Steve Bannon and Bernie Sanders don’t agree on much. But both think that AI is a disaster for the working class. The Vermont senator recently wrote that “AI oligarchs do not want to just replace specific jobs. They want to replace workers.” Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, made similar comments last week: Silicon Valley does “not care about the little guy,” he said in a podcast episode titled “Stopping the AI Oligarchs From Stealing Humanity.” This emergent “Bernie-to-Bannon” coalition points to the growing bipartisan anxiety over AI. In polls, the United States ranks among the countries most concerned about AI. America is both the world’s foremost developer of AI and its chief hater.
Recently, Maine passed the country’s first statewide data-center moratorium (though the bill was vetoed by the governor). Nationally, a record number of proposed projects were canceled in the first quarter of this year following local pushback. Meanwhile, in extreme cases, concerns about AI appear to be tipping into violence. In April, someone shot 13 rounds at an Indianapolis councilman’s house and left a note under his doormat: “NO DATA CENTERS,” it read. Days later, a man threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s home before heading to OpenAI’s headquarters, where he allegedly threatened to burn down the building and kill anyone inside. (The man has since pleaded not guilty to several charges, including attempted murder.) Social-media posts applauding the attack racked up thousands of likes: “I hope that Molotov is okay!” wrote one commenter.
All of this may be only the start. The AI industry has spent recent years warning of a jobless future. So far, narratives about labor displacement have been largely speculation. While a smattering of tech executives have attributed job cuts to AI, many analysts have accused these CEOs of “AI-washing”—essentially, using the technology as a scapegoat for roles they would have eliminated regardless. If anything, AI has mostly been a financial boon for the country, buoying the stock market and driving growth. But that could all change, of course. Imagine the uproar if jobs across the economy truly start disappearing en masse.
AI has mostly been a financial boon for the country, buoying the stock market and driving growth.
Gosh, speak for the billionaires, why don't you? My finances, and the finances of everyone I know, have most certainly not seen any improvement. If anything, it's getting actively worse, in ways that this very article acknowledges. All for a technology none of us want. And yet the writer still feels the need to pretend things are good because the S&P 500's doing well, as if that means shit fuck all for the rest of us. Go figure that as usual "the economy is doing great" is shorthand for "wealth inequality is going up."
I'm sick and tired of hearing this misleading concept, so I'm going to vent for a second: Most people do not have large stock market investments! They are too busy paying rent! What's good for the rich isn't what's good for me, and I do not fucking care about the goddamn NASDAQ!
ETA: oh by the way if Steve Bannon says he agrees with something good, maybe consider not believing him