Re: Societal impact of mega AI, and consolidation of power

This is the main problem with AI today. Unfortunately putting legislation
in place like in the European Union with the EU AI Act, Digital Services
Act, Digital Markets Act, General Data Protection Regulation isn't enough.
What we need in addition is experts, scientists and independent media
exposing the dangers and ethical issues involved in misuse of science and
technologies.
Effective communication about these issues is being targeted in the USA, as
scientists, engineers, academics and academia and independent press media
are being attacked for questioning government and corporate narratives.

Big Tech in this context consists of Big Oil and Gas, who stand to gain
from the explosive growth in energy demand from hyperspace data centers,
Big Internet, AI and Semiconductor Tech and the data centers, for which a
separate executive order was signed deregulating this industry to
accommodate accelerated growth.
And with the EPA removing the Endangerment Finding, which lays the
foundation for the EPA to coordinate federal climate change action, the
weakening of other environmental legislation for water, soil and wetlands,
unlimited access to water and fossil fuel generated electric power is
granted to data centers, which benefits all above mentioned "Big"
industries.

The problem in fact is three fold, (1) the assumption that generative LLM
AI is the future is wrong, (2) massive expansion of energy grids and data
center capacity is wrong and (3) the climate and environmental impacts of
this industry will be ecologically and economically catastrophic.

Very few people can effectively communicate this combination of issues.

Finding experts, scientists and academics to tackle all three parts of the
problem combined is the challenge.

Milton Ponson
Rainbow Warriors Core Foundation
CIAMSD Institute-ICT4D Program
+2977459312
PO Box 1154, Oranjestad
Aruba, Dutch Caribbean

On Tue, Aug 5, 2025, 13:14 David Booth <david@dbooth.org> wrote:

> Interesting work and commentary on the impact of AI on society:
>
> https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/research/executive-summary-artificial-power
>
> A quote from their executive summary: "Those of us broadly engaged in
> challenging corporate consolidation, economic injustice, tech oligarchy,
> and rising authoritarianism need to contend with the AI industry or we
> will lose the end game. Accepting the current trajectory of AI
> proselytized by Big Tech and its stenographers as “inevitable” is
> setting us up on a path to an unenviable economic and political future—a
> future that disenfranchises large sections of the public, renders
> systems more obscure to those it affects, devalues our crafts,
> undermines our security, and narrows our horizon for innovation."
>
> Any new technology brings a complex combination of positive and negative
> impacts, and those with a vested interest in that technology inevitably
> promote the positives while minimizing the negatives.  I share the
> authors' net concerns about the increasing consolidation of power that
> the latest breed of mega AI brings.
>
> There is something particularly pernicious about the intersection of
> unfettered capitalism, authoritarianism and big AI, which will
> inevitably be used to further accelerate developments that are
> increasingly harmful to society and our fragile planet.
>
> I am wondering what we can do, to help prevent these downsides.
>
> Thanks,
> David Booth
>
>