Brian Merchant
Journalist and author; writes Blood in the Machine, a newsletter on AI, tech, labor and power, and wrote the book of the same name on the Luddites.
Brian Merchant did not write this page.
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Their wordsThose workers get invited onto primetime news shows and weeks of high-profile media coverage. And yet, those who've protested, resigned, or been fired for speaking up about the harms these companies are causing right now are given nowhere near the same treatment.
↗The big tech defectors you’re not hearing aboutbloodinthemachine.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsthe AI companies are currently, as we speak, helping to automate, abet and facilitate mass death in Iran, Gaza, and Ukraine. We don't have to speculate about some horrible future tragedy; the tech companies are directly involved in those tragedies, today.
↗The big tech defectors you’re not hearing aboutbloodinthemachine.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 7 days earlier
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Their wordsMock suggests that even if you're worried about AI doom scenarios, such an approach is much more effective in reining in AI companies and holding them accountable than continual handwringing over doomer scenarios.
↗California vs. the tech billionairesbloodinthemachine.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsThere have been lots of 'is the AI bubble finally bursting' moments over the last few years to be sure, but it's hard not to see some uniquely bad trendlines taking shape here.
↗California vs. the tech billionairesbloodinthemachine.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 7 days earlier
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Their wordsthe real Luddites were not dumb reactionaries who wanted to smash machines because they did not understand them. They were a well-organized and militant labor movement whose members fully grasped the threat certain machines posed to their livelihoods, when used by factory bosses to drive down wages and exploit child labor.
↗The 15 best Luddite horror filmsbloodinthemachine.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsSF horror is a genre particularly adept at channeling such moral rage, and expressing that gut feeling of dread and injustice that textual critique simply can't reach, especially not at scale.
↗The 15 best Luddite horror filmsbloodinthemachine.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 7 days earlier
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Their wordsNow, while LLMs and technologies described as AI today have become more sophisticated and complex over the last 5 years, the term remains a fundamentally accurate way of describing LLMs.
↗The two words the AI industry hates more than anythingbloodinthemachine.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsstochastic parrots undercuts the very foundation that the AI boom is built on: That tech companies are building a machine god of infinite power and potential.
↗The two words the AI industry hates more than anythingbloodinthemachine.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 1 day earlier
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Their wordsCrucially, the new laws begin to form a framework that advances worker rights in the age of ubiquitous enterprise AI. This is much-needed, and it's an achievement that represents a real victory for labor.
↗California just passed the strongest AI labor laws in the USbloodinthemachine.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsAnd workers everywhere should look forward to continuing to fight against corporations angling to embrace mass automation and surveillance, and against big tech's continued, AI-focused concentration of power. That fight has just begun.
↗California just passed the strongest AI labor laws in the USbloodinthemachine.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 6 days earlier
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Their wordsWhile billionaires and world leaders expound the dangers of all-powerful, "super intelligent" AI, the reality on the ground is that it's a tech product that's only made possible by countless human beings, laboring for sometimes dollars a day,
↗What’s really behind AI ‘super intelligence’bloodinthemachine.com
- 1 day earlier
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Their wordsthe anecdote shows the extent to which "AI" has always been a cultural construct and has served as a useful narrative device.
↗The AI extinction narrative is winning outbloodinthemachine.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordswe should be more worried about the ethics of the companies developing these systems and malign actors exploiting them than the technology taking on a life of its own or "going rogue."
↗The AI extinction narrative is winning outbloodinthemachine.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsperhaps the most compelling reason that this new AI extinction narrative ultimately serves the AI companies above all is that it gives this very expensive, money-hemorrhaging industry a means of coordinating a "slowdown" without running afoul of antitrust laws.
↗The AI extinction narrative is winning outbloodinthemachine.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 4 days earlier
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Their wordsAbuse of the system has been rampant. Police have used Flock's Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) to stalk exes and to track women seeking abortions across state lines.