This is a video that I think roughly approximates my general views on AI and how leftists should respond. Basically many of its harms would be mitigated if we moved beyond capitalism and socialized its production and distribution.

The left right nonsense is the fundamental problem, can AI solve divide and conquer that has led to plutocracy or will it be used to further cement the divide. Those building AI data centers are not doing it to move beyond capitalism.

I think the point is that technological revolutions involve forces with mixed effects. They, in themselves, don't structure a society, even if they do impact and transform societies, and solving the many social problems we have involves actually taking social and political action that strikes at the root cause (in this case capitalism), not merely the symptoms (destructive use of technology because of capitalism.) We were heading in the direction we are heading even without AI, with it merely acting as a multiplier and/or accelerator. Sooner or later if we want to solve the actual problems we have to address those actual problems at their root. Everything else is a distraction from that. 

If AI were developed in a society where political and economic power were diffused and not concentrated, the technology would be different and have different impacts.

In fact they're basically gentrifying neighborhoods across North America.

Does that noise make ChatGPT and Grok worth it? All that unbearable noise just for brainrot memes?

I see what you're doing, you're comparing ONE GAMING CONSOLE to the entire AI industry rather than comparing the entire gaming industry to the entire AI industry.  Pretty dishonest, that.

You're saying one console is equal to one server tower when billions of consoles have been sold?  How much of the materials for those billions of consoles have come from strip mines in vulnerable countries using slave labor?  How much energy has been used to manufacture those billions of consoles?  How much pollution has been produced?  How much e-waste?  That's not even counting all the gaming PC components which are replaced much more often than in other PCs.  Saying none of this matters and it's all GREEN is an interesting take.  This is almost as wild as your idea that kids would be driving around in SUVs if they didn't have gaming consoles to play.  Data Server construction will fall off as it becomes more efficient and probably over-saturated.  The gaming industry has been churning out physical products for many decades and it looks like that will continue.

In effect you're saying that someone has the moral high ground if they stole 100 dollars because SOMEONE ELSE stole 1,000 dollars.  Anything YOU do or like is the line for acceptable, anything beyond that is bad.  I think that reeks of hypocrisy and dishonesty.  

I don't care if anyone plays video games but trying to pat yourself on the back for it is ridiculous.

All I get from you is a wall of screaming.

The bolded above is nothing more than a strawman argument. "

You're saying one console is equal to one server tower when billions of consoles have been sold?


What? Why would a console sold in 1993 or 2010 need to factor into this?

How much of the materials for those billions of consoles have come from strip mines in vulnerable countries using slave labor?

Why don't you find out and report back here? If you can't find out then your argument lacks solid premises and shouldn't be made. 

How much energy has been used to manufacture those billions of consoles?  How much pollution has been produced?  How much e-waste?

Again, go find out and then report back here. Don't just make assumptions. You assumed that 77kg of Co2 to make a PS4 was a lot. Turns out a week of driving to work and back in the USA makes that. So does eating two hamburgers. 

Saying none of this matters and it's all GREEN is an interesting take. 

I think I get it now. According to you any kind of hobby that pollutes in any miniscule way whatsoever doesn't qualify as green. Even if said hobby uses far less resources than many other hobbies? Is that how this works? Well then I suggest you get off the internet and touch grass because according to you browsing the internet, watching tv, or even breathing is not a green hobby. Wait no. It wastes a lot of fertilizer to grow green grass so don't do that either. Can't be polluting your local river!

This is almost as wild as your idea that kids would be driving around in SUVs if they didn't have gaming consoles to play.

Kids have to be driven by their parents to activities. How are you this dense? 



The gaming industry has been churning out physical products for many decades and it looks like that will continue.

Oh no! Not those pesky physical products that fill up one or two football fields per console generation! Oh noes! 

I don't understand why we can't have AI without big, stupid and utterly toxic data centres. It's like data centres are purely for surveillance and oppressing us. Oh wait.

You absolutely can, but the hardware needed for anything but the most basic stuff is fairly expensive. Given some time, it'll become more affordable, assuming data centers don't still hoard up all the memory or other critical hardware. I don't feel like there's need for a conspiracy theory to explain the current situation, although I'm sure some parties are definitely keeping an eye out for such possibilities too.

Putting the cart before the horse comes to mind. More efficient software and hardware should be made first before brute forcing with AI data centers, but we'll hope the polluting AI data centers will design the more efficient software and hardware for us. 

Surveillance and oppression are not a conspiracy theory, they're a conspiracy fact. It's everywhere, Palantir for example:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/palantir-is-turning-the-nhs-into-a-tool-for-mass-surveillance/