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

I share the concerns expressed here, but I believe it skirts the central threat: bad actors and adversarial nation states. Hand wringing and legislation alone won’t slow much less deter them from exploiting AI to outmaneuver and destabilize us.

While ethics and sustainability are crucial, we need to confront the real problem. The assumption that AI development can be responsibly reined in while competitors weaponize it is naïve. The triad Milton points out: LLMs, data centers, and ecological fallout matter, but none of it will be addressed if we dont first secure the geopolitical high ground.

The question isn't whether AI should advance, it has and will continue to do so. To me the real question is: who will control it, under what doctrine, and to what end?

On Tue, 5 Aug 2025 16:50:43 -0400, Milton Ponson <rwiciamsd@gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> >
> >


Ronald P. Reck

http://www.rrecktek.com - http://www.ronaldreck.com

Received on Tuesday, 5 August 2025 21:31:44 UTC