So I degoogled my phone (Xiaomi Redmi Note 12), got rid of almost every google app and replaced it but I didn't change my OS because I didn't want to risk fucking up my only phone and losing a LOT of info I have on there. My question is, is that enough to dodge Google's bullshit that's aimed at clamping down on "unlicensed" 3rd party apps?
I'm sure I'm not the first to notice this, and this is hardly exclusive to this subreddit as it's been part of the liberal/rightwing rhetorical playbook for decades, but I have to point out how every time a liberal/right-winger feels brave enough to enter a public discussion on socialism/communism, they always seem to be arguing against the same version of socialism i.e. the authoritarian state capitalist model that is Marxism-Leninism.
And just to be clear, I'm not claiming that all these people in reality know better and are intentionally picking an argument they can conceivably win as I'm fully aware that due to McCarthyite and neoliberal propaganda, this model has been codified as the default of what socialism is in the popular western consciousness.
But in either case it sure seems to be useful for them that said model is the most full of valid criticisms to be levied against it. Criticisms that have first been put forth by non-authoritarian Marxists and anarchists before capitalist think-tanks and economists could put forth a presentable counter-argument capable of swaying working people, mind you. And where capitalists have given arguments without drawing upon leftist opposition to MLism, it's always been the lowest hanging fruit of freedom of speech, assembly, the press and other things which, again, I need to point out, were core to the demands of nearly all non-bolsheviks in Russia until they were either jailed, exiled or just killed.
The only other things that capitalists seem to be able to stand on is either pearl clutching over private property, yet another issue that leftists, more specifically anarchists have addressed for over a hundred years now, or how socialism apparently cannot overcome the science of economics, expecting people to accept economics as an exact science comparable to physics or chemistry, with laws that govern reality, wanting to present socialists as if we're fighting against gravity when we reject economics as being built exclusively to facilitate the capitalist principles of private ownership and commodity production. In short, we're blamed for losing the game as if we're willfully ignoring the rules when what we are aiming is to change the game altogether.
Just a thought. Oh, and for the people in the back, I'm not a Marxist, much less an ML. Have fun.
Felt like writing this up cos I keep seeing people here and in other anti-AI subreddits fearmonger about Skynet type shit. Let's get some things straight: we are nowhere close to a sapient artificial intelligence, which is to say an intelligence that behaves autonomously outside of its pre-programmed behaviors and is capable of critical thought. What we have right now are large language models which are fed data and then regurgitate it based on what the user and the people who own it want it to say. These LLMs are not hyperintelligent or any bullshit like that. If anything they are incredibly fucking dumb. The only thing they excel at is retrieving information.
So for instance, the Claude AI is actually pretty good at giving you information with a complex and frankly remarkably exhaustive bibliography of cited sources which it took that information from. I think in this one niche application LLMs can be very useful and helpful. So in principle, it being integrated into a search engine is a good thing. The problem is when that search engine is controlled by a private business with a vested interest in generating money. This is why Google is so shit now. An online search engine should be a public utility with international regulations and be publicly funded.
Now on to the actual dangers:
First and foremost is the material costs. Clean water is a precious and limited resource. We need it for everything from domestic use to agriculture to wildlife preservation. Thus the data centers cut into our water supply at a ludicrous scale and with climate change in full swing, these data centers will exacerbate every drought that is going to happen especially in more arid parts of the world that were already prone to droughts and/or wildfires. There's also the electrical consumption. I trust I don't need to explain how precious electricity is and how badly it's needed for everything else besides data centers.
Due to the current capitalist world order, the world is at large run by people who serve capital first and foremost. These people are in bed with anyone who'll fund their political campaigns and retirement funds and right now the highest rollers are AI hocking dipshits like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos and so on. Couple that with the current global wave of conservatism/fascism, meaning policies aimed at deregulation and militarization and you have AI corps being contracted to integrate these profoundly stupid and susceptible to error and manipulation algorithms into government agencies ranging from treasuries/finance ministries to law enforcement to military defenses. Now consider that these dipshits in power are looking to cut costs by automating jobs which have until now been done by actual people, with oversight. This includes, but is not limited to, budget allocation, management of taxes and public funding, police databases, NUCLEAR DEFENSE MONITORING.
Now, the potential for abuse of taxpayer money is already great and given how badly many governments abuse taxpayer money against the will of the taxpayer, with a budget controlled by AI, it will only get worse. The real dangers however are in law enforcement and the military.
Consider that law enforcement in most countries relies on mass surveillance. Now imagine some shitty algorithm being charged with facial recognition to automate police work. And leave aside the fascistic potential of such a system being trained to target people that the people in power see as undesirables and just consider the number of people who can be wrongfully identified as criminals.
Worse than even that, however is AI being integrated into the military. I suggest everyone who reads this looks up the nuclear false alarm incident of 1983. Tl;dr is a single soviet officer saved the world by ignoring a faulty nuclear monitoring system which had erroneously reported that there was a missile launch from the US. If his job had been automated by the thing we currently call AI, most of us wouldn't be here right now. That is the danger. That, right there.
It's not that we'll be destroyed by a hyperintelligent machine that hates us or thinks we're what's stopping it from fulfilling its assigned purpose, it's that we'll entrust the most vital parts of our society to a glorified chatbot that will be too stupid to know the difference between a rare meteorological event and a nuclear warhead. And it'll be because of shortsighted morons who want to cut costs and divert the excess funding into tax cuts for their Epstein class buddies.