His argument was literally that
- artists, writers, and programmers are “labor aristocracy” and deserve no respect because they’re sitting around making art and writing code while other people are toiling and laboring,
- genAI is a “free resource” (“it’s free for me to use at work”) that “helps everyone make things” instead of having to rely on skill and expertise and therefore makes everything equal,
- it’s hypocritical of people to be worried about the environmental and societal impact of genAI because “only white people are worried about it now that their hobbies are being threatened and everyone else is catching up”.
Pointing out there there are artists and programmers from every race and economic class, as well as perfectly ordinary people in every walk of life who are all actively being harmed both by the theft of ideas and labor and by the physical effects of gigantic data centers ruining communities, was met with much hand-waving and incredibly impenetrable philosophical jargon.
I’m particularly incensed because I’m as leftist and anticapitalist as they come and this felt like the fuckery some conservative cockwomble would try to come up with to parody socialism, except this guy was completely serious.
Nothing like arguing socialism and imperialism with people who don’t know what either of those words mean.
AI is built on the unprecedented theft and exploitation of the intellectual labor of the creative working class by greedy capitalists.
Literally the definition of stealing the surplus value
I’ve talked with someone that argued that the concept of intellectual property is inherently capitalist, and therefore it taking the art and other works of people doesn’t matter in the grand scheme.
And I guess I see the point. I don’t agree with it, but I can’t argue that well against it.
That is logical equivalent to saying that because property is a capitalist concept theft is a form of socialism.
So the robber barons are actually socialists too, and wage theft isn’t theft because money shouldn’t exist, and if you can steal candy from a baby that’s ok because ownership doesn’t exist and only the strong survive. Delusional people can justify anything.
It’s pretty twisted, especially when you consider the players involved, as well as who is being exploited, and who is benefitting from AI the most.
Even the top brass within Microsoft are quoted as having said that what they’re doing is the “largest theft of labor in history”, and I tend to agree.
After all, the richest men on Earth are getting richer at the expense of the artist, the thinker, the writer and all forms of intellectual and physical labor. Profit may be theft, but theft is also still theft.
This is like saying we don’t need to pay a minimum wage now because under communism each will be provided according to their needs.
IP is a necessary evil under the current system to stop distributors like Instagram, tiktok, or AI companies from taking labor from workers (artists, writers, etc.) without compensation.
It’s also saying that artists’ works shouldn’t be considered personal property. Even as an anarchist, I wouldn’t want people taking my drawings and using them however they wanted without my blessing.
That is true… but it’s important to remember, I think, that even under a non-capitalist system, people are still going to care about plagiarism and attribution. Recognizing where an idea came from is a basic sign of respect for the effort that goes into creating them, you know?
Seemingly this did not work.
Almost like rules dont apply for the ruling class and the whole IP spiel is just, as pointed out, completely and utterly capitalist.
And to think that IP laws would prevent the rich from thieving is hilariously naive.
You’re not really a communist if you don’t think the rich can ever be brought to heel.
Of course they can be brought to heel. But not really with laws of the bourgeois state.
Then you bring them to heel to respect IP.
They dont even pay taxes. IP is FOR THEM and is used against US.
They can only be forced to adhere to laws by constant fear of execution otherwise they “invent” a legal loophole.
So use a gun, then.