Note by @fastfinge

🏳️‍⚧️ @Elizafox@treehouse.systems

This fucking anti-AI discourse has gone into absolute stupidity and is driving people away from anti-AI positions.

Being a total dickhead, assuming bad faith, not listening, jumping to conclusions, and assuming people want to make projects actively worse? This is how you make people think, "wow, why would I join them, they're a bunch of fucking crazy zealots."

And at this point, they'd be right.

It's pissing me off to no end, and I am Anthropic and OpenAI's biggest haters.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@Elizafox If I were just a bit more conspiracy minded, I would wonder how many of the "anti-AI" people are just paid false-flags by Anthropic and Open AI to make the side look bad.

Elizabeth

🏳️‍⚧️ @Elizafox@treehouse.systems

@fastfinge I would NOT be shocked if it turned out some of that is the case, given their fear marketing strategies. I think some of it also is doomscrollers who see it as existential.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@Elizafox The main reason I don't actually think so is because none of us have enough influence for them to bother with a false-flag op. Plus, of course, absolutely no proof. But when did that ever stop a good conspiracy theory?

Elizabeth

🏳️‍⚧️ @Elizafox@treehouse.systems

@fastfinge TBH they do have the cash to do it. However, I think it would be extremely obvious and also probably only a few agitators. Agitators tend to be very easy to spot.

Note: governments and companies have used such agitators before in grassroots movements. Usually political.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@Elizafox Yeah, I'm aware of the history of this happening in various places. Though not aware enough to know what that actually looks like on the ground, or how it might look different in a movement that's largely distributed and online.

Elizabeth

🏳️‍⚧️ @Elizafox@treehouse.systems

@fastfinge They do exist online too; Russia and China this with paid troll farms, the Pentagon has been caught doing this, corporate PR ops do this, and I wouldn't be surprised if Trump's political regime is doing it in general.

What would be unusual if it was happening on Fedi, but the best place to do it would arguably be Fedi as it's a huge nucleus of anti-AI sentiment. They don't have to even do all the work; the goal is to move the Overton window so far that they then appear unreasonable by merely being associated with it, or agitating people to doing unreasonable things which embarrass the movement.

I would expect this stuff more on Twitter and Bluesky though.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@Elizafox Trouble is, the most abusive accounts (as a blind person who uses AI because it's the best or only option and gets abuse from many of them) have been active and participating for far too long on Mastodon to be set up by some sort of bot farm.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@Elizafox And good point about the Overton window. I do find myself doing more with AI these days, both because of how society is, but also because when I consider not doing it (or not using AI for it) there is absolutely an element of "Fuck these people. They're going to hate me if I use AI for even one thing where I can't avoid it, so I might as well use it for fifteen things; they won't be any less abusive."