Artificial intelligence industrial complex controlled by ultra-rich influencers driving ecological destruction.
From Post Carbon Institute:
The artificial intelligence industrial complex is controlled by a small cadre of ultra-rich influencers linked to corporations and governments, driving ecological destruction. Billionaires like Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg fund AI startups like OpenAI, x.AI, and Inflection AI, with investments totaling billions from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Nvidia. Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet earn revenue from web services crunching data, while Nvidia sells the chips powering AI applications. Creating AI models is expensive, leading to a shift towards tapping existing models. Despite claims of democratizing access to AI, the large resource burden required limits access, enabling owners to control who uses AI models. US military and intelligence agencies shape the AI industrial complex with goals of mass surveillance and command and control. State functions from law enforcement to benefits allocation use AI and algorithmic systems. A partnership between private corporations and state agencies targets activists opposing fossil fuel infrastructure expansions. Enhanced surveillance techniques support these expansions, aligning with the energy-intensive nature of the AI industrial complex. Fossil fuel companies leverage AI from tech giants like IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, intensifying resource extraction despite worsening climate crisis. The logic of contemporary capitalism drives this escalation, raising questions about the ethics of AI’s role in ecological destruction.
Read more at Post Carbon Institute: The existential threat of artificial stupidity