AI Overlords | How Companies Are Fighting A War On The Working Class
/A Background
Mark zuckerberg testifying before us congress | The boston globe
In the early 2010s A.I or more accurately, generative AI based on large language models, was used as a fun gimmicky idea you would see on youtube videos. Stuff like “this is what AI thinks a death grips song sounds like” would be passed between friends in order to laugh at the novelty of a terribly low quality imitation of actual art. But as with all things, the invention of generative AI was viewed as a potential way not just to make money, but to exploit the working class and potentially save billions by generating a product rather than paying someone else to create it.
Companies like Meta (formerly Facebook), Google and Microsoft, amongst others, began swarming in droves to invest in a potential future instrument of class warfare. Mark Zuckerberg and Meta themself invested a reported $14.3 billion into Scale AI, a singular AI research and branding company. That’s a lot of money, and unfortunately when people invest so much into something, they will push it no matter what in order for their investment not to go to waste.
The Grok Problem
So far in the 2020s we've seen countless companies start pushing AI, and implementing needless AI features into their services. Instagram added AI chatbots, so you could talk to a hollow imitation of celebrities when your actual friends have started ignoring you for being an AI enthusiast. X (formerly twitter) added Grok AI to its platform. A generative model made to answer user questions to drastically varying levels of accuracy. Grok itself has gone through many hilariously public shutdowns due to a series of supposedly unintended outcomes.
X Screenshot | The New York post
Because generative AI can’t actually think as marketed, it works by chewing up any information it can and regurgitating it back out. This quirk of large language models led Grok to absorb a variety of statistics, historical data and political theory and congregate it into a sort of self-held philosophy for lack of a better term. When X’s user base began asking political questions, Grok spat out answers that roughly mirrored factual statistical data and real-world political analysis, something Elon Musk's conservative fanbase wasn’t entirely too fond of. Musk soon scrambled to get his employees, the actual brains behind Musk's operations, to alter the intake for the language model, and so a new “non woke” version of Grok was created. The issue with this? The new version began actively speaking Nazi propaganda and praising Hitler, because it was fed on the political ideologies of X users Elon Musk deemed to be aligned with his own politics. Grok was marketed as an assistant that could provide information and was used as a political instrument by its owners, something that tends to be the case for any corporate product.
Replacing Workers
Secret Invasion | marvel studios | disney
The major area where AI has become a threat however, is to workers in creative industries. Various companies have scrambled to use AI to replace graphic designers, writers and in some cases even actors and filmmakers, among other creative professions. Disney owned Marvel Studios used AI to create the horrendous intro to its underwhelming and unsuccessful television series Secret Invasion. While the reception to Secret Invasion wasn’t to be blamed entirely on the use of AI, the reaction to the intro itself was strong, and decidedly negative. Many decried the use of AI to create an intro sequence instead of hiring human artists to craft something. AI wasn’t used for artistic purposes, it was used to steal from other artists' work and generate a sloppy imitation. It was used to avoid paying real workers in order to push a TV show out as a product, rather than art someone wanted to make.
A Human Future
As it stands now, companies continue to use AI to replace workers, which provides an incredible threat to the economy of the working class. When the bubble pops, many will be left without jobs, many already have, having been replaced by technology that was overvalued. As people we need to pushback against companies replacing human workers with AI implementations. Many people have begun boycotting companies that use generative AI, refusing to purchase from businesses that use the technology to create its products or in its marketing. Together we can teach companies that real human beings can never truly be replaced.
Sources
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Companies to Know | Built In
Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok praises Hitler, spews antisemitic hate on X
How AI Will Harm Working-Class Families | Institute for Family Studies
Additional Sources
Zuckerberg was in the spotlight, and senators were skeptical - The Boston Globe
Hayley Knight is an author, content creator, community organizer and professional fighting game player from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Hayley is a huge bookworm, music nerd and cinephile, and will gladly chat with anyone for hours about, the history and craftsmanship of their favorite works. They seek to use their writing to inform others and speak on their views of the world. Hayley believes in the power of humanity to fight the injustices of society.