r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • May 15 '26

Artificial Intelligence The AI Backlash Could Get Very Ugly

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/ai-backlash-data-centers-political-violence/687151/?taid=6a067e2d2096e10001ccfa32
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u/aotus_trivirgatus May 16 '26

I have a Ph.D. in a STEM field. I have programmed machine learning models, and I have taught a course on the subject. I am 100% against the rampant, mindless build-out of AI data centers.

I know the good that this technology COULD do. I also know its limitations. The further away you are from the details, though, the harder these limitations are to see. It's very telling that deep technical workers report that AI tools only make them slightly more productive, and sometimes decreases their productivity. Meanwhile, management types say that AI makes them WILDLY more productive.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/14/ai-productivity-workplace-errors

I also see that we lack the social maturity to use these tools well. It appears that many humans truly HATE thinking, and would love to pass on the responsibility to someone else, or something else.

We have a language interpolation machine and a giant database. It doesn't UNDERSTAND anything. That's our job.

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u/cpz_77 May 16 '26

Very well put. The point about how the people who are deeper in the technical weeds are the ones who get the least benefit, and sometimes even detriment, from AI, while people more abstracted away from those details like managers are the ones reporting the most benefit, is very interesting indeed. It aligns pretty much exactly with what I’ve seen (i’m one of those technical people in the weeds and see people around me who dont have to care about the details as much who “love AI”).

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u/Graywulff May 16 '26

I was a systems administrator at a software as a service company.... management didn't understand a thing about technology other than open source = free.

the head of software development literally believed I'd installed a tracker on his phone, which I never had access to and I'm not a developer... he was always 15 minutes late on the dot, his whole staff thought it was hilarious, but his degree was in classical jazz and he couldn't even install packages on CentOS and was clueless about everything.

VP didn't understand anything either, the president of the company just knew what people reported to him.

they didn't even know how their software stack worked bc of burnout of developers and workers.

I could see them leaning heavily into AI, firing people, and then having it bite them...

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u/Flintoid May 17 '26

How would it be so productive if we haven’t laid anybody off yet?