New Luddite movement protests AI as robots lose jobs and films are scrapped – Ed Newton Rex

pictureEarlier this month, the popular lifestyle magazine introduced its new “Fashion and Lifestyle Editor” to its massive social media following. “Ream”At first glance, Reem appeared to be a woman in her twenties who understood both fashion and lifestyle, and was proudly announced as an “AI-enhanced team member” — that is, a fake persona generated by artificial intelligence. Reem would be recommending products to SheerLuxe's ​​followers — in other words, doing the job that SheerLuxe would normally pay a human to do. The reaction was entirely predictable. Indignation“The editorial team hastily issued an apology, saying, ‘I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what to do.'”

This is just the latest in a long line of withdrawals of “inspiring AI projects” that have drawn outrage from those they were meant to inspire. The Prince Charles Cinema in London's Soho cancel In June, it canceled a screening of a film written by AI after patrons loudly protested. Lego was under pressure The company demanded that it remove a series of AI-generated images it had published on its website. Doctor Who had begun experimenting with generative AI, It stopped immediately After a wave of complaints, companies have bought into the AI ​​hype, thinking that adopting AI will help them promote themselves as innovative, completely failing to understand the growing anti-AI sentiment among many customers.

Behind the backlash are a number of concerns about AI. The most fundamental is its impact on human labor. The main impact of using AI in many situations is that it will deprive humans of the opportunity to do the same work. And AI systems will: Exploitation of works Artificial intelligence is training the people it is meant to replace in creative output without paying them. The technology has a tendency to sexualize women, is used to create deep fakes, and is causing tech companies to miss their climate targets, without understanding many of its risks well enough to mitigate them. Naturally, this has not met with universal praise. Hayao Miyazaki, director of world-famous animation studio Studio Ghibli, said: “I’m completely disgusted…” [AI] It is an affront to life itself.”

Some members of the anti-AI movement Reclaiming the name “Luddite”I come from a tech community where Luddite is considered an insult, but this new movement is proud of the moniker. As Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, points out, the first Luddites didn't rebel immediately. They called for dialogue and compromise. The new Luddites also want dialogue and compromise. Most recognize that AI is here to stay, and they want a more rational and fair approach to its adoption, not reversal. And it's easy to imagine that they might be more successful than their predecessors. 19th century counterpartThe legendary Ned Ludd had no social media. Downtrodden workers used to be easily ignored. The internet is the greatest organizing tool in history.

Anger toward AI companies is forging unlikely allies. When the Recording Industry Association of America recently sued two AI music-generation companies for “unimaginable copyright infringement,” musicians and fans took to the internet to show their support. “Wow, these AI companies make me want to root for the record companies,” one person wrote. One composer said:To address the new threat of AI, old arguments are being pushed aside: the enemy of my enemy is my friend, as the saying goes.

Some will believe that AI is all about opportunity, all about good, and that it is the next great technological revolution that will free humanity from the dark ages we live in. A speaker at the Tony Blair Institute's Britain's Future Summit a few weeks ago said: Overview Why empowering AI is “the only option for a forward-thinking UK government.” There is some truth to this. Of course, AI has a promise. That promise is largely a creed for now, with AI leaders promising technologies that are at best years away and at worst unrealistic. But there is reason to think that the more optimistic predictions about AI have some real potential. AI may truly change the world, as AI visionaries would have you believe.

But the backlash points out that we can’t ignore real harms today in order to make technological bets on the future. Nintendo They won’t use generative AI. A user on Stack Overflow, a Q&A site for software engineers, wrote: A group revolted After the platform struck a deal to allow OpenAI to remove content to train its models, users began deleting posts or editing them to make them nonsensical. Attacks on driverless taxis They shouted in the streets of San Francisco that they were putting people out of work.

Outside the OpenAI offices in San Francisco, there are frequent groups of protesters holding banners reading “Pause AI.” If AI is left unregulated, this sentiment will only grow. Countries may be tempted to treat AI development as an arms race and forge ahead regardless of the costs. But According to opinion polls, the public We think this is a bad idea, and AI developers and those regulating the emerging AI industry need to listen to the growing backlash against AI.

• Ed Newton-Rex is the founder of Fairy Training, a nonprofit that certifies generative AI companies that respect the rights of creators, and co-founder of JukeDeck, an AI company that can compose and arrange music.