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Inside: The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble/
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@pluralistic
By this analysis, organizations/corporations that buy into the #AI sales pitch and replace their workforce seem likely to collapse due to incompetence. Those that maintain their human expertise would thrive because of decreased competition. This, of course, assumes that civilization doesn't completely fall apart. The massive economic power of the big monopolies coupled with incompetence is really scary. Kind of similar to the Trump administration.
I need to think more about it
"It's because in a creative market dominated by five publishers, four studios, three labels, two mobile app stores, and a single company that controls all the ebooks and audiobooks, giving a creative worker extra rights to bargain with is like giving your bullied kid more lunch money."
I gotta work that into a conversation sometime soon.
@fitzscott @pluralistic It took me months to figure out what this actually means, but when it did, it hit me like a piano.
@pluralistic Plus:
"AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector and tech monopolists run amok."
Evocative enough to make me cough.
@pluralistic The saddest part about losing sectoral bargaining is that the only way we're going to successfully campaign to get it back is a full general strike, where *every* sector shuts down with the specific demand to repeal Taft-Hartley.
It ties back into how in a world of perfect law enforcement, social progress becomes impossible.
@pluralistic Hi Cory - do you happen to know if the presentation you gave was being recorded? I'd be interested to watch it, though the text version will do nicely. 🙂
@pluralistic
> And I'm here to tell you they are wrong:w rong because
Typo
When does "alternative money" just become the equivalent of worthless coal town company scrip?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip
Coal barons **hated** FDR for outlawing company scrip in 1938.
https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/flsa1938
Now company scrip is back again. With all its pernicious uses.
When a company can fire you just before you vest your stock options, were you really paid for all that under-the-table overtime?
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1. Buying the book the second it comes out.
2. "Seven AI companies currently account for more than a third of the stock market ...""
My jaw just hit the floor. This pop! is going to hurt.
Reading this.
Paused to say, AI doing imaging evaluations has worried me since I first heard of it, and now you have given a whole other ($ milking) shape to the concern, and I don't know how to finish this thought.
Nightmares ahead.
@pluralistic Such a great piece! Looking forward to the book too!
It hit so many things that are so important, I particularly like this part
#AI #AISlop
Great speech, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves:
> The AI Safety people say they are worried that AI is going to end the world
I’m just going to stop you right there and point you to some of Robert Miles’s essays: https://www.youtube.com/@RobertMilesAI
because it’s not about that, and he (much better than I could) will give you several reasons to care about AI Safety before AGI is even plausible.
oh nice analogy! Coincidentally I just spammed out a thread about the category mistake and how it leads us (or at least, AI researchers and some AI "critics") to worry about something that will never happen, instead of the thing that has already been happening forever
I'm on a tour with my new book, the international bestseller *Enshittification*!
Catch me next in #Madison, CT; #Hamburg and #Denver!
Full schedule with dates and links at:
https://pluralistic.net/tour
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The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI: My speech for U Washington's Neuroscience, AI and Society lecture series.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115667474409675079
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If you can, read this absolute banger of a post from @pluralistic about AI, what’s behind the bubble, and what it means for all of us in the context of #classwar! https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115667477057688177
Hey look at this
* Politics and Capitalist Stagnation https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/politics-and-capitalist-stagnation
* An Analysis of the Proposed Spirit Financial-Credit Union 1 Merger https://chipfilson.com/2025/12/an-analysis-of-the-proposed-spirit-financal-credit-union-1-merger/
* Zillow deletes climate risk data from listings after complaints it harms sales https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/01/zillow-removes-climate-risk-data-home-listings
* After Years of Controversy, EU Chat Control Nears Its Final Hurdle: What to Know https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/after-years-controversy-eus-chat-control-nears-its-final-hurdle-what-know
* How dollar-stores overcharge cash-strapped customers https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/03/customers-pay-more-rising-dollar-store-costs
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I love this succinct definer: "classical social democratic politics—the era of generous redistribution and worker protections"
From the Ganz "Politics and Capitalist Stagnation" article linked in your post.
#20yrsago Haunted Mansion papercraft model adds crypts and gates https://www.haunteddimensions.raykeim.com/index313.html
#20yrsago Print your own Monopoly money https://web.archive.org/web/20051202030047/http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/pl/page.treasurechest/dn/default.cfm
#15yrsago Bunnie explains the technical intricacies and legalities of Xbox hacking https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/2010/usa-v-crippen-a-retrospective/
#15yrsago How Pac Man’s ghosts decide what to do: elegant complexity https://web.archive.org/web/20101205044323/https://gameinternals.com/post/2072558330/understanding-pac-man-ghost-behavior
#15yrsago Glorious, elaborate, profane insults of the world https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/efee7/what_are_your_favorite_culturally_untranslateable/?sort=confidence
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#15yrsago Walt Disney World castmembers speak about their search for a living wage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5BMQ3xQc7o
#15yrsago Wikileaks cables reveal that the US wrote Spain’s proposed copyright law https://web.archive.org/web/20140723230745/https://elpais.com/elpais/2010/12/03/actualidad/1291367868_850215.html
#15yrsago Cities made of broken technology https://web.archive.org/web/20101203132915/https://agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Franco_Recchia.aspx
#10yrsago The TPP’s ban on source-code disclosure requirements: bad news for information security https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/tpp-threatens-security-and-safety-locking-down-us-policy-source-code-audit
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#15yrsago Walt Disney World castmembers speak about their search for a living wage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5BMQ3xQc7o
#15yrsago Wikileaks cables reveal that the US wrote Spain’s proposed copyright law https://web.archive.org/web/20140723230745/https://elpais.com/elpais/2010/12/03/actualidad/1291367868_850215.html
#15yrsago Cities made of broken technology https://web.archive.org/web/20101203132915/https://agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Franco_Recchia.aspx
#10yrsago The TPP’s ban on source-code disclosure requirements: bad news for information security https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/tpp-threatens-security-and-safety-locking-down-us-policy-source-code-audit
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#10yrsago Fossil fuel divestment sit-in at MIT President’s office hits 10,000,000,000-hour mark https://twitter.com/FossilFreeMIT/status/672526210581274624
#10yrsago Hacker dumps United Arab Emirates Invest Bank’s customer data https://www.dailydot.com/news/invest-bank-hacker-buba/
#10yrsago Illinois prisons spy on prisoners, sue them for rent on their cells if they have any money https://www.chicagotribune.com/2015/11/30/state-sues-prisoners-to-pay-for-their-room-board/
#10yrsago Free usability help for privacy toolmakers https://superbloom.design/learning/blog/apply-for-help/
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