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The ai mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking — shannon vallor

Shannon Vallor, a virtue ethicist and philosopher, has been studying the ethics of emerging technologies for nearly 20 years. In this book she challenges the simplistic tech optimist and doomer viewpoints of the future of AI technology. She believes that these polarized media narratives act as a distraction from other pressing issues, from the powers that already control us, and from the genuine existential risks of AI. She posits that creating the illusion of AI as an all-powerful godlike force and de-emphasizing the role of human input in its proliferation/development benefits corporate interest, leaving individuals feeling disempowered and as though they are without a choice. Vallor uses the metaphor of the physical properties of mirrors to paint a picture of artificial intelligence as a reflection of human intelligence. She demystifies AI technology, explaining its realistic capabilities and its limitations, and offers a radical path of grassroots resistance that puts us back in the driver‘s seat to reclaim our humanity and shape our future. I linked a one-hour podcast episode where she talks about the ideas she explores in the book. I highly recommend listening at the very least if you‘re interested in hearing her perspective!

@taterhole

Oct 5, 2024

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Thinking about The purpose of AI

Apologies if this is strongly worded, but I'm pretty passionate about this. In addition to the functions public-facing AI tools have, we have to consider what the goal of AI is for corporations. This is an old cliché, but it's a useful one: follow the money. When we see some of the biggest tech companies in the world going all-in on this stuff, alarm bells should be going off. We're seeing a complete buy in by Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and even Meta suddenly pivoted to AI and seems to be quietly abandoning their beloved Metaverse. For decades, the goal of all these companies has always been infinite growth, taking a bigger share of the market, and making a bigger profit. When these are the main motivators, the workforce that carries out the labor supporting an industry is what inevitably suffers. People are told to do more with less, and cuts are made where C-suite executives see fit at the detriment of everyone down the hierarchy. Where AI is unique to other tangible products is that it is an efficiency beast in so many different ways. I have personally seen it affect my job as part of a larger cost-cutting measure. Microsoft's latest IT solutions are designed to automate as much as possible in favor of having actual people carry out typically client-facing tasks. Copy writers/editors inevitably won't be hired if people could instead type a prompt into ChatGPT to spit out a product description. Already, there are so many publications and Substacks that use AI image generators to create attention-grabbing header and link images - before this, an artist could have been paid to create something that might afford them food for the week. All this is to say that we will see a widening discrepancy between the ultra-wealthy and the working class, and the socio-economic structure we're in actively encourages consolidation of power. There are other moral implications with it that I could go on about, but they're kind of subjective. In relation to art, dedicating oneself to a craft often lends itself to fostering a community for support in one's journey, and if we collectively lean on AI more instead of other people, we risk isolating ourselves further in an environment that is already designed to do that. In my opinion, we shouldn't try to co-exist with something that is made to make our physical and emotional work obsolete.

@theclack

Mar 24, 2024

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Anti-Rec: AI

Boo I hate the outsourcing of labour! Was reading an essay/talk from Stephen Fry and wanted to share “We have long been used to thinking of technology as being ethically neutral, lacking moral valency. The same press can print Shakespeare’s sonnets one day and Hitler’s Mein Kampf the next. The devices are not capable of making decisions, either aesthetic, ethical or political. The NRA likes to say the same thing about guns. Ai however is different. Intelligence is all about decision making. That’s what separates it from automated, mechanically determined outcomes. That’s what separates a river from a canal. A canal must go where we tell it. A river is led by nothing but gravity and if that means flooding a town, tough on the town. Ai’s gravity is its goals. Unsupervised machine learning allows for unsupervised machines — and for the independent agents that flow from them.„

@missmisery

Mar 10, 2025

Top Recs from @taterhole

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Starting over

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.” — Anaïs Nin This is uncharacteristically raw and personal, even for me, and pretty heavy! I know many of you have seen me posting through it and I feel safe to talk about it openly now that I’ve safely landed at the start of my new life. It’s honestly even a little bit embarrassing but I think it’s important to share. I’ve never publicly mentioned it on here, but I have a husband; as of Friday, we’d have been together for 11 years, and we’ve been married for 3 years as of 2/22. I realize now that I wanted to explore what I looked like outside of my relationship with him because I had lost that. This is why PI.FYI has been so meaningful to me as a space to express myself and connect with people—to rediscover my voice. I had been living a lie this entire time, to others but worst of all to myself. He’s been verbally and emotionally abusive, physically but without touching me, to the point that every day I spent with him I was in danger. I’ve been shrinking myself and walking on eggshells to avoid making him insecure and provoking his casual put-downs and fits of rage, while hanging on for dear life to the threads of good I could see. I’ve wanted so badly to leave, more than anything, but I felt like there was no way out and that this was just something I would need to endure indefinitely—but someone who is so very dear to me helped me see that I have wings to fly, not by acting as my savior but by reminding me of my own power. The emotional safety they built and the gentle care they showed me made me feel like I could open up to them. With their encouragement I was brave enough to tell the truth to my friends, my family, my boss, and they have received me with warm, loving and open arms and rallied to support and protect me. The financial and  logistical aspects were the most intimidating to me and it’s going to be tough for a while but I’m going to be better than okay! Now I’m opening up to you. This isn’t the only abuse I’ve suffered in my life, and my old therapist told me she believed it was my mission to share my strength and light with others to inspire them and show them that change is possible. I hope that by sharing this, I can reach even just one person who is going through something similar and show that they are not alone, and they are not weak. People with certain backgrounds may be more vulnerable to abuse, but it can happen to anyone. It thrives in darkness, shame, and isolation—and breaking that silence is the first step toward freedom. Leaving is the scariest thing I have ever done but I have so many angels around me, and I am endlessly grateful. Thank you for being here with me 💌

@taterhole

Mar 16, 2025

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Never changing

My dad teases me about how when I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do when I was on the landline phone with somebody—be it a relative or one of my best friends—was to breathlessly describe the things that were in my bedroom so that they could have a mental picture of everything I loved and chose to surround myself with, and where I sat at that moment in time. Perfectly Imperfect reminds me of that so thanks for always listening and for sharing with me too 💌

@taterhole

Feb 23, 2025

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Finally Quitting the job that you hate

Schedule sent my resignation email for the morning, effective immediately ✅💅

@taterhole

Feb 27, 2025