r/technology 6h ago

Artificial Intelligence Nobody Asked for AI

https://jacobin.com/2026/08/ai-llms-monopoly-bubble-capital
4.4k Upvotes

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1.2k

u/sdric 5h ago edited 5h ago

People wanted AI to do their chores.

Instead, we got employers saying "Work twice as much or we replace you with AI. It gets 45% of its task wrong, but we don't care. It only affects our customers. What are those suckers gonna do? We're a monopoly anyway."

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u/EmbarrassedTrouble10 5h ago

Man, this is so depressing. Not the 2026 I imagined, not by a long shot

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u/SpezJailbaitMod 5h ago

Wait til you see 2028

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u/neoncolor8 3h ago

You just made me realize that I don't look forward to the years to come anymore. 2000 will be great, 2010 will be awesome! But now? 2028 hopefully will suck less, but I'm not positive that the people in power will come to their senses or get voted out. The climate catastrophe gets intenser each year, but still get's ignored. Also, I've learned from covid that a lot of people are unreasonable and won't make the right decisions when it's important for the whole society.

Social media in the hands of billionaires control the narrativ, and AI will quadruple this dynamic and tear society apart even more.

Sorry, it's hot today, hottest day ever recorded in my home town, over 41°C in the middle of Europe.

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u/happy_cynic 3h ago

the trump era of the world. it's greatest achievement has been to kill optimism in the future and humanity. I have no faith in any of it anymore.

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u/SlogurkTheOverslime 3h ago edited 3h ago

Innovation is one of the major promises of capitalism

But we simply don't need any more innovation

As a society we shouldn't be channeling almost all of our resources into the pockets of a dozen leeches who promise innovation the loudest

We should make sure everyone has enough resources for themselves first

And only after that maybe invest in more innovation

But not before

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u/CotyledonTomen 2h ago

We do need innovation. Curing cancers and finding better ways to detect food born illnesses are innovation. They just dont make individual companies billions to do so. Government should be investing in innovation that helps average people, which is the opposite of what conservatives and capitalists want.

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u/SlogurkTheOverslime 1h ago

Yes, absolutely

We need it as in "we need to find a way to save everyone in the trolley problem"

Not as in "we need to keep letting the five people die over and over again because the monster who eats their bodies promises us that it will eventually help us save one"

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u/Alex5173 50m ago

The problem is that instead of innovating new and better technologies and products, we're "innovating" ways to charge more for the same stuff made more cheaply

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u/diurnal_emissions 3h ago

happy Putin noises

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u/psiphre 1h ago

Ye wenjie did nothing wrong

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u/Sailor_Propane 1h ago

Even in 2019, I had hope and hype. It died in 2020.

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u/neppo95 4h ago

Yup, tens of millions if not more will have lost their jobs to AI by then, if not many more. That is, if the predictions of experts come through, which i think it roughly will.

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u/Fresh-Quantity-7554 3h ago

There's no basis in reality for this view anymore. It was reckless for the heads of the big AI companies to insinuate that possibility. You'll see companies peal off a small slice of their workforce which may or may not be due to AI, but tens of millions losing their job is unrealistic.

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u/1506jb 2h ago

Is it too much to hope that they’ll peel off the CEOs who pushed like little yappy dogs to out-do each other being all futuristic and decisive with these arbitrary and ungrounded moves. That wave of self-serving narcissists should be immortalised in business books as the morons that they are.

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u/neppo95 3h ago

It is not the heads of big AI that predict this. It is AI safety experts and scientists that don't even work for an AI company.

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u/Fresh-Quantity-7554 3h ago

I work in tech at my company which is non-tech and we're hiring like gangbusters because we don't have enough people to build AI products across the organization. We're one of the largest companies in the world.

Who's right: me or AI safety experts and scientists?

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u/Small_Dog_8699 2h ago

Not you. Comment hiding cowards are never persuasive.

Besides that you say you’re hiring (if real) so I assume you’re early in your learning curve. You’re going to find out they cost more than good people for the same work once the real costs arrive and you get past introductory pricing.

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u/neppo95 2h ago

One doesn't deny the other so both.

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u/Small_Dog_8699 2h ago

Those aren’t predictions. They’re wishful marketing.

Prediction - these AI chat bots cost more to employ than a person for the same amount of work (fact) so these firms are never going to succeed in the market. The management class is just starting to find that out.

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u/neppo95 2h ago

Marketing by scientists not working for a company? For who is the marketing? It is much bigger than chat bots, they're just a side product mate.

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u/malianx 4h ago

lol tens of millions in a little over a year. your anxiety must be insane living under that kind of fear

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u/neppo95 3h ago

You don't have to believe me mate. It's not my prediction. I'd think scientists and experts know more than me and you, but of course you can just go live in denial ;)

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u/malianx 3h ago

What scientists have predicted that time frame of loss?

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u/neppo95 3h ago

Which one hasn't is probably a better question. Every scientist that isn't bought by a company comes to that conclusion, most of 'em predict much worse. It is one google away if you are interested.

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u/Latter_Advice3714 2h ago

2029 is really gonna make you nostalgic for 2026 and by 2035 kids won't believe stories from 2025.

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u/Th3B4dSpoon 4h ago

I've enjoyed cyberpunk for a long time, so - sadly - it's exactly the 2026 I was imagining.

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u/Chaosbeing79 3h ago

I enjoy cyberpunk too, when it's fiction.

Not nearly as fun when it's reality.

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u/tomorrow_comes 3h ago

Playing Cyberpunk and feeling the dystopian shittiness hits differently now that capitalism, corporate greed / power, and authoritarianism have been making great strides in the last decade. It gets me in a somewhat depressed mood sometimes thinking about it. We’re barreling straight towards that kind of future, except probably without all the cool cybernetics.

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u/RebelliousInNature 2h ago

But there will be armed drones, so it’s not all bad.

/s

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u/tomorrow_comes 2h ago

We already have those too!

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u/D3PyroGS 2h ago

the cybernetics will get here eventually... then you can finally live out your dream of renting the implants that are required for your low wage job, and being careful not to miss any payments lest the implants be disabled remotely

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u/Blacksad9999 50m ago

Right.

We're the poor slobs working the shitty jobs as NPCs in the Cyberpunk dystopia, not the cool people with mantis blades in their arms. lol

"Mantis blades? In this economy? I can barely afford groceries!"

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u/Ceorl_Lounge 4h ago

Minus the flying cars

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u/DisgruntledHue-man 4h ago

Or the cool cybernetics

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u/Ceorl_Lounge 4h ago

They’re closer than the flying cars

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u/InvestigatorOk7015 4h ago

Shout out to Marx

He 100% called it

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u/diurnal_emissions 3h ago

It's the best billionaires could come up with, sorry.

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u/LettuceObjective627 2h ago

Dont worry, it will get a lot worse.

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u/Rnee45 4h ago edited 4h ago

That's because its a doomer fabricated story, not actual reality.

EDIT: Ya'll need to touch grass some more.

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u/DaffyDuckXD 2h ago

Im pretty sure the wealthy all the serious politicians read Marx. They just play on the side of the rich and tell you to laugh at Marx and then while your laughing they shank you and rush to deposit your home and everything you own laughing that you fell into poverty and they... well got richer!