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Microplastics Sommelier @eephus.biz · 9h

it’s ok to find discourse over the ethics of the AI industry tedious. it’s fine to care more about technical questions. planting your flag after deliberating can be fine, to a degree. what’s 𝘯𝘰𝘵 fine is treating controversy or criticism of the industry as off-limits 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵.

This same dynamic plays out with politically-obtuse AI enthusiasts who can't process that the intense hostility to big tech Al is - entirely fairly or not - now inextricably linked to a virulent disdain for the tech industry's enthusiastic coddling of deadly authoritarianism (see how last season's commencement speakers left their establishment bubbles and were immediately shocked by being booed for lazy Al boosterism).
The most bullish AI boosters don't want to talk about politics. They don't want to think about authoritarian corruption. They want to play with their toys. They're quite often predominantly interested in money. When they wander into spaces where the tech industry's abysmal ethics are prominently disputed, they get squeamish and conclude the problem is somehow everybody else.

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