The AI balloon is already losing air
I saw this:
Tally up Donald Trump’s speeches, press conferences, and executive orders since returning to office in January and you’ll find the president keeps coming back to the same topic—and it isn’t immigration, Ukraine, or even his polls. Trump has spent more time this year talking about artificial intelligence than almost any other issue, much to the delight of Silicon Valley’s billionaire class.
In one of his first official acts, Trump steered $100 billion into the pockets of mega-rich AI entrepreneurs like OpenAI’s Sam Altman. Two days later, Trump doubled down with an executive order calling for a government-wide “AI Action Plan” that would distribute billions more dollars to his tech bro backers. In all, Trump has pledged over $600 billion in private sector and taxpayer money to fund AI development.
Trump finally unveiled his plan in July, which includes 90 policy actions designed to ease regulation on AI while showering executives like Altman, X CEO Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with billions in federal dollars. There’s just one problem: A new report from MIT found that over 95% of AI companies fail without providing a dime of return to investors or the public. That report drove a massive AI stock sell-off (in August), and tech guru Erik Gordon predicts investors’ financial pain is just beginning.
(Daily Kos)
There are many claims and counterclaims about what’s going to happen with artificial “intelligence” in terms of both performance and financial returns. I personally remain a skeptic on both counts. But the following is certainly for real.
The Trump administration is letting the generative AI chatbots loose.
Federal agencies such as the General Services Administration and the Social Security Administration have rolled out ChatGPT-esque tech for their workers. The Department of Veterans Affairs is using generative AI to write code…
Generative AI is meant to automate tasks that government workers previously performed, with a predicted 300,000 job cuts from the federal workforce by the end of the year.
But the technology isn’t ready to take on much of this work, says Meg Young, a researcher at Data & Society, an independent nonprofit research and policy institute in New York City.
“We’re in an insane hype cycle,” she says.
(Gizmodo)
A couple of other things:
– “How AI and surveillance capitalism are undermining democracy.” (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
– “AI Job Loss Hype Could Serve as Smokescreen for Trump Recession” (FAIR)
The story linked above beneath the featured image is well worth perusal, too. Especially if you love good books.
I’m not usually one to run with worst-case scenarios. In my experience the predictions of the internet’s most vehement doom-and-gloom mongers rarely even come close to eventuating. (Though they do fill an important role. And they certainly get some things, like what’s going on in Gaza, right.) But I do find myself getting more and more concerned about how much damage the despicable teaming of the tech broligarchy and the Trump administration will do.
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