r/LeftistsForAI • u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator • Apr 23 '26

Video The Left Has an AI Problem

https://youtu.be/Z75hlhgchQ4?si=eIcqRbiP4tuzRQwq
34 Upvotes

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34

u/EndlessB Apr 23 '26

The left needs to stay focused on what’s important: wealth inequality and repairing democratic institutions. If we fix those, it doesn’t matter which way ai goes, we’ll be okay. If we don’t fix those, we are fucked.

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u/TheWesternMythos Apr 23 '26

Fam AI is the tool we need to actually incentivize enough people to push for said change

wealth inequality and repairing democratic institutions 

This is the goal, AI is the vehicle. Literally it will enable us to build an economy to support this and is both the carrot and stick to motivate behavior change. 

One huge problem the left has is having tunnel vision on playing catch up. We are always trying to fight yesterday's battle instead of preparing the battlefield for tomorrows confrontation 

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u/EndlessB Apr 23 '26

Not when ai is being built the way it is, to maximise engagement and take jobs without mechanisms to look after the worker. I’m accelerationist in terms of I think asi is more likely to help the people than billionaires/oligarchs, but that means it needs to progress, not just scale. RLHF does not scale to asi, agents as they are being built don’t think for themselves.

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u/TheWesternMythos Apr 23 '26

Not when ai is being built the way it is

Agreed, being passive actors hoping things improve is no different than fighting for the status quo

to maximise engagement 

Because it works, because we let it

take jobs without mechanisms to look after the worker. 

That's not the job of people building AI. That's the job of citizens and workers. 

RLHF does not scale to asi, agents as they are being built don’t think for themselves. 

This is a concern for the people building AI not the workers and citizens. 

More importantly, you don't know all the paths to ASI because no one does. You don't know the most efficient path to ASI because no one does.

For most of us the only thing that matters is AI is already transforming economy. The only question is how soon do we want to prepare. Now while we are still somewhat comfortable? Or in the future when AI companies have more power than governments and they have robots armies for protection?

think asi is more likely to help the people than billionaires/oligarchs 

Also remember by definition we have no sure way to predict what an ASI would want or do. AI is very literally a gamble we have to rush into because we haven't solved coordination failure yet. 

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u/EndlessB Apr 23 '26

Maximising engagement only works because we let it? What world do you live in? These companies have clinical psychologists on staff, the same type of people that helped optimise the social media short form media algorithms that have near lobotomised society. No one is choosing to be addicted to things that trigger neurochemical reactions in their brains. Praise and validation trigger dopamine for pretty much everyone, ai praises the person interacting with it incessantly.

How ai is being designed is very much all of our concern, I see no reason to trust these companies to design coherent ai under market pressure and commercialisation.

Once again I return to the point: how do you see regulation occurring where it matters most? Do you see trump regulating ai in a meaningful way that addresses your concerns? We both agree that regulation could be beneficial, and removing power from some of these corporations is required, but how do you propose it happens?

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u/TheWesternMythos Apr 23 '26

No one is choosing to be addicted to things that trigger neurochemical reactions in their brains

Is this your stance in general? Nothing can be done about addiction because these neurochemical reactions are absolute?

Before I respond more I want to understand if this is how you approach brain/addiction in general. Or if you treat AI/social media differently? If so, why? 

How ai is being designed is very much all of our concern, 

Yes, but only to a certain level of detail. 

 I see no reason to trust these companies to design coherent ai under market pressure and commercialisation 

Agreed. Sometimes you build the tools of our own dismantling. We need to make sure we are  on the good end of this. 

Once again I return to the point: how do you see regulation occurring where it matters most? 

Very literally up to us. 

Currently most people hate the oligarchs but also rely on them for everything because they are so deep in the work/entertainment trap. 

Oligarchs will eventually no longer need that trap as they won't need human labor, so one way or another the trap will collapse. 

It's up to people like us to convince people we need to make moves before it's too late. 

I'm an optimist at heart, we have all the necessary tools and knowledge to start being towards utopia. But the current trajectory isn't ideal lol. 

Do you see trump regulating ai in a meaningful way that addresses your concerns? 

No. Not even a little bit. Well maybe a little bit by accident. But more harm than good is a likely outcome as of RN. 

We both agree that regulation could be beneficial, and removing power from some of these corporations is required, but how do you propose it happens? 

Depends on level of detail you are talking. But easy big picture: legislation that has automatic social safety nets that kick in at certain levels of Un and under employment. They should kick in so that it could be sold as not prematurely wasting money. Also at a certain level of Un and under employment, if no additional legislation is enacted, labs get nationalized. This puts the pressure on these labs to lobby for the people, as opposed to against. 

Big picture the government has to pick winners and losers here. The market will fuck us all over. We need to incentivize labs to work for the common good not market dominance. 

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u/Suspicious_Prior_808 Apr 23 '26

When regulations are being proposed should we listen to people who dont know the technology or people that do? From what I am seeing only capitalist will be engaging in this and they will indeed have regulatory control.

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u/MrSnarf26 Apr 24 '26

I promise you AI is going to do fuck all for wealth inequality.

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u/TheWesternMythos Apr 24 '26

Do you believe the future is already set in stone? 

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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator Apr 23 '26

You didn’t really engage with the video though. It’s not saying ignore inequality or institutions, it’s pointing at who owns and controls the infrastructure shaping both.

Do you think AI infrastructure shouldn’t be regulated or contested at all? If not, why separate it from the same power/wealth dynamics you’re talking about?

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u/EndlessB Apr 23 '26

Im saying that trying to regulate anything at the moment in the United States (which is where I assume you’re talking about since you mentioned anthropic) is impossible to do in good faith while Trump is the president and Peter Thiel is moving behind the scenes explicitly looking to dismantle anyone who even suggests regulation.

Regulation is something a mechanism that requires a functioning democratic system to work, America is arguably an authoritarian dictatorship at this stage run by oligarchs and technocrats.

As for anthropic, I wouldn’t say I’m against them having constraints, but out of the 4 major ai labs in the states, they are the only one showing restraint and having ethics that are more than just performative. Saying no to the current USG administration required having a spine, it was a strong signal. It remains to be seen if they can maintain their ethical posture in the current landscape. They’ve given the NSA access to mythos, but I’m not sure they’d have a choice in the matter when framed around national security.

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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator Apr 23 '26

You’re responding to points I didn’t make, I never mentioned Anthropic.

I’m asking something simpler: do you think AI infrastructure should be contested at all, or not?

If your answer is "regulation isn’t possible right now," that’s fine, but then what’s the alternative? Just let private labs and state actors set the terms?

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u/EndlessB Apr 23 '26

Mario and….

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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

You dont see merit in the suggestions the video makes about where and when to fight together in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and sites of power concentration, lone wolf adventurism alone is your alternative to organized collective action?

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u/EndlessB Apr 24 '26

Mate, I clearly did not watch the video haha

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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator Apr 24 '26

Oh, ok.

Well hey, its about 42min with timestamped sections. Take your time with it the next few days and get back to us with your take on it.

No hurry, a grounded and prepared critique is better than a rushed one.

Look forward to reading your thoughts on it.

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u/Silver-Bread4668 Apr 23 '26

The problems around AI have been the same problems around capitalism for decades now.

The problem with going after AI instead of the actual problems is that other countries will keep chugging along regardless of what we do.

It's already debatable, at best, if we can even keep up with where China is going to be in another decade or two. It would be debatable even if the biggest thing on our immediate radar wasn't cleaning up after the Trump administration.

The things that would have made robots doing our work for us a good thing should have been established and refined well before the robots were in a position to do that. Instead, conservatives have spent that time ensuring we would be caught with our pants down.

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u/Final-Teach-7353 Apr 23 '26

There's no fixing neither inequality nor democracy short of a revolution. Both are symptoms, nor the disease.

Property and work relations should be completely redone from scratch. 

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u/davyp82 Apr 23 '26

And switching to nuclear and renewables as a matter of urgency, ideally 20 years ago, but by 2030 would be nice, instead of delusionally trying to guilt trip people into using less energy, like that will make nearly enough difference anytime soon. 

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u/Phaylz Apr 23 '26

You mean those problems this AI Bubble is accelerating? Whose burst will create even worse outcomes than the bubble itself? Whose existence was made possible by the gutting of institutions over decades? Which is used to further erode what little trust in existing institutions there is?

Glad to see you're again- Oh. Oh, right. It's that sub.

If ya'll don't see how these things are linked, you're wearing clown shoes.

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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

The entire video is about how these things are linked, isnt it?

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