I've not followed along all the various threads and, in all honesty, I've only read this very post because it popped up as being reported while I was trying to drink my morning coffee. Also, don't ask me how I ended becoming a mod either, I have no clue.
Imho, and I say this as someone only minding the meaning of words, if those people really see themselves as anarchists I would suggest they urgently:
- Look up the definition of anarchism in a (decent) dictionary and see how well it fares using tools like AI (being a centralized tool that is owned by some powerful/uncontrolled group, the IA itself being a true black box... while they, the 'anarchist' users of said AI themselves trust it, and so on). Or maybe, since they're already using it, they could ask their AI if they're really meant to go hand in hand? ;)
- Spend some time finding a better suited name to describe their jolly band. Imho, "believers" seems much more suited than "anarchists" to describe any group of people willing to listen to words coming out of some black box outside of their control but that is just an impression, there may be better words out there.
I don't mind people using AI: it's a new tool and it is to be expected that some real stupid shit will be done using it. But, like any tool, AI is not neutral. By and in its very design AI has a purpose and if I was to define myself as an anarchist, which I would not if there was still any doubt about that, I would seriously and very urgently question my desire to use AI despite its intrinsic design, despite its very purpose.
Now, if you don't mind, I will pour myself a fresh and hot new cup of coffee. And maybe later today I will pick up my copy of Proudhon 'Qu'est-ce que la propriété?' ('What is Property', which was first written in French) which, imvho, any wannabe anarchist should read before deciding it's ok, or not ok, for them to use AI, and what type of AI. And yes, that is a book worth reading for discussing AI despite having been written in the first half of the 19th century. The answers they might get out of that book may very well... unsettle them and their apparently very unchallenged certainties.
A very stimulating and healthy read, even for non-anarchists like myself.
