Post #4015089

2026-07-22 14:18 UTC

A hypothetical: Imagine I held a magic wand that could make AI systems improve in all the following ways: - More environmentally friendly - Less capturable by a few large corporations - Less built on "plagiarism machine" foundations - More reasonable and capable of making judgements which are explainable, accountable, and more accurate - More participatory and open However, we are still left in our present socioeconomic system. Should I wave the magic wand and improve things, or does improving AI in these ways still make the world worse?

Replies (4)

@mdc@mstdn.ca 2026-07-22 15:13

@cwebber@social.coop Plagiarism issues aside, keeping the scope of generative models as 'fancy auto-complete' or 'fancy healing brush' that run locally is the only way I can see this tech being reasonably useful and benign

Open ##4015088
@cwebber@social.coop 2026-07-22 14:22

And yes, I do think there is a way to do this, and if I weren't deeply invested in the work I am doing, I might be working on it right now, but also wrestling with this very dilemma above.

Open ##4018933
@davidgerard@circumstances.run 2026-07-22 14:34

@cwebber@social.coop i'd first very much like to see how you achieve these magical flying unicorn ponies before i put effort into arguing the precise aerodynamics of the wing feathers

Open ##4019525
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social 2026-07-23 01:07

@cwebber@social.coop doing this would accelerate the chasing-after-technical-solutions-to-social problems that defines the current tech climate.* That one of the most popular technical "solutions" among the very wealthy/powerful is fascism is not something on your list of things to change, nor would (even somehow radically more democratic) AI help change that. Defeating the current wave of fascism is table stakes, quite possibly for the survival of the species (*both* in terms of avoiding nuclear winter *and* in terms of avoiding climate collapse). So no, I don't think this would be helpful. Yet, I'm also someone captivated by the ideas of AI research.

Open ##4030014