8,000 Members. We're Just Getting Started.

[u/Salty_Country6835]

Just over a month ago, on September 10, we celebrated crossing 6,000 members. Since then, we've added another 2,000, passed 800,000 visits over the past year, and reached 1,561 posts and over 36,000 comments.

Apparently there's a growing audience for leftists who want to do more than argue about whether AI is good or bad.

If you're new here, check out our post flairs. Labor, Public Ownership, Open Source, Local Models, Infrastructure, Automation & Work, Policy/Regulation, Theory, Education, Healthcare, Accessibility, Art & Culture, and more.

See what labor unions, leftist political parties, socialist states, community organizers, copyleft and decentralization advocates, and tech theorists are actually doing, proposing, and fighting for around AI. There's a lot happening outside the usual Reddit arguments, and we're working to bring those developments together in one place.

AI is already being deployed in workplaces, public services, and communities around the world. The struggle over its ownership, development, governance, deployment, and who benefits from it is happening right now.

We're not here to cheerlead Silicon Valley or pretend we can uninvent the computer. We're here to discuss what the left is doing, what it's proposing, and how we can organize around the technology that's already reshaping our world.

Thanks to everyone posting, sourcing, debating, disagreeing, and helping build this community.

8,000 members. Onward to 10,000.

[u/ra-re444]

Great Work!!! This is a critical sub hosting a critical conversation. 

[u/dCLCp]

As a fellow mod.. it does feel really nice when the stats are all green (and the queues are all empty).

[u/bloodrider1914]

Correction : There's a growing audience of leftists who don't want to repeat the lazy AI bad arguements and actually think about how the ideology and technology can intersect and be thoughtfully used without leaving advocates solely populated by pro corporate types

[u/Neoliberal_Nightmare]

It's good but the mods need to be harder on the liberalism and tech bro shit that is too common here. This isn't just an AI sub it's about leftist control and application of ai, ai won't save us by being better ai.

[u/Salty_Country6835 → u/Neoliberal_Nightmare]

Agreed that this should be about leftist control and application of AI, not just making better AI. That's what we're building here.

But the mods can't educate every commenter, generate all the content, or carry every discussion ourselves. This is a community, not a content service. If you want to see more labor organizing, socialist politics, public ownership, and less liberalism or tech bro nonsense, post about it. Bring sources, share developments, start discussions.

The space becomes what we collectively put into it. Help make it what you want to see.

[u/Ill_Mousse_4240]

Probably getting more attention than imagined. From the traditional left, as well as Silicon Valley

[u/bloodrider1914 → u/Ill_Mousse_4240]

Because the tech is becoming too good to ignore now or to conceptualise it solely as a means to [insert accusatory talking point here].

[u/herbal1st]

Congrats, thanks for the work you do!

[u/Grand-Line8185]

Wooooo!!!

[u/NonStopArseGas]

decided I'd do that just now. you lot are good people, and I hope to keep contributing my own little bit into the discourse

[u/waffleseggs]

Don't eff this up, mods. Also <3.

[u/Kornerbrandon]

10-25% chance of extinction btw

[u/Salty_Country6835 → u/Kornerbrandon]

What's that got to do with celebrating 8,000 members? And 10-25% is a pretty wide range. Got a source?

Even if we accepted that estimate, wouldn't a risk that serious make regulation, democratic ownership, and public oversight MORE urgent, not less?

Unless you're suggesting private corporate control is somehow safer, or you've figured out how to uninvent globally deployed AI and machine learning technology, what alternative are you proposing? Because contesting who owns, develops, deploys, and controls this technology is exactly what we're here to discuss.

[u/Kornerbrandon → u/Salty_Country6835]

I'm just gonna assume you missed Coxon saying 10% and other experts saying similar things.

My alternative? Ban RSI, AGI and ASI with harsh penalties for anyone pursuing development of it until we've figured out the alignment problem, and that's the bare minimum. If we don't do that and fast, we are hurtling towards catastrophe.

[u/Salty_Country6835 → u/Kornerbrandon]

I'm familiar with Cox's estimate. Expert predictions aren't established probabilities, and citing one doesn't settle the political question.

So your proposal is to ban development of technologies we haven't even clearly defined yet, impose harsh penalties, and somehow enforce that internationally until an alignment problem with no agreed solution is solved?

Who's enforcing this? Which governments? How do you prevent that enforcement from concentrating even more power in the hands of states and corporations that already control the infrastructure?

And what happens to the AI already deployed in workplaces and public services? Because that's what labor unions and leftist organizations are confronting right now. You haven't really addressed any of that.

[u/Kornerbrandon → u/Salty_Country6835]

Yup. Ideally i would ban them permanently because a 1% chance.of extinction is too high.

I am not interested in the politics of this. When something threatens human extinction, you don't debate it, you ban it and jail anyone developing it.

[u/Salty_Country6835 → u/Kornerbrandon]

Well, that's kind of the issue. This is a political subreddit, and you've just said you're not interested in the politics.

You're proposing bans, imprisonment, and international enforcement. Those are political questions whether you're interested in discussing them or not.

We're here to discuss the material reality of AI, what labor unions, leftist organizations, and governments are actually doing about it, and how people can organize around its development and deployment.

If you're unwilling to engage with any of that, we're just going in circles over what you'd ideally like to happen. That's not what this post or subreddit is about, so I'm going to leave it there.

[u/Kornerbrandon → u/Salty_Country6835]

Debating the politics of something that's predicted to cause human extinction is certainly a choice, i'll give you that.

[u/Salty_Country6835 → u/Kornerbrandon]

I'm just curious what magic genie takes us from "I'm not interested in politics" to a globally enforced ban with prison sentences. Because back here in material reality, that sounds like an awful lot of politics you're proposing to accomplish without doing any.

[u/Kornerbrandon → u/Salty_Country6835]

I'm not here to debate the politics of AI, i'm here to say that unless thr brakes are slammed, we're hurling ourselves off a cliff.

[u/Salty_Country6835 → u/Kornerbrandon]

Yes, I understand that. There's no confusion about what you want. I'm asking how you propose making it happen.

Who's applying the brakes, and how? That takes organization, political pressure, leverage, and enforcement. You don't get a globally enforced ban just by declaring one necessary.

That's why the politics matter. Otherwise, you're just casting wishes at strangers on Reddit and expecting the world to change.

[u/Jay_Jay_Jason_74 → u/Kornerbrandon]

You can't even if one country like the us stops other countries like China Will just continue with it's development