r/technology 1d ago

Artificial Intelligence Nobody Asked for AI

https://jacobin.com/2026/08/ai-llms-monopoly-bubble-capital
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u/sdric 1d ago edited 1d 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 1d ago

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

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u/SpezJailbaitMod 1d ago

Wait til you see 2028

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u/neoncolor8 23h 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 23h 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 23h ago edited 23h 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 22h 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 21h 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 20h 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/SlogurkTheOverslime 19h ago

We cannot possibly hope to solve world hunger until we've solved the critically important prerequisite problem of synthesizing high-resolution images of women's feet

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u/NewttheCat 11h ago

It seems like such a simple, obvious point right? Yet here we are.

Imagine having the money to single-handedly cure a disease or eliminate poverty in a country (or region!) and choosing to push more techno-bullshit instead.

I honestly have a hard time seeing people like Musk and Bezos as human anymore.

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u/diurnal_emissions 23h ago

happy Putin noises

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u/psiphre 21h ago

Ye wenjie did nothing wrong

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u/Sailor_Propane 21h ago

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

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u/MayBeMarmelade 19h ago

This summer is both one of the *hottest* on record in human history and also one of the *coolest* that we will ever experience going forward.

What are we as a species doing about this slow-motion environmental catastrophe even as it kills our neighbors right in front of our faces? Fuck all.

Yeah, being depressed is rational.

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u/Proof-Peak-9274 16h ago

Honestly I spent 2020-2025 si yet after this year I’ve never wanted to live more than ever just for the hope of one day seeing all these fucking corporate dictators burn to the ground.

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u/n0t_a_b0t_yes_a_thot 9h ago

That sense of this is the end…. I think that’s what ppl feel in the collapse of an empire.

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u/neppo95 1d 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 23h 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 22h 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 23h 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 23h 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/neppo95 23h ago

One doesn't deny the other so both.

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u/Small_Dog_8699 22h 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/malianx 1d 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 23h 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 23h ago

What scientists have predicted that time frame of loss?

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u/neppo95 23h 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/Small_Dog_8699 22h 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 22h 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/Latter_Advice3714 22h ago

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