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the tech billionaires have lost the plot
(lemmy.nz)
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this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2026
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
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- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
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Fusion.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260903064215.htm?hl=en-US
Medical
https://www.umaryland.edu/news/archived-news/august-2024/ai-speeding-discovery-of-new-drugs.php?hl=en-US
Infrastructure
https://developer.bentley.com/use-cases/itwins-and-iot/?hl=en-US
Environmental
https://rfcx.org/?hl=en-US
The adoption of AI to solve problems is accelerating. It's just not making headlines. Good news is just not rage bait. Fear sells clicks.
Not sure what about this even is AI. Its a software development platform specialised in Infrastructure projects. I guess the reality capture/mapping API uses AI, but most features are independent from that.
A lot of could, maybe and potentially in an article written during the starting hype in 2024, great source. It would be great if it actually worked, but most studies ive seen so far came to the conclusion that the predictions the AI made were based on entirely wrong assumptions.
Machine learning is a great tool and has been around way before the current hype. It also has very little in common with what people usually mean when they say AI.
The only somewhat proper example you delivered. Sounds interesting.
Let's face it, the examples you've shown have very little in common with LLMs, Generative AI or Agentic AI. Most of it could be done with machine learning algorithms we've had before this started or are just nice gimmicks that didn't revolutionize anything unlike what you claimed. There definetly are a few interesting applications for specialized AI models, but the tradeoffs simply aren't worth it.
For every 5 years that AI brings us closer to Fusion power, it brings us 15 years closer to a cyberpunk esq dystopian future. Its great that I don't have to worry about power costs anymore once I'm locked up cause some predictive algorithm said my kids would be against the current regime.
Not to mention that most of the actually useful applications are developed by independent researchers and have little to do with the big AI Industries that build these datacenter. You know, the ones that get the actual hate
AI is a broad field. The same equipment runs ML, molecular combinatorics, factory robotics, symbolic processing, image analysis, and mega-multivariable processing. I don't even see LLMs as significant consumers of the available processing power. That's the foam on top of the ocean for the large buildouts. A use for the unused capacity leftover in between actual workloads. But it is the visible part. The fact that a digital twin of a bridge doesn't spark your imagination is an indicator of this.
That's nice, but NOT the endgame. I do not contest that AI can be a positive thing too, but there are very powerful forces, concentrated mainly in California among the tech Billionaires, who want to use AI as a tool to ensure that their will cannot be denied.
The US was already using AI in the attack on Iran, minimizing human involvement in target selection and approving the strikes (thats how over 100 little girls died). Russia is experimenting with fully AI automated attack drones based on Nvidia hardware. Flock cameras are analyzing not only license plates, but data points like bumper stickers and what other devices are in the car, making every personal movement transparent even if you leave your smartphone at home. Home security cameras are using facial recognition (which they only pulled back because they were inept in messaging, but you can be sure this functionality will return, and with full access for the authorities). Laws preventing authorities from spying on citizens get bypassed by buying the required data from advertising companies. Social media is getting flooded with LLM-generated content designed to steer public opinion regardless of what the truth is. Entertainment hardware like Smart TVs is listening in on your conversations in your living room (and in many cases much further away), transcribing your words into text using AI and storing it - even if you keep your TV offline, your chats become company property - and therefore state property after a simple financial transaction - the moment your TV detects an open WIFI, or in the worst case just use technologies like LoRa to transmit the data home.
The people behind all of this are the same people financing far right parties all over the world, because a divided world is easier to dominate.
Society is under an AI-powered full scale assault. I hate it, because I know how much positive stuff this technology can enable, just as you documented. But giving up all our rights and living in an hyperscaled version of 1984 is not worth it.
Agreed. Really.
And just as the labor movement kicked back against the robber barons, we need to do the same. Some beheadings are fully in order. Would you be surprised to hear I'm an anarcho-syndicalist punk? A few weeks of a global general strike will bring those billionaires into line. Let them eat their crypto and stocks as workers share solidarity.
As far as warfare goes, we have banned nuclear weapons and have maintained a global consensus on that. Why not AI weapons? It's about time humanity outgrew war altogether. Perhaps this could be the tipping point. A drone swarm over a few senators homes would change hearts and minds quickly. Governments need to fear the citizens again.
But I digress
AI based weapon systems do not have the shock value of being a weapon of mass destruction. They are only an automated version of basic guns and explosives (that are available pretty much everywhere, including homemade variants) on a mobile platform. And the nuclear weapon proliferation treaty is pretty much dead in the water, with multiple nation states either already having acquired them in the last 2 decades or being so close to having them that the only thing holding them back is political in nature, and these barriers are easily jumped over.
It took WW2 and the potential to sterilize and glass over the entire planet to make countries agree that nuclear disarmament is needed. I do not see the necessary willingness to prevent "automated guns". In a world where nuclear proliferation treaties are crumbling, i would not bet a dime on a worldwide regulation of AI-powered weaponry, especially when looking at how many fucks the big countries are giving when the UN or ICC is speaking.
The only wild card in this situation is that basic FPVs are so cheap and easy to build out of commonly available consumer goods that it can't really be prevented that common people might build them (or outright just buy them), and the people with better technical knowledge will also be able to build their own AI weapons. That's like "the democratization of violent force". Seeing how smart the average person is makes my head hurt when trying to envision such a future.
Once, the crossbow was condemned as being too barbaric a weapon. Until humanity outgrows its desire for violence, new ways to kill are inevitable. This is a problem with human nature, not devices.
Is gunpowder culpable for artillery?
The power of a crossbow to cause mass casualties is pretty low. Even conventional small arms have limited potential when used as single weapons, and there is always a human deciding to pull the trigger, who might disobey illegal orders to kill the innocent.
When implementing an fully automated AI powered kill chain, there is noone feeling responsible for the actions of these machinations, because the emotional distance is too large. AI systems do not have the concept of an atrocity if built for this purpose. And the killing only stops when someone disables it - but i'd say that if someone was unscrupulous enough to have started something like this, he will keep it going just to ensure he won't be punished for it.
I'd say the actual potential to cause harm to innocents of such a system is much larger than the threat of nuclear war, because the latter can only be started by an actual madman who would have in most cases to fight his own staff who actually wants to live. The former i can see being implemented by run of the mill politicians and generals, or even some cartels.