Comment by thomastjeffery

The real problem is not "AI". The problem is everything around it.

Human communication has been consolidated, monopolized, and enshittified, by corporations whose very existence is dependent on political outcomes.

Political engagement can be effectively reduced to engagement. It doesn't matter what narrative or presentation is used, only that an audience engages with it, and associates it positively with your political in-group. No political group in history has played this game as well as the contemporary alt-right United States GOP. This was the case at least as long ago as 2016, long before GPT's 2022 launch.

Generative statistical models (I reject the anthropomorphization that "Artificial Intelligence" implies) do not change the game; they only provide the means to amplify engagement, and thereby play the game more, which happens to be the same thing as winning.

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Now is as good a time as any for a revolution in digital communication. If we can liberate people from enshittified social platforms, we can even the playing field for engagement. That won't solve the problem, but it might get us a solid step in the right direction.

So what can we do about it?

Decentralized platforms exist. They are even doing relatively well, but is that enough? Probably not. As long as corporate platforms can engage with hundreds of millions of people, progress is stalled. Decentralized platforms may be able to "compete", but they are not in a practical position to win this game. Corporate monopolies have moats on their side, and those moats are guarded by law. How can we expect a significant majority of users to leave Facebook when Facebook itself can legally reject platform interoperability?

The cards are stacked against us. I don't have the solution, but the more I think about it, the more I doubt that solution can be compatible with the law.