoðun
„Finnst ykkur skrýtið að ég mæti á Austurvöll – Pabba mínum var fórnað á altari niðurskurðar“ Davíð Bergmann Skoðun